The Poetry Corner featuring John Ogunlade

Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of the Poetry Corner! Please join me in welcoming John Ogunlade! 🙂

Tell me dear Negrod by John Ogunlade

They deceive us.

Reliable to their footstep reach,

To be imperceptible of an abyss

of manipulation.

Making an outcast of a faithful

country,to ameliorate remote

culture

and deprivation.

For which we were deprive and

tormented.

I heard cry from those cliff

hand.

Stripe of right also of my own

calibre.Oh!It was citizen of

identical

charchoal singing the hymn of

distress,

Because of unachieve goal of

unity.They chant ”Only

Government and

Charchoal”,For so long was

unfufill promise blank.

Their dream like everlasting

paradise,I heard their grieve of

hot coal

with a lyrical chant

‘T’ell me Negrod,

for we reject our culture for colonization

culture,

Now we eat word for

your strict and spurious

tradition.

Awesome poem, John. Thank you for sharing. 🙂

Keep up with John by following him on:

Twitter

If you would like to share your poetry here, or know anyone that would like to be featured, please email me at cpbialois@gmail.com

As always, any poetry shared remains the property of the poet. I only share it with the poet’s permission.

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The Poetry Corner featuring Vic Tomlinson

Good morning and welcome to this week’s Poetry Corner! Please join me in welcoming Vic Tomlinson! 🙂

Competing Forces of Nature by Vic Tomlinson

The trees called out to me

as I entered the woods.

The elms, birches, and oaks seemed

to wave to me and call my name.

The ones with the rustling leaves

seemed to talk more than the others.

The wind blew even harder

as it tried to compete for my attention.

The birds tried to serenade me,

but the wind and trees drowned them out.

The big ball of fire lowered

itself in the western sky

as darkness awaited its turn for attention.

All was finally quiet

as blackness and silence prevailed.

 

Awesome poem, Vic. Thank you for sharing. 🙂

Keep up with Vic by following him on:

Twitter

If you would like to share your poetry here, or know anyone that would like to be featured, please email me at cpbialois@gmail.com

As always, any poetry shared remains the property of the poet. I only share it with the poet’s permission.

In the Books, featuring The First Conception: Rise of Eris by Nesly Clerge.

Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of In the Books, featuring Nesly Clerge and his newest book, The First Conception: Rise of Eris! 🙂

About the Book: You may not know who I am, but you know what I’ve done. I’m the one who altered human conception around the world in an unimaginable way, unimaginable to all but me—a seed planted while I was young. People had to be punished for what they did. The punishment had to be specific. I became a medical doctor, researcher, and vindicator of the verbal, physical, and sexual assaults perpetrated against women by men for eons. Including me. I’m not alone in my work. A great number of women share my ultimate goal. All except one. I’ll find the betrayer. Until then, men are beginning to pay for their sins against us. And I’m just getting started. Dr. Katherine Eris Barnes—remember my name. Although, I don’t know how you’ll be able to forget it.

My Review: At what point do we push too far?

This is a great question Nesly Clerge tackles in his latest book, The First Conception: Rise of Eris.

The story if narrated by the main character, Katherine Barnes, and through her, we’re taken into a world as dark and twisted as any. The thing about her world is it’s sadly true for many. She’s molested, raped and betrayed by those close to her, giving rise to a determination and hunger for revenge towards men that’s understandable.

As much as we sympathize with her, we’re slowly shown the depths of her hatred as she begins to “pay back” those that have wronged her or those she cares about. In doing so, the author does a phenomenal job of displaying first her reasoning, and then the counter point of the dangers of labeling and punishing an entire group for the actions of a few. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but to do this, the author uses the characters as both positive and negative reinforcements (ie devil on one shoulder, and an angel on the other).

Like his previous works, this is well written and delves deep into our psychology, helping to guide and/or urge us to ask important questions and consider what others are dealing with from a different angle. What’s really awesome about the story is it doesn’t pick sides or tell us what’s right or wrong, and to me, that’s the best way to open a dialogue and help address the issues in our society such as equality and extremism.

The first in a series, I’m excited to see where this goes.

The Poetry Corner featuring Nina Romano!

Good morning and welcome to this week’s Poetry Corner! Please join me in welcoming Nina Romano! 🙂

TRAVELS FROM MY LAUNDRY ROOM by Nina Romano

In my pristine green wash room,
I turn a black wool sweater inside out,
so my hand beading will remain intact
when I gently rub-a-dub-dub.

My jeans are old and frayed,
but memories line their pockets.
I extract sunflower seeds from the seams,
and it seems I’m once again cheering
at a soccer game in Foro Italico
an upward view of Belsito balconies
aflutter with overburdened clotheslines.

Tossing the jeans
in the washing machine,
I see the hems are worn
and remember Roman summers
when I was a fleet charioteer
guiding tourists in the Coliseum,
near the Ghetto whose narrow alleys
were tented over by hanging sheets.

Ashes on a skirt give vent to dreams
of volcanic danger,
walking the edges of Etna
where peasant girls in headscarves
hang clothes to dry in Sirocco winds.

Ah! and here are Nike shorts and socks—
outfit of a marathon racer to win your love—
I’d follow you anywhere, travel-lover.
You romance my heart as no one else,
like nothing else on earth—
We cruise the Mediterranean,
while the shoreline fisherman mend nets,
and women soak their salt-encrusted clothes.

A color profusion, a muted peacock’s tail on silk,
speaks of beckoning coastlines;
haunting images race back to me,
sailing the world’s wide open arms and finger lakes,
and I can picture still women in hijab
beating cotton robes upon flat rocks
on the banks of the Nile.

Open rock beach spaces
engorged by roaring surf
lead to fjords in Croatia,
and women rinsing soap from coverlets,
twisting towels of excess water.

Seas pilot us to tributaries of the Yangtze,
and evocative landscapes of river markets
as we travel on flat-bottom boats
in Bangkok and from the back of barges
washtubs overflowing.

And always, always
women,
baptizing babies,
burying their dead in water graves,
women,
washerwomen,
women laundering
women cleansing away
the bloodstains of martyrs
in wars they never sought.

About the Poem: “Travels from My Laundry Room” was first published in the Northville Review, and it is in my poetry collection, Faraway Confections.

Awesome poem! Thank you for sharing, Nina! 🙂

Contact Nina Romano at:

Website 

 

Amazon

 

Facebook

 

Twitter

 

Goodreads

 

If you would like to share your poetry here, or know anyone that would like to be featured, please email me at cpbialois@gmail.com.

As always, any poetry shared remains the property of the poet. I only share it with the poet’s permission.

Cover Reveal! The Slasher House Experience!

Hey everybody!

It’s been a while since I did an actual blog post, but I bring some awesome news.

As many of you may know, I’ve been working on a novel called Slasher for the last year or so. It’s a cheesy, cliched, and fun homage to the slasher film genre of the 1980s.

The book is currently going through the editing process, but more than some grammatical and plot hole issues are being fixed. Thanks to my wonderful cover artist, R.J. Keith (links to her social media will be below the cover image), I decided to change the name from Slasher to The Slasher Experience.

The Slasher Experience. I seriously don’t get tired of saying that. lol

But enough of me rambling on, here is the cover of my next novel coming our April 13, 2018 (Friday the 13th)!

Blurb:

Casi is a gifted young woman who only wants to help others, but when her parents don’t allow her to help a grieving neighbor, her brother, Tom, decides it’s time to get her out of the house and let her live some.

For him, that involves the Slasher Experience, a who-dun-it weekend based on the low budget, smash hit slasher horror movie. Bringing his two best friends, he hopes to give Casi the time of her life, but when the horror turns real and there’s nowhere to run, her talents are put to the test.

Please check out R.J Keith’s other work at:

Facebook

Twitter

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Authors Unplugged: A Visit From Poet/Editor John Mannone

An awesome post to help poets. 🙂

The Poetry Corner featuring Ed Ireland

Good morning and welcome to this week’s edition of the Poetry Corner! Please join me in welcoming Ed Ireland and a poem from his book, Forgotten Treasure. 🙂

Passion’s Wings by Ed Ireland

On golden wings of promise,
like a ship that crosses the sea,
my heart longs to be with you.
Unburdened, full, and free.

Twas in the dawn of my time
brought from ash and fire.
Your touch guided my path
and found my secret desire.

Through sword and talon of steel,
illuminated in heroic flame.
Together we conquered all we saw.
The Gods called out your name.

Glory was ours but a faithless act,
allowed the enemy to take my heart.
Imprisoned it in a snowy globe,
To keep our love apart.

But a stranger came, a thief at night,
and stole the globe away.
Bringing it to a distant shore,
in the warmth of a brand new day.

And so it was the sun touched me,
With all its warm, healing rays.
And soon my fires lit once more,
ending my prisoned days.

So now I search the wide, wide Earth,
Trying to find where you can be
On golden wings of passions flight

About the Poem: Your Phoenix flies to your memory. The story of the Phoenix. The mythical firebird becomes the symbol of the passion between two lovers. When they separate the fire dwindles and flickers out. The Phoenix was lucky when his prison was returned to the sun but now spends his days looking for something gone forever.

Awesome poem! Thanks for sharing, Ed! 🙂

Contact Ed Ireland at:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

If you would like to share your poetry here, or know anyone that would like to be featured, please email me at cpbialois@gmail.com.

As always, any poetry shared remains the property of the poet. I only share it with the poet’s permission.