d. ellis phelps's Blog, page 13
December 16, 2019
Snail Mail by Victoria Dym
This playful, zen image by Victoria Dym makes me smile, reminds me to slow down and have some fun! I am especially attracted to the droplets of water on the leaf:
You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop.
~Rumi
In this season of mad consumerism and misguided rushing to prove or show love by spending money, let us stop… spend time together or in solitude instead…consider each moment…breathe…play!
Victoria Dym is a graduate of Ringling Brother’s Barnum and Bailey Clown College with a degree in Humility, a Bachelor of Arts, in Philosophy, from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Masters in Fine Arts, Creative Writing-Poetry from Carlow University. Her two poetry chapbooks, Class Clown, and When The Walls Cave In were published by Finishing Line Press in 2015 and 2018. Victoria lives in Tampa Florida, where she improvises at The Box Theater with the house team Dear Aunt Gertrude, writes and teaches Laughter Yoga!
I offer this image with gratitude to Ms. Dym for her permission to use it here.
Visit more of Victoria’s work here. Tell her I sent you!
peace,
d
October 29, 2019
fws: skin Issue #2, Vol 1, Fall ’19 is live
TaDa!
I read between four and five hundred delicious submissions for this issue so that thirty-eight poets, writers and artists from six countries might be represented here. From the deadline for submissions on Oct. 1, 2019 until yesterday, I have been cocooned in my studio, fully engaged with this work. I am very pleased at its birthing.
Many contributors are prize winners, including Pushcart Nominees; some are established, significant writers with many volumes and credits to their names, some are beginning writers with this being their first publication.
You will notice that I have chosen to format this issue differently than I formatted issue number one. The work featured in issue one was received piecemeal and I had time to wax on and on, commenting at length on each work. But for this issue, I cast a wide netted call, including writers of all genders, from anywhere in the world. With so many submission from which to choose, I was able to create what is considered a full-length manuscript. I find this process amazing-Mystery presenting itself, as the words speak, meld, make their witness, many voices becoming one.
Ah! Spirit.
Thank you for helping me find these incredible writers! & thank you in advance for sharing this deeply personal, metaphysical and bold work with others.
Here’s an excerpt from an Editor’s Choice Award poem by Deborah Rosch Eifert to tantalize you:
Queen of Dragonflies – Instructions
You must speak to the bees.
You must wade in the desert
until you are as crisp as coral,
then wash in the sea –
drag your fingers through the water.
Pluck the vibrating strings of time,
silently turn three times, then sit.
Dress in clothes made of feathers, but
arm yourself with porcupine quills.
March forward, following the path of light unseen...
Read the entire issue here. Find contributor bios and links here.
Ciao Bellicimos!
d
October 5, 2019
Through Layered Limestone: an anthology
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It’s out & it’s wonderful! We had our launch reading this morning in Boerne, Texas on Main Plaza. Eleven contributors, family and friends where in attendance. It was cool and inviting under the tent by the gazebo. I hope you enjoy this little video (on FB) I put together of the performances. Be sure to turn the sound on the FB video on to hear the cool music that goes with the video…
I’m very pleased to have served as managing editor for this fine piece of history. If you’re a Facebook user, please do follow my artist/author page there for info about all that’s happening in my literary/artistic world & follow me here, for sure!
The book is a tribute to the pioneers who settled the Texas Hill Country, many of whom endured arduous journeys by ship across the ocean to Texas from Germany. Here is a cutting from the first poem in the book:
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If you’re interested in owning or gifting a copy, here’s the link. Copies are $12 each. All proceeds benefit the Patrick Heath Public Library Archives. Thanks in advance for your support!
Also, watch for the new issue of fws: journal of literature & art “skin” issue, coming soon!
Big Love,
d
October 4, 2019
what holds her: my debut book of poems
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I am pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of my first full-length volume of poetry, what holds her (Main Street Rag, 2020).
This work was created shortly after and during my parent’s dying processes and was received and written as a kind of dictation, me channeling an unfamiliar voice, recording lines as they came, each line, not being delivered until I dutifully recorded the last.
The work is ecstatic in nature, echoing the style and tone of Rumi and Hafiz. I am at once profoundly awed and grateful for its teaching.
Here is a sample poem:
ordained in dreams
i sing
~
you say:
why have you come
i say:
there is no well
—drop this jar
~
you are wading
in water
look at what
you cannot
see
If you are interested, I would be greatly honored if you would purchase a pre-publication copy of the book now at its lowest price, a price that will almost double very soon as we go to press
The book is only available from the publisher. Read more samples of the work or purchase a copy using a credit or debit card here:
To purchase by check or money order, message me and I will send you the mail-in order form and address.
I am deeply grateful for your support of my work in the world.
Namaste,
d. ellis phelps
Here is the link again in case it failed above:
August 8, 2019
reconsidering love
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image: Blue Ridge Mountains, Meredith Norwood
If you are someone who has been emotionally wounded, especially by someone who claims to have loved you, this teaching is for you.
Find a comfortable spot where you will be uninterrupted and sit with your feet on the floor or better yet, lie down outside on the ground or on the floor inside and close your eyes to listen. This meditation is designed to bring you into a new understanding of love as a form of energy, asking you to consider what is “not love” & to help you experience a state of connection, a sense of being held and supported by Cosmic Consciousness in non-local space and out of time or, as some might say, beyond the veil…
It will be most helpful if you use headphones. Please know that my techno-savy is only adequate, thus there is no background music here. There is only my voice and silence. This is plenty.
Namaste!
d
copyright d. ellis phelps, 2019
July 12, 2019
“bone country” on *New Texas* today
new work
I’m very pleased to have my poem, bone country, published in the online edition of New Texas: Journal of Literature and Culture today. Many thanks to the editors, Dr. Francine Richter, et al.
— for Mary Ann
i sit in your rocking chair
thinking what it must
have been like to be you
—great-grandmother
braided white hair
cane-backed poddy-chair
—its porcelain pot
how cold it was
when i sat there
my bottom bare
as my dangling feet
the thinker thinking ...
Read more
As a child, I adored this woman, my great-grandmother. The only way I ever really knew her was with dementia, or what was then called “senility.” I don’t think she knew me or recognized me, as she rarely interacted with anyone around her, living in her own world.
But something in my childhood mind respected her and held her in great awe, her ever-presence; her thin-blue skin; her white, white hair and the way she spoke aloud for everyone to hear, a preacher, preaching what was left of her mind.
Sometimes, I think of her part in birthing me: her womb carrying my mother’s mother with my grandmother’s eggs already present in her developing fetus, eggs that would become my mother. How her holding on meant survival for all of us.
At times when I am feeling a bit sorry for myself, I think of her tenacity, the hardships she endured, the obstacles she overcame and how, my genes are her genes and that, if for no other reason, is why I too have all I need to persevere.
May 30, 2019
Submit NOW! Deadline tomorrow, June1, 2019
#writers One day left to submit to this Texas Hills Anthology of #prose #poetry & #photography
Do you have unpublished nature poetry: rattlesnakes, coyotes, wildflowers,
wild hogs, Javelina? storms? Have you written about LBJ? John
Connally? George W.? Texas Native ancestors from the Hill Country?
German immigrants? German food? An good ole time out at the Anhalt
Dancehalle doing the Chicken Dance? Funnel Cakes? Life on the ranch?
Droughts? Flash floods? The Guadalupe River?
Spanish Moss? Spanish explorers? County fairs? Cowboy boots? Spurs? Texas pride?
Do this! It’s time. You’ll be so glad if you do and so so sad if you don’t!
See guides and submit here.
May 22, 2019
field notes: a poem in motion
I love walking my Chihuahua in the fields next door to my home. Natural life is abundant there and the field has a life all her own that changes daily, momentarily.
This, you can only see when you look closely.
These walks are respite and worship for me and I particularly love this time of year: May.
This year we have had abundant rain, so it’s green here in South Texas, which is not always the case, has been rarely the case for many years since we have been experiencing a drought.
But now, the land is vibrant. Our famous wildflowers are blooming prolifically. And the air is breezy and cool.
Today, I saw Wild Squash, Mealy Blue Sage, Prairie Cone Flower and Agarita berries. Did you know you can make jelly from those berries? It’s really tasty!
Roo, my Chihuahua, sniffed out several large holes, most likely rooted out by the local wild hogs.
Of the nearest herd of about twenty white-tailed deer, we spotted about six today, several doe and at least three bucks with their horns emerging in velvet. Though I know there is a fawn and I saw it this afternoon, the Doe are still keeping it mostly hidden, so I didn’t see it on our walk today. But here’s a shot of it I snapped a few days after it was born.
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The final clip is of the Red Oak leaves, a native Texas tree I love. In the fall it’s leaves will turn bright scarlet red. Around here, that’s about all the “fall color” we get!
Go outside! You’ll be glad you did!
May 11, 2019
Patio Garden in Winter by Patricia Spears Bigelow
Photo by Olena Shmahalo on Unsplash
Patio Garden in Winter
Through the night window the plants in my patio garden
send their soft, fragrant breaths.
The potted philodendron reaches up
with long, slender arms, fringed hands
for a breeze from over the wall.
Macho fern, living up to its name,
strong even with its graceful fronds.
By the wrought iron gates, covered now with wooden doors,
the twin bougainvillea plants, huge, spikey with thorns,
hoarding their jewels till summer
when they burst forth in a glory of magenta and green.
The smaller plants: aloe vera, its soft, spongy arms full of cures,
geraniums, fuzzy-leaved, so happy in the cool
they send up occasional raucous blooms.
Sparrows that nest in the bougainvillea
to chatter and sing, swoop down to the fountain to bathe.
By night, their feathery dreams brush mine.
Schefflera, planted in the ground by a previous gardener:
nothing destroys it, neither drought nor freezing rain.
It disappears, then rises again, leaves shining.
Blooming, breathing heart of this house,
each night we become more entwined.
Patricia Spears Bigelow, a native Texan, has worked as a teacher and poet in the schools. She has had poetry in various journals and anthologies including: Voices de la Luna; the San Antonio Express News; Bearing the Mask, Southwestern Persona Poems; and Weaving the Terrain, Dos Gatos Press; The Larger Geometry, poems for peace, peaceCenter Books; and on San Antonio buses through VIA’s Poetry on the Move program. Her collection Midnight Housekeeping was published by Riverlily Press. Her poetry has appeared in 12 issues of the Texas Poetry Calendar, and she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
May 10, 2019
#poetry open call for submissions
Photo by Sam Bark on Unsplash
…To be eaten by that beak
~Robinson Jeffers
and
become part of him, to share those wings and those eyes–
What a sublime end of one’s body, what an enskyment; what a life
after death.
from “Vulture”
enskyment
(working title, forthcoming Spring 2020, Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press).
Submit 3-5 poems about vultures or poems that feature a vulture somewhere within the poem. Deadline: Jan. 1, 2020
Poems may be unpublished or previously published,
but if they are previously published, please include an acknowledgement
also indicating that you retain the publication rights. If you do not
retain the rights to the work, please include contact information for
requesting permission to reprint.
Submit your poem in a word document using Times New
Roman 12pt font. Remove all identifying information from the file name
and from the document. Include a separate, brief cover letter with
publication credits on the submissions page in the cover letter text
box.
This perfect bound book will be available on Amazon
through Moon Shadow Sanctuary Press and placed in local (San Antonio,
Austin, jSan Marcos, New Braunfels, Boerne, Wimberley, etc.) independent
book shops and libraries.
Contributors will receive one complimentary copy and be able to purchase copies at a discounted price. Contributors will also be invited to participate in scheduled readings.
While there is no reading fee, your tip in the tip jar helps
pay for contributor copies, printer ink, internet connection, travel
expenses associated with readings, postage and so on. Never mind paying
this well-meaning editor… : ) & for your generosity, I thank
you, deeply.
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Namaste!
d. ellis phelps, editor
