Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volumes 1-8 Available from

https://www.lulu.com/search?adult_audience_rating=00&page=1&pageSize=10&q=Lothlorien%20Poetry%20Journal

Edited by Strider Marcus Jones

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 8

Echoes Dancing with Shadows

January – Mid February 2022

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 8 (lulu.com)

American poet Carl Sandburg said “poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance. ” Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 8, features 74 internationally renowned poets and fiction writers as scintillating Echoes Dancing with Shadows including 2022 Pushcart Prize winner – Kurt Fuchs.

“Poetry is an echo asking a shadow to dance” –

                                                         Carl Sandburg

“Rather, I think one should write, as nearly as possible, as if he were the first person on earth and was humbly and sincerely putting on paper that which he saw and experienced and loved and lost; what his passing thoughts were and his sorrows and desires.”

– Neal Cassady to Jack Kerouac

“If you believe you’re a poet, then you’re saved.” – Gregory Corso

“I woke up as the sun was reddening; and that was the one distinct time in my life, the strangest moment of all, when I didn’t know who I was—I was far away from home, haunted and tired with travel, in a cheap hotel room I’d never seen, hearing the hiss of steam outside, and the creak of the old wood of the hotel, and footsteps upstairs, and all the sad sounds, and I looked at the cracked high ceiling and really didn’t know who I was for about fifteen strange seconds. I wasn’t scared; I was just somebody else, some stranger, and my whole life was a haunted life, the life of a ghost. I was halfway across America, at the dividing line between the East of my youth and the West of my future.” – Jack Kerouac

“And for just a moment I had reached the point of ecstasy that I always wanted to reach, which was the complete step across chronological time into timeless shadows, and wonderment in the bleakness of the mortal realm.” – Jack Kerouac

The POETS/AUTHORS

Margaret Kiernan

Fred Johnston

Lisa Marguerite Mora

Peter Knight

John Drudge

Karen Mooney

Michael Igoe

Catherine Arra

Julian Matthews

Afiah Obeneewaa Grace Danquah

Adrian David

Susan Tepper

Greg Patrick

Yuu Ikeda

Terry Wheeler

Pragya Suman

Rustin Larson

Imelda O’Reilly

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko

Steve Klepetar

Brittany Hause translations of Ricardo James Freyre

Peter F. Crowley

Fiona Perry

Paul Demuth

Lynn White

Eric Burgoyne

Sana Tampeen Mohammed

Ernesto P. Santiago

Debbie Robson

Gary D. Maxwell

Mandy Beattie

Gale Acuff

Mona Bedi

Sam Barbee

Kushal Poddar

Kim Malinowski

Julian O. Long

Rowena Newman

Heath Brougher

Hibah Shabkhez

Ken Gosse

Margaret Kiernan

Nicholas Alexander Hayes

Debbie Robson

Kurt Luchs

RC deWinter

Douglas V. Miller

David Ades

Alan Catlin

Ursula O’Reilly

Peter Magliocco

Dmitriy Galkovskiy

John Grey

Richard M. Ankers

Wayne F. Burke

Dana Trick

Ethan Vilu

Duane Vorhees

Les Wicks

David Alec Knight

Adele Ogier Jones

James Miller

Angel Edwards

Christopher Barnes

Amita Sarjit Ahluwalia

Daniel Nemo

Doris Wei Tan

GJ Hart

Ngozi Olivia Osuoha

Adrian David

Sunil Sharma

Joe Sebastian

Mohibul Aziz

Bhuwan Thapaliya

Salim Yakubu Akko

Editorial Poems by Strider Marcus Jones                             

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 7

Beat Cafe

November – December 2021

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 7 (lulu.com)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 7 – Beat Cafe, features the outstanding poetry and fiction of over 60 poets and authors from our virtual Beat Cafe with their own modern day take on dystopian reality and fantasy. These internationally renowned poets and authors continue the revolutionary legacy of the original Beat Generation poets and authors and bring their own original take on twenty-first century life and society.

Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks. Cover Image – Ed van der Elsken – Bohemian Life in Paris 1950-52 “It’s a sort of furtiveness … Like we were a generation of furtive. You know, with an inner knowledge there’s no use flaunting on that level, the level of the ‘public’, a kind of beatness – I mean, being right down to it, to ourselves, because we all really know where we are – and a weariness with all the forms, all the conventions of the world … It’s something like that. So I guess you might say we’re a beat generation.” ― Jack Kerouac “It really was a whole generation who were listening to Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Ella Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, James Moody, Fats Navarro and, a little bit later on, Mongo Santamaría and Chuck Berry, and these dozen or so guys gave them a voice. They led the way. They wrote what a whole generation wanted to read. The time was right and they seized the day by writing about their lives. They travelled, they got into scrapes, they got arrested, they got wasted … and they wrote about it. Isn’t that something?” ― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet – Searching for your Tribe Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life. — Jack Kerouac Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does. — Allen Ginsberg Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact. — William S. BurroughsBiographical Notes

The Poets & Fiction Authors

Cait O’Neill McCullagh  Tom Bakelas  J.S. Watts  R.T. Castleberry  

Antonia Alexandra Klimenko  John D. Robinson  Janice D. Soderling  Greg Patrick 

Carrie Magness Radna   David Booth  Dr. Ajanta Paul  James Eric Watkins  

Mark Blickley  Mark Saba  Piergiorgio Viti  Angel Edwards  John Drudge  

Margaret Kiernan  Steve Klepetar  Ursula O’Reilly  John Dorsey  Gaynor Kane  

Alec Solomita  Susan Tepper   Johnny Francis Wolf  Oriana Ivy  David L. O’Nan 

Elizabeth Marino  GJ Hart  Lilija Valis  Richard Wayne Horton  RC deWinter 

Bruce Morton  Hedy Habra  Robert (Roibeard) Shanahan  Lorraine Caputo  

Dennis Villelmi (Williamson)  Oonah V. Joslin  Shine Ballard  Grace Danquah 

Jason Ryberg  Sister Louella Hickman  Andre F. Peltier  John Doyle  Karen Kerekes

 Peter Lilley  Cheryl Snell  Ken Gosse  John Knoll  Ursula O’Reilly  Douglas V. Miller

Michael H. Brownstein  Rustin Larson  John Guzlowski  Adrian David  Meg Freer 

Dr Suleman Lazarus  Lynda Tavakoli  Kenneth Hickey  Robert Nisbet

Editorial Poem by Strider Marcus Jones

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 6

Druids of Cernunnos – October – November 2021

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-6/paperback/product-w6dz5y.html?page=1&pageSize=4

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ―Greg Bear.
Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/
In Druids of Cernunnos – Volume 6 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal, I am honoured to feature the work of more than seventy renowned poets and authors from the USA, Canada, Australia, India, Ireland, England, and most of Europe and South America. Like Druids, Poets are guardians of our past, present and future. This volume brings you mesmeric poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia and nature, with magical realism and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks about relationships and most aspects of life. Enjoy reading this superb eclectic collection by some of the finest contemporary poets and fiction writers.
Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow, join the site and invite your friends. Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved. The artists have reserved their right under Section 77 Of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of their work. Cover image – a black and white photograph of a Druid of Cernunnos.

Details

Publication DateJan 11, 2022 Language English ISBN9781716010835 Category Poetry Copyright All Rights Reserved – Standard Copyright License Contributors.

Edited by: Strider Marcus Jones

Specifications

Pages244BindingPaperbackInterior ColorBlack & WhiteDensionsCrown Quarto (7.44 x 9.68 in / 189 x 246 mm)
Thank you to the following esteemed poets and authors for your superb poetry and stories in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 6 – Druids of Cernunnos. You have my sincere respect and appreciation. I am honoured to publish your work. ~ Strider 

The POETS/AUTHORS 

Steve Klepetar Oonah V. Joslin Ivan de Monbrison Heather Cameron Jeremy Scott Mary Ellen Talley John Drudge Christine Tabaka Stephen Guy Mallett Antonia Alexandra Klimenko Robert (Roibeard) Shanahan Subraman David Russell Angel Edwards Adrian David Temani Nkalolang John Grey Adele Ogier Jones David L O’Nan Ursula O’Reilly Prince A McNally Margaret Kiernan Keith Hoerner Mona Bedi Scott Thomas Outlar M A Blickley Philip Dodd Sissy Pantelis Nathan Anderson Michael Lee Johnson Grant Tarbard Stephen House Dana Trick Vijay Nair GJ Hart Lara Dolphin J B Hogan Shelly Blankman John Patrick Robbins Lynda Tavakoli Ken Gosse Rose Mary Boehm Paul Edward Costa Jeanna Ni Riordain Alec Solomita David Parsley Lathalia Song Yash Seyed Bagheri J D Nelson Emma Jo Black John Drudge Mihaela Melnic A E Reiff Moe Seager Jyoti Nair George Sandifer – Smith Amrita Valan Kofi Fosu Forson Amita Paul Ryan Quinn Flanagan Candice Kelsey Edward Lee Jonel Abellanosa Stephen A Rozwenc Steven Deutsch S.C. Flynn Marie C. Lecrivain Silk Joshua Martin Margaret Kiernan Terry Wheeler Sandy Rochelle Alan Catlin Tricia Knoll R. Bremner Heather Sager

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 5

Metropolis Drift August – September 2021

https://www.lulu.com/…/paperback/product-rqzjg9.html..

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ―Greg Bear.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

In Metropolis Drift – Volume 5 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal, I am honoured to feature the work of seventy-seven renowned poets and authors from the USA, Canada, Australia, India, Ireland, England, and most of Europe and South America, bring you mesmeric poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia and nature, with magical realism and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks about relationships and most aspects of life.

 Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow, join the site and invite your friends. Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved. The artists have reserved their right under Section 77 Of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of their work.

Cover image – a black and white photograph of lovers in Paris caught up in Metropolis Drift.

Maria: “We shall build a tower that will reach to the stars!” Having conceived Babel, yet unable to build it themselves, they had thousands to build it for them. But those who toiled knew nothing of the dreams of those who planned. And the minds that planned the Tower of Babel cared nothing for the workers who built it. The hymns of praise of the few became the curses of the many – BABEL! BABEL! BABEL! – Between the mind that plans and the hands that build there must be a Mediator, and this must be the heart.

Metropolis – Directed by Fritz Lang 1927

Thank you to the following esteemed poets and authors for your superb poetry and stories in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 5 – Metropolis Drift. You have my sincere respect and appreciation. I am honoured to publish your work. ~ Strider 

 The POETS/AUTHORS 

Antonia Alexandra KlimenkoSteve KlepetarMihaela MelnicJohn DrudgeTobi AlfierJohn DoyleMarianne SzlykJim Lewis (j. lewis)beamTim HeerdinkJeana JorgensenMarc di SaverioMargaret KiernanGJ HartSusan TepperKen GosseLisa ReynoldsMichael J. LeachAngel EdwardsJ.D. NelsonSherzod ArtikovJoan McNerneyAlec SolomitaKathryn Ann HillMichael Lee JohnsonHazel StorrNick NewmanPea Flower TomiokaAlan CatlinDana TrickGary BillsAdi RaturiAndrew Cyril MacdonaldJoe SebastianLauren ScharhagDavid EstringelRC deWinterSterling WarnerEllen ChiaMoe SeagerRose Mary BoehmPhilip Dean BrownIulia GhergheiIvan de MonbrisonMargaret Adams BirthJohn DoyleAdele Ogier JonesGiovanni MangianteElana WolffMarc di SaverioGinger Covert CollaLuis Cuauhtemoc BerriozabalCharlotte CosgroveJohn DrudgeSarah RobinTyler LetkemanBob BeagrieLouis KasatkinAmita Sarjit AhluwaliaTom MontagSusan TepperLynn LongRandy BarnesAntonia Alexandra KlimenkoMargaret KiernanGreg PatrickBen DouglassSusan TepperR.W. StephensHowie GoodJohn DoyleZvi A. SeslingUrsula O’ReillyStark HunterGeoff SawersJohn Patrick RobbinsPaul Ilechko

Editorial Poem by Strider Marcus Jones                                        

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 4

Sentient Souls

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-4/paperback/product-d7v4eg.html?page=1&pageSize=4

“Once, poets were magicians. Poets were strong, stronger than warriors or kings — stronger than old hapless gods. And they will be strong once again.” ―Greg Bear Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/ In Sentient Souls – Volume 4 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal, seventy-seven renowned poets and authors bring you mesmeric poems and stories of fantasy and folklore, dystopia and nature, with magical realism and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks. Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow, join the site and invite your friends. Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved. The artists have reserved their right under Section 77 Of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of their work. Cover black and white photograph by Markus Zaiser ISBN 978-1-7948-8738-1

Editorial Poem by Strider Marcus Jones                                           

Thank you to the following esteemed poets and authors for your superb poetry and stories in Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 4 – Sentient Souls. You have my sincere respect and appreciation. I am honoured to publish your work. ~ Strider The POETS/AUTHORS John Drudge Rose Mary Boehm John Doyle Sara Clancy D. R. James Elle Renee Morgan Steve Klepetar Margaret Kiernan Bruce McRae Catherine Arra Ken Gosse Miriam Sagan Tohm Bakelas Adele Ogier Jones John Grey Amrita Valan Danny D. Ford Mihaela Melnic Jason de Koff Gulchehra Asronova Louis Kasatkin Angel Edwards Michael La Bombarda Yuu Ikeda Alec Solomita Susan Tepper Johanna Antonia Zomers Sheila Tucker Tom Montag Afiah Obenewaa Adrian David Andrena Zawinski Greg Patrick Ursula O’Reilly R. W. Stephens pj johnson Stephen House Patricia Walsh Scott C. Kaestner RC de Winter Stephen Anderson Kathryn Ann Hill Chris Campbell Linda Imbler Catfish McDaris Jana Hunterova & Mark Blickley Nicholas Alexander Hayes Agnes Vojta Alan S. Kleiman Cornelia Smith Fick Math Jones Candice James Michael J. Leach Sadie Maskery Richard D. Houff Josie Di Sciascio-Andrews Rustin Larson Lilija Valis Nodirabegim Ibrokhimova Chad Norman Kaci Skiles Laws Shelby Stephenson Rafaella Del Bourgo Jonel Abellanosa Lynn White Lawrence Moore Aysegul Yildirim Sherzod Artikov Michael Igoe Geoffrey Prince Chae Paterson

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 3

Flowers in Stones May – June 2021

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-3/paperback/product-5n5zzz.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a contemporary literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/ Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks. Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow, join the site and invite your friends. Volume 3 of Lothlorien Poetry Journal features 240 pages of scintillating poetry and fiction from 61 world renowned poets and authors living in the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, Peru and many more countries where poetry is a literary force for seed change in society. Enjoy this exciting blend of poetic styles and the sharing of cultural diversity that brings us all closer together in our rapidly changing world. If you like contemporary world poetry, this book is perfect reading for poets and fiction writers and those new to both genres. It is an excellent resource of teaching materials for teachers and students alike and will inspire the reader to enjoy writing poetry and fiction with confidence.

lorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/ 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/236144291357538/?multi_permalinks=402594858045813

Tweets by LothlorienJ

Editorial Poem by Strider Marcus Jones

 

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 2 – Bard Songs and Tales                                                    

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 2 – Bard Songs and Tales

March 2021 – April 2021

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/lilija-valis-and-michael-lee-johnson-and-lynda-tavakoli-and-kevin-m-hibshman/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-2-bard-songs-and-tales/paperback/product-kgyg8r.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Edited by Strider Marcus Jones Paperback

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/ Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks. Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow, join the site and invite your friends. Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved. The artists have reserved their right under Section 77 Of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of their work. Cover Image – Pete Seeger Banjo, Annie Leibovitz. ISBN 978-1-300-15598-0 “If you have the words, there’s always a chance that you’ll find the way.” ― Seamus Heaney, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney.

Details

Publication DateAug 25, 2021LanguageEnglishISBN9781300155980CategoryPoetryCopyrightAll Rights Reserved – Standard Copyright LicenseContributorsEdited by: Strider Marcus Jones, By (author): Kevin M Hibshman, By (author): Lynda Tavakoli, By (author): Michael Lee Johnson, By (author): Lilija Valis

Specifications

Pages252BindingPaperbackInterior ColorBlack & WhiteDimensionsCrown Quarto (7.44 x 9.68 in / 189 x 246 mm)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal’s second published volume of poetry and prose features the exceptional poetry and fiction of 72 internationally renowned poets and fiction authors. Join us on our journey in Bard Songs and Tales. Be moved and inspired by their sublime individual poetic voices from every continent and discover that there is more to life that unites us than divides us..~ Strider

The Poets:

 

Kevin M. Hibshman Lynda Tavakoli Michael Lee Johnson Lilija Valis Joe Kidd Antonia Alexandra Klimenko Peter Magliocco RC deWinter John Drudge Jessica Stilling Kushal Poddar Margaret Kiernan John Grey Adele Ogier Jones Brian Rihlmann Kashiana Singh Donny Winter Pam Muller Stephen House Mary Grace van der Kroef Christopher Barnes Heather McQueen David Callin Patricia Walsh Steve Klepetar Jyoti Nair Moe Seager Bern Butler Jon Bennett Anabell Donovan Tom Montag Katherine Suto G.J. Hart Maisie Russel Terry Wheeler Iolanda Leotta William Derge Susan Tepper Glen Wilson Julie Stevens David Butler Pratibha Castle Kevin Ahern Christina Martin Laszlo Aranyi Dana Trick Stephen Paul Wren Allison Grayhurst Ken Gosse Tim Goldstone Catherine Zickgraf James Walton Joan Leotta J.D. Nelson Angel Edwards John Maxwell O’Brien Roisin Browne Oz Hardwick Gordon Ferris Richard D. Houff John Patrick Robbins Gerard Sheehy Rie Sheriden Rose Paul Koniecki Judith Skillman Robert Pegel Benjamin Adair Murphy Catherine Strisik Alec Solomita Afiah Obenewaa Gregory Brendan Patrick Anca Vlasopolos

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 1 – The Fellowship of the Pen

Selected Submissions from January and February 2021 

Paperback and E-book Now Available at Lulu.com

https://www.lulu.com/…/paperback/product-v2e56e.html…

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/lauren-scharhag-and-steve-klepetar-and-j-s-watts-and-strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-1/ebook/product-p4pr8p.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Edited by Strider Marcus Jones

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/ Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks. Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submit, follow, join the site and invite your friends. Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved. The artists have reserved their right under Section 77 Of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of their work. Cover Image – Arno Rafael Minkkinen Self-portrait, Foster’s Pond, 2000. ISBN 978-1-008-90450-7 “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t met ” Yeats.

Details

Publication Date7/14/2021LanguageEnglishISBN9781008904507CategoryPoetryCopyrightAll Rights Reserved – Standard Copyright LicenseContributorsBy (author): Lauren Scharhag, Steve Klepetar, Ryan Quinn Flanagan, Attracta Fahy, Antonia A Klimenco, J S Watts, Scott Thomas Outlar, Lorraine Caputo, John W Sexton, Louise Ceres, Moe Seager, Christine Tabaka, John Drudge, Denise O’Hagan, Edited by: Strider Marcus Jones

Specifications

Pages228BindingPaperbackInterior ColorBlack & WhiteDimensionsCrown Quarto (7.44 x 9.68 in / 189 x 246 mm)

Lothlorien Poetry Journal’s first published volume of poetry and prose features the work of sixty three internationally renowned poets and authors. Join us on our journey in The Fellowship of the Pen. Be moved and inspired by their individual poetic voices from every continent on Earth and discover that there is more to life that unites us than divides us. 

The Poets: 

J S Watts Steve Klepetar Lauren Scharhag John Drudge Antonia Alexandra Klimenco Gopal Lahiri Adele Ogier Jones John Grey Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon DAH Louise Ceres Michael Minassian Simra Sadaf Moe Seager Patricia Walsh Scott Thomas Outlar Yuu Ikeda J D Nelson Fotoula Reynolds Terry Wheeler Denise O’Hagan Max Heinegg Attracta Fahy Stephen House Lorraine Caputo Ryan Quinn Flanagan Laily Mahoozi Christopher Cadra Christine Tabaka G J Hart Lynda Tavakoli Prithvijeet Sinha Elizabeth Mercurio Robert ( Roibeard ) Shanahan Christina Martin Tim Heerdink Isobel Granby Poul Lynggaard Damgaard Jeanna Ni Riordain Tom Montag Susan Tepper John Patrick Robbins Angel Edwards John W Sexton Soodabeh Saeidnia Jonathan Butcher Patricia Nelson Michael Durack Kathryn Crowley Roger Haydon Sultana Raza Januario Esteves Margaret Kiernan Grant Tarbard Greg Patrick Marie C Lecrivain Steven Fortune Iulia Gherghei Arik Mitra Lisa Reynolds Ken Gosse Bruce Morton Will Nuessle

Editorial Poem by Strider Marcus Jones

Metal Mania | Strider Marcus Jones

Thrilled to be interviewed by Mitali Chakravarty in Borderless Journal April 14th, 2022 – When a Hobo in a Fedora Hat Breathes Tolkien…

https://borderlessjournal.com/2022/04/14/when-a-hobo-in-a-fedora-hat-breathes-tolkien%ef%bf%bc/

INTERVIEW

When a Hobo in a Fedora Hat Breathes Tolkien…

‘My Lothlorien is a more peaceful world, with more tolerance of other individuals and cultures. Not perfect by any stretch but a place where people laugh, have their neighbours back and work with each other. A place of social justice and equality, music, poetry and art.’

In conversation with Strider Marcus Jones

i’m come home again

in your Lothlorien

Strider Marcus Jones wrote these lines about an idyllic utopia that was named Lothlorien by JRR Tolkien in Lord of the Rings. Jones writes beautiful poetry that touches the heart with its music and lyricality and recreates a world that hums with peace, beauty, acceptance and tolerance – values that have become more precious than gems in the current world of war, strife and distress. He has created his own Lothlorien in the form of a journal which he has named after the elfin utopia of Tolkien. An avid reader and connoisseur of arts, for him all his appreciation congeals in the form of poetry which draws from music, art and he says, perhaps even his legal training! Let us stride into his poetic universe to uncover more about a man who seems to be reclusive and shy about facing fame and says he learns from not just greats but every poet he publishes.

What started you out as a writer? What got your muse going and when?

In my childhood, I sought ways to escape the poverty of the slums in Salford. My escape, while gathering floorboards from condemned houses every winter and carrying them through back entries in crunching snow to our flat, above two shops for my dad to chop up and burn on the fire was to live in my imagination. I was an explorer and archaeologist discovering lost civilisations and portals to new dimensions our mind’s had lost the ability to see and travel between since the time of the druids. Indoors I devoured books on ancient history, artists, and poetry from the library. I was fascinated by the works of Picasso, Gauguin, Bruegel and many others and sketched some of their paintings. Then one day, my pencil stopped sketching and started to compose words into lines that became “raw” poems.  My first mentor was Anne Ryan, who taught me English Literature at High School when I was fourteen. Before this, I had never told anyone I was writing poetry. My parents, siblings and friends only found out when I was in my twenties and comfortable in myself with being a ranger, a maverick in reality and imagination.

When I read your poetry, I am left wondering… Do you see yourself in the tradition of a gypsy/mendicant singing verses or more as a courtly troubadour or something else?

I don’t have the legs to be a courtly troubadour in tights and my voice sounds like a blacksmith pounding a lump of metal on his anvil.

I feel and relate to being gypsy and am proud of my Celtic roots passed down to me from my Irish Gypsy grandmother on my Father’s side who read the tea leaves, keys, rings, and other items telling people’s fortunes for years with scary accuracy. I seem to have inherited some of her seer abilities for premonition.

Like my evening single malt whiskey, age has matured the idealism of my youth and hardened my resolve to give something back to the world and society for giving me this longevity in it. The knocks from the rough and tumble of life have hardened my edges, but my inner core still glows like Aragorn’s calm courage and determination in the quest to bring about a more just and fairer world that protects its innocent people and polluted environment. Since Woody Guthrie, Tom Waits and Bukowski are influences I identify with deeply, I suppose I am a mendicant in some of my poetry but a romantic and revolutionary too, influenced by Neruda, Rumi, Byron, and Shelley shielded by The Tree of Life in Tolkien’s Lothlorien:

THE HEAD IN HIS FEDORA HAT

a lonely man,
cigarette,
rain
and music
in a strange wind blowing

moving,
not knowing,
a gypsy caravan
whose journey doesn't expect
to go back
and explain
why everyone's ruts have the same
blood and vein.

the head in his fedora hat
bows to no one's grip
brim tilted inwards
concealing his vineyards
of lyrical prose
in a chaos composed
to be exposed,
go, git
awed
and jawed
perfect and flawed,
songs from the borderless
plain
where no one has domain
and his outlaw wit
must confess
to remain

a storyteller
that hobo fella

a listening barfly
for a while,
the word-winged butterfly
whose style
they can't close the shutters on
or stop talking about
when he walks out
and is gone.

whiskey and tequila
with a woman who can feel ya
inside her, and know she's not Ophelia
as ya move as one,
to a closer and simplistic,
unmaterialistic
tribal Babylon,

becomes so,
when she stands, spread
all arms and legs
in her Eskimo
Galadriel glow,
sharing mithril breath,
no more suburban settlements
and tortured tenements
of death,
just a fenceless forest
and mountain quests
with a place to rest
on her suckled breasts,
hanging high, swinging slow.

war clouds HARP
through stripped leaves and bark,
where bodies sleeping in houseboat bones
reflect and creak in cobbled stones:
smokey sparks from smoked cigars
drop like meteorites from streetlight stars,
as cordons crush civil rights
under Faust's fascist Fahrenheit’s.
 
one more whiskey for the road.
another story lived and told

under that
fedora hat
inhaling smoke
as he sang and spoke
stranger fella
storyteller.

You seem to have a fascination for JRR Tolkien. You have a poem and a journal by the name of Lothlorien. Why this fascination? Do you think that JRR Tolkien is relevant in the current context? We are after all, reverting to a situation similar to a hundred years ago.

Yes, on all counts. Tolkien and his Lord of The Rings trilogy have been part of my life since I first read one summer when I was twelve years old.  My young mind, starved of adventure and elevenses in Salford’s slums, willingly absorbed the myths and magic, lore’s and legends beguiling me to enter the ‘Age of Man’. This living in a time of relative peace alongside other, more ancient races with musical-poetic languages reflected part of my own reality in living through the Cold War decades under the impending doom of nuclear annihilation where daily life often felt the shadows cast by the Cuban Missile Crisis, war in Vietnam, Pol Pot’s Cambodia, and famine in Biafra.

Sauron’s evil eye and invading armies echo an outgoing President Eisenhower’s ominous warning to curtail the influence and corruption of the banking-military-industrial-complex. Instead, Martin Luther King and President John F Kennedy were assassinated and a surveillance state and gilded slavery ideology is being imposed globally using artificial intelligence. Ancient civilisations in Iraq and Libya have been destroyed for control of oil and to maintain global Petro dollar power. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings is just as relevant today in Ukraine, Yemen, and Syria and as it was through the slaughters of Verdun, the Somme and Flanders Fields. It is a warning that good must prevail over evil and this burden is borne by those with courage and conviction who cannot be corrupted.  

What is your Lothlorien? What does poetry mean to you and your existence?

My Lothlorien is a more peaceful world, with more tolerance of other individuals and cultures. Not perfect by any stretch but a place where people laugh, have their neighbours back and work with each other. A place of social justice and equality, music, poetry and art. It is no place for racism, sexism, ageism, corruption, or war. A kind of homestead with birdsong, forest, mountains and rivers, preferably in the French Pyrenees or Alaskan Bush. A place of words composed into poems and stories read and spoken, passed down and added to by each inspired generation in the Native American tradition. Poetry is all about communication and community in my existence. We are caretakers of our words and the world.

You have used Orwell, Gaugin and many more references in your poetry. Which are the writers and artists that influence you the most? What do you find fascinating about them?

Individuality of expression through fiction, poetry, art and music fascinates me. Now, at 62 years of age so many have influenced my poetry with or without me knowing or realising it. These include:

From the past – Chaucer, Tennyson, Shelley, Keats, Blake, W.B. Yeats, Auden, Langston Hughes, Hart Crane, Sexton, Plath, Kerouac, Heaney, Lorca, Orwell, Dickens, Dylan Thomas, Tolkien, Steinbeck, Heller, Donaldson, P.D. James, Ian Rankin, Vonnegut, Dostoyevsky, Rilke, Rumi, E.E.Cummings, Neruda, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, Miles Davis, Thelonious  Monk, John Coltrane, Dylan, Tom Waits. So many.

From now – They know who they are. I have published their work in Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

You play instruments — saxophone and clarinet? Does that impact your poetry?

Saying I play instruments is a huge stretch of the imagination. I get strange notes out of my saxophone and clarinet that must sound like a hurricane blowing in anyone’s ears. My black Labrador, Mysty, covers her ears with her paws but I enjoy trying to play. I love jazz music, anything from the 1920s to early 70s, but Miles Davis, Monk, Coltrane, Mingus, and Ornette Coleman took jazz music to a level that transcends mortality.

Jazz music continues to be a profound influence in my poetry. I will explain how.     

Does any kind of music impact your writing?

In some way, unbeknown to me, jazz music, particularly that of Davis, Monk and Coltrane runs parallel to and interweaves with the rhythms of how I think when I write poetry. It closes my mind to the distractions of the outside world. The sound of those perfect and imperfect notes opens a door in my mind, I close my eyes, float into this dark room and my senses fill with images and words, which hover in the air like musical notes where I conduct them into rhythms and phrases bonded to a theme. Some become poems, others disintegrate into specks of dust, the moment gone. Sometimes, the idea and train of thought sleeps in my subconscious for years. This happened with my poems “Visigoth Rover” and “Life is Flamenco” which come from   my sojourns randomly wandering through Spain but were born years later listening to Paco playing Spanish guitar and Flamenco music which is another key influence in my poetry.

VISIGOTH ROVER

i went on the bus to Cordoba,
and tried to find the Moor's
left over
in their excavated floors
and mosaic courtyards,
with hanging flowers brightly chameleon
against whitewashed walls
carrying calls
behind gated iron bars-
but they were gone
leaving mosque arches
and carved stories
to God's doors.

in those ancient streets
where everybody meets-
i saw the old successful men
with their younger women again,
sat in chrome slat chairs,
drinking coffee to cover
their vain love affairs-
and every breast,
was like the crest
of a soft ridge
as i peeped over
the castle wall and Roman bridge
like a Visigoth rover.

soft hand tapping on shoulder,
heavy hair
and beauty older,
the gypsy lady gave her clover
to borrowed breath, 
embroidering it for death,
adding more to less
like the colours fading in her dress.
time and tune are too planned
to understand
her Trevi fountain of prediction,
or the dirty Bernini hand
shaping its description.

LIFE IS FLAMENCO

why can't i walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
or play my Spanish guitar
like Paco,
putting rhythms and feelings
without old ceilings
you've never heard
before in a word.

life is flamenco,
to come and go
high and low
fast and slow-

she loves him,
he loves her
and their shades within
caress and spur
in a ride and dance
of tempestuous romance.

outback, in Andalucian ease,
i embrace you, like melted breeze
amongst ripe olive trees-
dark and different,
all manly scent
and mind unkempt.

like i do,
Picasso knew
everything about you
when he drew
your elongated arms and legs
around me, in this perpetual bed
of emotion
and motion
for these soft geometric angles
in my finger strokes
and exhaled smokes 
of rhythmic bangles
to circle colour your Celtic skin
with primitive phthalo blue
pigment in wiccan tattoo
before entering
vibrating wings
through thrumming strings
of wild lucid moments
in eternal components.

i can walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
and play my Spanish guitar
like Paco.

Tell us about how music and language weaves into your poetry — “i’m come home again” — there is no effort at punctuation — and yet the poem is clear and lyrical. I really love this poem – Lothlorien. Can you tell me how you handle the basic tool of words and grammar in your poetry?

In my mind, music is poetry through sound instead of words. Like words, the combinations of notes and pauses have intricate rhythms and phrases. In many of my poems like “Lothlorien” and those above, I weave the rhythms and phrases of jazz music or Spanish guitar and words together with run on lines so there is no need for punctuation. This gives these poems, and many others a spontaneity and energy which feels more natural and real and has a potent, more immediate impact on the senses and emotions when combined with images and happenings. This whole process feels natural to me. It began in my early twenties, when I was listening to old Blues and the likes of Leadbelly and Robert Johnson alongside Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Tom Waits and Neil Young. These are the raw underbelly notes of my pain and anger at the world. Jazz is the mellow top notes. I hope this makes sense. It is hard to explain something that is natural to and part of who I am, so forgive any lack of clarity.

Sometimes, I just like to add a moment of mischievous fun to a serious poem as in these two:

REJECTING OVID

the fabulous beauty of your face-
so esoteric,
not always in this place-
beguiles me.

it's late, mesmeric
smile is but a base,
a film to interface
with the movements of the mind behind it.

my smile, me-
like Thomas O'Malley
the alley
cat reclining on a tin bin lid
with fishy whiskers-

turns the ink in the valley
of your quills
into script,
while i sit
and sip

your syllables
with fresh red sepals of hibiscus,
rejecting Ovid
and his Amores
for your stories.



OLD CAFE

a rest, from swinging bar
and animals in the abattoir-
to smoke in mental thinks
spoken holding cooling drinks.

counting out old coppers to be fed
in the set squares of blue and red
plastic tablecloth-
just enough to break up bread in thick barley broth.

Jesus is late
after saying he was coming
back to share the wealth and real estate
of capitalist cunning.

maybe. just maybe.
put another song on the jukebox baby:
no more heroes anymore.
what are we fighting for --

he's hiding in hymns and chants,
in those Monty Python underpants,
from this coalition of new McCarthy's
and it's institutions of Moriarty's.

some shepherds’ sheep will do this dance
in hypothermic trance,
for one pound an hour
like a shamed flower,

watched by sinister sentinels-
while scratched tubular bells,
summon all to Sunday service
where invisible myths exist-

to a shamed flower
with supernatural power
come the hour.  

How do you compose a poem? Is it spontaneous or is it something you do? Do you hear the lines or voices or is it in some other way?

Most poems come from life’s experiences and observations of people, places, nature, and events. These can be from the past, or present and sometimes premonitions of the future which often overlap depending on the theme/s and where I want it to go.

When it comes to composing a poem, I am not robotic, and neither is my Muse. I have no set time and never write for the sake of writing something each day which I find disrupts my subconscious process. A poem can begin at any time of day or night, but my preferred time to think and write is mid-evening going through to witching hour and beyond. I put some music on low, pour myself a slow whiskey and sit down in my favourite chair with pen and folded paper. I never try to force a poem. The urge to write just occurs. I don’t know how, or why. It just happens. My subconscious finds the thread, thinks it through and the poem begins to unravel on the page. I care about the poems since they care about the world and the people in it. So, I often agonise for days and in some cases years, over lines and words and structure, crossing out words and whole lines until they feel right. Editing, and redrafting is a crucial part of the writing process and requires courage and discipline. Butchering your own work feels barbaric in the moment but enhances your poetic voice and strengthens the impact of a poem on the reader.

You are a lawyer and in the Civil Service in UK. How does law blend with poetry?

I am a law graduate and retired legal adviser to the magistrates’ courts/civil servant who retired early. I have never practiced as a lawyer.

I never think about law when I write, but I am sure the discipline brings organisation to the orderly chaos of Spinoza’s universe that resembles the space inside my head.

Tell us about your journal. When and how did you start it?

I started Lothlorien Poetry Journal in January 2021. I publish the online rolling blog of poetry and fiction and printed book volumes — currently standing at eight issues featuring established and emerging poets and fiction writers published on the LPJ blog.

We are a friendly literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and occasional interviews with poets.

We love poems about enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

I publish Lothlorien Poetry Journal periodically, 4-6 issues every year. Contributors to each issue (selected from the best work published on the Journal’s Blog) are notified prior to publication and receive a free PDF copy of the issue that features their work.

We nominate for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

 What do you look for in a poet as a publisher?

I look for a poet or writer’s distinct voice, that spark of originality in their theme/s, the rhythm and musicality in their language and phrasing.  I have no boundaries as to style, form, or subject – prose, rhyming, free verse, sonnets, haiku, experimental or mavericks who break the rules and write about the darker underbelly of society – if it is good and not offensive, racist or sexist Lothlorien Poetry Journal could be the natural home for your work. The best way to find out is to come to Lothlorien, have a read, and decide to submit.

LOTHLORIEN

i'm come home again
in your Lothlorien
to marinate my mind
in your words,
and stand behind
good tribes grown blind,
trapped in old absurd
regressive reasons
and selfish treasons.

in this cast of strife
the Tree of Life
embraces innocent ghosts,
slain by Sauron's hosts-
and their falling cries
make us wise
enough to rise
up in a fellowship of friends
to oppose Mordor's ends
and smote this evil stronger
and longer
for each one of us that dies.

i'm come home again
in your Lothlorien,
persuading
yellow snapdragons
to take wing
and un-fang serpent krakens-
while i bring
all the races
to resume
their bloom
as equals in equal spaces
by removing
and muting
the chorus of crickets
who cheat them from chambered thickets,
hiding corruptions older than long grass
that still fag for favours asked.

i'm come home again
in your Lothlorien
where corporate warfare
and workfare
on health
and welfare
infests our tribal bodies
and separate self
in political lobbies
so conscience can't care
or share
worth and wealth-

to rally drones
of walking bones,
too tired
and uninspired
to think things through
and the powerless who see it true.
red unites, blue divides,
which one are you
and what will you do
when reason decides.


IN THE TALK OF MY TOBACCO SMOKE

i have disconnected self
from the wire of the world
retreated to this unmade croft
of wild grass and savage stone
moored mountains
set in sea
blue black green grey
dyed all the colours of my mood
and liquid language-
to climb rocks
instead of rungs
living with them
moving around their settlements
of revolutionary random place
for simple solitary glory.
i am reduced again
to elements and matter
that barter her body for food
teasing and turning
her flesh to take words and plough.
rapid rain
slaps the skin
on honest hands
strongly gentle
while sowing seeds
the way i touch my lover
in the talk of my tobacco smoke:
now she knows
she tastes
like all the drops
of my dreams
falling on the forest
of our Lothlorien.

Thanks for your lovely poetry and time.

(This is an online interview conducted by Mitali Chakravarty.)

PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL

Really chuffed to have 10 of my poems published in and be interviewed by editor Hezekiah Scretch in Issue 10 of Fleas on the Dog online. Congratulations to all the poets and authors in this brilliant issue and to editors Tom, Charles, Joey, Hezekiah, Janet, Richard and Rob.

https://fleasonthedog.com/

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/9a0949f4-1d2a-4a7c-b9fb-a96b9b6bd861/downloads/P_5%20_10%20Poems_%20by%20Strider%20Marcus%20Jones.pdf?ver=1636847122728

1opoems = (5) poems + 5 = TEN poems…..
By Strider Marcus Jones

WHY I LIKE IT: Poetry Editor HEZEKIAH writes… Strider Marcus Jones plays on words
like an inveterate, pathological lyre as he bows and strums us, plucking me, at least, from my
melancholy melodies, monotonous monotones and doggerel doldrums with his mellifluous meter
and tone. (I spitefully longed to eliminate at least one of his ten poems, but woe is me.) His
imagery is imaginatively immersing; his phrasing and figures of speech overflowing; and, his
symbolism, story, syntax and sound spill over the page with cascading cadence in a most
spellbinding scintillating style. (Besides, he owes me money and cheats at cards.) Here is a
sampling of the scoundrels verse: “to watch you / swan turned shrew- / hairbrush out all
memory and meaning,” “the heart of truth- / intact in youth,” A “Savage” homage to Gauguin:
“beauty and syphilis happily cohabit,” “inseminating womb / selected by pheromones”
(Presumably referring Paul’s pursuits after he left the banking business.) Lots more gems here,
but don’t underlook ‘IN THE COME AND GO, I MIND YOU’ If I understand anything about inyou-end-oh, the double entendres are delightful… Nice tribute to Tolkien in there somewhere too
for you LOTR devotees. Strider’s light, slight-of-hand writing is as masterful as his pockets are
shallow and his head is swelled…
(Spacing is poet’s own.)HS

SALTED SLUG

your words stung,
and hung
me upside down, inside out,
to watch you
swan turned shrew

hairbrush out all memory and meaning,
from those fresco pictures on the wet plaster ceiling

that my Michelangelo took years to paint,
in glorious colours, now flaked and full of hate.
the lights of our Pleiades went out,
with no new songs to sing and talk about

to hear deaths symphony alone,
split and splattered, opened on the floor,
repenting for nothing, evermore

like a salted slug,
curdled and curled up on the rug

to melt away
while you spoon and my colours fade to grey.
the heart of truth

intact in youth,
fractures into fronds of lies and trust,
destined to become a hollow husk

but i found myself again in hopes congealing pools
and left the field of fools
to someone else

and put her finished book back on its shelf.

CHILDHOOD FIRES

late afternoon
winter fingers
nomads in snow
numb knuckles and nails
on two boys
in scuffed shoes
and ripped coats
carrying four planks of wood
from condemned houses
down dark jitty’s
slipping on dog shit
into back yard
to make warm fires
early evening
dad cooking neck end stew
thick with potato dumplings and herbs
on top of bread soaked in gravy
i saw the hole in the ceiling
holding the foot that jumped off bunk beds
but dad didn’t mind
he had just sawed the knob
off the banister
to get an old wardrobe upstairs
and made us a longbow and cricket bat
it was fun being poor
like other families
after dark
all sat down reading and talking
in candle light
with parents
silent to each other
our sudden laughter like sparks
glowing and fading
dancing in flames and wood smoke
unlike the children who died in a fire next door
then we played cards
and i called my dad a cunt
for trumping my king
but he let me keep the word

LOTHLORIEN

i’m come home again
in your Lothlorien
to marinate my mind
in your words,
and stand behind
good tribes grown blind,
trapped in old absurd
regressive reasons
and selfish treasons.
in this cast of strife
the Tree Of Life
embraces innocent ghosts,
slain by Sauron’s hosts;
and their falling cries
make us wise
enough to rise
up in a fellowship of friends
to oppose Mordor’s ends
and smote this evil stronger
and longer
for each one of us that dies.

i’m come home again
in your Lothlorien,
persuading
yellow snapdragons
to take wing
and un-fang serpent krakens,
while i bring
all the races
to resume
their bloom
as equals in equal spaces
by removing
and muting
the chorus of crickets
who cheat them from chambered thickets,
hiding corruptions older than long grass
that still fag for favours asked.

i’m come home again
in your Lothlorien
where corporate warfare
and workfare
on health
and welfare
infests our tribal bodies
and separate self
in political lobbies
so conscience can’t care
or share
worth and wealth:
to rally drones
of walking bones,
too tired
and uninspired
to think things through
and the powerless who see it true.
red unites, blue divides,
which one are you
and what will you do
when reason decides.

WOODED WINDOWS

as this long life slowly goes
i find myself returning
to look through wooded windows.
forward or back, empires and regimes remain
in pyramids of power
butchering the blameless for glorious gain.
feudal soldiers firing guns
and wingless birds dropping smart bombs
on mothers, fathers, daughters, sons,
follow higher orders
to modernise older civilisations
repeating what history has taught us.
in turn, their towers of class and cash
will crumble and crash
on top of Ozymandias.
hey now, woods of winter leafless grip
and fractures split
drawing us into it.
love slide in days
through summer heat waves
and old woodland ways
with us licking
then dripping
and sticking
chanting wiccan songs
embraced in pagan bonds
living light, loving long,
fingers painting runes on skin
back to the beginning
when freedom wasn’t sin.

OVIRI ( The Savage – Paul Gauguin in Tahiti )

woman,

wearing the conscience of the world

you make me want
less civilisation
and more meaning.
drinking absinthe together,
hand rolling and smoking cigars

being is, what it really is

fucking on palm leaves
under tropical rain.
beauty and syphilis happily cohabit,
painting your colours
on a parallel canvas
to exhibit in Paris
the paradox of you.

somewhere in your arms

i forget my savage self,
inseminating womb
selected by pheromones
at the pace of evolution.
later. I vomited arsenic on the mountain and returned
to sup morphine. spread ointments on the sores, and ask:
where do we come from.
what are we.
where are we going.

IT’S SO QUIET

it’s so quiet
our eloquent words dying on a diet
of midnight toast
with Orwell’s ghost

looking so tubercular in a tweed jacket
pencilling notes on a lung black cigarette packet

our Winston, wronged for a woman and sin
re-wrote history on scrolls thought down tubes
that came to him
in the Ministry Of Truth Of Fools
where conscience learns to lie within.
not like today
the smug-sly haves say and look away
so sure
there’s nothing wrong with wanting more,
or drown their sorrows
downing bootleg gin
knowing tomorrows
truth is paper thin.
.
at home
in sensory
perception
with tapped and tracked phone
the Thought Police arrest me
in the corridors of affection

where dictators wear, red then blue, reversible coats
in collapsing houses, all self-made
and self-paid
smarmy scrotes

now the Round Table
of real red politics
is only fable
on the pyre of ghostly heretics.
they are rubbing out
all the contusions
and solitary doubt,
with confusions
and illusions
through wired media
defined in their secret encyclopedia

where summit and boardroom and conclave
engineer us from birth to grave.

like the birds,
i will have to eat
the firethorn
berries that ripen but sleep
to keep
the words
of revolution
alive and warm
this winter, with resolution
gathering us, to its lantern in the bleak,
to be reborn and speak.

MIRROR, MIRROR

mirror, mirror,
in the hall
age comes to us all,
and looks wither
through the play
of years slipped away,
away
in the lapsed lingo of street
and road,
where tangents meet
and move with innocence
up summits of experience
told,
whose fruits we eat
then weep
when they implode.
these reflections
in this autumn of adventurous directions,
mean more
standing in the door
of ebb and flow
watching people come and go
wearing introspections
of what they know
after listening to a stranger’s small confessions
on midnight radio.

THE COMET OF HER WORDS

he sheds his matelessness
and shapeless
statelessness
undormed
to lie with her undressed
in woods earth warmed.
after drinking
and thinking
in the hollow trunk of an ancient tree
she reads
his tea
leaves

and he hears
her nature in the pattern
of her years,
saying now we happen
and the comet of her words
weaves its sentences
in his,
let’s go of bleakness
walking through wilderness
light footsteps in senses.

IN THE COME AND GO, I MIND YOU

in the middle, where i find you,
i wriggle in behind you
all the way.

in the come and go, i mind you,
what we were is reconciled, you
let it stay.

this template, for being tender,
is our state to remember
into grey;

beyond the time of soil and ember,
into nothingness’s timbre-
be it, play.

LOOKING IN LOVE’S GLASS

looking in love’s glass
at what we have drank
and haven’t drank
to quench our thirst
slow and fast
not the first
not the last-
beauty is flesh
is your womanliness
and i find
your mind
grows branches into mine
we climb

so compatible
and indelible,
to others forgettable
crashed dream
on screen

we know
we go
out of scene.

THE POET SPEAKS:

I like the company of people but prefer solitude. I like to listen to people talk, the way they see it
and say it. For me, poetry spans our past, present and future. These poems, and those in my
books, are about the themes of love, relationships, peace, war, racial, economic and sexual
equality, cultural integration, poverty, mythical romance, the magic of childhood and experience
of growing old as a Bohemian maverick. The strings of chance and consequences meld with
music and art in Spinoza’s orderly chaos of the universe.

Life is hard and uncertain for most of us now, but also rare in our corner of the universe, so I
strive to express my own understanding of it. Thinking time is my creative cove. My English
teacher, Anne Ryan inspired me to write poetry when I was thirteen. The poems have grown with
me and reflect much of who I am now. Some poems sleep for years. Mere jumbles of words,
themes and rhythms in subconscious gaseous clouds. Their form and meaning evolve in
Spinoza’s orderly chaos. Other poems just happen, triggered by a single word or phrase, a
sound, smell, or shape that relates to something from our past, present, or future. Writing a good
poem makes me feel like the artist who can paint, or the musician who can play – joy in creating
something that others enjoy and feel inspired to try doing themselves.

My first poetical influences were the Tin Pan Alley lyricists and composers like Sammy Cahn,
Cole Porter and Rogers and Hart. I love the fun, rhythm and interplay between lyrics and music.
Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen influence my poetry in the same way, allowing me to
experiment with metaphor, form and rhythms.

Relationships and love are one of the main themes in my poetry. Two books which have travelled
with me through life are Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Tess Of The D’urbervilles by
Thomas Hardy. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy is a big influence on some of my work.
My favourite poets who have influenced my work include: Shelley, Keats, Yeats, Auden, Dylan
Thomas, Bishop, Szymborska, Langston Hughes, Plath, Art Crane, Larkin, Forough Farrokhzad,
Neruda, Rumi and Heaney.

What inspires you?

Salford – my home town. My working class Irish and Welsh roots. My Muse and Children. The
natural and industrial landscape. Archaeology. Astronomy. Social history. The struggle to
overcome adversity and oppression. Contemporary poet, musician and artist friends. Trying to
play more than three notes on my saxophone and clarinet. Working on my next poem.

Who are some writers you admire?

Adding to those previously mentioned – e e cummings, Bukowski, Brian Aldiss, Chaucer,
Marlowe.

What is your writing process?

I write most days with pen on A4 paper folded into quarters. Strings of ideas and phrases. Any
time of day, but I prefer the evening and through the night. Some poems survive the first draft.
Others go through minor edits to language, theme and structure. Some get butchered and others
are sent to hibernate until I return to them.

AUTHOR BIO: Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from
Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry
Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/
reveal a maverick, moving between forests, mountains, cities and coasts playing his saxophone
and clarinet in warm solitude.

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/9a0949f4-1d2a-4a7c-b9fb-a96b9b6bd861/downloads/I_2%20_Interview%20Poetry%20Editor%20Hezekiah%20Scretch%20.pdf?ver=1636847122656

INTERVIEW—Issue 10 (Poetry)
Poetry Editor Hezekiah Scretch with Strider
Marcus Jones

Greetings, O Glorious Bard!
Tom and Charles asked (or was it badgered) me to select the poet of my choice for the Poetry
Interview to be published in Issue 10 (November) and you were the one.
If you’d be interested in participating I’ve some questions for you about your poetry and your
writing in general. I am brashly smitten by your work and all I want to do is read more, more and
more.
Answer as you please. There is no word count so your answers can be as long or a short as you
like. I would need them no later than October 31 ( if I’m not to end up in the dog house with its
flea-infested mat). Looking forward to hearing from you.

HS: Can you describe what aspect of your nature draws you to write poetry?

SMJ: I have always been sensitive to people and my surroundings and often sense things before
they happen. My father thought I had inherited this mild psychic reaction to things and situations
around me from my Gypsy grandmother. Perhaps, and with the forward looking Aquarian in me
and my two Piscean fishes – one swimming through radical and unnatural changes into the
future, the other time travelling back into the past, writing poetry has been my natural form of
expression about the interconnectedness of Life, Nature, Science and the Arts.
I believe that most things are sentient – the universe, people, animals, bees, the mountains,
forests, bodies of water, air and land. In the distant past, we understood this and that the
symbiotic relationships once formed co-existed with each other. Through the quest for progress
and profit, humankind has lost its way, thinks it is smart enough to go it alone and rule like
usurping Gods over everything else. Myths and Legends exist as warnings from the past.
Humankind wants the power and discards everything else. I explore these metaphysical
relationships when I write poetry and feel their influence on the world.

HS: The breadth of your writing is replete with classical references and metaphysical
reflections; do you find such profound thoughts intrusive in your day-to-day life and feel obliged
to exercise them on the page…avoiding costly therapy sessions?

SMJ: I am not a classics scholar and knew nothing about my metaphysical reflections until a
novelist friend pointed them out to me. I write what I feel and sense, often in fluid stream of
consciousness. I hate punctuation – it looks like dirty marks in a poem – when you think and the
lines come in your mind, you don’t think capital letter, comma full stop. The run on lines, line
breaks and where the thought ends are the natural punctuation and rhythm in my poems. I like to
leave the reader some freedom to interpret this in their own way. Classical references, I have
absorbed subconsciously on life’s road sometimes pop into my head as I write. I don’t know
how, or why and I am just as likely to reference Monty Python underpants, Thomas O’Malley
the Alley Cat, Tom Waits and whisky, Monk’s jazz or Picasso’s and Hopper’s paintings and
Birlini’s sculptures in a serious or comical way. I don’t find them intrusive in my day-to-day life
– more like old friends meeting up in a café cos it’s been a while. I don’t know any poets who
can afford therapy sessions. A therapist would need a therapist after a consultation with a poet.

HS: Do you set scheduled time aside to write your poetry? Or, like a saxophone, you just pick it
up when the mood striker joneses you?

SMJ: I prefer to be a free spirit, not a robot. I have no set times to write, but am a nighthawk –
love the quiet hours to write or play my sax and clarinet badly.

HS: Can you attribute your muse in part to your legal training, blowing into brass instruments,
civil service or some other tragic event?

SMJ: Like most people, I absorb what life throws at me and try to stay strong. I am not afraid to
change the road I’m on and have done so when the road forks in this lifetime. My muse has a
will of her own and the urge to write just occurs. I don’t know how, or why. It just happens at
any time and place, so I always have a pen and scrap of paper in my pocket with other man-junk
to scrawl down the idea or opening lines. My legal training and civil service work has given me a
forensic way of thinking mellowed by listening to Jazz and tooting my sax.

HS: Who do you like to read or have been influenced by in your writing?

SMJ: From the past – Chaucer, Tennyson, Shelley, Keats, , Blake, W.B. Yeats, Auden, Langston
Hughes, Hart Crane, Sexton, Plath, Kerouac, Heaney, Lorca, Orwell, Dickens, Tolkien,
Steinbeck, Heller, Donaldson, P.D. James, Ian Rankin, Vonnegut, Dostoyevsky, Rilke, Rumi,
e.e.cummings, Neruda..so many.
From now – They know who they are. I have published their work in Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

HS: Do you as often labour over lines or do they more so flow as you go once the spirit moves
you?

SMJ: Most poems start off as a thought or idea coiled tight, like a clock spring or ball of string. I
don’t force the process. The subconscious finds the thread, thinks it through and the poem begins
to unravel on the page. When I was younger, I tended to let it just pour out and the poem was
what it was. I did not have the craft or discipline to edit it. I have lugged around a hold-all full of
journals and notebooks, with over 800 poems I wrote between the age of 13-25. Bad poems with
some half decent ideas that make me cringe and want to burn them. Since then, I have tended to
care about the poems since they care about the world and the people in it. Now, I can labour for
days and in some cases years, over lines and words and structure, crossing out words and whole
lines until they feel right now and after I have popped my clogs. Butchering your own work feels
barbaric in the moment, but enhances your poetic voice and the honest impact of a poem on the
reader.

HS: Last question. How do you feel about growing old?

MSJ:
“yéni ve lintë yuldar avánier”
-“the years have passed like swift draughts”

Peace, Love and Light,
Strider

Lovely work, Thanks for an illuminating interview!
Hezekiah Scretch
Poetry Editor/FOTD

Delighted to have my poem Dark Drawn Man published by The Piker Press on 11th November, 2021.My thanks to editor Sand Pilarski.

http://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=8769

Dark Drawn Man
	Strider Marcus Jones
	Dark Drawn Man dark drawn man in two – legged sedan, Diogenes least the more i am. a worn down crease — opens like blotched butterfly wings, that drop in tokens on imaginings — lost, but living through drought and giving. dark drawn man of wiccan, glam rock and folk — who likes a smoke; hermit and ham, sometimes a dam for the waterfall of it all — bohemian and gothic, romantic, hypnotic, un-photographic hates cam. dark drawn man whose thought beats flam on sticks of words his focus and blurs without tricks of prussian blue and cadmium red the way Modigliani drew his mistress on his bed. Sophocles was right! the darkest days, catch chinks of light — running out of Ram, but love is who i am. Article © Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved. Published on 2021-11-08 Image(s) are public domain.

Thrilled to have my poem The Portal in the Woods published at The Piker Press online. My thanks to Editor Sand Pilarski.

http://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=8767

The Portal in the Woods
	Strider Marcus Jones
	The Portal in the Woods Seeing somnambulist sunrise Through open window Touch your face After love rides On moon tides In ebb and flow At tantric pace — Love resides Tasted No asides Wasted Spices of the flesh Soaking rooms in Marrakesh How I ate your truffle in Zanzibar While you smoked my long cigar. Back home — Tribes of bloods And druids roam Seeking out the overgrown Portal in the woods Where we hondfast In this present of the past Dance chanting In stone bone circles Like ooparts Practicing Magical arts Settling What chaos hurtles — Reconnecting rhythms In living and dead To those algorithms In nature’s head. We are rustic — Romantic In land and sky The    air    fire    water To warriors who slaughter If Us or Them must die. We wake For clambake Pleasure In a cauldron lake Of limbs together Then cut sods of peat From the bog under our feet Exposing the pasts That never last. Article © Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved. Published on 2021-10-11 Image(s) are public domain.

Delighted to have 3 Poems published in Dreich Magazine 10 Season 3. Congratulations to all those included and my thanks to Editor Jack Caradoc.

SPANGLED IN MY CELTIC CROSS

put your remark

in the breach

of my heart

and reach

to my head.

make love to my core,

in the land of my lore

this said-

in fields in summer

in woods in the fall-

with you, then me, under

it all-

the sensual cloud

calling wild out loud-

then bodies spent

on the grass all bent

talking in mulchey tones

scenting tree bark and squelchy moss with pheromones.

naked tall bones

hiding in robes of silver birches,

walk with random tribes of bluebells

bringing us to pagan churches-

where we leave offerings

for mineral blessings

on trickling rocks-

like hat bells

and single socks.

at the base,

we looked up at Arthur or Merlin’s face,

trying to rewind

and prime

our supernatural clocks

to that forgotten time

we can’t replace,

but only got

the echo of physical and mental mines

under this surface.

no more homes

gather round the circle stones-

no more druid dreads

to connect our disconnected threads

up on Alderley Edge-

and as we wandered back down

to get on the train out of town,

i felt my ear-ring

while I was thinking-

and found a ribbon of moss

spangled in my celtic cross.

QUANTUM IN SPACETIME

sorrow sings

like medicine in me,

bewitching strings

of melancholy;

heavying fate

like a paperweight-

crushing cryptically.

emotions close

round your briar rose-

ham actors in a dream,

with parts to play

on this Broadway-

sit back, unfold the scene.

given what you know,

besame, besame mucho-

through quantums years in spacetime’s strings

we make each moments grain of sand-

evolve from past to present in our hand

to give this now new meanings.

WILD HORSES

Horses play
Run ragged, roam free,
And after today
Remember me.

Horses run,
And trot, and gait,
Have your fun-
Before its too late:

For time is faster
Even than you-
You can’t outlast her
And mankind too.

Tell the rabbits
And birds and dogs without cares,
To hide their habits-
The world’s not theirs:

For man the hunter
And ender of life,
Is killing the world
With technologies knife.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.       

His poetry has been published in over 200 publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Melbourne Culture Corner and Literary Yard Journal.

Really Chuffed to have my poem – I Follow You Into Night – published in Cajun Mutt Press. My thanks to wonderful editor James Dennis Casey IV.

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 10/18/21

October 18, 2021James D. Casey IV

I FOLLOW YOU INTO NIGHT

i sense you in summer wind
and try to redefine
the Other ring
that binds us
in this tormenting
show of come and go.

in the sentence of a sound
i hear your pain
then turn its fate
to break the blame
mending happenings
and broken strings.

footfalls confide
shadows duet in our divide
on a bridge of dark persuasions
i follow you into night
through corridors uncurtained
dreams and surreal scenes.

time’s corrugated face
marks motions set to mimic
leaned upon the balcony of fate
where rites and runes evoked her scent
to hear the music in her ways
smile and quicken upon his gaze.

©2021 Strider Marcus Jones All rights reserved.

Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

Share this:

Thrilled to have my poem Clouds of Chaotic Crowds published on Mad Swirl Blog. My thanks to editor M H. Clay.

The Best of Mad Swirl : 10.16.21

CLOUDS OF CHAOTIC CROWDS by Strider Marcus Jones

Smitten-
Bitten
Like
Faustus-
Leave the house dust
With fools gold
Unsold.
This conveyor belt lair
A castle in the air
For Dante’s dreams of doubt
To wander about
In, with voices that pretend
To be a different friend-
Oh my, what a frame,
Too big to blame
And beyond a simple say
To save and stay-
So, close the dungeon door
To be what you were before
And walk away
Into the clouds
Of chaotic crowds
Falling as rain
On sterile plain.

October 13, 2021

Delighted to have 5 poems featured in Fevers of the Mind. My thanks to Poet and Editor David O’Nan. Most appreciated.

Skip to content

FEVERS OF THE MIND

Writing, Poetry, Short Stories, Reviews, Art Contests

• Home

Poetry Showcase by Strider Marcus Jones

Bio:

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal 

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/.

A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.       

His poetry has been published in over 200 publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Melbourne Culture Corner and Literary Yard Journal.

HOT ROD

fast and furious
archangel in paint and chrome
brings me home-
purring megaphonious,
combusting with sav and sap
that i glimpse
peeking into warm grill chintz-
then she lifts her corset bonnet
and lets me touch her glinting bones
secreting home spun
pheromones
attracting, like moon and sun-
mysterious
and mnemonic
old senses,
fallow and fenced
soon become drenched
quiller and squirter
in that linguistic converter-
glow mapping,
overlapping,
slowly blown
in the metronome.


OLD CAFE

a rest, from swinging bar
and animals in the abattoir-
to smoke in mental thinks 
spoken holding cooling drinks. 
 
counting out old coppers to be fed
in the set squares of blue and red
plastic tablecloth-
just enough to break up bread in thick barley broth.
 
Jesus is late
after saying he was coming
back to share the wealth and real estate
of capitalist cunning.
 
maybe. just maybe.
put another song on the jukebox baby:
no more heroes anymore.
what are we fighting for-
 
he's hiding in hymns and chants,
in those Monty Python underpants,
from this coalition of new McCarthy's
and its institutions of Moriarty's.
 
some shepherd sheep will do this dance
in hypothermic trance,
for one pound an hour 
like a shamed flower-
 
watched by sinister sentinels, 
while scratched tubular bells,
summon all to Sunday service
where invisible myths exist-
 
to a shamed flower
with supernatural power
come the hour.


POMEGRANATE FLESH

ask those
who grow old-
some fruits are nicer
when they're riper.
you dont stop
the clock
on the one who chose
you to hold-
her pomegranate
is still your sonnet
of sepia feelings and flesh,
sensuously sweet and fresh.

although the mirror never lies,
it shows the beauty that lives
as it dies
and gives
its own reflection
of your perfection
to me
then and now,
each memory
taken
by the lenses
somehow,
preserved
by your words
and curves
in my senses.

our dance,
that thrilled
in its intricate
tango on the floor,
is still filled
with time intimate
romance
and more-
talking rubicon of reason,
in layer, upon layer of season
so sedimentary
since you entered me-
and i consumed
your silky mesh
of pink perfumed
pomegranate flesh


LOTHLORIEN

i'm come home again
in your Lothlorien
to marinate my mind
in your words,
and stand behind
good tribes grown blind,
trapped in old absurd
regressive reasons
and selfish treasons.

in this cast of strife
the Tree of Life
embraces innocent ghosts,
slain by Sauron's hosts-
and their falling cries
make us wise
enough to rise
up in a fellowship of friends
to oppose Mordor's ends
and smote this evil stronger
and longer
for each one of us that dies.

i'm come home again
in your Lothlorien,
persuading
yellow snapdragons
to take wing
and un-fang serpent krakens,
while i bring
all the races
to resume
their bloom
as equals in equal spaces
by removing
and muting
the chorus of crickets
who cheat them from chambered thickets,
hiding corruptions older than long grass
that still fag for favours asked.

i'm come home again
in your Lothlorien
where corporate warfare
and workfare
on health
and welfare
infests our tribal bodies
and separate self
in political lobbies-
so conscience can't care
or share
worth and wealth:

to rally drones
of walking bones,
too tired
and uninspired
to think things through
and the powerless who see it true.
red unites, blue divides,
which one are you
and what will you do
when reason decides.


I'M GETTING OLD NOW

i'm getting old now-
you know,
like that tree in the yard
with those thick cracks
in its skin bark
that tell you
the surface of its lived-in secrets.
my eyes,
have sunk too inward
in sleepless sockets
to playback images
of ghosts-
so, make do with words
and hear the sounds
of my years in yourself.

childhood-
riding a rusty three-wheel bike
to shelled-out houses bombed in the blitz,
then zinging home zapped in mud
to wolf down chicken soup
over lumpy mashed potato for tea-
with bare feet sticking on cold kitchen lino
i shivered watching the candle burn down
racing to finish a book i found in a bin-
before Mam showed me her empty purse
and robbed the gas meter-
the twenty shillings
stained the red formica table
like pieces of the man's brains
splattered all over the back seat
of his symbolic limousine
as i watched history brush out her silent secrets.





More bio: His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.  Check out the first 3 issues of the Lothlorien Journal see the website listed above for more & to order. 

Thrilled to have five poems published in the excellent Ink Pantry Poetry Drawer online. My thanks to editor Deborah Edgeley.

Poetry Drawer: Mavericks: The Blood That Makes Us Black: In Maid’s Water: The Head in his Fedora Hat by Strider Marcus Jones

Poetry Drawer: Mavericks: The Blood That Makes Us Black: In Maid’s Water: The Head in his Fedora Hat by Strider Marcus Jones
Posted on 4th October 2021 by Deborah Edgeley

Mavericks
you taste of cinnamon and fish
when you wish
to be romantic-
and the ciphers of our thoughts
make ringlets with their noughts
immersed in magic-
like mithril mail around me
stove dark forest, pink flesh sea
touchings tantric-
make reality and myths
converge in elven riffs
of music, so we dance it-
symbols to the scenes
of conflict, mavericks in dreams
that now sit-
listening to these pots and kettles
blackening on the fire
of rhetoric and murderous mettles-
before we both retire
to our own script.


The Blood That Makes Us Black
imagine yourself,
in a photo-fit picture
with every nothing that’s new-
minus in health,
quoting icons and scripture
under the whole black and blue.
optimum dreams
turn out fake in the mirror
facing what’s been like fallen heroes-
in so many scenes
like a ghost who is giver
passing on wisdom, who knows-
the blood that makes us black
of two from one,
is schooled by fungus fortunes
and faiths old hat
to be sold on-
like tamed-trained gangs, making golden dunes.


In Maid’s Water
we’ve left the well-footed
road,
the rutted
and rebutted
road
of shadows cast
by towered glass.
opened closed curtains
for fusty moths,
chanted white spells with Wiccan’s
goths;
left pictured
rooms and halls-
become un-scriptured
hills and squalls-
in maid’s water
pouring down her
erect chalk man,
like a wild gypsy,
love tipsy
partisan,
smelling of cinnabar
and his cigar,
swirling
like whirling
clouds
while the changed wind howls.


Minds and Musk
so now
we both came
to this same
branch and bough-
no one else commutes
from different roots.
me carrying Celtic stones
with runes on skin over bones-
and you, in streams
on evicted land
trashed ancients panned-
our truth dreams
under star light crossing beams.
in here, there is no mask
of present building out the past
with gilded Shard’s of steel and glass
shutting out who shall not pass.
the tree of life breathes
a rebel destiny believes-
we are minds and musk
no more husks and dust.


The Head in his Fedora Hat
a lonely man,
cigarette,
rain
and music
is a poem
moving,
not knowing-
a caravan,
whose journey does not expect
to go back
and explain
how everyone’s ruts
have the same
blood and vein.
the head in his fedora hat
bows to no one’s grip,
brim tilted into the borderless
plain
so his outlaw wit
can confess
and remain
a storyteller,
that hobo fella
listening like a barfly
for a while
and slow-winged butterfly
whose smile
they can’t close the shutters on
or stop talking about
when he walks out
and is gone.
whisky and tequila
and a woman, who loves to feel ya
inside
and outside
her
when ya move
and live as one,
brings you closer
in simplistic
unmaterialistic
grooved
muse Babylon.
this is so,
when he stands with hopes head,
arms and legs
all a flow
in her Galadriel glow
with mithril breath kisses
condensing sensed wishes
of reality and dream
felt and seen
under that
fedora hat
inhaling smoke
as he sang and spoke
stranger fella
storyteller.


Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.
His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

You can find more of Strider’s work here on Ink Pantry.

Delighted to have 5 poems published in Literary Yard Journal online on July 6th, 2021. My thanks to the editors.

‘I know your notes’ and other poems

BY AUTHOR ON JULY 6, 2021 • ( LEAVE A COMMENT )

By: Strider Marcus Jones

I KNOW YOUR NOTES

sat with you,
reflections bond
over the pond
of summer solstice,

and Mr Blue
sky
with eggy eye
subliminally sends Otis

into ribbons and ripples
of hair and faces,
through sensual trickles
in hidden places

that glances bring
on summer wind.
i know your notes
tacking on water like paper boats,

and the rigging string
vibrating
through notches in the mast
so love and living last.

###

LIFE IS FLAMENCO

why can’t i walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
or play my Spanish guitar
like Paco,
putting rhythms and feelings
without old ceilings
you’ve never heard
before in a word.

life is flamenco,
to come and go
high and low
fast and slow-

she loves him,
he loves her
and their shades within
caress and spur
in a ride and dance
of tempestuous romance.

outback, in Andalucien ease,
i embrace you, like melted breeze
amongst ripe olive trees-
dark and different,
all manly scent
and mind unkempt.

like i do,
Picasso knew
everything about you
when he drew
your elongated arms and legs
around me, in this perpetual bed
of emotion
and motion
for these soft geometric angles
in my finger strokes
and exhaled smokes
of rhythmic bangles
to circle colour your Celtic skin
with primitive phthalo blue
pigment in wiccan tattoo
before entering
vibrating wings
through thrumming strings
of wild lucid moments
in eternal components.

i can walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
and play my Spanish guitar
like Paco.

###

NURTURING EACH NOTE

lying back into
you
i share a smoke
all sucked out and stroked
thick cummings swallowed
by you
followed
my drinking sips
from licks
of lips
and clit.
our closeness
breaks the darkness
open
and such things
in touchings
spoken
compose coupled music in the throat
nurturing each note.

in here we hide
under His sheet shroud
from the unsettled crowd
of happenings outside-
top down tycoons and bankers,
royalty and political cankers
seedy greedy opulence driving past
needy kettled poor pandemics
to banquets rustling markets cash
supporting famine and eugenics.

###

OLD CAFE

a rest, from swinging bar
and animals in the abattoir-
to smoke in mental thinks
spoken holding cooling drinks.

counting out old coppers to be fed
in the set squares of blue and red
plastic table cloth-
just enough to break up bread in thick barley broth.

Jesus is late
after saying he was coming
back to share the wealth and real estate
of capitalist cunning.

maybe. just maybe.
put another song on the jukebox baby:
no more heroes anymore.
what are we fighting for-

he’s hiding in hymns and chants,
in those Monty Python underpants,
from this coalition of new McCarthy’s
and it’s institutions of Moriarty’s.

some shepherds sheep will do this dance
in hypothermic trance,
for one pound an hour
like a shamed flower,

watched by sinister sentinels-
while scratched tubular bells,
summon all to sunday service
where invisible myths exist-

to a shamed flower
with supernatural power
come the hour.

###

NO ROADS

with no roads on our map of conversation,
we began
without plan,
and climbed, into the branches of imagination,
past the twigs and leaves-
those apothecaries
of lost libation,
into houred improvisation-
through its desert wanting rain
after years of stasis,
in a slow camel train
searching for that oasis-
with moving dunes
and negative runes
fending off the grey
in a charmed, nomadic way.
happen then, that this cold acoustic tune,
met your luteful lagoon
of mosaical notes-
and the baton moved,
as was proved
round the wheel with ambient spokes,
conducting without rules
our forgotten fools.
somehow,
go now,
through the eye of words,
to the heart of this rhythm
and the scion of its schism;
then home, like migrating birds
into separate nests-
for now, love rests.

###

LOVE IS STRIPPED TO SHARING BREAD

we were kissing
and dancing
to a kitchen song,
talking with our wine
and smoking bong;
then you pushed your pierced pin
of forged fire
further in
the groove of my desire
with your tongue.
later,
up the creaking wooden escalator-
“let me do you” i said
peeling back your petals
with my voice:
love is stripped to sharing bread
abroad-in plain rooms-where Nora and Joyce
reject precious metals.
it brings to craggy green cliffs
that STILL talk-
of two minds, in the sea born mist
of one thought-
why should four legs walk
under clouds adrift.
glum damp rock moss cups
when we go to ground
under body musk
and pagan sound-
the meaning of the hour
when lit lusts flower
fills the air
everywhere
at last
and the future does not imitate the past.

###

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

Thrilled to have my poem Does Her Far Beauty Know published at The Piker Press online. My thanks to Editor Sand Pilarski.

http://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=8770

Does Her Far Beauty Know does her far beauty know where my thoughts go without her when i walk in lush rain lashing down — squatting in enclosed fields of remote wheat and barley around told feudal cities and towns — to talk to fate and how it feels to be emptied entirely of hopes sounds — these evolutions fill rich men’s purses and revolutions are poor universes that try to bend the unequal to be equal without end. does her far beauty know where my thoughts go with her when i walk in lush rain lashing down — soaked in moments come to this paradise and precipice belonging bonding thoughts serendipitous blowing into us — gives shelter to the self of us and other else — unlike bare rooms we rent to leave behind when change moves us to fit into it — with only our echo and scent of passion and mind. Article © Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved. Published on 2021-09-06 Image(s) are public domain.

Delighted to have 3 poems published online in Poetry Life & Times. My thanks to Editor Robin Ouzman Hislop.

3 Poems by Strider Marcus Jones. CUBIST GHETTOS, et al.,

September 22, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

 
(i)
 
CUBIST GHETTOS
 
I think
To shrink
The distance
Of resistance
Inside self
To all else-
 
Knowing
Showing
Vulnerability
In the mystery
Leaves what is closed
Openly exposed-
 
To explanation
Under examination
When there isn’t one
That hasn’t gone
Until roof floor and sky door
Are no more-
 
Only roulette rubbles
Of drone troubles
Imprisoning
Reasoning
In cubist ghettos
Wearing jazz stilettos-
 
Flashing flamingo legs
To pink paradise harlem heads
While new trees grow up mute
And ripen with strange fruit
Some whites too this time
A drowned boy me and mine.
 
 
(ii)
 
CLOUDS OF CHAOTIC CROWDS
 
Smitten-
Bitten
Like Faustus-
Leave the house dust
With fool’s gold
Unsold.
This conveyor belt lair
A castle in the air
For Dante’s dreams of doubt
To wander about
In, with voices that pretend
To be a different friend-
Oh my, what a frame,
Too big to blame
And beyond a simple say
To save and stay-
So, close the dungeon door
To be what you were before
And walk away
Into the clouds
Of chaotic crowds
Falling as rain
On sterile plain.
 
 
(iii)
 
DOES HER FAR BEAUTY KNOW
 
does her
far beauty know
where my thoughts go
without her
when i walk
in lush rain lashing down-
 
squatting in enclosed fields
of remote wheat and barley
around told feudal cities and towns-
to talk
to fate and how it feels
to be emptied entirely
of hopes sounds-
 
these evolutions
fill rich men’s purses
and revolutions
are poor universes
that try to bend
the unequal
to be equal
without end.
 
does her
far beauty know
where my thoughts go
with her
when i walk
in lush rain lashing down-
 
soaked in moments come to this
paradise and precipice
belonging
bonding
thoughts
serendipitous
blowing into us-
 
gives shelter to the self
of us and other else-
unlike bare rooms we rent
to leave behind
when change moves us to fit
into it-
with only our echo and scent
of passion and mind.
 
 

 
 
Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/
 
His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; A New Ulster; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Piker Press; oppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice; & Poetry Life and Times,Artvilla.com.
 
 https://www.artvilla.com/plt/3-poems-by-strider-marcus-jones-cubist-ghettos-et-al/
 
 
 
Robin Ouzman Hislop is Editor of Poetry Life and Times ; You may visit Aquillrelle.com/Author Robin Ouzman Hislop about author. See Robin performing his work Performance (University of Leeds)

Thrilled to have my poem The Two Saltimbanques (Picasso) published in Issue 11 of the excellent Melbourne Culture Corner Magazine. My thanks to Lead Editor Steven Pearman.

https://melbourneculturecorner.com/blog/

THE TWO SALTIMBANQUES (Pablo Picasso)

when words don’t come easy
they make do with silence
and find something in nothing
to say to each other
when the absinthe runs out.
his glass and ego
are bigger than hers,
his elbows sharper,
stabbing into the table
and the chambers of her heart
cobalt clown
without a smile.
she looks away
with his misery behind her eyes
and sadness on her lips,
back into her curves
and the orange grove
summer of her dress
worn and blown by sepia time
where she painted
her cockus giganticus
lying down
naked
for her brush and skin,
mingling intimate scents
undoing and doing each other.
for some of us,
living back then
is more going forward
than living in now
and sitting hereat this table,
with these glasses
standing empty of absinthe,
faces wanting hands
to be a bridge of words
and equal peace
as Guernica approaches.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Delighted to have my poem – Love is Stripped to Sharing Bread published in Dreich Magazine’s superb Summer Anywhere anthology. Good to be with many of my favourite poets. Thank you to brilliant editor Jack Caradoc. .

Summer Anywhere anthology from @Dreich25197318. Grab a copy here: http://bit.ly/3BVJxUS

LOVE IS STRIPPED TO SHARING BREAD 

we were kissing  

and dancing 

to a kitchen song, 

talking with our wine 

and smoking bong; 

then you pushed your pierced pin 

of forged fire 

further in 

the groove of my desire 

with your tongue. 

later, 

up the creaking wooden escalator- 

“let me do you” i said 

peeling back your petals 

with my voice: 

love is stripped to sharing bread 

abroad-in plain rooms-where Nora and Joyce 

reject precious metals. 

it brings to craggy green cliffs 

that STILL talk- 

of two minds, in the sea born mist 

of one thought- 

why should four legs walk 

under clouds adrift. 

glum damp rock moss cups 

when we go to ground 

under body musk 

and pagan sound- 

the meaning of the hour 

when lit lusts flower 

fills the air 

everywhere 

at last 

and future does not imitate the past. 

Strider Marcus Jones

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 1 – The Fellowship of the Pen. Edited by Strider Marcus Jones. Now Available to buy as a Printed Paperback Book and E-Book from

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/denise-ohagan-and-john-drudge-and-christine-tabaka-and-moe-seager/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-1/paperback/product-v2e56e.html?page=1&pageSize=4

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/lauren-scharhag-and-steve-klepetar-and-j-s-watts-and-strider-marcus-jones/lothlorien-poetry-journal-volume-1/ebook/product-p4pr8p.html?page=1&pageSize=4

Lothlorien Poetry Journal’s first published volume of poetry and prose features the work of sixty- three internationally renowned poets and authors. Join us on our journey in The Fellowship of the Pen. Be moved and inspired by their individual poetic voices from every continent on Earth and discover that there is more to life that unites us than divides us.

Strider Marcus Jones – Editor

Contents – Poets

Editorial Poem by Strider Marcus Jones Pages

J S Watts

1.         Bubblewitches                                                14-18

2.         Craft

3.         Two Crows

Steve Klepetar

1.         On the Snowy Street                                       19-20

2.         Unfinished House

3.         Lazy Starling

Lauren Scharhag

1.         Priestess                                                          21-27

2          The Gilded Monk

3.         Necromancy

4.         Where Man Doth Not Inhabit

5.         Orenda

John Drudge

1.         A Hunger in Positano                                     28-31

2.         At the Shore

3.         Rage

4.         Spout

5.         The Pull of Stonehenge

Antonia Alexandra Klimenco

1.         Irish Whisky                                                    32-36

2.         Pisces Rising or Why Mermaids Don’t Limp

3.         If Ever

Gopal Lahiri

1.         Reorder                                                           37-39

2.         Photo Frame

3.         Unheard Echo

Adele Ogier Jones

1.         Dragon mountain (i)                                       40-43

2.         Dragon mountain (ii)

3.         Dragon mountain (iii)

4.         Growing earth

John Grey

1.         Married Name                                                 44-48

2.         When the Other is Dreaming

3.         Dan, the Naturalist

4.         The Beach in Winter

Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon

1.         Insomnia                                                         49-53

2.         Bonfire Night

3.         His Mind Games

4.         Devotion         response to Trinity by Adelia Prado

5.         Ardnamurchan Point

DAH

1.         Existential trauma                                           54-59

2.         Saying All There Is To Say

3.         Invention Of A New Meaning

4.         The Uncertainty Of Glass Locks

5.         An Eye Is Seen, And Still Another

Louise Ceres

1.         Count Voivode’s Valentine                            60-63

2.         Sacral Inner Space

3.         The Black and Silver Realm

4.         Insoluble Separation

Michael Minassian

1.                  Desire                                                              63-67

2.                  Close Relatives

3.                  For The Rest Of Us

4.                  Light

5.                  Razor’s Dawn

Simra Sadaf

1.                  Wasted Youth                                                 67-71

2.                  Autumns

3.                  Kite and Manjha

Moe Seager

1.                  November Western Pennsylvania                   72-75

2.                  I October

3.                  Bird Talk

4.                  Valentine offering

Patricia Walsh

1.                  Asking for It                                                   76-81

2.                  Praise of Zeitgeist

3.                  Pushing and Pulling Envelopes

4.                  Chocolate Soldier

5.                  Breaking Another Window

Scott Thomas Outlar

1.                  Masquerade                                                     82-85

2.                  Of Frequencies Resplendent

3.                  Apples & Owls at Midnight   (Space Wave Version)

Yuu Ikeda

1.                  Because, Although, But, I Love You             86-87

2.                  It Was My Life

J D Nelson

1.                  Why is there no world in the book?                88-89

2.                  Is that you humming?

3.                  Like smart a-macks that period o’ the text

Fotoula Reynolds

1.                  Harmony                                                         90-91

2.                  Almost found

3.                  Language floats

Terry Wheeler  things that splinter

1.                  Nomenclature                                                  92-96

2.                  who

3.                  omelette

4.                  murakami

5.                  shadow play

Denise O’Hagan

1.                  Nature’s grand chandelier                               97-100

2.                  Still the rain kept falling

Max Heinegg

1.                  Kidney Stone  for Jeff Albertson                   101-103

2.                  Stumper

3.                  The Groundhog of Gull Bay

4.                  Odd Man Out

5.                  Kindling

Attracta Fahy

1.                  The Blue Flower of Chernobyl                       104-107

2.                  Tired of news

Stephen House

1.                  The Moo-Moo Café                                        108-112

2.                  Caroline  

Lorraine Caputo

1.                  Iguana Dreams                                                112-115

2.                  Astray

3.                  Arica

4.                  Ghosts

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

1.                  Deck Chair                                                      116-118

2.                  Apologies, Zephyr!

3.                  Hand’s On

4.                  Mustard Lip

5.                  Throwing the Game  

 Laily Mahoozi

1.                  Exile                                                                119-122

2.                  Sterile Colour

3.                  Fixed

4.                  Revel

5.                  Diplomacy

Christopher Cadra

1.                  At Sea                                                             123-124

2.                  Another

3.                  Omission

4.                  Maybe Zombies

Christine Tabaka

1.                  Darkness Unfolds                                           125-128

2.                  Dust to Dust

3.                  No Turning Back

4.                  Nursery Rhymes

G J Hart

1.                  How Things Begin                                          129-132

2.                  Morning Run

3.                  Washing Up

Lynda Tavakoli

1.                  Cold Tea                                                          133-135

2.                  The Coldness of Crows

Prithvijeet Sinha

1.                  She Once Bloomed Like The Daisy               136-137

Elizabeth Mercurio

1.                  Elegy for Ophelia with the Sky Full               138-139

Robert ( Roibeard ) Shanahan

1.                  The Edenic Sequence                                      140-150

2.                  Mutualism

Christina Martin

1.                  The Gift                                                          151-155

2.                  Paradise

3.                  Sea Haiku Sequence

4.                  Steamed Yellow

5.                  Sky Cow

Tim Heerdink

1.                  Final Flight as the Fog becomes Night           156-161

2.                  The Fourth Horseman

3.                  The Knottseau Well

4.                  TRAUM(A) for John Berryman

Isobel Granby

1.                  Tolkien Sonnet 1                                             162-163

2.                  Tolkien Sonnet 2

Poul Lynggaard Damgaard

1.                  The last human being                                      164-166

2.                  Notch

3.                  The distance of silence

Jeanna Ni Riordain

1.                  Beneath the Chimney                                      167-168

2.                  The city stirs to life

Tom Montag

1.                  From The Old Monk Poems                           169-170

Susan Tepper

1.                  Withheld                                                         171-172

John Patrick Robbins

1.                  Beyond The Deception                                   172-173

2.                  Death in Doses

3.                  New Poems In Old Shoes

Angel Edwards

1.                  Maybe Angel Wings                                       174-176

2.                  All of them Spirits

3.                  Bourbon

John W Sexton

1.                  Riding a Giraffe                                              177-178

Soodabeh Saeidnia

1.                  The Mansion She Inherited                            178-181

2.                  Rootless

3.                  Garden of Memory

4.                  Micropoetry

Jonathan Butcher

1.                  A Swift Divide                                               182-185

2.                  Second Sight

3.                  Domestic Circus

4.                  The Opposite

Patricia Nelson

1.                  First Sailor                                                       186-189

2.                  The Three Weird Sisters Speak to Macbeth

3.                  Macbeth

Michael Durack

1.                  Angel of Death                                               190-193

2.                  Venus And Madonna

3.                  A Key In The Lock

4.                  In The Forest of Language

Kathryn Crowley

1.                  Daisies In Jamjars                                           194-196

2.                  Ode To Crows

Roger Haydon

1.                  Our Privilege                                                   197-199

2.                  Where I Walked as a Child

Sultana Raza

1.                  Keen on Tolkien                                               199-202

2.                  Epitaph

3.                  Orphic Crown

Januario Esteves

1.                  Caelum                                                            203-204

2.                  Perseus

3.                  Libra

Margaret Kiernan

1.                  Flash Fiction                                                   205-207

Grant Tarbard

1.                  Overture                                                          208-209

2.                  Visit Your Blessings When You Exit The Gift Shop

Greg Patrick

1.                  Mirage and Horizon                                        210-215

2.                  Calling Orion

3.                  The Goblin King’s Sigh

Marie C Lecrivain

1.                  Thursday morning                                           216-217

2.                  Mare Australe

Steven Fortune

1.                  Miss Ganymede                                              218-219

2.                  Destiny’s Spadework

Iulia Gherghei

1.                  Late Winter Story                                           220

Arik Mitra

1.                  Perambulators                                                 221-222

Lisa Reynolds

1.                  In Mourning (for Shannon)                             222

Ken Gosse

1.                  A Sandalous Tale                                            223-224

Bruce Morton

1.                  Anecdote of the Bottle                                    225

Will Nuessle

1.                  Just Checking                                                  226-227

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

Lothlorien Poetry Journal is a literary journal featuring free verse/rhyming/experimental poetry, short stories, flash fiction, video poems and occasional interviews with poets. Journey with us on the road to poems that linger and haunt. Discover poems of enchantment, fantasy, fairy tale, folklore, dreams, dystopian, flora and fauna, magical realism, romance, and anything hiding deep in-between the cracks.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal publishes periodically, 4-6 issues every year. Contributors to each issue ( selected from the best work published on the Journal’s Blog ) will be notified prior to publication and will receive a free PDF copy of the issue that features their work. A print and  E-book version of each issue will be available to purchase from lulu.com and Amazon Books.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

Really chuffed to have my poem Where Words Go published in the Neuro Logical Literary Magazine Anthology 2020-2021. My thanks to the editors.

https://www.neurologicalliterarymagazine.com/

Where words go

I want to go
Where words go
After we say them
And settle on their receivers thought
To ease their mind if caught,
And warm their heart throughout.
I want to roam about
Where words hang out
When no one hears them,
And watch them enter someone else
Invisible with stealth
To make them hope or doubt.
I want to be a word
Profound or absurd
And be adopted or rejected.

Mark Jones: Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from
Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry
Society, his five published books of
poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between
cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of
Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

Delighted to have 2 poems – Salted Slug and Ever After Tomorrow published in Dreich Magazine’s themed chapbook Afterwards. Thank you to brilliant editor Jack Caradoc. .

https://hybriddreich.co.uk/dreich-themes/

.

SALTED SLUG

your words stung,
and hung
me upside down, inside out,
to watch you
swan turned shrew-
hairbrush out all memory and meaning,
from those fresco pictures on the wet plaster ceiling-
that my Michaelangelo took years to paint,
in glorious colours, now flaked and full of hate.

the lights of our plaeides went out,
with no new songs to sing and talk about-
suspended there
inside sobs of solitude and infinite despair-
like soluble syllables of barbiturates
in exhaust fumes of apology and regrets.

you left me prone-
to hear deaths symphony alone,
split and splattered, opened on the floor,
repenting for nothing, evermore-
like a salted slug,
curdled and curled up on the rug-
to melt away
while you spoon and my colours fade to grey.

the heart of truth-
intact in youth,
fractures into fronds of lies and trust,
destined to become a hollow husk-
but i found myself again in hopes congealing pools
and left the field of fools
to someone else-
and put her finished book back on its shelf.

EVER AFTER TOMORROW

throw all your dreams
in a bottle of river-
so they can sink
and drag you down slow;
pick out their seams,
make them gone from the giver-
over the brink,
but dont let it show.
drowning, just drink-
you’re a spectral forgiver,
shades have the means
to laugh at each blow-
life is to think,
it is for the beginner,
but less than it seems
ever after tomorrow-
the cover of sleep screams
awake and gives her
love with body, scribed with ink
inside a rainbow.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

.

.

Really chuffed to have my poem We Don’t Fall published online in Riveting Rants Magazine on 9th July, 2021. My thanks to the editors.

https://rivetingrants.wixsite.com/magazine/post/we-don-t-fall-strider-marcus-jones

We Don’t Fall – Strider Marcus Jones

We don’t fall,

we learn and grow:

there is beauty

in mistakes we make

and light in sadness.

We build a wall

around our glow,

and sleep to break

the cruelty

of madness.

only for a while. That’s all

the sun stays low,

to come awake

like fate with love, rises early

and finds us.

BIOGRAPHY:

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

Delighted to have my poem Sliding Down Old Ben Bulben published in the Columba online Poetry Quarterly Issue 8, Summer 2021. My thanks to editor Emily Tristan Jones.

https://www.columbapoetry.com/jones.html

SLIDING DOWN OLD BENBULBIN
​
​

the dark emerald green descends in a dream that was thin sliding down old Benbulbin. the mossy rocks set, like elemental clocks don’t move- slow time is worn smooth. then us hive bugs mortal in summer duds slide past to the bottom hanging on before forgotten. understanding change- others need to be strange in it all- to repented blame they go walking in lashing rain some less tall- back to town lank hair matted down in the bar the same drink too far. Strider Marcus Jones has had poems in several journals and anthologies including Dreich Magazine, The Racket Journal, Trouvaille Review, Poppy Road Review, and The Huffington Post. He has written several self-published books of poetry; most recently, Pomegranate Flesh (2012), Wooded Windows (2011), and Mavericks (2008). He holds a law degree from De Montfort University and lives in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. He is also the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

Thrilled to have my two poems Children of the Revolution and That Blacksmith Fellow published by Fixator Press. My thanks to Poet and Editor Jonathan Butcher.

https://fixatorpress.home.blog/2021/06/17/two-poems-by-strider-marcus-jones/

Two Poems by Strider Marcus Jones

jbutcher1Uncategorized  June 17, 2021 2 Minutes

CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION

voices
make their choices
in the game-
to remain
loyal, or abstain
and stunt reputation
for self gratification.

get real
profits of career soon heal
the sacrifice of bold ideal-
when the grey suits in the system
say: preserving status quo, is the wisdom
in this play. other tunes, are moments of fame-
memorable then forgotten in the main
stagnating stream of politics,
where embedded institutions share the same
out of tune,

out of reach hot air balloon
playing unmusical licks
treading us down in the gravity
of tribal tricks
with ghost notes
wearing uniforms of halved normality
in the foreground
and background
with loaded guns inside
and outside
their tunic coats-
ready to suppress any massed intention
of Bastille insurrection.

you don’t have the right to repeal my name,
or make me think and do the same
as you.
your way, is extinction-
only seconds
as time reckons,
a philosophy founded on myths,
twisted in technological trysts
tuned to suit you.

THAT BLACKSMITH FELLOW

crumpling
crumbling
heart

war thump
peace pump
stall start

cave hunting
and gathering
in groups

to farms with crops
and hoofed livestocks
drink beer, eat meat and soups.

that blacksmith fellow,
with fire and forge, hammer and bellow,
is still the alchemist-

malleolus like his mettles
when everybody settles
into civil lists.

in us now,
the subliminal plough
sets our furrows footsteps-

so summer’s run and winter’s plod,
with, or without god
in and out of upsets.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have my poem The Dance published in Adfectus: Poetry Anthology by Exeter Publishing. My thanks to the editors.

THE DANCE
STRIDER MARCUS JONES

pull the roof off
knock the walls down
touch the forest
climb those mountains
and smell the sea
again.
watch how life
decomposes
in death
going back to land
to reform and be reborn
as something and someone else.
there’s no great secret to it all.
no need to overthink it through
food and shelter
fire and shamans
clothes and coupling
used to be enough
with musicians
artists
and poets
interpreting the dance.
then warriors with armies
religions with god
and minds buying and selling
stole the landscape
and changed time.
smash the windows
break down the doors
melt the keys
rub evil words from their spells
and puncture the lungs of their wheels
before they kidnap you from bed
call you dissident
hold you without charge
wheel you out on a stretcher
from waterboard torture
for years
without trial
in Guantanamo Bay.
they are selling
the sanctuary
we made
with our numbers
bringing back chains
making some of us slaves
outside the dance
in the five coloured rings
making winners
and losers
holding flags and flames.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. Find him at: https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/

file:///C:/Users/Strider/Downloads/Adfectus.pdf

Thrilled to have 5 of my poems published on the wonderful Ink Pantry poetry blog. My thanks to editor Deborah Edgeley.

Poetry Drawer: She is a Suffragette: A Woman Does Not Have To Wait: The Two Saltimbanques: Hopper’s Ladies: Oviri by Strider Marcus Jones

Poetry Drawer: She is a Suffragette: A Woman Does Not Have To Wait: The Two Saltimbanques: Hopper’s Ladies: Oviri by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on 10th June 2021 by Deborah Edgeley

She is a Suffragette

her hair tumbles
blowing like unfurled cotton
through unforgotten
fumbles
in vegetation
of our own
interpretation
of each other
in the dark.

my desk grown
out of a tree sown
from my lover
where i carved these words in the bark
sitting in her branches
knowing what life is
all about
as i look out
of wooded windows

and absorb it’s shows
as it goes
through each obscenity
of extreme supremacy-
a woman must not let
a man forget
she is a suffragette
in her soul and under his blanket
so never kept

or chatteled forever
to the custom weather
of his debt.

A Woman Does Not Have To Wait

under the old canal bridge you said
so i can hear the echoes
in your head
repeating mine
this time
when it throws
our voices from roof into water
where i caught her
reflection half in half out of sunshine.
that’s when i hear Gerschwin
playing his piano in you
working out the notes
to rhapsody in blue
that makes me float
light and thin
deep within
through the air
when you put your comforts there.
Waits was drinking whisky from his bottle
while i sat through old days with Aristotle
knowing i must come up to date
because a woman does not have to wait.

The Two Saltimbanques

when words don’t come easy
they make do with silence
and find something in nothing
to say to each other
when the absinthe runs out.

his glass and ego
are bigger than hers,
his elbows sharper,
stabbing into the table
and the chambers of her heart
cobalt clown
without a smile.

she looks away
with his misery behind her eyes
and sadness on her lips,
back into her curves
and the orange grove
summer of her dress
worn and blown by sepia time

where she painted
her cockus giganticus
lying down
naked
for her brush and skin,
mingling intimate scents
undoing and doing each other.

for some of us,
living back then
is more going forward
than living in now
and sitting here-

at this table,
with these glasses
standing empty of absinthe,
faces wanting hands
to be a bridge of words
and equal peace
as Guernica approaches.

Hopper’s Ladies

you stay and grow
more mysterioso
but familiar
in my interior-
with voices peeled
full of field
of fruiting orange trees
fertile to orchard breeze
soaked in summer rains
so each refrain all remains.

not afraid of contrast,
closed and opened in the past
and present, this isolation of Hopper’s ladies,
sat, thinking in and out of ifs and maybes
in a diner, reading on a chair or bed
knowing what wants to be said
to someone
who is coming or gone-

such subsidence
into silence
is a unilateral curve
of moments
and movements
that swerve
a straight lifetime
to independence
in dependence
touching sublime
rich roots
then ripe fruits.

we share their flesh and flutes
in ribosomes and delicious shoots
that release love-
no, not just the fingered glove
to wear
and curl up with in a chair,
but lovingkindness
cloaked in timeless
density and tone
in settled loam-
beyond lonely apartments in skyscrapers
and empty newspapers,
or small town life
gutting you with gossips knife.

Oviri (The Savage – Paul Gauguin in Tahiti)

woman,
wearing the conscience of the world-
you make me want
less civilisation
and more meaning.

drinking absinthe together,
hand rolling and smoking cigars-
being is, what it really is-
fucking on palm leaves
under tropical rain.

beauty and syphilis happily cohabit,
painting your colours
on a parallel canvas
to exhibit in Paris
the paradox of you.

somewhere in your arms-
i forget my savage self,
inseminating womb
selected by pheromones
at the pace of evolution.

later. I vomited arsenic on the mountain and returned
to sup morphine. spread ointments on the sores, and ask:
where do we come from.
what are we.
where are we going.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have my poem The Word Love published in Crossways Literary Magazine. My thanks to editor David Jordan and poetry editor Anne Daly.

https://crosswaysmagazine.com/issues/

THE WORD LOVE

if i could take
the word love,
and give to it
the sound of how
you speak,
then look inside
its shell
and find you-
living out the years
like you belong:

i would wear
its shape and substance
in the shadow
of myself,
and hold it in my
empty hand
to not feel so alone-
then raise it to
my lips and taste
its phrase and something more-

as i head home,
along that rutted road
of fallow fields
and ancient tracks,
through what was, and is now,
and might become-
while posing pines,
stand and hang in quiet air
absorbing spoken thoughts
like silent sentinels.

Delighted to have three of my poems published on Poetry In Surrey Libraries blog. My thanks to editors Neil Richards and J M. Gale.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/05/20/stone-jar-by-strider-marcus-jones/

Stone Jar by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on May 20, 2021 by jmgale

have seat
stone jar
with heart old as peat;
you’ve come this far-
seen history shoot itself
to repeat the past
but nothing else
is made to last-
why weep
and fast,
while others sleep
and blast
this sorrow
from the same face tomorrow-
and what fool am i to keep
thinking that the thinkers
will remove the old ways blinkers-
and speak.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/05/23/soupy-potions-by-strider-marcus-jones/

Soupy Potions by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on May 23, 2021 by jmgale

sleep old name;
erase this lame
membrane of days-
where tracks of trust
go to dust
and empty in-out trays,
crack like blowed skin
under amphetamine
sun, remembering
how promises persist
in metaphores of mist-

and that box of rumours
the neighbours hold, like chocolate tumours
behind lace curtains-
knew your rock
fired the clay and shaped his pot
to aroused assertions-
then the moon-tide quickening
and coming in,
like soupy potions thick and thin,
front to back
on constellation grainy black.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com

A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. His poetry has also been published in numerous publications around the world.

The Vase by Strider Marcus Jones

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/05/28/the-vase-by-by-strider-marcus-jones/

1d ago

Image by Lubos Houska from Pixabay

standing silent proud,
alone, or in a crowd
life glazed mood and skin
outside and in-
for you, i think out loud
and take you in-
where thoughts abound reversible
and convertible-
where saying being wrong
reaches out beyond
the natural need to win.
moulded by my hands
to this shape that understands;
its cloth of clay holds you warm,
a mummer masked in costumes storm-
react with its receptacle of reason
for sorting truths from treason,
but you don’t need to have a season
to put your flowers into me-
swaying here, in wind and wild, as born so be.

Thrilled to have my Orwellian poem On the Other Side of the Room’s Window published in Dreich Magazine’s themed chapbook ISMISMS. Thank you Jack Caradoc editor supreme.

https://hybriddreich.co.uk/dreich-themes/

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM’S WINDOW

Dried coffee rings on the bedside table,

Where the martyr stubs his cigarette,

And disregards the opened volume

Of T.S.Eliot.

On the other side of the room’s window,

Buses shake past,but can’t be seen;

And when he calls for freedom,

The world spouts semen and war machines.

Cameras in the streets outside,

Watch this enemy within:

But how many Winston Smiths,

Are writing notes, and sneaking gin?

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have my poem I Want To Bend Time published in Dreich Magazine’s themed issue SC-FI. My thanks to brilliant editor Jack Caradoc.

https://hybriddreich.co.uk/dreich-themes/

I WANT TO BEND TIME

I want more time
To ponder life,
For understanding
In the cosmic soup.

I want to bend time
To travel backwards and forwards,
To see what was and what will be
To fathom actions and consequences.

I want to unmould time
From how we shape it,
To be free of it
Unchained to think.

I want to teleport
To the past and now and on from here,
Faster than light
In the nothingness it takes to make a thought:

To find the answer-
To where we come from
To who we are
To why we are here

And where we are going
To be free from time.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. He is also the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Thrilled to have my poem The Word Love (from my book Aspects of Love) published in the Issue 11 print edition of Crossways Literary Magazine, Cork, Ireland. My thanks to poetry editor Anne Daly.

https://crosswaysmagazine.com/

THE WORD LOVE

if i could take
the word love,
and give to it
the sound of how
you speak,
then look inside
its shell
and find you-
living out the years
like you belong:

i would wear
its shape and substance
in the shadow
of myself,
and hold it in my
empty hand
to not feel so alone-
then raise it to
my lips and taste
its phrase and something more-

as i head home,
along that rutted road
of fallow fields
and ancient tracks,
through what was, and is now,
and might become-
while posing pines,
stand and hang in quiet air
absorbing spoken thoughts
like silent sentinels.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones – Aspects of Love

http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/strider…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_s…

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_…

Read poems from his books with reviews and comments onhttp://www.wattpad.com/user/striderma.

Delighted to have three poems included in the *Impspired* Volume 5 print anthology. These poems were originally published online in *Impspired* Issue 9. Sincere thanks to Steve Cawte for publishing these poems. Contact Steve at impspired@gmail.com to order directly from him, or use the following links to order from Amazon.

UK & Ireland – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/191413026X

US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/191413026X

*Impspired* – http://www.impspired.com

   SUMMER WIND

  you remind me of the rhythms in myself-
  no house to play to
  or the sound in someone else-
  that drives their dreams
  in simple scenes.
 
  your music, is the motion of the waves
  soul troubled too-
  by yesterdays,
  searching for a sigh that isn’t wrong
 to be its song.
 
 your meadow, is a harvest shimmering
 in light and hue,
 in summer wind,
 waiting, for a stranger passing through-
 to settle in its simmering.
 
 taste the rain
 and take it in you,
 long for it to come again-
 meanings grow when fates continue
 to reach for reasons, and remain. 



  WHEN THE ROAD FORKS

  soft scented ring
 on straightened bow,
 the joy you bring
 inside me now-
 
 the candle burning, slowly down,
 the mirror showing more of you-
 arched back and shoulders golden brown,
 hips rock, hair tumbling too-
 
 as hope and passion rise and fall
 in symmetry and space,
 the perfect beauty of it all,
 enraptures face and place-
 
 and be it now, or beyond this,
 with gentle hands and loves soft kiss-
 to trace your smile and touch your thoughts,
 still, after this, when the road forks.


 
  ADUMBRATE LOVES SHALLOWS

  goddess of the moon
  fusion of light and shadow,
  come now, light my room-
  make darkness shrink and narrow.
 
  gravitate to me
  awake inside un-natural light,
  half written, half unknown i be
  eclipsed in doubt, but inward bright.
 
  bring your blooms to this fallow bed
  alone in fates sad stare,
 wrap me in your ethereal thread,
 to reset time and covet care.
 
  adumbrate loves shallows
  in my sanctum core,
 where the pastels fade and pallow
 without depth and shade on dwindling shore. 


Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have 10 of my Haiku in Dreich Magazine’s chapbook of Senryu & Haiku titled: ‘River Willow’. My thanks to editor Jack Caradoc.

ancient lay lines
illuminate oral lore
a global stone grid


black coffee swirling
in a spiral galaxy
stargate in a cup


obelisk to sky
glyphs and hypogean
can we crack the code


leaves are falling
the circle of life and death
undertaker crows


honeysuckle grows
around the arch of midnight
into the wormhole


a trodden nettle
still offers herself to bees
and us to make tea

curious magpies
search ploughed field for baubles
sunlight glints on them


faded photographs
moments hanging on the wall
futures blank behind


cherry blossoms bloom
then fall in wind and rain on
human chameleons

red chrysanthemums
show fractals of clarity
time sows mutations

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, he is the creator and editor of Lothlorien Poetry Journal. His five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

                                       

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Thrilled to have my poem Pyramid Prison published by Piker Press on 26th April, 2021. My thanks to editor Sand Pilarski.

http://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=8260

Pyramid Prison

in detritus metronomes
of human habitation
the ghost of Shelley’s imagination
questions the elemental,
experimental
chromosomes
and ribosomes
of DNA,
reverse engineered
that suddenly appeared
as evolution yesterday.

her monster mirrors dark wells
of monsters in our smart selves,
the lost humanity and oratory
that fills laboratory
test tubes
with fused
imbued
genes
to dreams
of flat forward faster
distinction
to disaster
and barbarism’s
ectopic extinction.

this is our pyramid prison,
where all souls
and proles
climb the debased
opposite steps of extremism,
like Prometheus Unbound,
defaced
sitting around
the crouching sphinx
abandoned by missing links.

free masons of money and wars,
warp the altar of natural laws,
so reason withers
and wastelands rust —
no longer rivers
of shared stardust

in the equal symphony of spheres
in space,
filling our ears
with subwoofer bass,
definitive
primitive
medieval
evil
waste.

Strider Marcus Jones
Is the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.
He is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.
His work has been published in over 150 poetry journals, magazines, reviews and anthologies in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, India and South Africa including : Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice and Piker Press.
He is the author of five books of poetry:
Pomegranate Flesh, Wooded Windows, Mavericks, Inside Out and Aspects Of Love.
The links to his books can be found below.

For his published poetry books: Aspects Of Love; Inside Out; Mavericks; Wooded Windows and Pomegranate Flesh see:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/strider…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_s…

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_…

Thrilled to have my two poems Here I Am The Same and Rejecting Ovid published in Issue 7 of the Melbourne Culture Corner on 2nd April, 2020. My thanks to the editors of this wonderful magazine.

HERE I AM THE SAME

here i am the same

sitting in the dark with you

turning out the stars

that won’t do.

from the dimmed grain

light of coffee bars

they look so infinitely plain

against the black backdrop

countless where time can’t stop.

once,

everyone has a once-

they lit the canopy

on that journey

now only

tickets of buses and trains

and notes that grew out of numbers and names.

around midnight,

i mull them with moonlight

and stand out in their youth

from this heavy slated roof

i’ve settled under

and wonder

will i ever find

another time to penetrate

and fascinate

your body with my mind.

REJECTING OVID

the fabulous beauty of your face-
so esoteric,
not always in this place-
beguiles me.

it’s late, mesmeric
smile is but a base,
a film to interface
with the movements of the mind behind it.

my smile, me-
like Thomas O’Malley
the alley
cat reclining on a tin bin lid
with fishy whiskers-

turns the ink in the valley
of your quills
into script,
while i sit
and sip

your syllables
with fresh red sepals of habiscus,
rejecting Ovid
and his Amores
for your stories.

Strider Marcus Jones
Is the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.
He is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.
His work has been published in over 150 poetry journals, magazines, reviews and anthologies in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, India and South Africa including : Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice and Piker Press.
He is the author of five books of poetry:
Pomegranate Flesh, Wooded Windows, Mavericks, Inside Out and Aspects Of Love.
The links to his books can be found below.

For his published poetry books: Aspects Of Love; Inside Out; Mavericks; Wooded Windows and Pomegranate Flesh see:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/strider…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_s…

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_…

Click to access mcc-issue-7.pdf

Delighted to have five of my poems published on Poetry In Surrey Libraries blog. My thanks to editors Neil Richards and J M. Gale. https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/?s=strider+marcus+jones

MIRROR, MIRROR by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on March 11, 2021 by jmgale

Image by Bobby Louvre from Pixabay 

mirror, mirror,
in the hall
age comes to us all,
and looks wither
through the play
of years slipped away,
away
in the lapsed lingo of street
and road,
where tangents meet
and move with innocence
up summits of experience
told,
whose fruits we eat
then weep
when they implode.
these reflections
in this autumn of adventurous directions,
mean more
standing in the door
of ebb and flow
watching people come and go
wearing introspections
of what they know
after listening to a stranger’s small confessions
on midnight radio.

THE LATITUDE OF LOVE by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on March 18, 2021 by jmgale

Source: Wikimedia

the latitude of love
paddles an imperial pedalo
in someone’s waters-
and i had to go
native in a foreign land
to understand
where my own backward blood
has brought us.

in the mosque
in the mihrab
in Cordoba,
no one is lost
as Christian and Arab
respect how they cross over.

inside:
the scallop shell,
with its white marble hood
and cathedral bell
above ancient wood,
keeps everyone equal and safe from hell-
but outside:
other forces blow the people and their pedalo.

THE OTHER SELF by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on March 21, 2021 by jmgale

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay 

the other self
abstracted in the press
of turned down pages,
gets mucked up in the mess
and shows how unlaminated age is.
if nothing else-
these nude notes
being played behind the curtain
where the stage is,
by soloist strings
and hermit woodwinds-
are far hopes
of uncertain
opening chords
calling out
to the duet
i haven’t come to yet.
and afterwards,
if all those afterwards
could talk and kiss and spout,
there would be
no more misery
move it out.

THIS NOW MY THOUGHTS by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on March 26, 2021 by jmgale

Image by esudroff from Pixabay 

this now my thoughts
open at the image of your name
won’t be revealing
the secrets they explain-
do you do the same
on these out walks
remembering the rain
drop fractals on us feeling.

back we go again,
without preachers
or bad teachers,
harvest high with hope
just us and frayed strands
of poetry and bands
on this bridge of notes
our mind spans.

in give we’ve got
the bloom of this plot
in garden to river
shaping start and stop
the melting clock
of body quake then quiver
through the Dreamtime day night
and soul spirit lit by landscape light.

we climb the Orange Rock
to revert back far
but have no Gaelic croft
to live in who we are.
it has changed hands
until the purpose of these lands
shoots dissenting music out of birds
and sucks all truth from ancient words

so existence is
another language.

THE PATTERNS by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on March 31, 2021 by jmgale

Image by Craig Melville from Pixabay 

somewhere
in everywhere
everybody
happens
in the patterns,
like flocks
of rocks
gathered to the lobby
of Saturn’s
rings,
graded
and sorted
into ugly and beautiful
useful
things;
all something
out of nothing
but not absolute nothing:
it seems matter
that Mad Hatter
and plectrums of light
make tunes of self similarity settle and fight
repeating this same existence
without remembered resistance.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. He is the editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine and Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have my poem Children of the Revolution published in Piker Press on 15th March, 2021. My thanks to editor Sand Pilarski.

http://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=8263

Children of the Revolution voices make their choices in the game — to remain loyal, or abstain and stunt reputation for self gratification. get real profits of career soon heal the sacrifice of bold ideal — when the grey suits in the system say: preserving status quo, is the wisdom in this play. other tunes, are moments of fame — memorable then forgotten in the main stagnating stream of politics, where embedded institutions share the same out of tune, out of reach hot air balloon playing unmusical licks treading us down in the gravity of tribal tricks with ghost notes wearing uniforms of haved normality in the foreground and background with loaded guns inside and outside their tunic coats — ready to suppress any massed intention of Bastille insurrection. you don’t have the right to repeal my name, or make me think and do the same as you. your way, is extinction — only seconds as time reckons, a philosophy founded on myths, twisted in technological trysts tuned to suit you. Article © Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved. Published on 2021-03-15 Image(s) are public domain.

Thrilled to have two of my Japanese Haiku published online in Cold Moon Journal. My thanks to editor Roberta Beach Jacobson.

https://coldmoonjournal.blogspot.com/2021/03/by-strider-marcus-jones_8.html

https://coldmoonjournal.blogspot.com/2021/03/by-strider-marcus-jones.html

By Strider Marcus Jones

black coffee swirling

in a spiral galaxy

stargate in a cup

Strider Marcus Jones at March 08, 2021

By Strider Marcus Jones

honeysuckle grows

around the arch of midnight

into the wormhole

Strider Marcus Jones at March 07, 2021

Strider Marcus Jones – is the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogs…. He is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford/Hinckley, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry are modern, traditional, mythical, sometimes erotic, surreal and metaphysical http//www.lulu.com/spotlight/stridermarcusj…. He is a maverick, moving between forests, mountains and cities, playing his saxophone and clarinet in warm solitude.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain and Switzerland in numerous publications including mgv2 Publishing Anthology:And Agamemnon Dead; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster/Anu; Outburst Poetry Magazine; The Galway Review; The Honest Ulsterman Magazine; The Lonely Crowd Magazine; Section8Magazine; Danse Macabre Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; Don’t Be Afraid: Anthology To Seamus Heaney.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal
https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogs…

For his published poetry books: Aspects Of Love; Inside Out; Mavericks; Wooded Windows and Pomegranate Flesh see:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/strider…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_s…

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_…

Read poems from his books with reviews and comments on http://www.wattpad.com/user/striderma.

..Join him on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/stridermarcu…
His poetry blogs are:

http://http://poetrybystridermarcusjo…

http://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordp…

Thrilled to have three of my poems published in the Western Voices 2021 Issue of Setu Magazine. My thanks to editors Sunil Sharma, Anurag Sharma and Scott Thomas Outlar.

Strider Marcus Jones: Poetry (Western Voices 2021)

Bio: Strider Marcus Jones is the founder and Editor of Lothlorien Poetry Journal: https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogs… 

A poet, law graduate, and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales, he is also a  member of The Poetry Society. His five published books of poetry reveal a maverick moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. His poetry has been published in over 150 literary publications worldwide including Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; and Dissident Voice. More about his work can be found here:

https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/

THE MADRIGAL OF VOICES

the madrigal of voices

somewhere, in its choices,

chooses and rejoices

back to me-

collecting frozen wood,

from the crofts and slums, of old childhood-

sat here, on this chair

in the numb night air.

now, your moonbeams kiss

the winter of me. stirs

ripples on its pond skin

back to the begin.

unpicks the threaded wish

of passion’s positive remark-

while sleep fights

these luminous lights

of limp daggers-

laughing in the dark.

somehow, its root

of subdued jasmine and tropical jute,

reaches that closed chamber of your core-

and thoughts transmute,

woven to the nature of its lore.

negativity narrows

when i stroke in your shallows-

forward as before;

but staying in tomorrows,

i enter and endure.

WHAT EVERYBODY AND NO ONE KNOWS

when you are broken
like a once loved doll,
and those spurs, that still hurt, have spoken
you blind with methanol-
the mental heather
that holds it all together,
finds you on its well-worn path
and in the aftermath,
walking alone
it takes you home-
through the Spanish orange groves
where old men sit with expired widows
thinking silently i suppose
what everybody and no one knows.
then musical scripts
of hidden songbirds play and mix
with secret symbols of illuminati
in the terracotta garden
for my ghost at its own party
of father’s day stardom,
while my prince and princess
smile at me, with their mother’s Maltese eyes-
in their more, i am less
but keep my loss disguised.
this is their day to me-
their prose
in how it goes-
like lambas bread
in what is said
as we journey.

IN THE TALK OF MY TOBACCO SMOKE

i have disconnected self

from the wire of the world

retreated to this unmade croft

of wild grass and savage stone

moored mountains

set in sea

blue black green grey

dyed all the colours of my mood

and liquid language-

to climb rocks

instead of rungs

living with them

moving around their settlements

of revolutionary random place

for simple solitary glory.

i am reduced again

to elements and matter

that barter her body for food

teasing and turning

her flesh to take words and plough.

rapid rain

slaps the skin

on honest hands

strongly gentle

while sowing seeds

the way i touch my lover

in the talk of my tobacco smoke:

now she knows

she tastes

like all the drops

of my dreams

falling on the forest

of our Lothlorien.

---

Western Voices 2021 :: Setu, February 2021

Delighted to have my two poems Grains of Sand and Wooded Windows translated into French by Rebecca Morrison on her website ILLUMINATIONS GALERIE DE L’ART ET DE LA POÉSIE.

STRIDER MARCUS JONES

BY ILLUMINATIONSGALERIEMARCH 9, 2021

Strider Marcus Jones – est un poète, diplômé en droit, et ancien fonctionnaire de Salford, en Angleterre, avec de fières racines celtiques en Irlande et au Pays de Galles. Membre de La société de poésie d’Angleterre, ses cinq recueils de poésie publiés révèlent un franc-tireur, se déplaçant entre les villes, jouant de son saxophone dans des salles enfumées. https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com

Sa poésie a été publiée aux États-Unis, au Canada, en Australie, en Angleterre, en Écosse, en Irlande, au Pays de Galles, en France, en Espagne, en Allemagne; Serbie, en Inde et en Suisse dans de nombreuses publications dont : The Piker Press; Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany, Serbia, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: The Piker Press; Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Les grains de sable

imaginer
traverser le Sahara
avec les touareg;
dormir
sous un seul vaste dais d’étoiles,
consolé par les constellations
qui a jadis regardaient
les forêts anciennes
et les montagnes érodées par le vent
plus vieux que ceux-ci ici maintenant.
tout se répète—
les lits de la rivière et les rochers
retour à la mer,
où des étrangers temporaires
s’assoient comme Robinson Crusoé
sur des plages bruyantes ratissées par des tracteurs
dans des odeurs de sel et des moules non-trouvées
regarder les vagues,
penser à l’intérieur d’eux
aller et venir
comme des amis dont on a peur
comme la nature se réaccorde
ignorant notre signification
devenant des grains de sable.

Grains of Sand

imagine
crossing the Sahara
with the Tuareg;
sleeping
under one vast canopy of stars,
consoled by constellations
that once looked down
on ancient forests
and wind worn mountains
older than these here now.
it all repeats itself—
the river beds and rocks
return to the sea,
where temporary strangers
sit like Robinson Crusoe
on loud, tractor-raked beaches
in smells of salt and missed mussels
watching the waves,
thinking inside them
coming and going
like friends to be afraid of—
as nature retunes herself
ignoring our significance
becoming grains of sand.

Les fenêtres en bois

Alors que cette longue vie avance lentement
je reviens
regarder à travers les fenêtres en bois.
en avant ou en arrière, les empires et les régimes restent
dans les pyramides du pouvoir
massacrer les irréprochables pour un gain glorieux.
soldats féodaux tirant des fusils
et des oiseaux sans ailes lâchant des missiles autoguidés
sur les mères, les pères, les filles, les fils,
suivent des ordres plus élevés
pour moderniser les civilisations anciennes
répéter ce que l’histoire nous a appris.
à leur tour, leurs tours de système de classe et d’argent
va s’effondrer et s’écraser
au-dessus d’Ozymandias.
hé maintenant, bois d’hiver saisissent sans feuilles
et nous y entraînant.
glissade d’amour en jours
à travers les vagues de chaleur estivales
et vieux voies forestiers
avec nous lécher
puis dégoulinant
et coller
chanter des chansons wiccan
embrassé dans les liens païens
vivions lumière, aimé longtemps,
doigts peignant des runes sur la peau
retour au début
quand la liberté n’était pas péché.

Wooded Windows

as this long life slowly goes
i find my self returning
to look through wooded windows.
forward or back, empires and regimes remain
in pyramids of power
butchering the blameless for glorious gain.
feudal soldiers firing guns
and wingless birds dropping smart bombs
on mothers, fathers, daughters, sons,
follow higher orders
to modernise older civilisations
repeating what history has taught us.
in turn, their towers of class and cash
will crumble and crash
on top of Ozymandias.
hey now, woods of winter leafless grip
and fractures split
drawing us into it.
loveslide in days
through summer heat waves
and old woodland ways
with us licking
then dripping
and sticking
chanting wiccan songs
embraced in pagan bonds
living light, loving long,
fingers painting runes on skin
back to the beginning
when freedom wasn’t sin.

Delighted to have my poem Hopper’s Ladies published in Issue 1 of Bloom Literary Magazine. My thanks to editor Nika Jordan Rose. https://redpenguinbooks.com/bloom-lit-magazine/

HOPPER’S LADIES

you stay and grow

more mysterioso

but familiar

in my interior-

with voices peeled

full of field

of fruiting orange trees

fertile to orchard breeze

soaked in summer rains

so each refrain all remains.

not afraid of contrast,

closed and opened in the past

and present, this isolation of Hopper’s ladies,

sat, thinking in and out of ifs and maybes

in a diner, reading on a chair or bed

knowing what wants to be said

to someone

who is coming or gone-

such subsidence

into silence

is a unilateral curve

of moments

and movements

that swerve

a straight lifetime

to independence

in dependence

touching sublime

rich roots

then ripe fruits.

we share their flesh and flutes

in ribosomes and delicious shoots

that release love-

no, not just the fingered glove

to wear

and curl up with in a chair,

but lovingkindness

cloaked in timeless

density and tone

in settled loam-

beyond lonely apartments in skyscrapers

and empty newspapers,

or small-town life

gutting you with gossips knife.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Delighted to have 10 poems published in Issue 8 of Fleas On The Dog. My thanks to Poetry Editor Hezekiah Scretch and Senior Editor Tom Ball.

https://fleasonthedog.com/

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/9a0949f4-1d2a-4a7c-b9fb-a96b9b6bd861/downloads/P%5EN7%20_10%20Poems_%20by%20Strider%20Marcus%20Jones.pdf?ver=1615051582446

TEN (10) poemS poems poems poems

By Strider Marcus Jones

WHY I LIKE IT: Poetry Editor HEZEKIAH writes… Strider Marcus Jones refines a language all his own. While the arrested of us employ our word into service to project our modest biddings, communicating as best we can. His are formed to dance, prance, pluck and strum. Singing and swinging as though they are truly enjoying his penetrating, orphic-like process; happy in their work as they leap and bound off the pages and back. Revealing
themselves as they spring from his distinct and galvanizing lexicon, anxiously awaiting to be called into action, to snap to attention, and rejoice in a festival of words and featured imagery. But don’t settle for my pitch, screwballs mostly throw junk—spin googlies. Not Jones, he’s all cricket, he’ll bowl you over with lithe precision and lightning tempo.

MAVERICKS

you taste of cinnamon and fish
when you wish
to be romantic-
and the ciphers of our thoughts
make ringlets with their noughts
immersed in magic-
like mithril mail around me
stove dark forest, pink flesh sea
touchings tantric-
make reality and myths
converge in elven riffs
of music, so we dance it-
symbols to the scenes
of conflict, mavericks in dreams
that now sit-
listening to these pots and kettles
blackening on the fire
of rhetoric and murderous mettles-
before we both retire
to our own script.


TWO MISFITS

it was no time
for love outside-
old winds of worship
found hand and mouth
in ruined rain
slanting over cultured fields
into pagan barns
with patched up planks
finding us two misfits.

i felt the pulse
of your undressed fingers
transmit thoughts
to my senses-
aroused by autumn scents
of milky musk
and husky hay
in this barn’s faith
we climbed the rungs of civilisation
so random in our exile-

and found a bell
housed inside a minaret-
with priest and muezzin
sharing its balcony-
summoning all to prayer
with one voice-
this holy music, was only the wind
blowing through the weathervane,
but we liked its tone to change its time.


THE BLOOD THAT MAKES US BLACK

imagine yourself,
in a photo-fit picture
with every nothing that’s new-
minus in health,
quoting icons and scripture
under the whole black and blue.

optimum dreams
turn out fake in the mirror
facing what’s been like fallen heroes-
in so many scenes
like a ghost who is giver
passing on wisdom, who knows-

the blood that makes us black
of two from one,
is schooled by fungus fortunes
and faiths old hat
to be sold on-
like tamed-trained gangs, making golden dunes.


VISIGOTH ROVER

i went on the bus to Cordoba,

and tried to find the Moor’s

left over

in their excavated floors

and mosaic courtyards,

with hanging flowers brightly chamelion

against whitewashed walls

carrying calls

behind gated iron bars-

but they were gone

leaving mosque arches

and carved stories

to God’s doors.

in those ancient streets

where everybody meets;

i saw the old successful men

with their younger women again,

sat in chrome slat chairs,

drinking coffee to cover

their vain love affairs-

and every breast,

was like the crest

of a soft ridge

as i peeped over

the castle wall and Roman bridge

like a Visigoth rover.

soft hand tapping on shoulder,

heavy hair

and beauty older,

the gypsy lady gave her clover

to borrowed breath,

embroidering it for death,

adding more to less

like the colours fading in her dress.

time and tune are too planned

to understand

her Trevi fountain of prediction,

or the dirty Bernini hand

shaping its description.

THAT BLACKSMITH FELLOW

crumpling

crumbling

heart

war thump

peace pump

stall start

cave hunting

and gathering

in groups

to farms with crops

and hoofed live stocks

drink beer, eat meat and soups.

that blacksmith fellow,

with fire and forge, hammer and bellow,

is still the alchemist-

malleous like his mettles

when everybody settles

into civil lists.

in us now,

the subliminal plough

sets our furrows footsteps-

so summer’s run and winter’s plod,

with, or without god

in and out of upsets.

IN MAID’S WATER

we’ve left the well-footed

road,

the rutted

and rebutted

road

of shadows cast

by towered glass.

opened closed curtains

for fusty moths,

chanted white spells with Wiccan’s

goths;

left pictured

rooms and halls-

become un-scriptured

hills and squalls-

in maid’s water

pouring down her

erect chalk man,

like a wild gypsy,

love tipsy

partisan,

smelling of cinnabar

and his cigar,

swirling

like whirling

clouds

while the changed wind howls.

THIS IS THE FIELD

this is not the field

for truth to grow in.

its furrowed lips are sealed

with knowing

nothing can sing

in the wrong wind.

the crop is stunted

self expression blunted

opinion gagged

and head sagged

waiting for the final blow

from the farmer’s shadow.

the field hands

cut to His commands

and every leathered face

has served in its place

like all the others, for centuries

in these peasant penitentiaries,

without bolting

or revolting

in union, except for the Tolpuddle few,

who knew what to do

but were jailed, or transported

and thwarted.

WATER AND MIST

let the world do what it does,

and when the desert

comes for us

we will be water-

sow the seeds of new ideas

replace the wars and fears

of decadent thrones

spying on the homes

of those they slaughter.

bring on the people’s revolution,

that returns our stolen

land into our hands

from these swollen

fat cats, with their final solution

and fascist FEMA plans.

let the world do what it does,

and when the guns

are turned on us

we will be mist-

eclipsing everything they’ve done

when we resist.

strike them like ghosts

in the halls of their hosts,

topple their temples of sin-

dissolve all their banks,

then their missiles and tanks,

leave no corrupted survivor-

cleanse what’s within

for a new way to begin

by severing each head from this hydra.

THE DOOR

the door

between skyfloor

topbottom

is rankrotten

portalbliss

or abjectabyss.

it contains conversations

confrontations,

hiding loves two-ings

in lost ruins-

shuts us inside our self

with or without someone else.

we,

the un-free,

disenfranchised poor

have no bowl of more-

only pain

on the same plain

as before,

homeless

or in shapeless boxes,

worked out, hunted, like urban foxes-

outlaws on common lands

stolen from empty hands.

files on us found

from gathering sound

where mutations abound

put troops on the ground.

MIND’S AND MUSK

so now

we both came

to this same

branch and bough-

no one else commutes

from different roots.

me carrying Celtic stones

with runes on skin over bones-

and you, in streams

on evicted land

trashed ancients panned-

our truth dreams

under star light crossing beams.

in here, there is no mask

of present building out the past

with gilded Shard’s of steel and glass

shutting out who shall not pass.

the tree of life breathes

a rebel destiny believes-

we are minds and musk

no more husks and dust.

THE POET SPEAKS: I like the company of people but prefer solitude. I like to listen to people talk, the way they see it and say it. For me, poetry spans our past, present and future. These poems, and those in my books, are about the themes of love, relationships, peace, war, racial, economic and sexual equality, cultural integration, poverty, mythical romance, the magic of childhood and experience of growing old as a Bohemian maverick. The strings of chance and consequences meld with music and art in Spinoza’s orderly chaos of the universe.

Life is hard and uncertain for most of us now, but also rare in our corner of the universe, so I strive to express my own understanding of it. Thinking time is my creative cove. My English teacher, Anne Ryan inspired me to write poetry when I was thirteen. The poems have grown with me and reflect much of who I am now. Some poems sleep for years. Mere jumbles of words, themes and rhythms in subconscious gaseous clouds. Their form and meaning evolve in
Spinoza’s orderly chaos. Other poems just happen, triggered by a single word or phrase, a sound, smell, or shape that relates to something from our past, present, or future. Writing a good poem makes me feel like the artist who can paint, or the musician who can play – joy in creating something that others enjoy and feel inspired to try doing themselves.

My first poetical influences were the Tin Pan Alley lyricists and composers like Sammy Cahn, Cole Porter and Rogers and Hart. I love the fun, rhythm and interplay between lyrics and music. Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen influence my poetry in the same way, allowing me to experiment with metaphor, form and rhythms.

Relationships and love are one of the main themes in my poetry. Two books which have travelled with me through life are Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Tess Of The D’urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy is a big influence on some of my work. My favourite poets who have influenced my work include: Shelley, Keats, Yeats, Auden, Dylan Thomas, Bishop, Szymborska, Langston Hughes, Plath, Art Crane, Larkin, Forough Farrokhzad, Neruda, Rumi and Heaney.

AUTHOR’S BIO: Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a
maverick, moving between forests, mountains, cities and coasts playing his saxophone and clarinet in warm solitude.

Delighted to have my two poems Exotic Birds and Life Is Flamenco published online in Poetry Life and Times. My thanks to editor Robin Hislop.

EXOTIC BIRDS & LIFE IS FLAMENCO. Poems by Strider Marcus Jones https://www.artvilla.com/plt/exotic-birds-life-is-flamenco-poems-by-strider-marcus-jones/

EXOTIC BIRDS & LIFE IS FLAMENCO. Poems by Strider Marcus Jones

February 25, 2021 by Robin Ouzman Hislop

(i.)
 
EXOTIC BIRDS
 
i love the substance
of eccentric style
in your beauty-
the enchanting glance
of old fashioned romance
in your smile
that softly soothes me
after the external joust dust
of modernity
settles
on precious metals
sought by Faustus
stealing gas and oil
from African soil.
i love the dink
in the middle of your back
where my fingers sink
when i trace and track
the road of your spine
in perfect sync
of mind with mine.
i last, near and far
in your scented clouds of cinnabar,
singing, with you, want you, words
like intoxicating exotic birds-
ready to leave poisonous suburbs
to disturbed self and same
arrogant and vain
vices and vines
embracing abyss in eclipsed times.
 
(ii.)
 
LIFE IS FLAMENCO
 
why can’t i walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
or play my Spanish guitar
like Paco,
putting rhythms and feelings
without old ceilings
you’ve never heard
before in a word.
 
life is flamenco,
to come and go
high and low
fast and slow-
 
she loves him,
he loves her
and their shades within
caress and spur
in a ride and dance
of tempestuous romance.
 
outback, in Andalucien ease,
i embrace you, like melted breeze
amongst ripe olive trees-
dark and different,
all manly scent
and mind unkempt.
 
like i do,
Picasso knew
everything about you
when he drew
your elongated arms and legs
around me, in this perpetual bed
of emotion
and motion
for these soft geometric angles
in my finger strokes
and exhaled smokes
of rhythmic bangles
to circle colour your Celtic skin
with primitive phthalo blue
pigment in wiccan tattoo
before entering
vibrating wings
through thrumming strings
of wild lucid moments
in eternal components.
 
i can walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
and play my Spanish guitar
like Paco.
 

 
 
Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales.
A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https//stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com
reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.
——————————————
His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: The Piker Press; Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.
 
 
 
 

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal. Submissions Open.

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/p/submission-guidelines.html

Editor Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones
Is the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.
He is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.
His work has been published in over 150 poetry journals, magazines, reviews and anthologies in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, India and South Africa including : Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice and Piker Press.
He is the author of five books of poetry:
Pomegranate Flesh, Wooded Windows, Mavericks, Inside Out and Aspects Of Love.
The links to his books can be found below.

For his published poetry books: Aspects Of Love; Inside Out; Mavericks; Wooded Windows and Pomegranate Flesh see:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/strider…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_s…

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_…

Read poems from his books with reviews and comments onhttp://www.wattpad.com/user/striderma.

His poetry blogs are:

http://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordp…

https://poetrybystridermarcusjones.blogspot.com/?view=timeslide

Join him on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/stridermarcu…

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15762249-mavericks

LOTHLORIEN

i’m come home again

in your Lothlorien

to marinate my mind

in your words,

and stand behind

good tribes grown blind,

trapped in old absurd

regressive reasons

and selfish treasons.

in this cast of strife

the Tree Of Life

embraces innocent ghosts,

slain by Sauron’s hosts;

and their falling cries

make us wise

enough to rise

up in a fellowship of friends

to oppose Mordor’s ends

and smote this evil stronger

and longer

for each one of us that dies.

i’m come home again

in your Lothlorien,

persuading

yellow snapdragons

to take wing

and un-fang serpent krakens,

while i bring

all the races

to resume

their bloom

as equals in equal spaces

by removing

and muting

the chorus of crickets

who cheat them from chambered thickets,

hiding corruptions older than long grass

that still fag for favours asked.

i’m come home again

in your Lothlorien

where corporate warfare

and workfare

on health

and welfare

infests our tribal bodies

and separate self

in political lobbies

so conscience can’t care

or share

worth and wealth:

to rally drones

of walking bones,

too tired

and uninspired

to think things through

and the powerless who see it true.

red unites, blue divides,

which one are you

and what will you do

when reason decides.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. Pomegranate Flesh. 

POURING OUT AND IN

i must have broken every scripture

thinking about the sculpture

of your face

your blossom face.

modelled in skin

with bones hid in

expressions

and confessions-

understanding them

i feel again

impressions of your senses

aroused when sensual steam condenses

on quivering quill and quim

pouring out and in.

smoking in the dark-

still floating, on the pillows, you used to arch

giving up to me

quaffing thirstily-

then, i stand glowing

with sweat like a god

from the peat bog

lovelust growing

mo anam chara

mo ghra.Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. Wooded Windows.

MAVERICKS

you taste of cinnamon and fish
when you wish
to be romantic-
and the ciphers of our thoughts
make ringlets with their noughts
immersed in magic-
like mithril mail around me
stove dark forest, pink flesh sea
touchings tantric-
make reality and myths
converge in elven riffs
of music, so we dance it-
symbols to the scenes
of conflict, mavericks in dreams
that now sit-
listening to these pots and kettles
blackening on the fire
of rhetoric and murderous mettles-
before we both retire
to our own script.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. Mavericks.

EVENSTAR

i wait
and listen
for the faint fall
of her footsteps
and the soft lilt
of her ethereal voice
that hangs in the air
to the shape and sound
of musical notes
that move like Degas’ dancers
around the thoughtful beauty
of her fabulous face
to become lucid
with loves weight
but weightless and warm once worn
as their essence enters me.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. Inside Out.

FALLING FOR YOU

so far back
deep in the magma of you,
with thoughts i lack
suddenly coming too.

so far back
in your words and feelings hue,
your molten track
a furnace of fire anew.

the pleasures foretold
in this word unglued,
now mine to behold
falling for you.

come love, etch your runes
onto sensuous skin,
and make my empty waiting rooms
ripple with longing.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. Aspects of Love.

Delighted to have my poems Convict Chains 15th February, 2021 and Childhood Fires 18th January, 2021 published online in The Piker Press Magazine. My thanks to editor Sand Pilarski.

Convict Chains

rich man and peasant understand
coins change hand,
despite the Magna Carta
we must all barter
to live —

only communists give
nothing
something
sometimes —
same crimes.

so, when reason rains,
i drag my convict chains
to the barrow bog
and cut peat
in feral fog
where motives meet.

six feet down,
sucked back five thousand years
the old town
settlement appears
in full formation
of chattel,
cattle
and battle
still at station
preserved
to serve.

around
the round
late night fires,
power plays and lust desires
hearth home homogenous
in Mars and Venus
making love in animal skins
wearing the same sins.

on the long walk home,
some alone
and those together,
believe never
can be changed
and are called strange.

Article © Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved.
Published on 2021-02-15
Image(s) are public domain.

Childhood Fires

late afternoon winter fingers nomads in snow numb knuckles and nails on two boys in scuffed shoes and ripped coats carrying four planks of wood from condemned houses down dark jitties slipping on dog shit into back yard to make warm fires early evening dad cooking neck end stew thick with potato dumplings and herbs on top of bread soaked in gravy i saw the hole in the ceiling holding the foot that jumped off bunk beds but dad didn’t mind he had just sawed the knob off the banister to get an old wardrobe upstairs and made us a longbow and cricket bat it was fun being poor like other families after dark all sat down reading and talking in candle light with parents silent to each other our sudden laughter like sparks glowing and fading dancing in flames and wood smoke unlike the children who died in a fire next door then we played cards and i called my dad a cunt for trumping my king but he let me keep the word Article © Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved. Published on 2021-01-18 Image(s) are public domain.

Strider Marcus Jones – is the founder, editor and publisher of Lothlorien Poetry Journal https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogs…. He is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford/Hinckley, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry are modern, traditional, mythical, sometimes erotic, surreal and metaphysical http//www.lulu.com/spotlight/stridermarcusj…. He is a maverick, moving between forests, mountains and cities, playing his saxophone and clarinet in warm solitude.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain and Switzerland in numerous publications including mgv2 Publishing Anthology:And Agamemnon Dead; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster/Anu; Outburst Poetry Magazine; The Galway Review; The Honest Ulsterman Magazine; The Lonely Crowd Magazine; Section8Magazine; Danse Macabre Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; Don’t Be Afraid: Anthology To Seamus Heaney.

Happy to have my poem Old Cafe published on Poetry in Surrey Libraries blog on 25th January, 2021. My thanks to editors J M. Gale and Neil Richards.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/01/25/old-cafe-by-strider-marcus-jones/

OLD CAFE by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on January 25, 2021 by jmgale

Image by Nuno Lopes from Pixabay 

a rest, from swinging bar
and animals in the abattoir-
to smoke in mental thinks
spoken holding cooling drinks.

counting out old coppers to be fed
in the set squares of blue and red
plastic table cloth-
just enough to break up bread in thick barley broth.

Jesus is late
after saying he was coming
back to share the wealth and real estate
of capitalist cunning.

maybe. just maybe.
put another song on the jukebox baby:
no more heroes anymore.
what are we fighting for-

he’s hiding in hymns and chants,
in those Monty Python underpants,
from this coalition of new McCarthy’s
and it’s institutions of Moriarty’s.

some shepherds sheep will do this dance
in hypothermic trance,
for one pound an hour
like a shamed flower,

watched by sinister sentinels-
while scratched tubular bells,
summon all to sunday service
where invisible myths exist- to a shamed flower
with supernatural power
come the hour.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/messymind/

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Thrilled to have my poem In The Notes Of My Guitar published on Poetry in Surrey Libraries blog on 20th January, 2021. My thanks to editors J M. Gale and Neil Richards.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/01/20/in-the-notes-of-my-guitar-by-strider-marcus-jones/

IN THE NOTES OF MY GUITAR by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on January 20, 2021 by jmgale

Image by Monica Volpin from Pixabay

i discover who you are
in the notes of my guitar-
love songs
sad songs,
good wronged
grown back songs,
plucking soft and strong
in nowhere
for somewhere
to belong.
chords fill the space
around the beauty of your face,
with lyrics in the breeze
on this road of serendipity,
where silver trees
mark the way to go, and be.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Thrilled to have my poem Life Is Flamenco published on Poetry in Surrey Libraries blog on 17th January, 2021. My thanks to editors J M. Gale and Neil Richards.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/01/17/life-is-flamenco-by-strider-marcus-jones/

LIFE IS FLAMENCO by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on January 17, 2021 by jmgale

Image by Lenny21 from Pixabay 

why can’t i walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
or play my spanish guitar
like Paco,
putting rhythms and feelings
without old ceilings
you’ve never heard
before in a word.

life is flamenco,
to come and go
high and low
fast and slow-

she loves him,
he loves her
and their shades within
caress and spur
in a ride and dance
of tempestuous romance.

outback, in Andalucien ease,
i embrace you, like melted breeze
amongst ripe olive trees-
dark and different,
all manly scent
and mind unkempt.

like i do,
Picasso knew
everything about you
when he drew
your elongated arms and legs
around me, in this perpetual bed
of emotion
and motion
for these soft geometric angles
in my finger strokes
and exhaled smokes
of rhythmic bangles
to circle colour your Celtic skin
with primitive phthalo blue
pigment in wiccan tattoo
before entering
vibrating wings
through thrumming strings
of wild lucid moments
in eternal components.

i can walk as far
and smoke more tobacco,
and play my spanish guitar
like Paco.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have my poem I Know Your Notes published on Poetry in Surrey Libraries blog on 15th January, 2021. My thanks to editors J M. Gale and Neil Richards.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/01/15/i-know-your-notes-by-by-strider-marcus-jones/

I KNOW YOUR NOTES by by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on January 15, 2021 by jmgale

Image by simisi1 from Pixabay 

sat with you,
reflections bond
over the pond
of summer solstice,

and Mr Blue
sky
with eggy eye
subliminally sends Otis

into ribbons and ripples
of hair and faces,
through sensual trickles
in hidden places

that glances bring
on summer wind.
i know your notes
tacking on water like paper boats,

and the rigging string
vibrating
through notches in the mast
so love and living last.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Really chuffed to have my poem He Plays His Flamenco Guitar published on the Poetry in Surrey Libraries blog on 12th January, 2021. My thanks to editors J M. Gale and Neil Richards. https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/he-plays-his-flamenco-guitar-by-strider-marcus-jones/

HE PLAYS HIS FLAMENCO GUITAR by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on January 12, 2021 by jmgale

Image by Edwin Valencia from Pixabay 

he plays his flamenco guitar
knowing who you are,
seducing his singer
to bring her
from bleak harbour masts
to his contrasts.
he knows the equations
of her close flirtations
and doesn’t judge her glances
for wanting what romance is-
vibrating in voices and strings
of fornicating feelings.
her prose photosynthesis
illuminates his
shades that colour mountains
and drops of wishes in mosaic fountains-
she loves the Picasso from his pen
and horse smell like Andalucian men
her reversed body senses
inside his defences-
as her sea wind
billows in his revealing
Avalon through the mist,
sweet loved, firm kissed.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have my poem The Dance published online by Dissident Voice. My thanks to the editors.

The Dance

by Strider Marcus Jones / February 7th, 2021

pull the roof off
knock the walls down
touch the forest
climb those mountains
and smell the sea
again.

watch how life
decomposes
in death
going back to land
to reform and be reborn
as something and someone else.

there’s no great secret to it all.
no need to overthink it through

food and shelter
fire and shamans
clothes and coupling
used to be enough
with musicians
artists
and poets
interpreting the dance.

then warriors with armies
religions with god
and minds buying and selling
stole the landscape
and changed time.

smash the windows
break down the doors
melt the keys
rub evil words from their spells
and puncture the lungs of their wheels

before they kidnap you from bed
call you dissident
hold you without charge
wheel you out on a stretcher
from waterboard torture
for years
without trial
in Guantanamo Bay.

they are selling
the sanctuary
we made
with our numbers
bringing back chains
making some of us slaves
outside the dance
in the five coloured rings
making winners
and losers
holding flags and flames.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. Read other articles by Strider Marcus.

This article was posted on Sunday, February 7th, 2021 at 8:03am and is filed under Poetry.

---

All content © 2007-2021 Dissident Voice and respective authors | Subscribe to the DV RSS feed | Top

The Dance

Pleased to have my short poems Woken from the Deep and Life’s Truth published online in Whispers and Echoes Magazine on January 27th, 2021 and February 1st, 2021. My thanks to Editor Sammi Cox.

Woken From The Deep | Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on January 27, 2021by sammicoxwriter

In death we die, and go to lie,

Beneath the ground, until we’re found,

And passed around

From museum to museum,

Where people push and cry:

“Move your head! We wanna see him.”

Oh Ra. It’s no fun being a mummy-

When you’re woken from the deep:

So when they put the lights out,

I’ll just go back to sleep.

Woken From The Deep | Strider Marcus Jones

Life’s Truth | Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on February 1, 2021by sammicoxwriter

Life’s a foaming cobbled

Stream of peoples lives,

And loves a fragrant fantasy

We can’t deny:

Strife’s a bitter apathy

We can’t escape,

And war’s a grim reality

We choose to make.

Life’s Truth | Strider Marcus Jones

---

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: The Piker Press; Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have 3 poems published in Impspired Magazine, Issue 9 on 1st February, 2021 along with some great poets. My thanks to brilliant editor Steve Cawte on this amazing magazine.

SUMMER WIND

 you remind me of the rhythms in myself-
 no house to play to
 or the sound in someone else-
 that drives their dreams
 in simple scenes.
 
 your music, is the motion of the waves
 soul troubled too-
 by yesterdays,
 searching for a sigh that isn’t wrong
 to be its song.
 
 your meadow, is a harvest shimmering
 in light and hue,
 in summer wind,
 waiting, for a stranger passing through-
 to settle in its simmering.
 
 taste the rain
 and take it in you,
 long for it to come again-
 meanings grow when fates continue
 to reach for reasons, and remain.
 

WHEN THE ROAD FORKS

 soft scented ring
 on straightened bow,
 the joy you bring
 inside me now-
 
 the candle burning, slowly down,
 the mirror showing more of you-
 arched back and shoulders golden brown,
 hips rock, hair tumbling too-
 
 as hope and passion rise and fall
 in symmetry and space,
 the perfect beauty of it all,
 enraptures face and place-
 
 and be it now, or beyond this,
 with gentle hands and loves soft kiss-
 to trace your smile and touch your thoughts,
 still, after this, when the road forks.
 

ADUMBRATE LOVES SHALLOWS

 goddess of the moon
 fusion of light and shadow,
 come now, light my room-
 make darkness shrink and narrow.
 
 gravitate to me
 awake inside un-natural light,
 half written, half unknown i be
 eclipsed in doubt, but inward bright.
 
 bring your blooms to this fallow bed
 alone in fates sad stare,
 wrap me in your ethereal thread,
 to reset time and covet care.
 
 adumbrate loves shallows
 in my sanctum core,
 where the pastels fade and pallow
 without depth and shade on dwindling shore.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones 


Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.
His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.
 
 

Delighted to have my poem The Latitude of Love published in Dreich Magazine’s themed chapbook – Things to do with love. My thanks to brilliant editor Jack Caradoc.

THE LATITUDE OF LOVE

the latitude of love

paddles an imperial pedalo

in someone’s waters-

and i had to go

native in a foreign land

to understand

where my own backward blood

has brought us.

in the mosque

in the mihrab

in Cordoba,

no one is lost

as Christian and Arab

respect how they cross over.

inside:

the scallop shell,

with it’s white marble hood

and cathedral bell

above ancient wood,

keeps everyone equal and safe from hell-

but outside:

other forces blow the people and their pedalo.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. From his fourth book Wooded Windows.

Chuffed to have my short poem Metal Mania published in the January 2021 issue of First Literary Review-East. My thanks to editor Cindy Sostchen-Hochman.

http://www.rulrul.4mg.com/?fbclid=IwAR2BWXwZp7WpR5C9Rs-CLjEntzjVVrgX37msvkdDgfcnUwq9vSmCqVe5Nhc

Metal Mania

Metal mania
In twisted sculpture;
Welded gods
With scornful eyes—
Inhabit the space of neon galleries
Amused by all the gossip and lies
Oozing from
In the know la de das
Who soak their boredom
In high-class bars.

                                                         —Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate, and former civil servant from Salford, England, with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

Welcome to Lothlorien Poetry Journal founded by poet, editor and publisher Strider Marcus Jones. Submissions OPEN.

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/p/submission-guidelines.html

https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/p/editor-strider-marcus-jones.html

1.  Submissions are always open and free.  Lothlorien Poetry Journalpublishes periodically throughout the year.
     * Poems:  Include 1-5 poems in the body of your email or attached as a word doc in font  Times New Roman 12-14 point, 150 lines or less. I also consider Haiku, Senyru and Tanka (minimum 5 each) and video poetry readings. Title your submission – eg. Poetry Submission by John Smith and  send to LothlorienPoetryJournal@outlook.com. Also include a brief bio of 200 words or less and your photo.
OR
     * Flash Fiction: Include 1 flash fiction piece, no more than 1000 words in the body of your email or attached as a word doc in font Times New Roman 12-14 point. Title your submission – eg. Flash Fiction Submission by John Smith and send to LothlorienPoetryJournal@outlook.com. Also include a brief bio of 200 words or less and your photo.
* DO NOT SEND POEMS AND FLASH FICTION AT THE SAME TIME.

2.  We prefer unpublished poetry/flash fiction but will consider previously published work if the publishing rights have reverted back to you as author and you credit the original publisher. Do not send simultaneous submissions.
3.  If published, please wait two weeks before submitting again.  If your submission is rejected, please wait one month before submitting again.

4.  Failure to follow these simple guidelines will ensure that your submission is immediately deleted.  I have many submissions to read through and do not have the time to reply to someone and explain why I can’t accept their submission.
5.  Lothlorien Poetry Journal acquires exclusive one-time online/electronic and print rights to publish poetry and to maintain archives that contain current material.  After publication, all rights revert to the author.  If the work should be published in the future, Lothlorien Poetry Journalasks only for credit.
6.  All works will be published on a rolling basis.  Expect a wait time of 2-4 weeks for a response.
7) Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to pay our contributors but we will promote the work we publish on Facebook and Twitter. We hope to see your poems soon.
8) Lothlorien Poetry Journal publishes periodically, 2 or 3 issues every year, so every 6 or 4 months. Contributors to each issue ( selected from the best work published on the Journal’s Blog ) will be notified prior to publication and will receive a free word doc copy of the issue that features their work. A print and E-book version of each issue will be available to purchase on Amazon Books and Lulu.com.
Lothlorien Poetry Journal nominates for the Pushcart Prize.

*  Help spread the beauty of Lothlorien Poetry Journal.  Submit, follow, join the site and invite your friends.

Delighted to have 3 poems published in Literary Yard e-Journal on December 31st, 2020. My thanks to the editors.

https://literaryyard.com/2020/12/31/we-move-the-wheel-and-other-poems-by-strider-marcus-jones/

‘We move the wheel’ and other poems by Strider Marcus Jones

BY AUTHOR ON DECEMBER 31, 2020 • ( 1 COMMENT )

By: Strider Marcus Jones

WE MOVE THE WHEEL

we move the wheel
that turns through each mistake,
giving motion
to the roles we chime
until both trickle out of time
like brittle steel
that rusts and breaks
into lapsed devotion.

less, or more,
you imagined it was sure
sharing the road
with you,
treading under dark, grey and blue
sky, wondering where it went going
to unfold
in fates wind blowing
fondling your full face
to some top-to-bottom place.

we have moved the wheel,
only to reveal
our high Metropolis
is still the same Acropolis
of extremes and obscenes
spreading gangrenous genes.

we have separated Dream from Time
and live in mirages
like Bacchus and Libera
duped in an era
condoning crime,
altering the images
of it’s illustrious self
stealing the wealth
of massed, divided synergies.

###

THE HERMIT

off rink
i think
and sit
like a hermit
but time
isn’t mine
to design.
the images erased
from memory in this cave
reverses the lathe
of shaped corruption
to avoid self destruction.
to an unseen, individual,
prime residual
unlit spark in the integral
strum of strings
that turns in revolutions rings,
the equal hands on the cosmic clock,
plays rhythms we know
but have forgot,
neither quick or slow,
but just so, with natures tow.
this solitary Eden,
paradise without our seed in
beneath the clouds of atmosphere,
alters with us here
overthrowing Older Orders without consent
in the deafening, silent firmament
and near
in conditioned fear.

###

I WANT TO BEND TIME

I want more time
To ponder life,
For understanding
In the cosmic soup.
I want to bend time
To travel backwards and forwards,
To see what was and what will be
To fathom actions and consequences.
I want to unmould time
From how we shape it,
To be free of it
Unchained to think.
I want to teleport
To the past and now and on from here,
Faster than light
In the nothingness it takes to make a thought:
To find the answer-
To where we come from
To who we are
To why we are here
And where we are going
To be free from time.

###

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

Thrilled to have my poem Fallen Lintels published in Oddball Magazine on January 6th, 2021. My thanks to editor Chad Parenteau and photographer Jennifer Matthews.

Poem by Strider Marcus Jones

• By Chad Parenteau|January 6th, 2021|Authors and Artists|0 Comments

Photography © Jennifer Matthews

Fallen Lintels

it was summertime
with flowers colouring the pantomime
in feudal fields
as i walked on flat wheels
with your humming bird in my head
from the tropical warm of your bed-
where we bent the grass again
and made the rain
that doesn’t come from clouds
dampen skin rumpled shrouds.

i watched your beauty glisten sweetly
while i held you like Bernini
before you went to work
flaked in bark of silver birch
naked chalice south
and siren priestess mouth
of pagan church.

you were converting fussy ghosts
and their sullen hosts
from bribed tribes
walking past without guides-
some, so inverted and duped
like shades with every ethic stooped
labouring like quislings
under Darwinist siblings-
slowly drifting back to druid stones
that serve us more than glorious domes,
more equal in each equinox
of chaos turning natures clock.

i know, i ramble for reasons
to make sense of changing seasons-
and find none
where i am one-
only fallen lintels on the floor
like broken words that speak no more
at sunrise and sunset
remembering what we forget.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between forests, mountains, cities and coasts playing his saxophone and clarinet in warm solitude.

Poet/Photographer Jennifer Matthews’ poetry has been published in Nepal by Pen Himalaya and locally by the Wilderness Retreat Writers Organization, Midway Journal, The Somerville Times, Ibbetson Street Press and Boston Girl Guide. Jennifer was nominated for a poetry award by the Cambridge Arts Council for her book of Poetry Fairy Tales and Misdemeanors. Her songs have been released nationally and internationally and her photography has been used as covers for a number of Ibbetson Street Press poetry books and has been exhibited at The Middle East Restaurant, 1369 Coffeehouses, Sound Bites Restaurant in Somerville and McLean Hospital.

Lovely to have my poem Composers and Mistakes published in Nymphs Literary Journal on January 4th, 2020. My thanks to editor Julia Retkova.

https://nymphspublications.com/new-blog/composers-and-mistakes-by-strider-marcus-jones

NymphsPUBLICATIONSABOUTSUBMISSIONS

‘Composers and Mistakes’ by Strider Marcus Jones

when I see the evening,

with it’s ordinary sounds and shapes

so full of unbelieving

composers and mistakes

coming in-

something wakes,

and I begin.

what I can’t affect

is getting colder

as I grow older,

retreating inside-

I could be your wreck

if I was bolder

and called you over,

over this side-

through the honeysuckle arch of midnight,

moon like a lid bright

shield in the sky;

on the grass

where footsteps last

in this light-

making a cast

where you walked by.

---

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

January 4, 2021

Delighted to have 5 of my poems published in Issue 131 of Danse Macabre online Magazine on 4th January, 2020. My thanks to the editors.

https://dansemacabreonline.wixsite.com/neudm/strider-marcus-jones-131

Strider Marcus Jones

Poetry

​

The Portal in the Woods

​

Seeing somnambulist sunrise

Through open window

Touch your face

After love rides

On moon tides

In ebb and flow

At tantric pace-

Love resides

Tasted

No asides

Wasted

Spices of the flesh

Soaking rooms in Marrakesh

How I ate your truffle in Zanzibar

While you smoked my long cigar.

Back home-

Tribes of bloods

And druids roam

Seeking out the overgrown

Portal in the woods

Where we hondfast

In this present of the past

Dance chanting

In stone bone circles

Like ooparts

Practicing

Magical arts

Settling

What chaos hurtles-

Reconnecting rhythms

In living and dead

To those algorithms

In nature’s head.

We are rustic-

Romantic

In land and sky

The  air  fire  water

To warriors who slaughter

If Us or Them must die.

We wake

For clambake

Pleasure

In a cauldron lake

Of limbs together

Then cut sods of peat

From the bog under our feet

Exposing the pasts

That never last.

Cubist Ghettos

I think

To shrink

The distance

Of resistance

Inside self

To all else-

Knowing

Showing

Vulnerability

In the mystery

Leaves what is closed

Openly exposed-

To explanation

Under examination

When there isn’t one

That hasn’t gone

Until roof floor and sky door

Are no more-

Only roulette rubbles

Of drone troubles

Imprisoning

Reasoning

In cubist ghettos

Wearing jazz stilettos-

Flashing flamingo legs

To pink paradise Harlem heads

While new trees grow up mute

And ripen with strange fruit

Some whites too this time

A drowned boy me and mine.

The Forest of Forgets

i don’t do remembers, or regrets,
not knowing, i belong in what comes next-
without the edge and angle of pretext,
find me in the forest of forgets-

watching your perfections dance and breathe
in my fires flames then read out gypsy leaves;
imagining your whispers in the wind and trees-
before they fade, and fall, and leave.

back inside the house, picture rails
of love hang empty
from bent hooks, that promised plenty,
leaving frameless tales in musty trails-

to dusty cabinets of more
trinkets and traces-
whose duality displaces
sky and floor.

The Head in His Fedora Hat

a lonely man,

cigarette,

rain

and music

is a poem

moving,

not knowing-

a caravan,

whose journey does not expect

to go back

and explain

how everyone’s ruts

have the same

blood and vein.

the head in his fedora hat

bows to no one’s grip,

brim tilted into the borderless

plain

so his outlaw wit

can confess

and remain

a storyteller,

that hobo fella

listening like a barfly

for a while

and slow-winged butterfly

whose smile

they can’t close the shutters on

or stop talking about

when he walks out

and is gone.

whisky and tequila

and a woman, who loves to feel ya

inside

and outside

her

when ya move

and live as one,

brings you closer

in simplistic

unmaterialistic

grooved

muse Babylon.

this is so,

when he stands with hopes head,

arms and legs

all aflow

in her Galadriel glow

with mithril breath kisses

condensing sensed wishes

of reality and dream

felt and seen

under that

fedora hat

inhaling smoke

as he sang and spoke

stranger fella

storyteller.

 

Hopper’s Ladies

​

you stay and grow

more mysterioso

but familiar

in my interior-

with voices peeled

full of field

of fruiting orange trees

fertile to orchard breeze

soaked in summer rains

so each refrain all remains.

not afraid of contrast,

closed and opened in the past

and present, this isolation of Hopper’s ladies,

sat, thinking in and out of ifs and maybes

in a diner, reading on a chair or bed

knowing what wants to be said

to someone

who is coming or gone-

such subsidence

into silence

is a unilateral curve

of moments

and movements

that swerve

a straight lifetime

to independence

in dependence

touching sublime

rich roots

then ripe fruits.

we share their flesh and flutes

in ribosomes and delicious shoots

that release love-

no, not just the fingered glove

to wear

and curl up with in a chair,

but loving kindness

cloaked in timeless

density and tone

in settled loam-

beyond lonely apartments in skyscrapers

and empty newspapers,

or small town life

gutting you with gossip’s knife.

​

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from England with deep Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry are modern, traditional, mythical, sometimes erotic, surreal and metaphysical. When not writing, he can be heard playing his saxophone and clarinet (just ask his neighbours). 

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including DM; mgv2 Publishing Anthology; And Agamemnon Dead; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster/Anu; Outburst Poetry Magazine; The Galway Review; The Honest Ulsterman Magazine; The Lonely Crowd Magazine; Section 8 Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; Don’t Be Afraid: Anthology To Seamus Heaney; Dead Snakes Poetry Magazine; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Syzygy Poetry Journal Issue 1 and Ammagazine/Angry Manifesto Issue 3.

https://dansemacabreonline.wixsite.com/neudm/copy-of-entr%C3%A9e-dm-130

Thrilled to have my poem ‘I Want What Ordinary Others Want’ Published in dyst Literary Journal Issue 4 in December 2020. My thanks to editor Rosey Ravelston.

dyst Issue #4

I WANT WHAT ORDINARY OTHERS WANT

i want

what others want-

synchronicity

and simplicity

in life of free will-

sharing some land

i can work with my hands

no more slave still-

time trapped.

lines tapped.

steps tagged.

voice gagged.

this elite mafia

of Orwell and Kafka

has built Metropolis

on old Acropolis-

reducing proles

to zombie roles

in constitutions

of constructed evolutions,

with blood to dust faiths

riding like dark wraiths

bullets shredding

bombing and beheading

the innocents

and dissidents

to steal their lot

and not share what you’ve got.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. All Rights Reserved.

Delighted to have 3 poems published in Dreich Magazine Extra 2 ‘Winter’ edition in December 2020. My thanks to editor Jack Caradoc.

Winter Dreich Xtra2

THE PATH, THE FENCE, THE FIELDS

we walk by the river
talking inside ourselves,
like rhapsodies in two reflections-
different, but the same.

the path, the fence, the fields-
unknown obstacles that stare
through then, and now, beyond-
have heard love chime before.

ahead the river breaks
going separate ways,
but we stick to the same side
in the willow woods

and farms of flooded fields-
with ascension stroking
each reaction
phosphorous in the rain.

SO IT GOES

when i look back
in a moment
of quiet acquired dignity
that comes to some
with age,
it is with patience,
for i was much the same
when everything seemed bigger
than it was
as uncertainty
wore the other shoe to confidence
and followed it step for step.

the energy of youth
that often acts
without respect and understanding-
to bluff and blag its way
in fashion and musical rebellion-
skips like stones
on the ponds of those who have it all
from Parliaments revolution-
but their ripples wane
through treacled trends
in this dumbed down democracy
soothed by drugs and drink.

apathy watches and laughs
at these new roundheads and royals-
jigging their booty
to tunes composed
by capitalist cavaliers-
wearing each despotic Emperor’s new clothes,
and a known assassins kiss of death
waits for anyone who questions-

so it goes.

MEPHISTOPHELES IS NOT ABOUT

this coffee is hot-

but paradise is cold,

and Mephistopheles is not

about, tempting me with gold

and pouting pleasures of the flesh

with their alluring mesh-

so Morpheus to hold

in broken secrets being told.

this dreamer in his underwear,

parts from the bottle, and leaves it there-

some touched,

not much

with stale camembert-

no fun alone,

moving around inside, unknown-

disturbed from bed to chair.

it synchronizes well,

how past and present both compel

a sleep on understanding-

the beat of love with sand in

the texture of its taste,

trapped in silence,

waxed to waste-

with nothings nonsense

in its face.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. All Rights Reserved.

Really chuffed to have 3 poems published in Necro Magazine, Issue 4, Winter 2020 – Culture. My thanks to the editor Ruben Baca.

Click to access Cultureissue4necromagazine.pdf

IN MAID’S WATER

we’ve left the well-footed

road,

the rutted

and rebutted

road

of shadows cast

by towered glass.

opened closed curtains

for fusty moths,

chanted white spells with Wiccan’s

goths;

left pictured

rooms and halls-

become un-scriptured

hills and squalls-

in maid’s water

pouring down her

erect chalk man,

like a wild gypsy,

love tipsy

partisan,

smelling of cinnabar

and his cigar,

swirling

like whirling

clouds

while the changed wind howls.

TWO MISFITS

it was no time
for love outside-
old winds of worship
found hand and mouth
in ruined rain
slanting over cultured fields
into pagan barns
with patched up planks
finding us two misfits.

i felt the pulse
of your undressed fingers
transmit thoughts
to my senses-
aroused by autumn scents
of milky musk
and husky hay
in this barn’s faith
we climbed the rungs of civilisation
so random in our exile-

and found a bell
housed inside a minaret-
with priest and muezzin
sharing its balcony-
summoning all to prayer
with one voice-
this holy music, was only the wind
blowing through the weathervane,
but we liked its tone to change its time.

THE DOOR

the door

between skyfloor

topbottom

is rankrotten

portalbliss

or abjectabyss.

it contains conversations

confrontations,

hiding loves two-ings

in lost ruins-

shuts us inside our self

with or without someone else.

we,

the un-free,

disenfranchised poor

have no bowl of more-

only pain

on the same plain

as before,

homeless

or in shapeless boxes,

worked out, hunted, like urban foxes-

outlaws on common lands

stolen from empty hands.

files on us found

from gathering sound

where mutations abound

put troops on the ground.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved.

Delighted to have 5 of my poems published in The Aurora Journal, Winter 2020 Volume on 28th December, 2020. My thanks to the editors.

https://www.theaurorajournal.org/the-journal-1

I WANT WHAT ORDINARY OTHERS WANT

Strider Marcus Jones

i want
what others want–
synchronicity
and simplicity
in life of free will–
sharing some land
i can work with my hands
no more slave still.

time trapped.
lines tapped.
steps tagged.
voice gagged.

this elite mafia
of Orwell and Kafka
has built Metropolis
on old Acropolis,

reducing proles
to zombie roles
in constitutions
of constructed evolutions,

with blood to dust faiths
riding like dark wraiths
bullets shredding
bombing and beheading

the innocents
and dissidents
to steal their lot
and not share what you’ve got.

THE CUP

Strider Marcus Jones

a smelted celebration of victory
and carnal coronation
moulded in dark history–
the chalice divine
to inhuman crime,
blessing unjust law
and futile war.

my dearest holds the coffee
i pour into me,
or sometimes tea
when i want to see
who is different
in the present.

upturning the cup
and turning it such
to read the leaves–
a gypsy’s lore
and ancient blood
has always understood–

who and what
controls the plot,
keeps us in the base and dregs
looking up, without the legs
to climb the slippery clay
into dark deceit
counterfeit
deception and decay.

take back how to think,
stand at your own sink
and wash away
this cold custodian,
old Eton and Bostonian
suited slick affray–

of corporate hoodies
and big house bullies
hunting and shooting
laughing and looting,
smeared in oils that anoint
herding us to the vanishing point.

THE DANCE

Strider Marcus Jones

pull the roof off
knock the walls down
touch the forest
climb those mountains
and smell the sea
again.

watch how life
decomposes
in death.

going back to the land
to reform and be reborn
as something and someone else.

there’s no great secret to it all.
no need to overthink it through.

food and shelter,
fire and shamans.
clothes and coupling
used to be enough
with musicians
artists
and poets
interpreting the dance.

then warriors with armies,
religions with god,
minds buying and selling
stole the landscape
and changed time.

smash the windows,
break down the doors.
melt the keys,
rub evil words from their spells
and puncture the lungs of their wheels

before they kidnap you from bed,
call you dissident,
hold you without charge,
wheel you out on a stretcher
from waterboard torture
for years,
without trial,
in Guantanamo Bay.

they are selling
the sanctuary we made
with our numbers,
bringing back chains,
making some of us slaves.
outside, the dance
in the five coloured rings
making winners
and losers,

holding flags and flames.

THE DOOR

Strider Marcus Jones

the door
between skyfloor,
topbottom,

is rankrotten,

portalbliss,
abjectabyss.

it contains conversations,
confrontations,
hiding loving two-ings

in lost ruins-

it shuts us inside ourself
with or without someone else.

we,
the un-free,
disenfranchised poor
have no bowl of more-
only pain.
on the same plain
as before,
homeless,
or in shapeless boxes,
worked out, hunted, like urban foxes–
outlaws on common lands,
stolen from empty hands.

files on us found
from gathering sound
where mutations abound
put troops on the ground.

HOPPER’S LADIES

Strider Marcus Jones

you stay and grow more mysterious
but familiar,
in my interior-
with voices peeled full of field
of fruiting orange trees,
fertile to orchard breeze,
soaked in summer rains,
so each refrain all remains.

not afraid of contrast,
closed and opened in the past
and present, this isolation of Hopper’s ladies,
sat, thinking in and out of ifs and maybes
in a diner, reading on a chair or bed.
knowing what wants to be said to someone
who is coming or gone,

such subsidence into silence
is a unilateral curve of moments
and movements that swerve
a straight lifetime to independence,
in dependence, touching sublime rich roots,
then ripe fruits.

we share their flesh and flutes.
in ribosomes and delicious shoots that release love.
no, not just the fingered glove. to wear
and curl up with in a chair,
but lovingkindness.

cloaked in timeless
density and tone,
in settled loam,
beyond lonely apartments in skyscrapers
and empty newspapers,
or small town life. but

gutting you
with gossip’s knife.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate, and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India, and Switzerland in numerous publications including Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Stunned and humbled by this perceptive 5 star review of my 5th book Pomegranate Flesh on Goodreads by author M T Ceres. Thankyou. Most appreciated.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16083164-pomegranate-flesh

 

Pomegranate Flesh

by Strider Marcus Jones (Goodreads Author) 4.60  ·   Rating details ·  10 ratings  ·  6 reviewsRead 40/75 poems, and reviews from this book free on wattpad http://www.wattpad.com/story/1880383-…

IN THIS BOOK

i’ve set so many fires
in the deepest desires
on this road
and am close
to what they hold-
the most
for human love
and equal revolution
without the bloody fist and glove
of brutal evolution.
see, how gold cartel caravans
and religions in corrupt polarity
have usurped the pagan
shrines of all humanity-
making us serfs again
in unframed Lothlorien,
in chains that were strings,
ciliced by mortifications mesh,
while our mind and limbs
long for love’s pomegranate flesh.

The poems in this collection show Strider’s gift of being able to weave words into creative and surprising configurations. He manipulates words to do his will, taming them with his love for the sounds, rhythms and cadence of language. The result is poetry that is fresh, wild, sensual, and new. His poetry lulls the reader into hypnotic and sensual trances with imaginative renderings of lush landscapes of the mind, body,and nature. Pomegranate Flesh is a wonderful compilation of poems, resonating with a poet’s passion for life, love, and language.

The Pomegranate is the national fruit and symbol of Armenia. It represents fertility, abundance and marriage. One ancient custom widely accepted in ancient Armenia was performed at weddings. A bride was given a pomegranate fruit, which she threw against a wall, breaking it into pieces. Scattered pomegranate seeds ensured the bride future children.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/strider-marc…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pomegranate-F…(less)

GET A COPY

• Amazon UK
• Online Stores ▾
• Book Links ▾

Paperback, First Edition, 128 pagesPublished October 10th 2012 by Lulu PressISBN1291117318 (ISBN13: 9781291117318)Edition LanguageEnglishOther EditionsNone foundAll Editions | Add a New Edition | Add an Alternate Cover Edition | Combine…Less DetailEdit Details

FRIEND REVIEWS (10) 5.00 average rating

Jul 13, 2020M.T. Ceres rated it – it was amazing

This was a gift from my daughter because it contains one of my all time favourite poems, ‘Lothlorien’, and what a poem this is.
The words skip and dance hypnotically to create a poem that has a real epic feel to it – I could honestly read a book of Lothlorien – the rhythm feels soporific, but suddenly a line will appear that punches you right in your conscience. A wonderful weave of fantasy and reality with tension between the natural in terms of tribe and habitat with the unnatural in terms of politics and corporate corruption. Reads like a song, reminds me of the tempo of some classical epics like the Ancient Mariner.

There are so many poems I loved in Pomegranate Flesh, notably the title poem but another absolute favourite was ‘Childhood Fires’ for its honesty, descriptive power and the well crafted positioning of the poets background in terms of class and family. In my opinion, this is a well delivered slice of social history in poetic form, that avoids caricature due to the poets skill in painting a picture with words, that evoke strongly poignant memory. Stylistically, for me, it was evocative of Ken Loaches ‘Kes’. Timeless and Northern. A brilliant poem.

 

Over the moon to have my poem The Ascent of Money published online on by Cajun Mutt Press on 25th December, 2020. My thanks to its brilliant editor James D. Casey IV.

https://cajunmuttpress.wordpress.com/2020/12/25/cajun-mutt-press-featured-writer-12-25-20/

Cajun Mutt Press Featured Writer 12/25/20

December 25, 2020James D. Casey IV

THE ASCENT OF MONEY

the stars are those
we have forgotten
both living and dead,
floating in clustered constellations
not labouring in rows-
with hair growing grey
and teeth going rotten
singing songs, God’s godless pray.
harvesting crops.
chants drowned in clocks
of tobacco and cotton,
the peasants and slaves of civilised nations
duped by liberty
in recent history-
dug out canals, made railways and roads
out of tarmac to tread-
into factories
like tribal junkies
hooked on cheap gin and beer instead
of joining the cholera’s watery dead-
ten to a room in a slum and led-
like human batteries,
sleeping without moonlight
on sarsen stones,
or druid voices in their homes-
where thoughts have no dreams or flight,
just sleep, recharge, get bled.
you have to be poor,
to think utopia
can be something real-
not to exploit or steal
that ambrosia aura of women and children and men
for the spoken wages of despair-
that suck you in,
glad but grim
when time’s clock punches that card by the door
and mass myopia
conditions all to labour, keyboard and pen
for food and shelter with a roof and fourth wall
shanty made out of cardboard, wood and tin
in sunny Sao Paolo, where the samba rain leaks in
while orphaned children beg and play
eating the forage of capitalist waste
dodging death squads night and day
imitating Socrates at football to hope to taste
what’s inside the cold, glistening towers
casting invisible powers
behind the smoked glass and soldiers of stone
leaving blood and bleached bone
from over there-
where the ascent of money doesn’t care
about it all
because its infinity is small.

©2020 Strider Marcus Jones All rights reserved.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between forests, mountains, cities and coasts playing his saxophone and clarinet in warm solitude.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including mgv2 Publishing Anthology; And Agamemnon Dead; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster/Anu; Outburst Poetry Magazine; The Galway Review; The Honest Ulsterman Magazine; The Lonely Crowd Magazine; Section8Magazine; Danse Macabre Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; Don’t Be Afraid: Anthology To Seamus Heaney; Dead Snakes Poetry Magazine; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Syzygy Poetry Journal Issue 1 and Ammagazine/Angry Manifesto Issue 3.

Delighted to have my poem Minds and Musk published in The Open Culture Collective Volume 2 – Identity. My thanks to the editors.

https://toccollective.wixsite.com/tocc/identity-tocc-download

Minds and Musk

poem by Strider Marcus Jones

so now
we both came
to this same
branch and bough-
no one else commutes
from different roots.
me carrying Celtic stones
with runes on skin over bones-
and you, in streams
on evicted land
trashed ancients panned-
our truth dreams
under star light crossing beams.
in here, there is no mask
of present building out the past
with gilded Shard’s of steel and glass
shutting out who shall not pass.
the tree of life breathes
a rebel destiny believes-
we are minds and musk
no more husks and dust.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. All Rights Reserved.

Strider Marcus Jones is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry can be viewed at https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/

Happy to have 5 poems published online in Five Willows Literary Review on 20th December, 2020. My thanks to editor Koon Woon.

https://www.fivewillowsliteraryreview.com/2020/12/marcus-jones-portal-in-woods-seeing.html

Strider Marcus Jones

THE PORTAL IN THE WOODS

Seeing somnambulist sunrise

Through open window

Touch your face

After love rides

On moon tides

In ebb and flow

At tantric pace-

Love resides

Tasted

No asides

Wasted

Spices of the flesh

Soaking rooms in Marrakesh

How I ate your truffle in Zanzibar

While you smoked my long cigar.

Back home-

Tribes of bloods

And druids roam

Seeking out the overgrown

Portal in the woods

Where we hondfast

In this present of the past

Dance chanting

In stone bone circles

Like ooparts

Practicing

Magical arts

Settling

What chaos hurtles-

Reconnecting rhythms

In living and dead

To those algorithms

In natures head.

We are rustic-

Romantic

In land and sky

The  air  fire  water

To warriors who slaughter

If Us or Them must die.

We wake

For clambake

Pleasure

In a cauldron lake

Of limbs together

Then cut sods of peat

From the bog under our feet

Exposing the pasts

That never last.

CUBIST GHETTOS

I think

To shrink

The distance

Of resistance

Inside self

To all else-

Knowing

Showing

Vulnerability

In the mystery

Leaves what is closed

Openly exposed-

To explanation

Under examination

When there isn’t one

That hasn’t gone

Until roof floor and sky door

Are no more-

Only roulette rubbles

Of drone troubles

Imprisoning

Reasoning

In cubist ghettos

Wearing jazz stilettos-

Flashing flamingo legs

To pink paradise Harlem heads

While new trees grow up mute

And ripen with strange fruit

Some whites too this time

A drowned boy me and mine.

THE FOREST OF FORGETS

i don’t do remembers, or regrets,
not knowing, i belong in what comes next-
without the edge and angle of pretext,
find me in the forest of forgets-

watching your perfections dance and breathe
in my fires flames then read out gypsy leaves;
imagining your whispers in the wind and trees-
before they fade, and fall, and leave.

back inside the house, picture rails
of love hang empty
from bent hooks, that promised plenty,
leaving frameless tales in musty trails-

to dusty cabinets of more
trinkets and traces-
whose duality displaces
sky and floor.

THE HEAD IN HIS FEDORA HAT

a lonely man,

cigarette,

rain

and music

is a poem

moving,

not knowing-

a caravan,

whose journey does not expect

to go back

and explain

how everyone’s ruts

have the same

blood and vein.

the head in his fedora hat

bows to no one’s grip,

brim tilted into the borderless

plain

so his outlaw wit

can confess

and remain

a storyteller,

that hobo fella

listening like a barfly

for a while

and slow-winged butterfly

whose smile

they can’t close the shutters on

or stop talking about

when he walks out

and is gone.

whisky and tequila

and a woman, who loves to feel ya

inside

and outside

her

when ya move

and live as one,

brings you closer

in simplistic

unmaterialistic

grooved

muse Babylon.

this is so,

when he stands with hopes head,

arms and legs

all aflow

in her Galadriel glow

with mithril breath kisses

condensing sensed wishes

of reality and dream

felt and seen

under that

fedora hat

inhaling smoke

as he sang and spoke

stranger fella

storyteller.

HOPPER’S LADIES

you stay and grow

more mysterioso

but familiar

in my interior-

with voices peeled

full of field

of fruiting orange trees

fertile to orchard breeze

soaked in summer rains

so each refrain all remains.

not afraid of contrast,

closed and opened in the past

and present, this isolation of Hopper’s ladies,

sat, thinking in and out of ifs and maybes

in a diner, reading on a chair or bed

knowing what wants to be said

to someone

who is coming or gone-

such subsidence

into silence

is a unilateral curve

of moments

and movements

that swerve

a straight lifetime

to independence

in dependence

touching sublime

rich roots

then ripe fruits.

we share their flesh and flutes

in ribosomes and delicious shoots

that release love-

no, not just the fingered glove

to wear

and curl up with in a chair,

but lovingkindness

cloaked in timeless

density and tone

in settled loam-

beyond lonely apartments in skyscrapers

and empty newspapers,

or small town life

gutting you with gossips knife.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. All Rights Reserved.

Honoured to have my poem “A Shaman Speaks” published in Issue 7 of Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal on 16th December, 2020. My thanks to editor Mysti S. Milwee.

https://sequoyahcherokeeriverjournal.wordpress.com/2020/12/16/sequoyah-cherokee-river-journal-7/

A SHAMAN SPEAKS

Bird sun-dance
On blue water:
Eagle fly
Free in sky.

Salt flats basin
Great white sea
Bare of grass
And prairie tree.

Shadow That Comes Inside
Says the white-man’s wasting kiss,
Grows because he does not know,
Where the center of the Earth is.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. All Rights Reserved.

ISSUE 7

From the Editor: Mysti S. Milwee

Congratulations to all my fellow brothers and sisters that have contributed to Issue 7 of Sequoyah Cherokee River Journal. Warmest Welcome, y’all have a “uwoduhi adanvto” (beautiful spirit). Issue 7 highlights a rather diverse beautiful collection of Poetry and Prose; Collaborations in Art and Poetry; Photography and Art Photography that transcends with beauty evoking nature, beauty, animals, and Native American culture. The Cover Art “HARVESTING THE FALL” is rendered by the Editor and is an ekphrastic collaboration with poetess Venus Jones. I hope you all enjoy and share the beauty of this issue with fellow poets and creatives in the world. Thank you for contributing!

Congratulations to the following fellow contributors for Issue 7:

* Venus Jones & Editor Mysti S. Milwee

* Winston Derden

* Tali Cohen Shabtai

* Kathryn Kuklinski

* Carl Scharwath & Annette Nasser (Collaboration)

* Nivedita Karthik

* Stacy Savage

* Ermira Mitre Kokomani

* Joshua Corwin

* Strider Marcus Jones

* Marc Carswell

Really chuffed to have five of my poems published in Academy of the Heart and Mind Literary Magazine on 5th December, 2020. My thanks to the editor..

https://academyoftheheartandmind.wordpress.com/2020/12/05/become-transhuman-and-other-poems/

DECEMBER 5, 2020ACADEMYOFTHEHEARTANDMINDFICTION, POETRY

Become Transhuman and Other Poems

By Strider Marcus Jones

Become Transhuman

mop my stain
of thoughts
from their existence,
before they grow too old
and follow me,
into disrepair
and rigid ways-
but leave one drop
of luminous ribosome
to feed its reason
if i choose to let mortality
become transhuman,
then i, so acting shaped
to mime and mummer
like a paradise peacock
in a rainy coat of chaos-
would delete myself
born blind, gone wise.

When The Day Breaks Down

when the day breaks down,
i look rain drowned
like that hole in the ground
trapped road where i wait
floating in the pool of fate.
which way is sound.
back
is gone,
and forward
the unfound
wild track
moves on.
sideways
yours and my ways
shout
then separate out
in pieces of broken pre-Raphaelite plate
and coffee stained passages of forgotten Blake,
now ornaments
of visionary discontents-
i removed when
to begin again.

Doing Nothing

doing nothing
is a way
of doing something
with the day
if you leave it open.
just think,
what was, has been
a long drink
from the same stream
and you are not broken.
love flown and fled
shared who you are,
happened, was said
but only so far
sound spoken.

Broken Line

i keep seeing you forever,
but forever
isn’t time;
its now
is only never,
and its plough
isn’t mine:
but those fields, were not faking
in the wind and rain
of mime-
when giving, was worth taking
to remember the same
soft swaying, then making
broken line-
on loves ketch,
so ebbed and etched
in sips of moated wine,
whose sober stillness
of fathoms reflect-
this nearness
each dominion can't confine.

Grains of Sand

imagine
crossing the Sahara
with the Tuareg;
sleeping
under one vast canopy of stars,
consoled by constellations
that once looked down
on ancient forests
and wind worn mountains
older than these here now.
it all repeats itself-
the river- beds and rocks
return to the sea,
where temporary strangers
sit like Robinson Crusoe
on loud, tractor raked beaches
in smells of salt and dog shit
watching the waves,
thinking inside them
coming and going
like friends to be afraid of-
as nature retunes herself
ignoring our significance
becoming grains of sand.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including mgv2 Publishing Anthology; And Agamemnon Dead; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster/Anu; Outburst Poetry Magazine; The Galway Review; The Honest Ulsterman Magazine; The Lonely Crowd Magazine; Section8Magazine; Danse Macabre Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; Don’t Be Afraid: Anthology To Seamus Heaney; Dead Snakes Poetry Magazine; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Syzygy Poetry Journal Issue 1 and Ammagazine/Angry Manifesto Issue 3.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones. All Rights Reserved.

Thrilled to have four of my poems published online in Lion and Lilac Arts Magazine, Issue 3. My thanks to Chief Editor Tolu’ A Akinyemi.

www.lionandlilac.org/2020/12/01/four-poemsstrider-marcus-jones/

NOTES ON SCRAPS OF SCREEN PAPYRUS

notes on scraps of screen papyrus,

symbol songs

of our belongs-

inspire us

in the coffee smokes of day

where the fire was

in humid heats ash tray-

inside us

far away.

the new consensus

doesn’t show

nomads

in the census

of its blow

whose glow glad

the past they left too slow:

and the falling

befalling

where we now need to go-

misfits

the steps

of the face fits

in this trough

of peaks and parapets.

so, we want wildly

the wilderness that isn’t fear-

cut off,

empty,

smiley,

pallet clear-

the colours changed

so rearranged

and us not here.

SYMPHONIC WASTE

a quiet night.

even the candle flame isn’t flickering-

think I’ll just blow out its light

and turn down the radio bickering.

symphonic waste

between the two

goes back space

for what is true-

and the same discontented self

dismantles every shelf

of previous obsessions

contaminated with old confessions.

then your persuasions

window walks

in panes of pillow talk-

inside this how,

in here, in now-

where no mortal elements

can darken our consoled consents

with ribbons of ripped repents

that leave membranous scars:

and when they do,

they are no more than me, or you-

everyone is subservient to the stars.

THE HEAD IN HIS FEDORA HAT

a lonely man,

cigarette,

rain

and music

is a poem

moving,

not knowing-

a caravan,

whose journey does not expect

to go back

and explain

how everyone’s ruts

have the same

blood and vein.

the head in his fedora hat

bows to no one’s grip,

brim tilted into the borderless

plain

so, his outlaw wit

can confess

and remain

a storyteller,

that hobo fella

listening like a barfly

for a while

and slow-winged butterfly

whose smile

they can’t close the shutters on

or stop talking about

when he walks out

and is gone.

whisky and tequila

and a woman, who loves to feel ya

inside

and outside

her

when ya move

and live as one,

brings you closer

in simplistic

unmaterialistic

grooved

muse Babylon.

this is so,

when he stands with hopes head,

arms and legs

all aflow

in her Galadriel glow

with mithril breath kisses

condensing sensed wishes

of reality and dream

felt and seen

under that

fedora hat

inhaling smoke

as he sang and spoke

stranger fella

storyteller.

COMPOSERS AND MISTAKES

when I see the evening,

with its ordinary sounds and shapes

so full of unbelieving

composers and mistakes

coming in-

something wakes,

and I begin.

what I can’t affect

is getting colder

as I grow older,

retreating inside-

I could be your wreck

if I was bolder

and called you over,

over this side-

through the honeysuckle arch of midnight,

moon like a lid bright

shield in the sky;

on the grass

where footsteps last

in this light-

making a cast

where you walked by.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones from his books Pomegranate Flesh and Wooded Windows.

BIO

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and ex civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities playing his saxophone in warm solitude.

—————————————————————–

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine.

Delighted to have my poem She Is A Suffragette published on Surrey Libraries Poetry Blog on 29th November, 2020. My thanks to Editor J M Gale.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2020/11/29/she-is-a-suffragette-by-strider-marcus-jones/

SHE IS A SUFFRAGETTE by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on November 29, 2020 by jmgale

Photo by Johannes Rapprich from Pexels

her hair tumbles
blowing like unfurled cotton
through unforgotten
fumbles
in vegetation
of our own
interpretation
of each other
in the dark.

my desk grown
out of a tree sown
from my lover
where i carved these words in the bark
sitting in her branches
knowing what life is
all about
as i look out
of wooded windows

and absorb it’s shows
as it goes
through each obscenity
of extreme supremacy-
a woman must not let
a man forget
she is a suffragette
in her soul and under his blanket
so never kept

or chatteled forever
to the custom weather
of his debt.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

From his fifth book Pomegranate Flesh

https://www.lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/pomegranate-flesh/paperback/product-162yy8p8.html?page=1&pageSize=4

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=strider+marcus+jones&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have the first of five poems: The Dance published by The Piker Press on 23rd November, 2020. My thanks to Editor Sand Pilarski.

http://www.pikerpress.com/article.php?aID=8264

The Dance

pull the roof off
knock the walls down
touch the forest
climb those mountains
and smell the sea
again.

watch how life
decomposes
in death
going back to land
to reform and be reborn
as something and someone else.

there’s no great secret to it all.
no need to overthink it through

food and shelter
fire and shamans
clothes and coupling
used to be enough
with musicians
artists
and poets
interpreting the dance.

then warriors with armies
religions with god
and minds buying and selling
stole the landscape
and changed time.

smash the windows
break down the doors
melt the keys
rub evil words from their spells
and puncture the lungs of their wheels

before they kidnap you from bed
call you dissident
hold you without charge
wheel you out on a stretcher
from waterboard torture
for years
without trial
in Guantanamo Bay.

they are selling
the sanctuary
we made
with our numbers
bringing back chains
making some of us slaves
outside the dance
in the five coloured rings
making winners
and losers
holding flags and flames.

Article © Strider Marcus Jones. All rights reserved.
Published on 2020-11-23
Image(s) are public domain.

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry  https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.                                         —————————————— His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: The Piker Press; Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine  Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Delighted to have my poem The Door published on Surrey Libraries Poetry Blog on 25th November, 2020. My thanks to Editor Neil Richards.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2020/11/25/the-door-by-strider-marcus-jones/

THE DOOR by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on November 25, 2020 by jmgale

Image by Tumisu from Pixabay 

the door
between skyfloor
topbottom

is rankrotten

portalbliss
or abjectabyss.

it contains conversations
confrontations,
hiding loves two-ings
in lost ruins-

shuts us inside our self
with or without someone else.

we,
the un-free,
disenfranchised poor
have no bowl of more-
only pain
on the same plain
as before,
homeless
or in shapeless boxes,
worked out, hunted, like urban foxes-
outlaws on common lands
stolen from empty hands.

files on us found
from gathering sound
where mutations abound
put troops on the ground.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Thrilled to have my poem Forage In Me published on Surrey Libraries Poetry Blog. My thanks to Editor Neil Richards.

https://npdsurrey.wordpress.com/2020/11/22/forage-in-me-by-strider-marcus-jones/

FORAGE IN ME by Strider Marcus Jones

Posted on November 22, 2020 by jmgale

Image by Peggy Choucair from Pixabay 

forage in me
amongst the dunes
still damp in sun and wind
as the tide retreats-
for driftwood
and strange shaped pebbles.
where have they been,
these abandoned voices,
with colours
and textures,
wild
and domestic,
moving
and rooted,
sooting and scenting the air-
being engraved
by beauties and conflicts,
uncovering how love is only rented
jumping ship
when it sights new land.
inner changes,
have not changed anything
out there;
and when what moved in
is all moved out,
we can sometimes sit
in this displaced time,
with drifting belongings
and pebbled thoughts,
aware of strangers
moving slower than the clouds
deliberately
doing the same.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, Germany; Serbia; India and Switzerland in numerous publications including: Dreich Magazine; The Racket Journal; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine; Dissident Voice.

Forage In Me is one of the 75 poems from my fifth book Pomegranate Flesh available to purchase on:

https://lulu.com/en/gb/shop/strider-marcus-jones/pomegranate-flesh/paperback/product-162yy8p8.html…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=strider+marcus+jones&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=strider+marcus+jones&i=stripbooks-intl-ship&ref=nb_sb_noss

Delighted to have my two poems – The Ascent Of Money and The Dance published online in Albany Poets, New York State on 18th November, 2020. My thanks to the editors. https://albanypoets.com/2020/11/two-poems-strider-marcus-jones/#

Two Poems – Strider Marcus Jones

Posted by Albany Poets | Nov 18, 2020 | New Poetry

AFP PHOTO/Nicholas ROBERTS

The Ascent of Money

the stars are those
we have forgotten
both living and dead,
floating in clustered constellations
not labouring in rows-
with hair growing grey
and teeth going rotten
singing songs, God’s godless pray.
harvesting crops.
chants drowned in clocks
of tobacco and cotton,
the peasants and slaves of civilised nations
duped by liberty
in recent history-
dug out canals, made railways and roads
out of tarmac to tread-
into factories
like tribal junkies
hooked on cheap gin and beer instead
of joining the cholera’s watery dead-
ten to a room in a slum and lead-
like human batteries,
sleeping without moonlight
on sarsen stones,
or druid voices in their homes-
where thoughts have no dreams or flight,
just sleep, recharge, get bled.
you have to be poor,
to think utopia
can be something real-
not to exploit or steal
that ambrosia aura of women and children and men
for the spoken wages of despair-
that suck you in,
glad but grim
when times’ clock punches that card by the door
and mass myopia
conditions all to labour, keyboard and pen
for food and shelter with a roof and fourth wall
shanty made out of cardboard, wood and tin
in sunny Sao Paolo, where the samba rain leaks in
while orphaned children beg and play
eating the forage of capitalist waste
dodging death squads night and day
imitating Socrates at football to hope to taste
what’s inside the cold, glistening towers
casting invisible powers
behind the smoked glass and soldiers of stone
leaving blood and bleached bone
from over there-
where the ascent of money doesn’t care
about it all
because its infinity is small.

The Dance

pull the roof off
knock the walls down
touch the forest
climb those mountains
and smell the sea
again.

watch how life
decomposes
in death
going back to land
to reform and be reborn
as something and someone else.

there’s no great secret to it all.
no need to overthink it through

food and shelter
fire and shamens
clothes and coupling
used to be enough
with musicians
artists
and poets
interpreting the dance.

then warriors with armies
religions with god
and minds buying and selling
stole the landscape
and changed time.

smash the windows
break down the doors
melt the keys
rub evil words from their spells
and puncture the lungs of their wheels

before they kidnap you from bed
call you dissident
hold you without charge
wheel you out on a stretcher
from waterboard torture
for years
without trial
in Guantanamo Bay.

they are selling
the sanctuary
we made
with our numbers
bringing back chains
making some of us slaves
outside the dance
in the five coloured rings
making winners
and losers
holding flags and flames.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and ex-civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/ reveal a maverick, moving between forests, mountains, cities, and coasts playing his saxophone and clarinet in warm solitude.

His poetry has been published in the USA, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Spain, India, and Switzerland in numerous publications including mgv2 Publishing Anthology; Dreich Magazine; Trouvaille Review; dyst Literary Journal; Impspired Magazine; Literary Yard e-Journal; Poppy Road Review; Cajun Mutt Press; Rusty Truck Magazine; Rye Whiskey Review; The Poet Magazine; Deep Water Literary Journal; The Huffington Post USA; The Stray Branch Literary Magazine; Crack The Spine Literary Magazine; A New Ulster/Anu; Outburst Poetry Magazine; The Galway Review; The Honest Ulsterman Magazine; The Lonely Crowd Magazine; Danse Macabre Literary Magazine; The Lampeter Review; Ygdrasil, A Journal of the Poetic Arts; Don’t Be Afraid: Anthology To Seamus Heaney; Dead Snakes Poetry Magazine; Panoplyzine Poetry Magazine.

Delighted to have my poem Hot Rod published in Skyway Journal on 17th November, 2020 under Americana. My thanks to editor Fred Shrum.

https://skywayjournal.wordpress.com/2020/11/17/hot-rod/

Hot Rod

NOVEMBER 17, 2020 ~ FRED SHRUM

fast and furious

archangel in paint and chrome

brings me home

purring megaphonious

combusting with sav and sap

that i glimpse

peeking into warm grill chintz

then she lifts her corset bonnet

and lets me touch her glinting bones

secreting home spun

pheromones

attracting, like moon and sun-

mysterious

and mnemonic

old senses,

fallow and fenced

soon become drenched

quiller and squirter

in that linguistic converter

glow mapping

overlapping

slowly blown

in the metronome

Strider Marcus Jones – is a poet, law graduate and former civil servant from Salford, England with proud Celtic roots in Ireland and Wales. A member of The Poetry Society, his five published books of poetry reveal a maverick, moving between cities, playing his saxophone in smoky rooms. Find him on Twitter at @StriderPoet

Find him online at https://stridermarcusjonespoetry.wordpress.com/

Delighted to have 5 poems published in Pawners Paper online. My thanks to the editors. https://www.pawnerspaper.com/2020/11/ninety-nine-percent-in-tents-that.html

NINETY NINE PERCENT IN TENTS

in the compound of this room

we make our tent

with revolution’s loom

knitting a firmament

that challenges corrupt times

with solemn slogans

to plutarch totems

simply marked on cardboard signs.

resistance kindles in the dark

and breathes new poetry and art

like a cultural tsunami

elites can’t beat with armies.

these sincere spears

of human spheres

stand soft spoken,

peaceful, but not broken

like disciples in fabric domes

chanting social justice tomes

while Jesus circles existential

throwing speculators from the temple.

we don’t need money in our tent

to make each other feel so spent-

only the sea shore, forest and mountains

to trickle streams and spurt fountains,

unlocking love when the cradle rocks

the secret rhythm of intimate clocks.

THAT BLACKSMITH FELLOW

crumpling

crumbling

heart

war thump

peace pump

stall start

cave hunting

and gathering

in groups

to farms with crops

and hoofed livestocks

drink beer, eat meat and soups.

that blacksmith fellow,

with fire and forge, hammer and bellow,

is still the alchemist-

malleous like his mettles

when everybody settles

into civil lists.

in us now,

the subliminal plough

sets our furrows footsteps-

so summer’s run and winter’s plod,

with, or without god

in and out of upsets.

THE DIVISION BELL

they have civilised

the language of hatred

and corruption-

turned it into condensed

subliminal codes

to be absorbed

passively

and aspired to

through elite worship.

this softening,

that swims in intercourse

with Oppositions

and Self mandates

its wars and poverty-

hides the bodies

from presentations

where the Smile and Fist

work together.

there is no Division Bell

that Speaks and Moves

with and for

the majority

marching past outside-

like Natives

carrying their bags of belongings,

being screened and moved

from lush lands

early into cemeteries

or onto cattle trains

out to desert Reservations.

the Doors

of cold centuries

blow open,

and we see

how Treaties

are still Broken and Abused-

by those we entrust

who have turned

the Globe of Everything

we are meant to Share

into something Bought and Sold

all Right to be Owned and Inherited.

most sheep don’t Mass for much-

just a patch of grass to graze

and a shack to shag and sleep in-

a few, have their own field

and privately furnished rooms,

but when they all adore

w and k’s first tour

on the front page and tv news

for twelve days of conditioning,

or letch and leer over the tits on page three-

the Universal Flaw in Their Rule and Law

makes them troll and bay for this culling of people-

until it comes for them.

OUR CHILDREN ARE MAKING A REVOLUTION

in this static show

of status quo

political voices

make their choices

in the game

but most remain

loyal or abstain

and stunt their reputation

for self gratification

raping the have nots

with subtle riots

of troughed opinion

like glove puppets of elite dominion.

these suits of higher suits

who keep the masses murmers mute

ignore the real ground

crumbling round

financial towers of glass and steel

whose machinations illegally steal

the oxygen of dreams

from street streams.

this summer cities burned

and some plasma tv’s got returned

by groups

in operatic loots

but i remember them

stealing rice and bottled water

while Number 10

shouted Order! Order!

so they nabbed jazzy trainers to fit in

as a boydad took nappies for his son to shit in.

it was a grain of gravy from the pile you’ve got

not even a scoop

of the soup

from the glimmering pot

of silver and gold

simmering on your stove.

then came the justice of oligarchy’s retribution

sending these children to jail

while the bankers and hackers own trail

of looting and intrusion

went unpunished or was given bail.

our children are making a revolution

and live in a language

that we can’t damage

above our rhetoric and contaminated bones

on their ipods and mobile phones

in their own wisdom

and fields of vision

making new tunes

and runes

without the rules

of serfdoms fools

and privileged jewels.

THE DANCE

pull the roof off

knock the walls down

touch the forest

climb those mountains

and smell the sea

again.

watch how life

decomposes

in death

going back to land

to reform and be reborn

as something and someone else.

there’s no great secret to it all.

no need to overthink it through

food and shelter

fire and shamans

clothes and coupling

used to be enough

with musicians

artists

and poets

interpreting the dance.

then warriors with armies

religions with god

and minds buying and selling

stole the landscape

and changed time.

smash the windows

break down the doors

melt the keys

rub evil words from their spells

and puncture the lungs of their wheels

before they kidnap you from bed

call you dissident

hold you without charge

wheel you out on a stretcher

from waterboard torture

for years

without trial

in Guantanamo Bay.

they are selling

the sanctuary

we made

with our numbers

bringing back chains

making some of us slaves

outside the dance

in the five coloured rings

making winners

and losers

holding flags and flames.

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones

Really chuffed to have my poem Childhood Fires published in The Racket Journal. My thanks to wonderful editor Noah Sanders. A fantastic journal.

https://theracketsf.com/

file:///C:/Users/Strider/AppData/Local/Packages/microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_8wekyb3d8bbwe/LocalState/Files/S0/8301/Attachments/JOURNAL%20NO.%2027%20%20FULL[12883].pdf

C h i l d h o o d F i r e s

S T R I D E R M A R C U S JONES

late afternoon
winter fingers
nomads in snow
numb knuckles and nails
on two boys
in scuffed shoes
and ripped coats
carrying four planks of wood
from condemned houses
down dark jitty’s
slipping on dog shit
into back yard
to make warm fires
early evening
dad cooking neck end stew
thick with potato dumplings and herbs
on top of bread soaked in gravy
i saw the hole in the ceiling
holding the foot that jumped off bunk beds
but dad didn’t mind
he had just sawed the knob

off the banister
to get an old wardrobe upstairs
and made us a longbow and cricket bat
it was fun being poor
like other families
after dark
all sat down reading and talking
in candle light
with parents
silent to each other
our sudden laughter like sparks
glowing and fading
dancing in flames and wood smoke
unlike the children who died in a fire next door
then we played cards
and i called my dad a cunt
for trumping my king
but he let me keep the word

Copyright Strider Marcus Jones