Submissions now closed for Issue 8

The submission period for Issue 8, due out late July 2011, has closed. Please do not submit until further notice. No decision has been made regarding timing of future issues or when we might reopen for submissions. Please check back periodically.

The Chimaera’s 2010 Pushcart Prize Nominations

 

Good luck to all!

Alison Brackenbury — ‘Over the field’ http://www.the-chimaera.com/March2010/Poems/Brackenbury.html

Anna Evans — ‘Why I Am Attracted to Men with Dyslexia’ http://www.the-chimaera.com/March2010/Poems/Evans.html

Janet Kenny — ‘Last Danceֹ’ http://www.the-chimaera.com/March2010/Poems/Kenny.html

Ralph La Rosa — ‘Sauntering’ http://www.the-chimaera.com/March2010/Theme/Poems/LaRosa.html

Lance Levens — ‘Begging’ http://www.the-chimaera.com/March2010/Poems/Levens.html

Parker Tettleton — ‘The Living Lie’ http://www.the-chimaera.com/March2010/Theme/Poems/Tettleton.html
 

THE FLEA Bug Bash!

Come to THE FLEA Circus and Bug Rave — a cast of trillions!

http://www.the-flea.com/

Alan Gould, The Seventh Chimaera's Featured Poet

   
Amor Fati Overnight In Hospital

The wardsman shaving my pubic hair
is shyer than I am here.
We contrive to talk
from further selves for manhood's sake.

Amid sea-green professionals
I watch myself on screen.
The catheter probes my blood-vessels
like a mouse in a maze-experiment,

finds as they expect, no more.
The talon of arteries that holds my heart
erect to life has one weak claw.
I feel humiliation, not fear.

The plastic bottle they insist
I use to pee, I'll not use.
Courteous, desperate, I last
till two am, evade the night-nurse.

The triumph's paltry. Returning, I see,
huge on my inside thigh
my Viking blood has splayed and run
to a purple map of Europe beneath the skin.

My forbears went to the New World from that,
and sure, it's proper, says my heart
to face the thing and snuff it quick,
Grettir on Drangey, not liking the dark

but taking what comes and its loneliness,
strange elation at how exact is this.
But here are good professional staff
reading screens to make my future safe

who require no more than a stranglehold
upon the wild affections of my world.
For this is blockage, infirmity. This
is not me, but the mortal incubus,

the hobbler who
must walk beside me with his cue
of Now when it comes, it will hold no surprise,
a self watching my self with angel eyes.


—by Alan Gould, from The Past Completes Me 

The Seventh Chimaera will be online in March, 2010, at http://www.the-chimaera.com/

   

A Fresh Flea Fangeth Forthe (well Fyfthe actually)

A Flea moreover which transmuteth that which is base imperfect Mettle into Gold,  & whych projecteth many a Stone Philosophickal or Nugget Poetickal thereby; as witnesseth Philip Quinlan, Leo Yankevich, Joseph Salemi, Fr. Robert J. Pecotte, Geoff Page, Amit Majmudar, Rose Kelleher, Nigel Holt, Bill Greenwell, Alan Gould, Louis Gallo, Angela France, Nausheen Eusuf, Stephen Edgar, Ann Drysdale, Kevin Cutrer, Peter Coghill, C.E. Chaffin & Jared Carter.

http://www.the-flea.com/

Season of THE FLEA

You've got to pick up every stitch,
The rabbit’s running in the ditch,
Beatniks are out to make it rich,
Oh no! Must be the Season of the Witch...

http://www.the-flea.com

Thomas Zimmerman, Marly Youmans, Gail White, Timothy Murphy, Rick Mullin, David W. Landrum, Rose Kelleher, Clive James, Jan Iwaszkiewicz, Midge Goldberg, Richard Epstein, Ann Drysdale, Kevin Cutrer, Norman Ball, Gene Auprey, Mark Allinson, Mary Alexandra Agner.

Caratacus Rides Again!

My Domus Carataci personal blog on JournalSpace with years of posts was destroyed when JournalSpace's server crashed in 2007. Since then I haven't run a personal blog, channeling most of my energies into Shit Creek Review, The Chimaera and THE FLEA and their respective blogs. But some material fits better onto a personal blog than onto the more formal context of a literary magazine's blog; with that in mind I have revived Domus Carataci, now on Blogspot, and renamed it I, Caratacus. I will update it from time to time, whenever Bloggina, the Muse of Bloggers, inspires me.

Dzanc Best of Web and Pushcart Nominations

SCR/The Chimaera/The Flea

2009 Nominations for the Pushcart — Best of the Small Presses Anthology and the Dzanc Books Best of the Web Series.


Pushcarts

SCR

'Prayer for a Horseman' by Timothy Murphy

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue10/prayer-for-a-horseman/


'After the Funeral' by Janice D. Soderling

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue9/after-the-funeral/


'After Van Gogh’s Café Terrace at Night' by Sam Byfield

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue9/after-van-goghs-cafe-terrace-at-night/


'Kung Fu Monkeys Hijack Armored Car' by Dennis Loney

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue9/kung-fu-monkeys-hijack-armored-car/


'Life' by Bill Greenwell

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue10/life/


'Monstrance or Reliquary' by Ann Drysdale

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue10/monstrance-or-reliquary/



The Chimaera


'The Red Mud of Lydney' by Ann Drysdale

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Aug2009/Spotlight/AnnDrysdalePoems.html


'An Understudy for Desire' by Alan Gould

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Aug2009/Poems/Gould.html


'Lighthouse, with Poet Brandishing His Hat' by Rhina P. Espaillat

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Aug2009/Theme/Poems/Espaillat.html


'Talcott Mountain' by Martin Elster

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Aug2009/Theme/Poems/Elster.html


'The Annexe' by Stephen Edgar

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Feb2009/Spotlight/StephenEdgarPoems.html


'I Am Going Drown' by Charles Musser

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Aug2009/Theme/Poems/Musser.html



The Flea


'Two Theories' by Rhina Espaillat

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue2/TwoTheories.html


'Against Beauty' by Alfred Nichol

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue2/AgainstBeauty.html


'High Bank' by Bill Greenwell

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue2/HighBank.html


'Body of Evidence' by Catherine Chandler

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue1/BodyofEvidence.html


'Iconography' by Maryann Corbett

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue3/Iconography.html


'Said Yeats’s Bones to Hardy’s Heart' by Ann Drysdale

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue3/SaidYeats_sBones.html




Dzanc Books Best of Web

http://dzancbooks.org/BestOfTheWeb/index.html


SCR

'After the Funeral' by Janice D. Soderling

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue9/after-the-funeral/


'Prayer for a Horseman' by Timothy Murphy

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue10/prayer-for-a-horseman/


'Death Watch' by Michael Cantor

http://shitcreek.auszine.com/issue10/death-watch/


The Chimaera

'Sonnet 23 from The Dark Lady' by Jennifer Reeser

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Aug2009/Poems/Reeser.html


'Distraction' by Rick Mullin

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Feb2009/Theme/Poems/Mullin.html


'Seeing People' by Geoff Page

http://www.the-chimaera.com/Aug2009/Poems/Page.html



The Flea


'Vertigo' by Stephen Edgar

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue1/Vertigo.html


'Clock of the Moon and Stars' by Marly Youmans

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue2/ClockoftheMoonandStars.html


'Hydrangeas' by Mark Allinson

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue3/Hydrangeas.html

IMPORTANT: Submissions Sept - October

My computer and much of its back-up went to God on the morning of 4th October due to an unfortunate combination of events involving two poodles, a lunatic cat, some tequila and a go-go dancer. Consequently if you submitted work by DIRECT EMAIL to The Chimaera between September 7 and October 4 you need to resubmit it. 

If you submitted work by the online form, as most did, then your work is safe and you should not resubmit. Read the announcement here: http://www.the-chimaera.com/Submissions.html

Needless to say I am mortified by this development, and apologise to all concerned.

The Fleas of the Apocalypse

THE THIRD FLEA of the Apocalypse is loose!

http://www.the-flea.com/

Mark Allinson, Mary Alexandra Agner, Maryann Corbett, Ann Drysdale, Richard Epstein, Midge Goldberg, Bill Greenwell, R. Nemo Hill, Janet Kenny, Janice D. Soderling, J.J. Steinfeld, Leo Yankevich, Marly Youmans, & Thomas Zimmerman

Flea! Flea!

Terry Stanton needs help

My old friend Terry Stanton, who used to drink at The Royal George, is in dire straits. Nine months ago he fell and hit his head, and has been in intensive care ever since, having lost many of his faculties. There will be a benefit for him at Palm Beach R.S.L. on Sunday 30th August, 1-4 pm, with an auction of art by (amongst others) Martin Sharp, Reg Mombassa, Bruce Goold and Mick Glasheen. Phone (02) 9974 5566.

Click on the images below to make them bigger and easier to read.

More on Terry here:

http://theroyalgeorge.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_archive.html

I'll post more info when available.

The Terrence Fund

St. George Bank Avalon NSW

B.S.B. 112.879 Account Number 456.125.143

For further info please contact

Patrick Dougherty

Ph. (02) 9974 4255

patrickcl@bigpond.com


Fran Holloway

franholloway33@gmail.com

Chimaeras, Dark Ladies and the GOP

An excerpt from one of Jennifer Reeser's 'Dark Lady' sonnets recently published in The Chimaera has been picked up by a website called 'GOP12'. It's an online blog which tracks American Presidential hopefuls for 2012 from the Republican party — and has been quoted in ABC Business News, and at salon.com, among other places:

From one of the best contemporary poets, Jennifer Reeser, an excerpt from the assumed perspective of the obscure woman of William Shakespeare's later poems.

If I were both thy mistress and thy muse,
From all conceivable reactions, chief
Among my choices — if I had to choose —
Would be the innocence of disbelief.

More here.

Jee Leong Koh on the Joe Milford Poetry Show

From Jee Leong Koh:

"I was interviewed recently on the Joe Milford Poetry Show: one-and-a-half hour unedited reading and conversation about my new book of poems Equal to the Earth. We talked about my Singaporean background, art and autobiography, the mythic sea, use of meter and form, sense of humor (!), the objective correlative, children's playfulness, Chinese homosexuals, and love. I hope you enjoy some of it."

Best, Jee


From the show website:

The Joe Milford Poetry Show archives readings and interviews from acclaimed and established poets as well as up-and-coming poets from America and Canada. The Joe Milford Poetry Show prides itself on its candid and organic nature infused with a lively discussion of poetics, genre, the writing process, and myriad theories and movements of poetry. Join us once a week for regularly scheduled shows on Saturdays at 5pm Eastern Time, and watch for special edition shows by announcement. Add The Joe Milford Poetry Show to your MySpace Friends by going to the links page.

Ann Drysdale and The Well-Wrought Chimaera

Ann Drysdale is the star of The Chimaera #6, now online. There is poetry by Ann, essays, reviews and reflections on her by various hands (including the inimitable John Whitworth), and an interview.

The Chimaera also boasts a feature on intricate Well-Wrought Form, edited by Peter Bloxsom, Stephen Edgar and myself. Here you will find work by Timothy Murphy, Rhina Espaillat, Clive James, Alan Gould, Claire Askew, and many more. The General section is well-stocked, too, with poetry by Australian poet Geoff Page, Maryann Corbett, and some more of Jennifer Reeser's delicious Sonnets from the Dark Lady. Reviews by Rose Kelleher, Nigel Holt and Maggie Butt. 

Submissions for Issue 7 will be accepted from September 1st to November 30th. The themed section will be on Voyages and Quests. We are also looking for poetry and prose outside that theme, as well as critical work on the Australian poet and fiction writer Alan Gould.

http://www.the-chimaera.com/

The Chimaera looms

Issue #6 of The Chimaera is gestating and should hatch by the end of July, possibly early August.

The Flea Byteth a Second Time

The Second Flea has hatch'd, and, pamper'd, swells — with verse by Peter Bloxsom, Catherine Chandler, David Davis, Ann Drysdale, Rhina P. Espaillat, Bill Greenwell, Clive James, Jalina Mhyana, Timothy Murphy, Alfred Nicol, Marly Youmans and Thomas Zimmerman. Go, read, be bytten!

http://www.the-flea.com/

Recent news from our published authors

A new interview with Joseph S. Salemi, along with some of his published work, appears at the following website address: http://alongstoryshort.net/ThePoetsCorner-June09.html

Salemi writes a monthly column for The Pennsylvania Review , and his comic poem ‘Rear-Meat Rhoda’ is up at The Formalist Portal.

Bench Press: Poetry that exerts pressure at every point, and so achieves a momentary rest.

Bench Press, an independent publisher of poetry, will be launched on July 4, 2009. On that day its website will go ‘live’ and unveil its logo. 

The press is pleased to announce its first title: Jee Leong Koh’s Equal to the Earth. Of Koh’s book, Vijay Seshadri writes: ‘Jee Leong Koh is a vigorous, physical poet very much captured by the expressive power of rhythm, rhetoric, and the lexicon. He is also, paradoxically, a poet in pursuit of the most elusive and delicate of human emotions. The contradiction is wonderful and compelling, and so are his poems.’

You can read a poem from the book on the press website, and purchase a copy of the book.

Margaret Menamin, Poet

We are all saddened to hear of Margaret Menamin's death. She was a poet's poet and beloved by many, not only for her fine work but her gracious and thoughtful critique. This poem of hers from The Chimaera III speaks beautifully about acceptance, remembrance and treasured relationships …how those who loved her will come to remember her season on season, summer after spring.

Baucis and Philemon

I believe I know how it will be
with you and me:
Coming silent one day through the wood
where last you stood,
I will stop, remembering, and see
a newsprung tree.

It will be as if it had been planned:
Where then you stand
I will stop, remembering, and see
a wild young tree
tall and straight among the others, and
put forth my hand.

As I touch your greenness, some strange thing
will leap and sing
within the hardening fibers of my hand.
So we will stand,
season on season, summer after spring,
remembering.

Chimaeric Editor Quizzed

Paul Stevens interviewed by Nic Sebastian:

http://verylikeawhale.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/ten-questions-for-poetry-editors-paul-stevens/

Book Launch for Ray Pospisil's The Bell

Ray Pospisil, a Brooklyn based poet and journalist, was born in Bogota, Colombia, and early in his life moved with his parents to Union, New Jersey. He spent most of his life in New York City. Ray was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University. He worked as an energy and environment journalist working for Fairchild Publications sand then McGraw-Hill and later became a freelance journalist working mostly for McGraw-Hill publications. Ray had a passion for poetry and often read in the East Village and in Manhattan. His work has been published by Lyric, Iambs & Trochees, The Newport Review, Rogue Scholars and others. In 2006, his chapbook of poems, Some Time Before the Bell, was published by Modern Metrics.

Ray died tragically on January 28, 2008, aged 54. The Bell is a book of remarkable precision, feeling, and sense of beauty among the squalor of urban life in the early twenty-first century. A mixture of anger, humor, compassion, and a deep, hard-earned love for life in spite of its many disappointments make this a painful yet transcendently beautiful collection.

Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Nightingale Lounge
213 Second Ave (Corner of 13th Street)
Manhattan, New York

Featured readers:

Quincy Lehr
R. Nemo Hill, Jane Ormerod, Oran Ryan,
Thomas Fucaloro, Michelle Slater, Su Polo,
David Elsasser, Terese Coe, and Wendy Sloan.