Anshu Choudhry holds degrees of Masters level in Mathematics and English. She is based in New Delhi, India and works for the Government of India. Her poems and short stories have appeared in several Indian and international magazines and journals, including Kritya, Ken*again, Full of Crow, Asian Signature, Muse India, East Lit, Hans India, Setu Journal, Silver Birch Press, and anthologies amongst others.
September 13, 2017
Six Poems by Todd Outcalt: "The Human Cannonball," "The Ringmaster," "The Bearded Lady," "The Strong Man" "The Geek," and "The Trapeze Artists"
Todd Outcalt lives in Brownsburg and is the author of over thirty-five books in six languages. His recent titles include "All About Martin Luther King, Jr.," and "The Seven Deadly Virtues." These poems will be included in an upcoming book entitled "Circus."
Three Poems by Lisa Keifer: "Autumnal Insight," "Glass Vase," and "The Sister"
Lisa Keifer is a writer, blogger, and stay-at-home mom who enjoys life in Indiana with her husband and son. She has recently been published in Indiana Voice Journal's March 2017 Women's issue and also TWJ Magazine's April 2017 issue. Her work of short fiction entitled "Pre-Calc Predicament" was included in the June 2017 issue of Silver Pen's Youth Imagination. Lisa blogs about family, relationships, and mental health issues at www.stepbackandbreathe.com.
Four Poems by Denny Kolakowski: "Back Bay," April Buffalo," "Mantra," and "October"
Denny Kolakowski has had short stories, essays and poetry published in numerous outdoor magazines, literary journals, and periodicals throughout the 70’s and 80’s. Writing throughout the past ten years has included screenplays currently in pre-production and development. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association and a mechanical engineering graduate of Pennsylvania State University, serving as operations manager for the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, the University of Pittsburgh Applied Research Center and the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office. Please see www.sleepingdragonproductions.com.
Three poems by Marianne Lyon: "Grandma's Harmonica," "I Lost My Gift for Being Alone,' and "Never Never Loved"
Marianne Lyon has been a music teacher for 39 years. After teaching in Hong Kong she returned to the Napa Valley and has been published in various literary magazines and reviews. Nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2016. She is a member of the California Writers Club, Healdsburg Literary Guild. She is an Adjunct Professor at Touro University Vallejo California
Three Poems by John Grey: "Silhouettes", "Down From the North", "The Coming of Andy"
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in the Tau, Studio One and Columbia Review with work upcoming in Naugatuck River Review, Abyss and Apex and Midwest Quarterly.
Visual Art by Gretchen Ford
Gretchen Ford is a Los Angeles based artist. She paints public space murals as well as smaller works. Website: www.gretchensportraits.com, Instagram: harlequinjester99, 2protectandserve, dtlafaces.
Photography by Amy Nemecek
Amy Nemecek lives in northern Michigan with her husband, son, and two cats. Her poetry and prose have appeared in The Windhover,Topology, The 3288 Review, Mothers Always Write, Foliate Oak, and Indiana Voice Journal. When Amy isn’t working with words, she enjoys taking long walks along country roads and watching baseball. She shares her thoughts on writing and life at www.beloveddelight.wordpress.com.
Ilhem Issaoui Reviews "Millie and Ami" by Raymond Greiner
Ilhem Issaoui is a 23-year-old Tunisian translator, poet, and short story writer. Some of her poems and short stories have appeared both online and in print in magazines including: Three Line Poetry, Salis Online Magazine, Mind Magazine, Mad Swirl Magazine, and Danse Macabre. She has one book of poetry entitled "Fragments of a Wounded Soul."
Realistic Poetry Reviews: "The Cellaring" by Ken Allan Dronsfield
Poetry in the Dark
Where there is no Light, Darkness Lives
Author Ken Allan Dronsfield numbs our hearts, literally, with his bone-chilling poetic narrations from, The Cellaring; where we read of the explicit terror that vengefully rapes the earth of lost souls and deliberately opposes the light. The author extracts these morbid depictions directly from the depths of what he references to as, a Shadowed Mind; the perfect host to accompany you as each poem travels beyond the blackness of the universe, and deeper than the blank silence that exists at the depths of the sunless ocean!
To begin, the title seems to signify someone possibly confined to a cellaring, hence the title of the book, which happens to also be the name of his first featured poem. Now, what’s in this cold underground crypt-like place is the important question! Normally, it is used to store wine, but this cellaring holds something a bit more sinister!
Close your eyes and imagine…an anonymous and strange character standing ‘in a burial dress with a purple lilac purse and Easter bonnet’. Your nose struggles to breathe as you try your best to avoid suffocation, as the cellaring reeks of disintegrating bodies! Oddly enough, the clandestine character in the poem can actually bear the foul aroma! Considering the theme of this book, whoever, or better yet, whatever it is…must not be human. Perhaps, the hidden warning in this poem is: beware of what may exist in the cellaring!
Many of his poetic thrillers are written in brevity, yet do not lose the moment or eliminate useful detail; because of this, the result is mini poetry-tales of horror with a beginning, middle, and end. Moreover, the arrangement and clever writing style identified with the horror genre perfectly! He made every word count and relate to the specific cadence the poem presented, crafting metaphors that incite graphically striking and realistic imagery that is unsettling to any good spirit. Reading selected poems make you feel as if you are becoming lost in the thick, cloudy, blackness of the noxious smoke from the fiery flames of wickedness, the entire time searching and seeking for some beacon of light, a small glimmer of hope. But on this riveting journey, there is none. Only the noise of the ‘Soulless Symphony’, the title of our favorite featured poem.
In contrast to some of Ken’s other poems, it possesses a certain type of beauty and tranquility that almost seems peaceful. The author uses soothing and fascinating metaphors, saying, “enticed lyrical pearls…harmony upon heart” and “caged essence sings of red strawberry fields”; completely tantalizing! This piece was an ingenious creation of imagination and creativity, painting an abstract portrait of an unknown world where there is a feeling of uneasiness that something sinister lives within the seducing metaphorical compositions.
The poem, ‘Penny For Your Soul’ is written like a classic, with a ‘grim-reaper-like’ character out hunting for souls. And guess what he’s offering for them? A penny. The beast apparently doesn’t feel a soul is worth too much, or this is just simply another hateful and evil act that feeds the beast’s ego. Either way, the lost soul wandering outside on a warm day, the month of May, is the perfect prey for this frightening nightmarish monster. The character has no natural zest for life, and the narrator tells us that they do not care if they live or die. Is this a sign of a carefree, content, and self-elevated individual? Or a snapshot of someone with, for some reason or another, a curiosity for the darkness? It isn’t hard to tell when we continue to read and the narrator tells us that the character dares to ‘nervously grin’ at the creature, and when he does, ‘the sky rumbles, the clouds part, and the winds blow’. Something sinister happens and we aren’t sure if our imaginations want to find know what!
‘Pink Flower (A Requiem for Death)’ serenely ushers expired souls who say “please take me home…” desiring a blanket of light, for death’s icy touch can be uncomfortably cold. This poem goes far into the earth where the spirit accepts it’s new place and home, buried underneath the ground, and one of the most chilling scenes depicted in this poem is when the narrator says “here I now lie deep in this hallowed ground, listening for the sounds of the infernal digging” as if the spirit or being is still alive…but are they? Pleading, the spirit listens to the sound of the infernal crew cover it’s burial to seal the end, once and for all, joyfully anticipating the new home that awaits it, where the pink flowers grow.
And what of the place known as, “Old Haunted Grove”? In this torturous terror, Ken writes about a ‘tortured banshee’ and mentions a ‘long coiled rope’ to possibly suggest the torture originated from the suffering of a lynching, or hanging (a common punishment for women deemed as witches long ago). The style of this poem is unique, with the tortured banshee speaking directly to the audience, offering her hand to assist those who dare to walk the ‘slippery slopes’ of Old Haunted Grove, for it must be easy to fall along the long raucous ride (according to the banshee).
There is also a poem entitled ‘Final Fate’ which stamps imprints on your mind and captivates you with it’s strange characterization, saying “I’m a lover without love; dishonest to the honest, beautiful without beauty” and “lost, but not alone”, a labyrinthine explanation in a parable-like format that challenges your mind to decipher the underlying meaning. Whereas poems such as ‘Hood of the Spineless Drivel’ are a lot more easy to decipher. This particular selection re-creates a moment that blood has forever stained and tainted human history, when ‘whips of black would splatter dark skin blood’ and dancing murderers ‘burnt crosses’ at the smell and taste of death. It is quite a disturbing poem and denotes cruel and inhumane behavior at the hands of man towards one another. Do where do the boundaries of the darkness lie? Conceivably, none. From earth to underworlds, the darkness can be hard to escape…our best advice; avoid it at all costs!
To summarize our experience, Author Dronsfield did an exceptional job at bringing the concept of this book to life! It is atypical from many books we have read in the past, distinguished with a grim and grisly theme. We are impressed by the quality of the author’s writing, as each and every poem illustrates a specific scene, and not the simple scenes of apparitions and spirits on Halloween you may laugh at or take lightly… Ken’s creative and imaginative poetry compositions are hellishly real, with each individual poem granting access to an entirely foreign world; a sphere in which despicable corruption and death attempt to pull you into an inescapable web of shards and thorns. It is downright shocking!
There is absolutely no doubt that the author lived up to the title of the book in this publication. He crafts words with such skill and expertise, constantly finding various ways of describing scenes, characters, and emotions without losing sight of the essence of poetry. Questions arise about the unknown that you aren’t sure you really want answers to and in the end, all we can do is only pray you never encounter The Cellaring.
We rate this book 5 stars! Author Dronsfield is a gifted poet that will not only tell you poetry-tales of the darkness, he shows you…and it’s not too pretty.
Written By: Realistic Poetry
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About the Author
Ken Allan Dronsfield is a published poet and author originally from New Hampshire, now residing in Oklahoma. He loves thunderstorms, walking in the woods at night, and spending time with his cats Merlin and Willa.
He is the co-editor of the poetry anthology titled, Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze available at Amazon.com. His published work can be found in reviews, journals, magazines, and anthologies throughout the web and in print.
Flash Fiction by Robert L. Penick: "Grandmother, Coney Island Bus Line, July 27th, 1992"
My work has appeared in over 100 different literary journals, including The Hudson Review, North American Review, and Plainsongs. I live in Louisville, KY, USA, with my free-range box turtle, Sheldon, and edit Ristau, a tiny literary annual. More of my writing can be found at www.theartofmercy.net
Fiction by Sharon Frame Gay: "November Moon"
Sharon Frame Gay grew up a child of the highway, playing by the side of the road. She has been published in several anthologies, as well as BioStories, Gravel Magazine, Fiction on the Web, Literally Stories, Halcyon Days, Fabula Argentea, Thrice Fiction, Persimmon Tree, Write City, Literally Orphans, Indiana Voice Journal, Luna Luna, Crannog Magazine, and many others. Her work has won prizes at Wow Women on Writing, The Writing District, and Owl Hollow Press. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee. You can find her on Amazon Author Central as well as Facebook as Sharon Frame Gay-Writer.
Flash Fiction by Carroll Susco: "After I Am Gone"
Carroll Ann Susco holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Pittsburgh and numerous publications including three essays in The Sun Magazine. She writes and teaches in Alexandria, VA. Her chapbook: True Fiction: A Pseudo Autobiographical Chapbook in Three Parts is available at Smashwords.com
You can read more of Carroll's work in the December 2014 and April 2015 Issues of IVJ.
Fiction by Adam Matson: "The Clearing"
My fiction has appeared internationally in over twenty magazines including Day One, Straylight, Soundings East, The Bryant Literary Review, The Berkeley Fiction Review, Morpheus Tales, Infernal Ink Magazine, Crack the Spine, and The Indiana Voice Journal. My novella, "The Leviathan of Plasticia," is slated for publication this fall.
Flash Fiction by Daginne Aignend: "Squish and Wobble"
Daginne Aignend is a pseudonym for the Dutch writer, poetess, and photographic artist Inge Wesdijk.
She likes hard rock music and fantasy books. She is a vegetarian and spends a lot of time with her animals.
Daginne posted some of her poems on her Facebook page and on her fun project website www.daginne.com, she's also the co-editor of Degenerate Literature, a poetry, flash fiction, and arts E-zine
She has been published in several Poetry Review Magazines, in the bilingual anthology (English/Farsi), 'Where Are You From?' and in the Contemporary Poet's Group anthology 'Dandelion in a Vase of Roses'.
She likes hard rock music and fantasy books. She is a vegetarian and spends a lot of time with her animals.
Daginne posted some of her poems on her Facebook page and on her fun project website www.daginne.com, she's also the co-editor of Degenerate Literature, a poetry, flash fiction, and arts E-zine
She has been published in several Poetry Review Magazines, in the bilingual anthology (English/Farsi), 'Where Are You From?' and in the Contemporary Poet's Group anthology 'Dandelion in a Vase of Roses'.
Fiction by Jeff Burt: "The Fragrance of Fumes from an Internal Combustion Engine"
Jeff Burt works in mental health and has been published in Amarillo Bay, The Nervous Breakdown, Atticus Review and forthcoming in Per Contra and Clare Literary Journal. He has work published previously in Indiana Voice Journal.
Fiction by Raymond Greiner: "Portal of Love"
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 latest book "Millie and Ami" is available on Amazon. Raymond lives in a remote area of southern Indiana in a cabin far off a lightly traveled road with his dog Venus.
Fiction by Asror Allayarov: "Tombs A and B"
Asror Allayarov is a Writer, Author, Editor, Marketing/HR Manager, and Translator. His poetry has been published widely. This is his first story appearing in a USA magazine. Tombs A and B gained 2017 Naji Naaman's Literary Prize and was published in his book "A Decision" by SBPRA in the USA in 2014.
CNF/Memoir by Lucia Walton Robinson: "Kind-Hearted Woman"
Born a Hoosier, Lucia Walton Robinson has been writing and editing ever since she learned to read. She also raised a pair of highly literate offspring, taught English in a Gulf coast college for twenty years, and now enjoys retirement near the Carolina coast.
Highlight: Books by IVJ Authors
This month we are once again featuring a few books written by authors published in IVJ-- Meditations by Jonel Abelanosa, Poison in Paradise by Scott Thomas Outlar, The Truth About Snails by JD DeHart.
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