River Poets Journal 2019 Special Edition A Fork in the Road Young Peasant Woman with Straw Hat Sitting in the Wheat by Vincent van Gogh Brassaï, Hungarian/French Photographer (1899– 1984) 2019 Volume 13 Issue 1 $23.00 2017 Volume 11 Issue 2 $23.00 2 River Poets Journal 2019 Special Edition A Fork in the Road Brassaï, Hungarian/French Photographer (1899– 1984) 2 River Poets Journal Published by Lilly Press www.riverpoetsjournal.com River Poets Journal Judith A. Lawrence, Editor & Publisher 2019 Special Edition [email protected] All future rights to material A Fork in The Road published in River Poets Journal are retained by the individual Authors/Artists and Photographers Special Edition - 2019 Volume 13 Issue 1 A Collection of Poems, Memoir, Poets Page Stories, and Photography Vivian Finley Nida 6 Peggy McCray 6 Paul Bernstein 6 James B. Nicola 7 Mike Gallagher 7 Anuel Rodriguez 8 Loretta Diane Walker 9 Lorraine Caputo 9 Jesse Sam Owens 9 Jane Blanchard 10 Diane Webster 10 James Croal Jackson 10 Beate Sigriddaughter 10 Elena Botts 11 Layla Lenhardt 11 Carl Palmer 12 Nancy D. Bonazzoli 12 Arthur Gatti 13 Judith A. Lawrence 14 Authors Oonah V Joslin 15-16 Mitchell Toews 17-22 Mary Sarko 23-26 Edward M. Cohen 27-32 Carol McCullough 33-34 Bob Chikos 35-38 Susan Tepper 39-42 Brassaï, Hungarian/French Photographer (1899– 1984) Photographer 46 3 Editorial Please Note Dear Poets and Writers, River Poets Journal retained one time rights to publish all work online and in After a year of health issues which unfortunately resulted in a stroke, this print. All future rights were retained by publication was delayed by three months. the author. Though I am recuperating and getting Although River Poets Journal preferred back my strength, I am sad to say I must first time submissions, previously retire River Poets Journal with the last two published exceptional work was accepted issues, this Special Edition and the with a note indicating previous Seasonal issue published simultaneously. publication. It has been a phenomenal run, from 2008 We asked if your work had been published until the present. I have been thrilled and previously by another literary magazine, privileged to meet so many poets and to provide acknowledgement of the first writers submitting the best of their work publication, such as, "previously over the years from all over the world. published by River Poets Journal, plus month/year.” I will still keep the website as long as I am able and will in time add pdf files of the old Simultaneous submissions were accepted. online issues to read and reminisce. We asked that the author notified us as soon as they were accepted by another Congratulations to all published writers literary site or publication. artists, and photographers in River Poets Journal since 2008 online and in print. A short bio of 2-5 lines with submission was requested. Either a personal bio, I thank you all for the amazing volume of current list of publications, or combo work submitted. It has been my pleasure would do. Listing name and email on all for all these years to read and select from pages of the submission was advised. the readings. It has been truly a labor of love. Column space presented problems when formatting a poem for a journal. We Judith Lawrence, editor asked to refrain from mixing long lines in a short or average line length poem. Although it might have been an excellent poem, it may not have fit publication space restrictions. Seasonal Edition The Seasonal Issue is to be released simultaneously with this issue. River Poets Journal has been published from 2008 - 2019 4 River Poets Journal Submission Guidelines River Poets Journal Accepted: New and Established Writers Poetry - up to 6 poems - please include your name and email on each poem submitted. Short Stories - under 5,000 words Flash Fiction - under 3,000 words Essays - under 500 words Short Memoir - under 1,000 words Excerpts from novels that can stand on their own - under 3,000 words preferred Art (illustrations and paintings) or Photography A short bio of 2 - 5 lines Simultaneous and previously published “exceptional” poems are accepted as long as we know where poems are being considered or have appeared. We preferred: Work that inspires, excites, feeds the imagination, rich in imagery; work that is memorable. Work that is submitted in the body of an email or as a word attachment, but will accept work through snail mail if the writer does not use a computer. Unselected snail mail submissions are returned if the author requests and SASE is provided with sufficient postage. When submitting work, please provide a short bio of 3-4 lines. Listing all your published work is not required. If not previously published, write something about your life you would like the readers to know. Previously being published is not a requirement for publication in our Journal. We love new writers with great potential. Send work in simple format, Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia 12 pt font, single spaced. Please note long line poems may need editing to fit constraints of formatting. We did not accept: Unsolicited reviews Pornographic and blatantly vulgar language Clichéd or over-sentimental poems or stories Response time was: 3 to 6 months depending on time of year work was submitted. All submissions were thoroughly read. River Poets Journal Print Editions: Some older print editions still exist. Please email and ask if available before ordering. $23.00 per issue plus media postage cost. Note: International shipping cost varies. For ordering multiple copies, please email me for exact cost to avoid overpaying postage. Payment accepted through Paypal, Money Order or Check. Please do not send cash. Delivery of printed copies ordered take 4-6 weeks due to response time of orders placed, and fitting into the Print Shop schedule. Contributor Copies: River Poets Journal issues are free in PDF format online for easy access when available. We do not offer free contributor print copies with the exception of a featured poet, featured artist/photographer, as the printing cost would be too prohibitive for a small press. 5 Poetry From the Cabin Porch Clearing I see her early A thick, white wall with her fawn Of heavy fog wearing spots Obscures the road Ahead of me. She swims across It makes the way lake’s narrow inlet Unseen, unknown, to the island Impossible To navigate. so thick with foliage Just a small patch I lose her, go inside Of open space When I return Allows me room To move forward. she does also This close clearing Tawny legs wade Reminding me, in shallow water Life lived at hand Is the best course. Binoculars magnify twitch of an ear ©Peggy McCray ripple of flank Half a turn steals My Day and Yours dark eyes from view A leap melts You'd like to know about my day? My neighbors her to memory want me gone, my wife Seven days later already left, old crow she and fawn swim Tiresias cawed at me to find the hidden sin in west neck so I did, at a fork near me in the road, years back, drifting in kayak where the fool I whacked turned out to be the dad Speechless, I glide home who wished me dead, Then, like a gong leaving me, Oedipus, king resound the wonder and killer, family man, with sisters for daughters ©Vivian Finley Nida and mommy in my bed. Now I'm supposed to claw A slightly different version of “From the Cabin Porch” my eyes out, die homeless, appears in my book From Circus Town, USA. and wind up, so they tell me, as a god. How was your day? ©Paul Bernstein (Previously published in What the Owls Know, Kelsay Press, 2019.) 6 Poetry frostbite #9: A Penny Balanced Take Off I thought about that penny on the ground Before this, he toddled, and flipping it over or not for the next soul to find bounced off stools, and then thought that if it were suspended on a wire bumped off chairs, held taut, there’s no way it could stay there, it would have staggered around the room, to fall to one side or the other, just as grabbed the tangible, grasped the abstract, a play becomes a comedy or tragedy; scary gap between and that the planet the penny was sitting on him and is held in space taut as that stretched-out wire, his come-to-me Mum. so that the penny was going to have to flip Tonight, an airport lounge some time or other; and that we’re only in offered scope, the space to probe new limits - no limits. act two or three of a four or five act play, Of a sudden, he had taken off: which means there’s time for the whole thing to switch taxied between mock marble walls, from comedy to tragedy, as when Mercutio kills scampered across terrazzo floors, Tybalt, accidentally, under Romeo’s arm, scrambled along alluring aisles, played the gallery, or tragedy to comedy, as in so many tales swerved, steadied, stopped, where the situation, what with all the poverty swaggered into childhood. and wartime strife, must be sufficiently “tragic to be comic,” as they say. ©Mike Gallagher And so whether I flipped it or not would depend on the course I thought the penny was on, the planet, that is, Ships Wake and what act we were in, were there time for a switch Churning ridges surge to steer us to a happy ending, or In stern outrage, were we on our way inexorably to the unspeakable.