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Above: Sunflowers Vista by Katy Tartakoff, Denver photographer - katytartakoff.com By kind permission
Right-side: New Poets Sara Norja, John Grey, Veronica Matsuda. Latest Micro-chapbooks include collections by Howie Good, Ariana D. Den Bleyker, Bill Carpenter & Nancy Jasper. Sleuthing for the Painter of Snorri by Jan Keough.
Poets New to the OPP
 Sara Norja dreams in two languages and has a predilection for tea. Born in England and currently settled in Helsinki, Finland, she is pursuing a PhD in English linguistics. Her poetry has appeared in publications such as Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, Through the Gate, Niteblade & Interfictions.
 John Grey, Australian-born short story writer, poet, playwright, musician, and RI resident, has published in numerous magazines including Weird Tales, Christian Science Monitor, Greensboro Poetry Review, Poem, Agni & Poet Lore. 1999 winner, Rhysling Award, short genre poetry.
Veronica Matsuda is a second-generation Japanese American who grew up in a seaside town near Santa Barbara. She matriculated at the University of California Davis, where she studied English literature and creative writing. An avid animal lover, visual artist, and active hiker, she lives in northern California.
June * July * August Micro-Chapbooks Published
(Click cover to download the book as a 1-page PDF)
When It Rains
by Howie Good
Cover: Natural Falling Rain Drops
http://wallpaperose.com
Opening Stanzas
1
Rain on the way,
a sound no letters can spell.
2
I was watching it
and thinking,
The most expensive work of art ever,
cast in platinum
and encased in diamonds.
3
I stared miserably
at mom’s grave.
For god’s sake,
why put it there,
in the rain?
*
Howie Good, journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection Dark Specks in a Blue Sky from Another New Calligraphy (Summer/Fall 2015).
· · ·
Cover photo of Sergio Bustamante's ‘Face in Hands‘ Sculpture
To the Boy that Ran Away
Last night I woke to that same dream,
the one full of people that aren’t you.
The fear came back when I rose
from the soaked cloth of sleep
after digging down to the bone.
I’ll love, if I can, with knowing
our moments are gone. How I wish
you could be present, and pretend
for a moment, you miss me too.
*
Ariana is the author of several poetry chapbooks and collections, including Wayward Lines (RAWArt Press, 2015), Strangest Sea (Porkbelly Press, 2015), and Beautiful Wreckage (Flutter Press, 2015). She's founder and publisher of ELJ Publications.
· · ·
Cover: Newport Gate by Kevin Keough
Matriarch
I remember my grandmother
who, after a lifetime of noonday-sun-avoidance,
had skin like pink porcelain,
not a wrinkle to be had
and yet, no mistaking her for someone younger.
For she was old like sea-glass or shells,
like the outside walls of the Providence courthouse
or the various architectural splendors
of the east side, or trees like birch
that turn shiny silver when they hit their century.
She was strong, not from muscle and bone,
which were frail when I knew her,
but of years lived, of tales recounted,
of people she knew and could, even then, remember.
Other people died young.
But she lived well into her nineties.
As her days wore on,
time found her increasingly necessary.
*
(John Grey © 2015 - See bio above)
* * *
Yellow Teacakes
by Veronica Matsuda
Cover: Wall by the Sea by Jan Keough
Yellow Teacakes
Flowers of the sun
Royal collar of Egyptian gold
After winter’s brittle dormancy
Yellow is the most optimistic color
Fistfuls of a child’s pleasure
The knotted scarf of a woman’s patience
Unwinding to fly free as a kite
Ushering in an age of Gatsby in sepia
It’s an unabashed overflow with
Mint juleps and butter-yellow teacakes
Frittering away sun-baked afternoons
In villas vying for light of the kings
*
(Veronica Matsuda © 2015 - See bio above)
· · ·
Reimagining the Cosmos
by Bill Carpenter
Cover: Raven Restores the Stars, button blanket in the style of Native
Americans of the Pacific Northwest by Emily Westcott
Photo by Bill Carpenter
Love Triangle
The Land basks
in her suitors’ attentions,
aroused by Sky’s
torrid caresses,
lifting her tidal skirts
to Ocean’s brine,
blushing in foreplay,
she gives herself freely to both.
But Sky is a jealous lover,
smothering Land,
turning green at
Ocean’s advances.
The Sky scrolls love letters
on clouds to dissuade her
from Ocean’s pandering.
His missives range
from pastel dusks and dawns
to dark rants billowing wrath.
Nor will Ocean
willingly share the lover
he cannot stop kissing.
As they lie together
beneath suspicious heaven,
hopeful of touching
places only Sky can reach,
Ocean washes ever higher
up the rocky knees of her shores.
This struggle unravels
as heartache for Land’s inhabitants,
who thrive on the planet’s
marbled blue harmony,
but cower when Land
spurs her suitors to jealousy
as they whip up cyclones
and ocean-driven maelstroms,
when all earthlings can do
is pray to their gods,
amid the throes
of these tempestuous lovers.
*
Bill Carpenter's poetry has appeared in such journals as Runes, Blueline, Chest, Balancing the Tides, July Literary Press and the RI Writer’s Circle Anthology, He’s a member of the Ocean State Poets.
· · ·
Cover: Snorri Sturluson by Haukur Stefánsson. By kind permission of Snorrastofa director, Bergur Þorgeirsson (see below)
Snorri Loses Sleep
Something
has gotten into
Snorri’s horse.
His horse has developed
a sixth gait,
a subtle alteration
in timing.
It is more subtle than Snorri.
He cannot follow it,
cannot feel his way
into the altered hitch
and swing.
It is a rogue meter,
one of the old skaldic meters
he disturbed
when he was showing off
for the Norwegians.
He is deeply unsettled.
It is a warning.
He has overreached himself,
again.
*
Nancy Jasper, a clinical social worker, has published poems with the Origami Poems Project, Gávea-Brown, Leviathan, and The Wrackline. She has read her poetry on the RI affiliate of National Public Radio, as part of their This I Believe series. She has been a featured reader at several venues in Rhode Island.
*
On the grounds of The Snorrastofa Cultural Research Centre in Reykholt, Iceland
Sleuthing for the Painter of Snorri Sturluson by Jan Keough
Google search let me down. On the hunt for Snorri Sturlson's image (Icelandic poet & historian 1179-1241) to grace an Origami chapbook cover, Google gurgled a slurry of drawings, etchings, and one painting of a contemplative Snorri. But, alas, no artistic credit revealed.
I prodded Google search again. This time the engines flagged Icelandic author Nancy Marie Brown and her blogsite, God of Wednesday. Brown and I swapped emails. She generously forwarded my inquiry to Sigrún G. Þormar, Project Director of the Snorrastofa Cultural Research Center in Iceland. A Center founded in the memory of Snorri Sturluson!
Through Director Þormar I learned that the Snorri portrait artist was Haukur Stefánsson (1901–1953), Icelandic born, moved with family to Winnipeg, Canada and then was art schooled in Chicago from 1923-29. Stefánsson's roommate and best friend in Chicago happened to be Walt Disney. Ah, obscurity no more! Stefánsson stands out in my mind as comrade and fellow artist of this most famous cartoonist and artistic entrepreneur.
It turns out that the Snorrastofa Center owns the original painting of Snorri. (I've added the Center to my bucket list, as you can imagine.) To my delight, the Center's Project Director concluded his email with this generous offer: "permission is hereby given by Snorrastofa director, Bergur Þorgeirsson" to use Stefánsson's artwork on Nancy Jasper's Origami micro-chapbook cover...
Now, that's an ending worthy of a Walt Disney classic!
- Jan Keough
Above image from http://thedailyquotes.com/laughter-is-timelesss
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*
Pixie says, 'Yes, you CAN fold an Origami Miro-chapbook,
Even if you're all Paws!'
See Here!
The newsletter will be back DEC 2015
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