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Poetry

4 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam

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Justice Sleeps
By A. L. Stone
 
Hold open the door and peer into the darkness
See the truth hanging in the air
Bodies dangling, jaws repeat
“There is no love for you here and no change is on its way.”
Oh, the horrors we subject each other to
The things we tolerate and yet remain silent.
 
And where is Justice?
Asleep beneath the porch
While a blaze of hatred rages on
Casting fiery bars through the floorboards.
She is imprisoned and yet dreams sweetly.
She is abandoned and yet feels right at home.
 
Justice does not live and breathe on her own,
but through our breath and our words.
She is animate only by the marching of our feet and the raising of our hands.
She thinks only as our hearts demand
An avatar for what resides within the consciousness of the living,
Justice is as we say,
or not.
 
In the absence of belief in the worth of ourselves,
reflected on the faces of the lynched and starving,
The forgotten and cast out,
Justice rests
while we remain asleep.
Won’t you wake her?

Amanda Stone’s writing spans from children’s picture books to adult fiction to poetry. In 2019, she received the Writers of Kern Peggy Connelly Scholarship for her young adult fiction. When not working on her own projects, she provides online support for people struggling to reconnect with their creativity at www.weareawakenedcreators.com.

3 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam

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T H E   C A N A L
by Nelson Varon
 
In front, gigantic, water-tight doors,
Like a foreboding cliff fifty feet above us,   
Shroud the light from the mid-day sun.
                                                                               
Behind, duplicate solid steel monsters,  
Flaming rust creeping like spiders on their weathered surfaces,
Close imperceptibly to seal us within towering walls of concrete.
 
Slowly the water rises within our crypt-like enclosure
Elevating our impotent vessel to the level of the
Hulking mass before us as it resumes its journey westward.  

In addition to being a musician and a writer of song lyrics & poems, Nelson Varon was a NYC school teacher, the founder of Nelson Varon Organ Studios in NYC,       a published songwriter & author of PlayNow Method For All Organs. He wrote  feature articles for The Music Trades  magazine, and How to Open a Piano & Organ Store (a chapter in the industry publication, How To Open A Music Store) and the short story, Fixing Things.  He was also the founder, publisher & editor of The Music & Computer Educator magazine, and the founder of Kern Piano Mall, in Bakersfield.

2 April 2020 | NPM Poetry Webslam

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COVID-19
by Anke Hodenpijl

 the doctor checks my labs,
 “Good to go,” she said
 I breathe with relief,
 eager to escape this breeding ground
 - door knobs, pens, magazines, chairs,
 even the toilet paper - hosts for the enemy
  
 I push the door with my derriere
 like a quarterback
 I backpedal
 dodge the incoming person
 and veer to my Honda
  
 Antiseptic towels at the ready,
 hands sanitized,
 I sing my twenty second song,
 claim a virus-free victory
  
  
 What’s that under my car?
  
 a red wallet.
  
 I scrub it with antiseptic,
 (crush those pathogens)
 a drivers license falls out
  
 it belongs to Edna
 I am sure she is inside that booby trapped office
 a fellow patient, 
 behind all those hazards
 fodder for my new-found anxiety
  
 my options play in slow motion
 look to the right
 look to the left
 the parking lot is empty
 no receiver to take the pitch
  
 I.          Go.      Back.
  
 Is Edna here? 

Anke Hodenpijl is a bedside singer, poet, gardener and safe spot for animals. She is inspired by nature, family, history, friendships and unfinished stories. Mostly, she is a grateful person.

1 April 2020 |NPM Poetry Webslam

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 CONTINUUM OF EACH OTHER                                                                   
  by Portia Choi
  
 I thought that thunder and lightning were powerful,
 heralding the wind of hurricane,
 uprooting palm trees, felling homes.
  
 Yet there is power in the breeze 
 that sway leaves to loosen from the branch-point
 where new life will bud in the spring,
 and give shade in the summer.
  
 There is power in the lulling waves that 
 smooth a jagged glass to a radiant crystal, 
 or a trickling stream that creates a canyon.
  
 And there is power in words,
 nourishing a famished heart to love, to forgive, and have faith.
 Words repeated -- the mantra of fulfillment.
  
 Yes, I can; yes, we can.
 Yes, yes, yes.
  
 Yes, in the silence, writing alone,
 searching into the depths and crevices of one’s inner self.
  
 The poet searching for words among infinite possibilities,
         lacing them into patterns of hope, awe and gratitude; 
 and by reciting one’s words to others,
 emancipates oneself from the shell of writing alone;
  
 weaving the words - eternal story of the continuum of each other.
  
 We are here, we are powerful.                                        
  
  

Portia Choi published a chapbook of her poems Sungsook, Korean War Poems. At Writers of Kern meetings, Choi met Helen Shanley and MaryLou Romagno who became good friends and mentors. Choi hosts First Friday Open Mic and publicizes National Poetry Month in April.  She administers www.kernpoetry.com.  Contact Choi [email protected].

Your Poem on Our Blog

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For the past few years, Writers of Kern has celebrated National Poetry Month (April) in a unique way. Each day in April, an original poem is published on our WOK website. Established poets, emerging poets, and would-be poets all have the possibility of being published during the month.

But, hey, we need YOU to submit your poetry for consideration! Beginning February 20th and throughout March, please send your poems to [email protected]

Guidelines:

  1. Poem line limit: 30 lines or fewer
  2. Submit poems as a Word Document ; 12-point font, Times New Roman or  Arial
  3. Include a short bio (50 words or fewer)
  4. Include a head shot
  5. Send to [email protected] ; In the subject line: NPM-“Title of your Poem”

You have questions? Please send them to: [email protected]