December 2, 2014

Welcome to the December 2014 Issue of IVJ!
The stories, poems and artwork wrapped in this issue spill out into warmth, humor, joy, and love. Small gifts we were delighted to find in our inbox. We present them here for your enjoyment. Feel free to open, read, and share with your friends and families. I hope you enjoy the features and don't forget to leave a small gift in return. A few ideas:

1. Subscribe to IVJ... It's free and it will help our stats.
2. "Like" our Facebook page.
3. Leave a $1.00 donation to help us keep the lights on, the internet connected, the journal published.
4. Leave a kind comment for an author. Visit their links. Purchase their books.
5. Feed or shelter a homeless or hungry person, then write/submit an essay or poem telling us about it. I am planning a special issue related to hunger, poverty and homelessness. Date to be determined soon. Submissions are welcome for this themed issue.

Thank you, God Bless, and Merry Christmas from Indiana Voice Journal!

FEATURES:

POETRY











Bruce Owens has been writing poetry for 50 years.
One of his poems appeared in the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter (No. 93 & 94, Winter & Spring) in tribute to friend, and fellow poet William Everson. He has been a guest lecturer at various colleges in California, lecturing on the nature of the creative process, and he has conducted poetry workshops, mainly with young adults, especially those struggling with various addictions or having come from an abusive household, using poetry as an instrument of discovery for both self, and as an entry into the world around us. His collection of poems: Eddies in the Rush (ISBN 0-971256-0-0 [149 pg.]) was endorsed b C.C. Bailey and poet William Stafford (1914-1993) a "National Book Award recipient."
You can read/purchase more of Bruce's poetry at the following links: 
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/009502667
http://www.solopublications.com/jurn0204.htm
http://itsaboutimewriters.homestead.com/OwensBruceGiveMeAPoem.html

Sheehan served in the 31st Infantry Regiment, Korea 1951, graduated from Boston College in 1956,  has 26 Pushcart nominations, authored 18 books ( 5 published this year, one mss complete) , appeared in hundreds of Internet sites and publications  around the world, and read at colleges, libraries,  book stores and Open Mic settings from Massachusetts to North Carolina.
Tom is a frequent contributor to IVJ. You can read more of his poetry in the October and November issues.  His books are available at Pocol Press. You can read more of Tom's poetry in the October and November Issues of Indiana Voice Journal.



Oliver Rice’s poems appear widely in journals and anthologies in the United States and abroad. Creekwalker released an interview with him in January, 2010. His book of poems, On Consenting to Be a Man, is published by Cyberwit and is available on Amazon. His online chapbook, Afterthoughts, Siestas, and his recording of his Institute for Higher Study appeared in Mudlark in December, 2010.


                   
THE AWE, THE LURE

The awe, the lure, this morning, is not of the old town,
nestling by the Danube, the remains of Roman walls,
palatial spires of medieval merchants, the dark alleys,


Atri Majumder (born 1993) resides at Kolkata, India. He is currently pursuing his undergraduate degree in English Literature from University of Calcutta.He has two published anthologies-Shadow of Light(2012) and Visible Infinity(2014).





Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The Nation, Poetry, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. His most recent collection is  Almost Rain, published by River Otter Press (2013). For more information, free e-books and his essay titled “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at  
www.simonperchik.com




James Maxwell resides in Blauvelt, NY of Rockland County. He makes a living as a special education teaching assistant during the day and writes in the evenings. James has been writing for a little over ten years but has only recently started submitting his stories and poetry for publication. His work has been featured in Cease, Cows, Walking Is Honest, and the Ijagun Poetry Journal."





Heather Rose lives in a small mountain town in Colorado with her three kids and guitar-playing husband.  She collects lots of little thoughts about living in a big world in her blog Words Whittle Down and is currently writing and illustrating a children's fantasy series called Knindrome.  Her poem, Opal Lake was nominated for the Pushcart Prize. You can read more of Heather's poetry in the October Special Poetry Issue of IVJ.






December 1, 2014

MacHDD:Users:helenhill:Desktop:E.Wilson Hill.jpg 
Eric Hill is fascinated with word structure from Kabala to etymology and then placing words together to form sound, color, rhythm and content; poetry becomes central focus of this interest - words magically charged.
Recently he has been published in Rain/Disaster/Party Ijagun Poetry Journal and Behhutet.



Sheehan served in the 31st Infantry Regiment, Korea 1951, graduated from Boston College in 1956,  has 26 Pushcart nominations, authored 18 books ( 5 published this year, one mss complete) , appeared in hundreds of Internet sites and publications  around the world, and read at colleges, libraries,  book stores and Open Mic settings from Massachusetts to North Carolina. He is a frequent contributor to Indiana Voice Journal.

Raymond Greiner's writings include short stories and essays published frequently in various literary journals and magazines:  Branches magazine, La Joie Journal, Literary Yard Journal, Nib Magazine, Canary Literary Journal, Bellesprit Magazine, Freedom Journal, Grace Notes Literary Magazine. His collection of fiction and nonfiction essays titled Hinterland Journal is in the finalization process with Outskirts Press. Raymond lives in a remote area of southern Indiana in a cabin far off a lightly traveled road with his two dogs Orion and Venus. He is a frequent contributor to Indiana Voice Journal.

 Myrna’s Story

           Myrna Davis was born in 1950 and raised in an American mid western town.  A beautiful child genetically influenced from her mother, combining with her quick and agile mind.  Myrna was chosen homecoming queen in her high school senior year, savoring the honor and attention of this exciting event.  Myrna’s formative years bore the hallmark of a living, Victorian valentine.

Muhammad Nasrullah Khan is from Pakistan currently living in Saudi Arabia, where he is Lecturer in English at Taif University. His short stories are well recognized internationally for his unique prose style, and really naive innocence of rural life of Pakistan. His short story Donkey-Man was selected among the Notable Online Short Stories of 2003 in the StorySouth Million Writers Award. His work has appeared in Newtopia Magazine, Gowanus Books,Offcourse literary Journal University at Albany, The Raven Chronicles, and many others. He exists on twitter as @nasar_peace ,at  nasar_peace@hotmail.com, nasar_peace@yahoo.com,  and https://www.facebook.com/nasar.peace 

THE LADY OF RED LIGHT DISTRICT


Ahmad rushed toward the newspaper office, trying to avoid the stinging, dust-filled wind that seemed getting stronger with every step. It was a brief walk from the parking lot. By the time he reached the office, the other staff journalists, two women and five men, were already tucked into their cubicles like caged rats. Their eyes glued to computer screens.

J. Michael Dashiell lives in central Indiana. He’s had ten short stories published that appeared in Down in the Dirt, Bending the Curve Anthology, Sugar Mule Literary Magazine, Defenestration, Word Riot, Projected Letters, Thieves Jargon, The Circle Magazine, The Blue Review & The New England Writers’ Network Magazine. 

3 Seconds

      My friend’s car laid mangled, a 1990 Pontiac Bonneville, beige colored, four-door model, with its left back end completely crushed, its back bumper twisted into a malicious grin, and what I supposed was the specter of gasoline dripping from its tank. Yet I suffered no injury, not even a broken bone or bleeding wound, just what would later manifest itself as minor whiplash I suppose, without even a visible scratch or bruise to provide evidence of this mishap. The car was in effect destroyed for all practical use, yet I arose from it mysteriously renewed.


John Spiegel is an English teacher in Springfield, Ohio where he shares his love for words, beards, and the feel of vinyl records.
  
Like Dad




            Growing up, my father was a source of fear. I tip-toed around him whenever he slept. Whenever we interrupted his sleep, he would jump and shout as he awoke. Too many nights I spent in silence, revering my father’s occasionally angry voice.

  

  Donna Arthur Downs is an associate professor and co-chair of the Media Communication department at Taylor University. She has been full-time teaching various writing, public relations and media courses since 2001 and advises the award-winning student newspaper, The Echo. She is the mother of two faithful sons and the grandmother of two remarkable grandchildren. Downs graduated with an Ed.D from Ball State University.

You old, Grandma?
Friday night as I lay beside my baby girl on the air mattress at the foot of the bed in her little room upstairs, deep in thought, she began picking at my hair with her thumb and index finger, pulling it up, letting it go, pulling it up, letting it go strand by strand.

As a writer and artist publishing for the last three decades, Stephen Mead has finally gotten around to getting links to his poetry still online at various zines available in one place:  http://stephenmead.weebly.com/links-to/poetry-on-the-line-stephen-mead  His latest Amazon release  is entitled "Our Spirit Life”", a poetry/art meditation on family heritage, love,  and the evanescence of time.
http://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Mead/e/B002P5TVQC/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0/178-9316259-8711759


 Impressions from the Land of Vanished Beautiful Things (I)
 In my mind's eye floats a photograph.  The photograph, in turn, is also the memory of an actual door.  This is how the mind can function as both microscope and telescope; moving in, drawing back, knobs turning lenses from blurriness to magnified clarity.  Writing this makes the whole business sound detached.  Would it be too sentimental, but also more accurate, to say that this invisible mechanism exists in my heart, the entire DNA and cells of my being?



Lance Turner is a writer living in Kansas. He has had work appear in The Pierian and Touchstone. He currently works as a lecturer at the University of Kansas.
Previous publications include:
“Regression Therapy” (short story). The Pierian, Albany State University’s Department of English, Modern Languages and Mass Communication’s Literary Journal. Spring 2013: 70-73.
“Detour Ahead” (personal essay). Touchstone, Kansas State University’s Department of English’s Literary Journal. Spring 2007: 41–47.

They're Not Like Ours

Bread of the Dead


Carroll Susco holds an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh and has numerous publications.  She currently teaches comp.  Her chapbook True Fiction A Pseudo Autobiographical Chapbook in Three Parts is available for free at Smashwords.com
http://about.me/casusco






"The Tree"


I asked Dennis if we could get the Christmas tree, but he said he was busy.   I said I knew he was busy.  He said he had to study.  I said I knew that.  It was too early.  But didn’t he want to get one?  But why did I have to have one now?   When then?  Didn’t I understand the pressure he was under?  He had to read for class.



Jennifer Lachenauer received a bachelor's degree in English from Kean University where she earned an academic award for excellence in essay writing for her capstone course. While actively involved in various forms of writing, her particular passion is short fiction because of how it combines the snap-shot like quality of a photograph with the written word. 

November 1, 2014

At the grave of Jimi Hendrix


David J. Thompson's photos have appeared in a number of journals both in print and on-line. He lived in Detroit from 1997 until last October. He has been traveling since then.  

Please visit his photo website at ninemilephoto.com.


 
Yuan Changming, an 8-time Pushcart nominee, is the most widely published poetry author who speaks Mandarin but writes English. Tutoring and co-editing Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver, Changming has poetry appearing in 919 literary publications across 30 countries, including Best Canadian Poetry (2009,12,14), BestNewPoemsOnline and Threepenny Review.




poetrypacific.blogspot.ca
http://yuanspoetry.blogspot.ca/


Another Seascape

A dolphin jumping high above the horizon
A gull charging down right towards the ocean


A double focus of nature
But a single moment of anti-self 




Margaret Skalbania lives in Lublin. She graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She paints, draws and writes. Her book of poetry has been recognized as one of the twenty best printed in Poland in 2013. Magaret translates her poetry herself.







departed poet
  


without the complex to the west 

he took with him was inherited from the other poets lower case's outlook 

narrow way of thinking about the historical naivety 

divinity of their ancestors

 
Tom Sheehan has 24 Pushcart Prize nominations. 375 western stories on Rope and Wire Magazine.  His published books include: In the Garden of Long Shadows, From The Quickening, A Collection Of Friends, and The Nations, about Native Americans, all available from Pocol Press.

 The Westering (appeared in Word Catalyst, 2009)               
               Born to Wear the Rags of War  (appeared in collection, This Rare Earth & Other Flights, 2003)
               A Last Moment Caught (appeared in Ken* Again, 2009)

 
win harms has been published in several anthologies, websites, and has two books published.  she lives in lille, france though she spent her formative years in philadelphia.








CALIFORNIA


you were thinking of taking flight
i was thinking of you
you were talking of california
i was talking about fire
you were dreaming of california
i was dreaming of you

Richard Fein was a finalist in The 2004 New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Competition
A Chapbook of his poems was published by Parallel Press, University of Wisconsin, Madison.
He has been published in many web and print journals such as  Cordite, Cortland Review,
Reed, Southern Review, Roanoke Review,  Birmingham  Poetry Review, Mississippi Review, Paris/atlantic,  Canadian Dimension, Black Swan Review, Exquisite Corpse, Foliate Oak,  Morpo Review, Ken*Again   Oregon East, Southern Humanities Review, Morpo, Skyline, Touchstone, Windsor Review, Maverick, Parnassus Literary Review, Small Pond, Kansas Quarterly, Blue Unicorn, Exquisite Corpse, Terrain Aroostook Review, Compass Rose, Whiskey Island Review, Oregon East, Bad Penny Review, Constellations, The Kentucky Review  And Many Others.


Raymond Greiner's writings include short stories and essays published frequently in various literary journals and magazines:  Branches magazine, La Joie Journal, Literary Yard Journal, Nib Magazine, Canary Literary Journal, Bellesprit Magazine, Freedom Journal, Grace Notes Literary Magazine.  Raymond lives in a remote area of southern Indiana in a cabin far off a lightly traveled road with his two dogs Orion and Venus.
 
An Urban Diary

    I awaken to the hydraulic whine of a trash truck.  Nearby, a massive waste incinerator emits a polluting stench mixing with the incessant rumble of traffic.   
           Detroit, once a grand city, is in steep decline with eroding tax revenue caused by urban flight becoming stagnated in the residue of its past.  Littered streets with blocks of abandoned homes are occupied by vagrants and drug addicts.  These vacant homes are windowless, empty remnants of thriving neighborhoods.

Mr. Kersie Khambatta is a semi-retired lawyer practising in New Zealand. He is also a part-time writer of articles and short-stories. His writing is recognizable by his simple style, with short sentences and carefully-chosen words. He has a diploma of Associateship of the British Tutorial Institute, London, in English, Modern Journalism, and Journalism in India, and a Certificate in Comprehensive writing awarded in October 2005 by the Writing School (Australia and New Zealand). His pieces have appeared in Senior Living (B.C., Canada), Her Magazine (New Zealand), The Rusty Nail magazine (U.S.A.), and many other publications.
                                                                                                                                                                              
                                      FOXIE


The hunter peered through the dense bush. The hot sun was way up in the sky. The herd of wild deer was grazing peacefully. The large stag with the formidable antlers snorted, and looked around suspiciously. He was the sentry for the rest of them, and also their leader. His dominance was not questioned, for might was right. He had driven away the other males who had been daring enough to challenge him.

Desirée Jung is a Canadian-Brazilian writer and translator. Her background is in
creative writing, literary translation, film and comparative literature. She has received her
M. F. A in Creative Writing and her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University

of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. She has published translations and poetry in
Exile, The Dirty Goat, Modern Poetry in Translation, The Antagonish Review, The Haro,
The Literary Yard, Black Bottom Review, Gravel Magazine, Tree House, Bricolage,
Hamilton Stone Review, Ijagun Poetry Journal, Scapegoat Review, Storyacious, among others. She lives in Vancouver, Canada. Her website is www.desireejung.com


Following her Steps

The renovation of the house is in full motion. Shane steps on the shards of glass and hears the pieces being broken under his feet. The work continues despite being a holiday. The fence has spears selected personally by him at the Home Depot. He is the handyman in charge and likes using his hands. There are still a lot of things to be done in the future years. 

In addition to writing fiction and poetry, Belinda Hubert is currently working on a novel, titled Shrink Wrapped and a collection of short stories about life in the Midwest. She works as a clinical psychologist in a private practice in Lowell, Indiana.
http://buelasprairiepractice.blogspot.com/
 

Exotic  Doodah
                                    

It's that Dr. Seuss time of summer now.  Sunflowers bigger than your 
head; black eyed Susans, purple cleome and orange coreopsis 
doi-oi-oin-ging in the breeze.  Birds perched on the feeders - bright yellow, red, blue - like flying jewelry.  And those lethal, three inch long sparkly teal hummers - tiny ninjas, dive bombing each other and hovering in open doors, giving you the eye.  Even the beetle bugs have luminescent flashers on their bums. And they just loll around close to the grass, waiting for three year old hands to catch them.


Although Dallas Gorbett now resides in the warmer climate of Mississippi, he was born and raised near Greensburg, IN. Recently, he had three flash fiction pieces appear in the local anthology Stories and Poems of the OLLI Writers but, beyond that, Flittery represents his first return to an earlier unfulfilled desire to write. The fact that this first outside publication is in a journal grounded in Indiana is especially satisfying. 
 

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