Hey my Alaskan folks! Alaska Women Speak has just released their Spring 2016 issue: Adventures in Foreign Lands. I have four pieces in this issue. My three poems and nonfiction piece center on my stay in South Korea in 2002-2003. Locally the magazine is available at Barnes and Noble in Anchorage and Fireside Books in Palmer, as well as other stores throughout the state.
Check it out!
Poems: A Greeting at Imjingak, Chaos and Conformity, and Bibimbap.
Prose: A Forgotten War.
Raw excerpt from “The Chamber of Silence.”
*This excerpt has been removed as another day’s post has been posted. Keep checking back daily to get the most up-to-date Napowrimo posts:)
This one was published by Three Line Poetry in February. Short and sweet, each line is less than 40 characters. Enjoy. It is about my first earthquake in Alaska.
Raw excerpt from “The First Failing.”
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Raw excerpt from “A New Family.”
*This excerpt has been removed as another day’s post has been posted. Keep checking back daily to get the most up-to-date Napowrimo posts:)
Raw excerpt from “The Warning.”
*This excerpt has been removed as another day’s post has been posted. Keep checking back daily to get the most up-to-date Napowrimo posts:)
Raw excerpt from “The Orphan.”
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Raw excerpt from “The Traitor’s Prize.”
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Raw excerpt from “Voiceless.”
*This excerpt has been removed as another day’s post has been posted. Keep checking back daily to get the most up-to-date Napowrimo posts:)
This poem was published by Eskimo Pie in February. Yes, a Duran Duran reference!
The Reflex
The lead guitarist’s butterfly collar
framed the half opened polyester shirt
exposing the sable chest hair that
matched his fuzzy head.
Shiny silver dress slit high
up the lead singer’s
thigh as she begins
her scorching rendition
of Gloria Gaynor.
I will survive
Oh, as long as I know …
It reminds of my mother’s obsession with
All oldies – all of the time
Songs that tormented my youth
with a quick rotation of the radio dial.
Love, love me do…
The lyrics of one Beatles song or another—
nothing but a good oldie would do for my mother.
As I sat watching the misfit 70’s band
leave the stage at the dive bar of my college existence
where I often drank after creative writing workshops—
sometimes more than others, sometimes harder than others—
the thoughts of the funky polyester pants dissipate
and memories of my mother’s radio fade
giving way to another time when I was young,
and Duran Duran’s “The Reflex”
made everything seem so much easier.
J.L. Smith 