Afloat on Flanpond by Carol A. Stephen and JC Sulzenko (SPICES & SEASONINGS Series)

Afloat on Flanpond
by Carol A. Stephen and JC Sulzenko

(After Flanpond by Will Cotton, oil on linen, 2002)

In a dark and winding rivulet of syrup,
small flan islands float downstream, past
snowy banks of meringue. Only slivers of almond
impede their procession, for all the world like ice floes.

Or lilies in Monet’s garden, revisited by a sinner who loves to bake
with sugar, eggs, cream, and those almonds, ground now to flour
softness and beaten into stiff peaks. He cannot resist. The current
catches his appetite and pulls him toward pleasure on a silver spoon.

When the islands reach the bridge of almonds where it spans
the syrup flow, he strikes his first blow, spooning
into the ladyfingers, swirling deep into caramel pools, drizzles
a stream of dark sweetness over it all, ending with a garnish
of soft white crowns scooped from the meringue. He hesitates.

Eyes closed, he breathes in the promise of a sugar high. Then
he slides the custard between his lips, its layers of ambrosia
so like a caress, a first kiss that deepens to engage his tongue. Creams
and flavours mix in his mouth. He moans for their smooth softness,
the honeyed moment his alone to savour and consume.

PAINTING: Flanpond © by Will Cotton (oil on linen, 2002).

NOTE FROM THE AUTHORS: Since 2013, we have embraced writing poetry together. “Afloat on Flanpond” appears in our first full collection of ekphrastic, collaborative poems, Breath of Sky and Water, which seeks a publisher. ¶ As poets, we acknowledge that co-creating a body of work which has both coherence and individuality, where each poet’s voice has place but not dominance, can feel at times like a tug-of war, at others a smooth and easy flow. Adding to the challenge is the third “voice,” that of the artist of the original work, to which each poet brings her own, individual impressions to bear. ¶ To create this poem and the poems in Breath of Sky and Water, we took turns selecting the work of art and then writing the opening line or lines, employing a variety of structures including alternating lines, couplets, or triplets, as well as alternating quatrains. We deliberately omit any attribution as to the provenance of each line or lines, so that the reader can enjoy each work seamlessly.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Carol A. Stephen‘s poetry appears in Poetry Is Dead, Wintergreen Studios chapbooks (Sound Me When I’m Done and Teasing the Tongue, both edited by Lorna Crozier), and in anthologies from Kind of a Hurricane Press, and in Fire and Sky, an anthology for the recovery from the Ft. McMurray fire. Carol won third prize in the CAA National Capital Writing Contest and was featured in Tree’s Hot Ottawa Voices. She served on the board for Canadian Authors Association-NCR and co-directed Ottawa’s Tree Reading Series. She’s a poetry selector for Bywords.ca.  Carol has published five chapbooks of poetry. In 2019, her nonfiction book, Winning the Lottery, Surviving Clostridium Difficile, was published by Crowe Creations.ca. Her first full collection of poetry, What I Carry with Me, was released by Friesen Press in December, 2022.

JC Sulzenko’s poetry has won awards and appeared in anthologies and journals in print and online, either under her own name or as A. Garnett Weiss. Her cento won this year’s Wind & Water Writing Contest. Her work appears in 2023 Anthologies from Wild Librarian Press, Yellow Brick Road Publishing, and Simple Simons Press. Aeolus House released Bricolage: A Gathering of Centos, a finalist for the 2022 Fred Kerner Award from the Canadian Authors Association. Point Petre Publishing issued South Shore Suite…POEMS in 2017. The author of books for children and families as well as a play about dementia, she has co-authored two chapbooks with Carol A. Stephen. The Ottawa International Writers Festival, the Ottawa Public Library, County Arts, and many school boards and Alzheimer societies, among others, have hosted her workshops. She selects for the online journal Bywords.ca and serves on the Board of the Ontario Poetry Society. Founder and curator of “Poetry Quarter” in the Glebe Report (2015-2023.), she is a full member of the League of Canadian Poets. Visit her at jcsulzenko.com.

ABOUT THE ARTIST: Will Cotton, born in 1965, is an American painter whose work primarily features landscapes composed of sweets, often inhabited by human subjects. He lives and works in New York City. Learn more at willcotton.com.

Call for Submissions: That Looks Like Me Ekphrastic Poetry Series

In recent years, there has been an upsurge of interest in ekphrastic poetry, which (according to the Poetry Foundation) is a “vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art.” Read more about ekphrasis at poetryfoundation.org. Aficionados of this form may wish to check out a recent Silver Birch Press publication — Dual Impressions by John Brantingham and Jeffrey Graessley.

All this is a buildup to our latest call for submissions: THAT LOOKS LIKE ME EKPHRASTIC POETRY SERIES. Find a portrait that looks like you (at any age) by a well-known artist and write a poem about the painting — put yourself into the story. Basically, the poem should be about the work of art and about you. (As regular followers of our series know, all our calls for submissions focus on personal narratives.)

PROMPT: Find a painting that looks like you — reality or wishful thinking, or a combination — by a well-known artist. Write an ekphrastic poem based on the painting — put yourself into the picture in some way. Find a painting by searching google images for “famous painting man” or “famous painting woman.” You may also wish to visit wikiart.org and browse through this visual art encyclopedia.

WHAT: Submissions can be original or previously published poems. You retain all rights to your work and give Silver Birch Press permission to publish on social media and in a potential print edition.

WHEN: We’ll feature the poems during the Silver Birch Press THAT LOOKS LIKE ME EKPHRASTIC POETRY Series starting in November or December (actual date to be determined, based on number of submissions).

HOW TO SUBMIT: Email one poem To SBPSUBMISSIONS@gmail.com as an MSWord attachment — and in the same file include your name, contact info (including email address), one-paragraph author’s bio (written in third person), and any notes about your creative process or thoughts about your piece. Please put all this information in one MSWord document and title the file with your last name (and only your last name). Write”LOOKS LIKE ME” in subject line of email. Please send a photo of yourself — at any age — in a separate jpg file to accompany the poem, and provide a caption for the photo (when, where). Send a jpg of the painting or a link to it. Please cite your source (title of painting, artist, year created). It would be ideal if you could find a photo of yourself that resembles the painting you choose — but this is not a requirement, as it may be difficult to match up the images in this way. Our intention is less literal and more impressionistic…

SUBMISSION CHECKLIST

To help everyone understand our submission requirements, we’ve prepared the following checklist.

1. Send ONE MS Word document TITLED WITH YOUR LAST NAME (e.g. Smith.doc or Jones.docx).

2. In the same MS Word document, include your contact information (name, mailing address, email address).

3. In the same MS Word document, include an author’s bio, written in the third person (e.g., Erin O’Brien has been writing since age ten…”).

4. In the same MS Word document, include a note about your poem or creative process (this is optional).

5. In the same MS Word document, include a caption for your photo (including where, when and/or date taken).

6. Send a photo of yourself at any age as a SEPARATE jpg attachment (not in the MS Word document). Title the photo with your last name (e.g., Jones.jpg).

7. Send a jpg of or link to the painting that inspired your poem — along with citation (title of painting, artist, and year created). You can include the link and citation in the MSWord under your poem.

8. Email to SBPSUBMISSIONS@gmail.com — and put LOOKS LIKE ME in the subject line.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: Sunday, November 15, 2015

IMAGES: “Self-Portrait” by Vincent van Gogh (1889); photo of Irish actor Michael Fassbender.

New Release: DUAL IMPRESSIONS, ekphrastic poems by John Brantingham and Jeffrey Graessley

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the August 18, 2015 release of Dual Impressions: Poetic Conversations About Art by John Brantingham and Jeffrey Graessley. The 138-page collection features ekphrastic poetry based on artwork by a range of artists, including: Paul Cézanne, Marc Chagall, Edgar Degas, El Greco, Edward Hopper, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, René Magritte, Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Amadeo Modligliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, John Singer Sargent, Georges-Pierre Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, and James Whistler.

Dual Impressions: Poetic Conversations About Art is a discussion between John Brantingham and Jeffrey Graessley about art and life in the form of over 90 poems that cover themes such as war, poverty, and social justice. The collection also includes an interview with the authors — where they explain the genesis for the project as well as their collaborative methods, and discuss their museum visits and art research — plus links to the artwork that served as inspiration for the poems.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS…

John Brantingham is Writer-in-Residence at the dA Center for the Arts. He teaches composition and creative writing at Mt. San Antonio College and Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. He has had hundreds of poems, short stories, and essays published in the United States and Europe in venues such as Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, Tears in the Fence, The Journal, Confrontation, and Pearl Magazine. He is president of the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival, a nonprofit that brings poetry readings to the San Gabriel Valley. He writes in a number of styles and genres including literary fiction, crime fiction, and poetry. His books include Let Us All Pray Now to Our Own Strange Gods (literary short stories), The Green of Sunset (prose poems), Mann of War (crime novel), East of Los Angeles (a poetry collection), and The Gift of Form (an instruction guide for writing formal poetry).

Jeffrey Graessley spends his nights in the San Gabriel Valley. His recent work can be found in a variety of magazines, including The Idiom, New Myths Magazine, and Tears in the Fence. He is the author of the chapbooks Cabaret of Remembrance (Sweatshoppe Publications, 2014) and The Old Masters (Arroyo Seco Press, 2015). His recent discovery of the Beat generation has prompted loving and longing thoughts for that simple, drunken, far-gone time in American history.

Dual Impressions: Poetic Conversations About Art by John Brantingham and Jeffrey Graessley is available at Amazon.com.

COVER: “Waiting” by Edgar Degas (1882).