Helen Bar-Lev,
IL
Poetry News
Hello everyone!
The Voices Israel 2009 Anthology is now closed for
submissions. We received more than 650 poems from poets
worldwide, and, miracle of miracles, the six editorial board
members and myself have already marked them, Johnmichael is
already working on the technical part. As last year we have
asked any poets who are also artists to let us have black and
white artwork to accompany their poems. It will be a lovely
Anthology again; probably publication date January 2009.
The monthly meeting of Voices Israel Haifa group took place on
Tuesday evening, the 28th of October. I am happy to report
that we had 5 new people at the meeting, four of whom have
already joined Voices and the fifth we hope will join shortly.
There was a total of 16 people at the meeting, whereas there
are normally around 10 or less. The new people are young and
writing excellent poetry and we are very pleased they are part
of Voices. Also on the 28th we had a visiting poetess from
Toronto, Canada, Jennifer (Jinks) Hoffmann - who is poetess, a
member of the coordinating council of Spiritual Directors
International, and psychotherapist. The Spiritual Directors
International runs the annual Presence Poetry Contest. The
photo shows the four of us in the city of Acco (Acre), just
north of Haifa, an ancient seaport city.
From left Alan,
Jinks, Johnmichael Simon, and the me, protecting my eyes from
the setting sun. Below one of the poems Jinks read to us,
which will be published in the forthcoming Voices newsletter.
Worship
Jennifer
(Jinks) Hoffmann
The Urgency that
comes to me as poetry
(Edward Hirsch)
In the morning quiet
when sleep and dreams yet have
love tendrils about me,
I pray my prayer.
I write poetry.
Cyclamens and
Swords
Now for Cyclamens and Swords: The newsletter
below was sent
out on 1 November: Please note the contest which closes at the
end of the month and the call for Poet/Artists.
Cyclamens and Swords Publishing Newsletter.
Our fall issue is now online. It contains poetry from over 80
poets including almost 100 poems on our special "Genesis"
theme. There are new short stories from 10 authors, another 3
chapters of our serialized novel "Susan's Story" and an Art
Gallery that contains works by eight artists. We are now
accepting submissions for our spring issue which will have a
poetry section on the theme "Beginnings and Endings".
Our Poetry Contest Remains Open Until 30th November 2008
Don't miss your chance to win a prize or an honorable mention
and have your poems published in a chapbook.
First prize is $300, second prize $100, third prize $50 and
seven honorable mentions. Winning poems and honorable mentions
will also be published in our winter issue. It costs only $5
to enter a poem, $10 to enter 3 poems and only $15 to enter 6
poems!
A handsome chapbook containing the winning poems and the
honorable mentions will be published and presented to the
winners in addition to their cash prize. Previously published
poems are welcome for the contest as long as you hold authors'
rights. Even poems that have won previous awards are eligible.
Cyclamens and Swords Contest Information.
Calling Poet/Artists and Writer/Artists
To all Poet/Artists and Writer/Artists those of you who both
write and produce visual art . Our spring issue will contain a
special section which will exhibit your words and pictures
side-by-side. So send us a sample of your art and your writing
so that we can consider including your works.
So I leave you with this rather long report and a poem I have
wanted for some time to send to you. It's a poem I wrote two
years ago after meeting James Deahl, the brilliant poet from
Hamilton, Canada, and just after a cease-fire had been
arranged in the Lebanon war:
Lord of All
For James Deahl
Lord of peace
And Lord of all wars
I, simple artist
Born with no concept
Of politics,
No heart for these horrors,
Bow humble before you
Are you aware
That my daughter,
Normally fearless
But a pacifist since the womb,
Leftist to the core,
Wanders homeless from the bombs
Demolishing her town
Even this moment
As I attempt
To distract your attention
From the news on the television
Lord of war
And Lord of peace
just a suggestion to you
In your warless heaven,
Perhaps the time is auspicious
To copy the chromosomes
Of those of us humans
Opposed to violence,
To impose a holy law
Which would eliminate
The war chromosome
From all babies born
From now on
A daring experiment
An innovative concept
Perhaps a solution
To a continuous war
That has lasted
Since Adam
And refuses to finish
Anything really, Lord,
That would cause war to cease,
Permanently and forever
We’d be so appreciative
My daughter could return home
Blood rivers would stop their flow
Forests would grow from war-ashes
And we could all sleep again
