Exhaling Winter by Diane Eagle Kataoka

EXHALING WINTER
by Diane Eagle Kataoka

Snow retreats up mountain walls
pulled on a timed tether
 
Grasses and brush spring back
to vertical
avalanching winter’s skin
 
Along a rivulet, pale shoots test the air
while catkins of aspens
shiver in silver light
 
I smell spring long before color
flushes tree and ground
 
Tentative breaths still redolent
with winter’s waning chill
ride over my skin
 
Whispering a promise of warmth
Inhale gently
gaining green. 

“Exhaling Winter” by Diane Eagle Kataoka appears in the Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology — a 240-page collection of poetry, short stories, novel excerpts, stage play scenes, and essays from 62 accomplished and up-and-coming authors in the U.S. and U.K. — available at Amazon.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Diane Eagle Kataoka lives at eight thousand feet in the Eastern Sierra, where she skis and hikes. A researcher for the late Leon Uris (Trinity and The Haj), she was director of marketing and communications for the Music Academy of the West, as well as editor-in-chief of the Mammoth Times and Mammoth Sierra Magazine. She is currently a freelance writer and editor, poet and blogger. (Visit her blog at mammothlakesview.com.) Diane’s chapbook Snow Globe,published by Two Birds Press, is a poetic history of five seasons in a mountain ski town.

 

Broken Soul Improv, story by Zack Hunter

BROKEN SOUL IMPROV (Excerpt)
Story by Zack Hunter 

…All of the golden symbols that had invaded my altered perception in the night flip like a switch in that instant. Void of color but shining a liquid quicksilver now. There’s my reflection in the mirror of consciousness itself that drips its gravitational pull trickling into all. This human body begins to melt. Dripping droplets of quicksilver from disfigured boots not clinging to the branch. I am every drop falling down now through the darkness. Feeling every one that splits and merges. The body has completely dissolved into the metallic silver energetic serum slipping away. Getting caught in the high winds.  Hundreds, now thousands of observation points scattered and raining down gaining speed in a crescendo of butterflies and death. In each silver drop is the fast-forward reminder that all of this has already happened…

“Broken Soul Improv,” a 1,800-word story by Zack Hunter appears in the Silver Birch Press release SILVER: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose, available  at Amazon.com.

Dreams, poem by Kathy Dahms Rogers

DREAMS

by Kathy Dahms Rogers

The streetlight shines so brightly
on the ocean, each wave has a silver lip.
That’s when I realize how real
my Dreams are.  Each day I awaken
to unbelievable news from unimaginable places
whose ghostly characters crowd out my thoughts.
I try to pin them down but they fade away
as Memory frees them to float over the bluff.
Each night I eagerly await my escape,
a better life, another dream.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kathy Dahms Rogers was born in Iowa, lives in Long Beach, California, and loves to travel with her husband Jack.  She calls herself an “accidental poet” because she began writing poetry during the 1990s in a workshop she thought was going to focus on memoir and travel writing. She continues to attend these weekly workshops with poet Donna Hilbert. Now a retired college reading instructor, Kathy’s poems have been published in PEARL, a literary journal, and Voices, an anthology.

“Dreams” and other poetry by Kathy Dahms Rogers is featured in the Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology, a collection of poetry and prose by authors from the U.S. and U.K. — available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

Photo: “Streetlights on the Beach, Monterey, California” by Bikini Sleepshirt, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Silver Anthology Nominated for Best Mixed Anthology on UK Site

We learned yesterday that the Silver Birch Press SILVER ANTHOLOGY  (released in November 2012) has been nominated for the Best Mixed Anthology by readers of the UK site Sabotage: Reviews of the Ephemeral. If you would like to vote, you can find the link on this page (When you get to the survey, the Mixed Anthology category is #3 on the list). You can vote until May 1, 2013.

Congratulations to everyone whose poetry and prose appeared in the SILVER ANTHOLOGY — including many authors from the UK! Best wishes to: BARBARA ALFARO, JENA ARDELL, MELISSA BERRY, JANE BUEL BRADLEY, JOHN BRANTINGHAM, RACHEL CAREY, CHIWAN CHOI, BILLY COOK, BARBARA DAHL, WALTER DE LA MARE, COLLEEN DELEGAN, GILLIAN EATON, BARBARA EKNOIAN, MERRILL FARNSWORTH, SYED AFZAL HAIDER, JOE HAKIM, ANDREW HILBERT, DONNA HILBERT, GAIA HOLMES, ZACK HUNTER, DIANE EAGLE KATAOKA, RUTH MOON KEMPHER, LINDA KING, THOMAS KUDLA, MORIAH LACHAPELL, LEEANNE MCILROY LANGTON, VICKIE LESTER, ELLARAINE LOCKIE, GERALD LOCKLIN, AMY LOWELL, SANDYLEE MACCOBY, TAMARA MADISON, CLINT MARGRAVE, DANIEL MCGINN, MARCIA MEARA, ANN MENEBROKER, JACK MICHELINE, BEN MYERS, JAX NTP, HANK PERRITT, MEGHAN PINSON, JACKIE PLEDGER-SKWERSKI, KATHY DAHMS ROGERS, CONRAD ROMO, LUKE SALAZAR, JOAN JOBE SMITH, CLIFTON SNIDER, DALE SPROWL, KENDALL STEINLE, ADELLE STRIPE, PAUL KAREEM TAYYAR, KATI THOMSON, JERI THOMPSON, WINSTON TONG, MARGARET TOWNER, MARY UMANS, DIRK VELVET, MELANIE VILLINES, FRED VOSS, MARK WEBER, TIM WELLS, STEVE WILLIAMS, and PAMELA MILLER WOOD.

Special thanks to SILVER ANTHOLOGY co-editor Joan Jobe Smith for inviting so many of the authors she’s met during her UK visits to participate in the Silver Birch Press anthologies.

Dreams, Poem by Kathy Dahms Rogers

DREAMS

by Kathy Dahms Rogers

The streetlight shines so brightly

on the ocean, each wave has a silver lip.

That’s when I realize how real

my Dreams are.  Each day I awaken

to unbelievable news from unimaginable places

whose ghostly characters crowd out my thoughts.

I try to pin them down but they fade away

as Memory frees them to float over the bluff.

Each night I eagerly await my escape,

a better life, another dream.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kathy Dahms Rogers was born in Iowa, lives in Long Beach, California, and loves to travel with her husband Jack.  She calls herself an “accidental poet” because she began writing poetry during the 1990s in a workshop she thought was going to focus on memoir and travel writing. She continues to attend these weekly workshops with poet Donna Hilbert. Now a retired college reading instructor, Kathy’s poems have been published in PEARL, a literary journal, and Voices, an anthology.

“Dreams” and other poetry by Kathy Dahms Rogers is featured in the Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology, a collection of poetry and prose by authors from the U.S. and U.K. — available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

Photo: “Streetlights on the Beach, Monterey, California” by Bikini Sleepshirt, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Jan. 13: Silver Anthology Reading in Long Beach, CA

Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology contributor jax NTP and contributor and co-editor Joan Jobe Smith have organized a reading in Long Beach, California, to celebrate the book’s recent publication. Details in poster above (designed by jax NTP — thank you!). A range of writers featured in the Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology will read from their work at the event.

In case you can’t read the fine print, here are the details…

EVENT: Authors reading from their work featured in Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology

DATE: Sunday, January 13, 2013

TIME: 2-4 p.m.

PLACE: The Wine Crush

LOCATION: 3131 East Broadway, Long Beach, CA, 90803

This promises to be a fun afternoon — and we hope some of our readers in Southern California can attend and meet the authors.

Holiday Gift Idea from Silver Birch Press

A few minutes ago, I noticed that Amazon is now offering the just-released Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology for $7.97 (a reduction of $4.53 from the cover price). I don’t know how long this sale will last, but for a 240-page book by 62 authors of poetry, short stories, essays, novel excerpts, and stage play scenes, this is a bargain. I’d say so even if we hadn’t published the book. If you’re looking for an unusual, uplifting, and engaging (not to mention cheap) Christmas gift, this could be your answer. Here is the link.

The book is also available on Amazon sites for the UK, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

Quietism, Poem by Adelle Stripe

QUIETISM

by Adelle Stripe

I listen to you
tap tap tap
on an underweight keyboard
 
gain some kind of comfort
from the rhythm
and your cough.
 
Outside the snow is falling
like moths burned by
a nitrate moon
 
and silence envelops
these once busy streets,
footsteps are cushioned
in the ginnel of dust
where the pink reflected halogen glow
is the tone of my cheeks
just half an hour ago.
 
Mogwai’s
“You Don’t Know Jesus”
plays a codeine drone
from the speakers downstairs
somnolence drifting up through the air,
condensation in fuzz guitar notes.
 
I open the window,
hang my legs off the sill,
let the snowflakes collect
on my Clara Bow lips; soft and sweet
I dream of vanilla
 
and listen to you
tap tap tap
on an underweight keyboard
on this February night
under stoned
Titian clouds.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Adelle Stripe is a founding member of the Brutalist Poets and lives in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire. Her writing has appeared in Mineshaft, Chiron Review, and PEARL. She has released three poetry collections on Blackheath Books, and won Poetry Book of the Year 2009 at the 3:AM Magazine Awards. A new collection, Dark Corners of the Land, is due for publication in December 2012.

“Quietism” appears, along with other poetry by Adelle Stripe, in the Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry and Prose – a collection of writing from 62 authors that centers around a “silver” theme. The 240-page book is available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

And Now the Internet is Haunted by Digital Ghosts, Poem by Ben Myers

AND NOW THE INTERNET IS HAUNTED

BY DIGITAL GHOSTS

by Ben Myers

And now

the internet

is haunted by digital ghosts.

Sometimes

in the middle of the night

you can hear their

tiny tinny voices

screaming down

the wires. 

I want to

cut

those cables

and set them free

and make them

real.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ben Myers was born in Durham, United Kingdom, in 1976. His novels include Pig Iron (Bluemoose Books) and Richard (Picador). His stories, poems, articles, and interviews have appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and anthologies. He lives in Mytholmroyd, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

“And Now the Internet is Haunted by Digital Ghosts” appears, along with other poetry by Ben Myers, in the Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry and Prose – a collection of writing from 62 authors that centers around a “silver” theme. The 240-page book is available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

How I Felt, Poem by John Brantingham

HOW I FELT 

by John Brantingham

There was one time in the dead

center of summer after we’d

had a Santa Ana, and the glass

on the windows seemed ready

to melt but the Santa Ana was over

and storm clouds had moved in. A snap

of lightning and all the rain in the world

landed on our street. It poured for three

minutes and moved on. When it was gone,

the street steamed and hissed

until it was dry again. Last night,

I woke up at two in the morning.

You were lying perfectly still,

and you didn’t know I was watching you.

When I saw you lying there so quietly last night,

that’s just exactly how I felt.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Brantingham’s poetry and fiction have been published in hundreds of magazines and venues, including Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, PEARL, Tears in the Fence, Confrontation, and The Journal. His books include East of Los Angeles and Let Us All Pray to Our Own Strange Gods (forthcoming from World Parade Books). He works at Mt. San Antonio College, where he teaches English and directs the creative writing programs.

“How I Felt” appears, along with other poetry by John Brantingham, in the Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry and Prose — a collection of writing from 62 authors that centers around a “silver” theme. The 240-page book is available in paperback and Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

Silver Birch Press blog readers who’d like to review the Silver Anthology, leave a comment and we will contact you.