An Old Lady’s Haiku with Cat

At this point in my life, I’m committed to my work, driven by a deep desire to communicate and explore the many mysteries around us. In a time when it’s more urgent than ever to care for nature and one another, I create not just to please, but to provoke – to gently pause others in their tracks, inviting them to experience the profound, the playful, and perhaps to leave a little bit changed.

My art and haiku often draw on mythology, religion, nature, and personal memories. In this way, I see myself as a storyteller, hoping to intrigue anyone who takes a moment to stop and look.

Hedonistic Propensities

From his darkest and most painful days to his bright and sunny days, this collection of poems embodies Issiac and the way he sees the world: painful and beautiful at the same time. 

Hedonistic Propensities takes a deeper look at what makes his soul shine. You can feel that he is most at home when he is writing.

This is Issiac’s first collection of poems, including the poems on his Instagram. He has been working on his craft.

Scribbles

Scribbles is a collection of poems written to express feelings that come with intense love, anger, betrayal, trauma, confusion, trust, and worry, and to help make sense of things. Its goal is to shine a light on some thoughts and feelings one may be having when experiencing the worry for a friend’s death, death of a lover, falling in love, or being betrayed, or being abused, trying to figure out one’s own mind, or feeling as though one has lost their mind. It is gritty and emotional, even lurid at times, but serves its purpose of letting out what cannot be contained.

Zion and Me

‘Zion’ is an imaginary place of peace, happiness, and victory. It has been my life’s ambition and pursuit. It has been a dream. An unattainable dream. Since Adam bit the poison apple in the Garden of Eden, mankind has been under a curse – to work at the sweat of his brow for his bread. This causes all of humanity to moan in existential pain. We long for meaning and for love.

Originally, ‘Zion’ was the hill in Jerusalem upon which Solomon built his temple. Zion since then, has come to mean the holy city. Zion is the party, should there ever be one after the defeat of evil in the apocalypse. To me, it is something to hope for, to strive for. However, as life’s problems obstruct the attainment of such a state, we begin to sink into complacency and misery. There’s poverty, heartbreak, and people who want to put you in a cage. After all that - you die.

Zion and Me is divided into three parts. ‘Haphazard Lines’ is mostly Biblical as I had recently converted to Christianity, and includes some speculation on the divine. ‘This Lovely Day’ is more secular and reflects again on life’s melancholia among other lessons to be learned. Finally, ‘Love Poems’ is self-explanatory and concerns various concepts related to love like longing and sadness. Zion and Me is an attempt to explain the ambiguity that goes with the necessity of discovering life’s secrets and to gain insight and wisdom.

Wolves with Furniture

Is the true nature of the human creature more akin to that of wolves or closer to bees or ants? What parts of the human soul are sacrificed by choosing a modern life in a crowded city-hive, an existence severed from the balance of Nature? Do wild wolves have a better sense of humanity than humans themselves?

These are only a few of the questions pondered in L.M. Reid’s poetry collection Wolves With Furniture, in which every intense poem is woven into the stories of Lupa the Wolf Queen and a vibrant girl born unlucky, who grows into a woman carrying within her the towering fury of a flame-haired Lilith.

Will she shatter herself against her own bitter rage, or choose to live a harmonious life guided by the just laws of the wolf? By turns poignant, thought-provoking and redemptive, Wolves With Furniture explores new depths of what it means to be human.

Winter Afternoon and Other Poems

The TV shows images of heads without bodies and babies wandering the streets all night... Just before sunrise, his blind eyes shine brighter than the sky, illuminated only by memory... The sudden, enveloping embrace of darkness is creamy in its softness, making you marvel at the world's perfection... Daring children to be young, sharing lunch with someone I once loved... Trust betrayed, messages relayed, bets hedged... Gracie lost herself again; her daughter found her in the basement with the photos... A bird twitters away the summers in a movie's belfry... Shriveled worse than a museum fetus drowning in formaldehyde... Pray the boy will learn to read before he learns to kill... The pizza guy slips a homeless man a few quarters... Moonlight bike rides along the river, conversations with the cat... If I touch the sky, how will I know... A glimpse of heaven through the kitchen window... Because no one can speak the sacred word, and no one knows more than they should...

What the "#x@+" is he 'saying'? ... Read on!

Why

Have you ever wondered why?

It is my pleasure to share this debut collection of poetry. Words are escapes. Each poem is powerful. Brave. My own creation. A work of delight. Rich. Playful. Sometimes fragile. Erotic love alive to the world. Dizzying. Tangled. Some written as a young girl. Some homeless. Some in love. Institutionalized. I write you with the love of life. With confidence. The sparkle and glitter of poetry. A rare wine. A fortune. An expose of lifeblood. And a passionate love affair.

I leave these poems in your hands. Here is my poetry in motion. This is why.

We The People

Joanne S. Duffin’s poetry is a captivating fusion of the personal and the universal, delving into the depths of the human experience. Her verses touch upon matters of the heart, offer insightful observations of the world, and fearlessly tackle the pressing issues of our time, both within the United States of America and on a global scale.

As you turn the pages, you’ll find yourself immersed in the wonders and interpretations of the natural world, the joys of family, the treasure of discovered love, the journey of self-discovery, philosophical musings, political commentary, patriotic reflections, and the pursuit of justice. Duffin’s poetry also explores the complexities of friendship, the pain of loss, and the inevitability of death.

This groundbreaking work of fiction will captivate your mind as you traverse space and time alongside the author, who fearlessly delves into the very essence of self-expression. Throughout her poetry, Duffin never loses sight of the profound impact and influence of the past, acknowledging the experiences that have shaped her as both a writer and a human being.

Embark on this transformative literary journey with Joanne S. Duffin, and allow her unique voice to guide you through a landscape of beauty, understanding, and introspection, as her thoughts and words weave a tapestry of the human condition.

We Are All Equal in Ink

The day after his retirement, Chris suffered a haemorrhagic stroke that paralyzed the right side of his body. The language area of his brain was the most affected, depriving him of speech. To regain his most valued skill – to express himself with the written and spoken word – he had to begin again, re-learning words and their meanings, and to write using his left hand. His urge to use language as before was so strong that he was able to recover little by little what the stroke had cruelly taken away. It took two years until his abilities improved enough to be seated in his wheelchair to read and write. He never felt impeded by his disability. With a tape recorder, a notebook, and a typewriter, Chris picked up where he had left off – his inspiration awakened anew.

Waifs and Strays

These are short stories presented in poetic form. The cadence of poetry lends air and space to a story and heightens anticipation. There is war, loss, love and redemption in this work.

Accompanying these poems are some gritty short stories with twists as unexpected as a Twilight Zone episode. They are at times stark and unforgiving.

Victims and Perpetrators

Dive into the mischievous world of Victims and Perpetrators: Light Verse Judgement on the Criminally Inclined, where the lines between lawbreakers and law enforcers blur in the most whimsical ways. Through the masterful pen of John Gentry, a humorist poet with a penchant for the peculiar, this collection of poems invites readers on a rollicking journey through the underbelly of society, all from the safety of their armchairs.

From the tale of Felony Fred, whose criminal escapades are as endearing as they are egregious, to the saga of a hapless diner in Hard Rock, Idaho, Gentry crafts a universe where crime does indeed pay – in laughter and wit. Each poem is a vignette, a snapshot of life on the other side of the law, told with a twinkle in the eye and a tip of the hat to the absurd.

So, whether you’re a seasoned criminal mastermind looking to take a break from your nefarious activities, or a law-abiding citizen with a love for the lyrical, Victims and Perpetrators offers something for everyone. It’s a reminder that, in the end, we’re all just characters in the grand, ridiculous story of life – some of us just have better alibis than others.

Verses

Nothing in nature compares to the beauty of rainbows.

When they appear most feel, ‘Oh!’

They are signs that the rain has stopped.

Now people feel freer to go out to shops,

The flooded streets become more tame,

Children can go out to play games.

Most are once again bright eyed,

And see birds soaring throughout the skies.

And just maybe there are two beings,

At each end of the rainbow, connecting.