ASTROPHEL AND I

 Some families only meet up at marriages
and funerals where astrophel provides
a bridal bouquet or wreath. You’d think 
I could content myself with greetings 
when you flower into the room, 
a blossom in the heat of summer,
delicate in your cotton sheathe, smiling
like while light as I present as the dark night.
“He’s after a lay,” people say, “But she’s 
too good for him.” Right twice over, 
I can validate. Lust is not romantic
nor is it her mind I mean to conquer, 
but sonnets, like neoclassical poetry, 
are for poetry affectionados and pop culture
is more "slam bam, barely a thank you 
ma'am. Time was a prom date required
a corsage. Now a Seven-Eleven rose passes
for sentimental. Granted, a grocery-store 
bunch of flowers with baby’s breath 
will do when you arrive to a family
reunion. Your cousin’s new baby, 
reeking of baby powder, bubbling 
 a map of breast milk is the prevailing
symbol of new love. A poem about 
how Astrophel loved Stella may have
been the poet Petrarch's trip, catalogued in
Cliff Notes and crib sheets. Once, all our
book shelves had the same texts we kept after
our degree to prove we were well read. 
Frat men who notched their bed posts 
for de-flowers, now emasculated by 
blood-pressure meds or prostrate 
operations, commiserating at wakes or
grandchild’s wedding, or avoiding 
the question who will go next.

About the Author:
Dr. David B. Axelrod was Suffolk, Long Island’s, and is now Volusia County, Florida, Poet Laureate (2015-continuing). He has been published in fifteen languages and hundreds of magazines and anthologies, and twenty-four books of poetry, most recently The Official Rules for Olympic Bed Riding (Bold Venture Press, 2023).  He is also author of Merlin Stone Remembered, chronicling the work of the women’s-rights advocate author of When God Was a Woman.  Dr. Axelrod is recipient of three Fulbright Awards including his being the first official Fulbright Poet-in-Residence in the People’s Republic of China. He is publisher of Writers Ink Press. He lives in Daytona Beach where he is the founder/director of Creative Happiness Institute, Inc., a not-for-profit organization presenting programs in creative writing and alternative wellness (www.creativehappiness.org). His complete CV is available at www.poetrydoctor.org/CV. 

The post Collab of Flash Fiction, Poem and Artwork by David B. Axelrod first appeared on Prachya Review.

Bumblebee Gold 

The gold medal goes
To flower’d pollinator:
Humble bumblebee

* Traditional haiku are untitled

Cattails, Haunts and Swales

Call it slew, marsh or swale
Reed mace or cattail
The bogs and the bulrushes call

Haints of mojo, hoodoo
Wraiths and spirits call you
Their mystery and magic enthrall

‘Cross the bayou, moans, low
Loons speak out a rondeau 
Sing to us their plaintive tattoo

As the eve’ yields to dusk
Curtain’s rung down for us
‘Til next eve, ghostly scenes come anew

Artworks: “Marauder, Trickster, Thief” (watercolor on paper), “Dressed in Layers” (mixed media on paper), “Vanishing Point” (watercolor on paper) by Melinda Hicks

About the Poet and Artist:
Melinda Hicks (Artist) has a camera, a collection of “collage stuff” and a vision for art.  Mix these elements with water + color, and something magical happens: visions flow off the tips of her brushes onto paper, and art is created. Melinda’s paintings are based upon photos she takes on walks, from the car and while traveling, as well as painting plein air; she works mainly in watercolor, with collage pieces to add depth. Melinda lives in Fairhope, AL with her dedicated “art critic” husband Donald and her trusty art buddy, Lady Bug, their cat. 

Mike Turner (Writer) is a songwriter and poet living on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Named Male Gospel Entertainer of the Year by the North America Country Music Associations International (2017), his original songs have received radio and streaming play in the U.S., UK, Europe, Australia and on the US Armed Forces Radio Network. Mike has had over 350 poems published in more than 70 journals and anthologies; his poem, “Sense of Peace,” won the Alabama Writers’ Cooperative’s 2023 Roger Williams Peace Prize. His book, Visions and Memories, is available from Amazon.

The post Collab by Mike Turner & Melinda Hicks first appeared on Prachya Review.

On Waking One Day in October

This day breaks without a name
to mark it from any other. It sneaks
light along my window’s dark edge,
slinks onto my stage for dreams. 
I linger -- savor the impossible -- 
feats untamed by gravity,
encounters unmoored from time. 
I stretch -- like a timid guest --
fingertips to toes, delicately test
my comfort in this body 
brittle now from use, misuse, 	
disuse. I push 			
up, sit on the edge 			 
of my bed				
not yet ready for today.

Surface Waves 


As a father is dying 

in Key Biscayne,

peaks crest 	

toward shore. Tangles 

of seaweed, broken shells

-- now polished smooth -- litter

the path.  Each wave pairs

with its distant metronome, pushes

shimmering white before muddled 

green.  One wave folds in on itself, 

collapses before landfall. 

Another races to dry sand, 

a darker trace 

all that remains. 

*poems by JC Williams accompanying with one-line drawings by Cassia Williams-Rogers.

About the Poet and Artist:

JC Williams began writing poetry after careers in philosophy and law. In 2022, she participated in AWP’s Writer to Writer Program working with poet Jehanne Dubrow.  JC’s poems have appeared in Months to Years and Songs of Eretz.  Her experiences growing up in the South find their way into many poems.  In addition to poetry, her loves are her partner, their daughter, and tai chi. She currently lives in Maryland.

Cassia Williams-Rogers is a first year MD/PhD student at Washington University in St. Louis, MO.  The one-line drawings accompanying these poems are part of an on-going collaboration with JC Williams for a chapbook in which all poems are illustrated and all of the illustrations are connected with one line. The illustrations were drawn by hand using an Apple pencil (2^nd Gen), an iPad Air (5^th Gen) and GoodNotes5. Cassia is passionate about baking, genetics, and her two cats, Yuri and Adi (named after RNA bases U and A).

The post Poetry and Art by JC Williams & Cassia Williams-Rogers first appeared on Prachya Review.

Artist Statement about the art pieces: My art focuses on the impact of water, air, and light – these are primal elements we all need for life, a need that inextricably links us all. In an ethical world, we (humans and animals) would have free and abundant access to clean and fresh water and air. In an ethical world, we would preserve resources for the generations to come. This artwork celebrates water as a life force.

Katie Hughbanks is a writer, photographer, and teacher whose photography has been recognized nationally and internationally. Her photos appear in more than 40 publications, including Molecule, Dulcet, Cool Beans Lit, Peatsmoke Journal, In Parentheses, L’Esprit Literary Review, New Feathers Anthology, Glassworks Magazine, Azahares, Paper Dragon, Sage-ing, and Black Fork Review. She is the author of two chapbooks, Blackbird Songs (Prolific Press, 2019) and It’s Time (Finishing Line Press, 2024). She teaches English and Creative Writing in Louisville, Kentucky. 

The post Water, Air and Light by Katie Hughbanks first appeared on Prachya Review.

BIAGIO FORTINI was born in Ripalta Cremasca, in the province of Cremona, Italy. His passion for photography has led him to travel to many countries around the world. His works are included in various anthologies and websites from Canada, the USA, Spain, Italy, Albania, and India. Fortini’s photographs have been used for the covers of over 50 literary works of poetry and prose, published in countries ranging from the United States to Canada, France, Italy, Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Romania, Turkey, the Philippines, India, Colombia, Argentina and Serbia. In his free time, he also paints, expressing his emotions and feelings through colors and shades. Two of his artworks are showcased here:

The post Artworks by Biagio Fortini first appeared on Prachya Review.

“If there is a silver lining to the horrific global pandemic, it is that extensive lockdowns have taught me to reconsider my immediate surroundings as possible sources of inspiration for abstract photography. In particular, the light coming into my rooms has provided multiple opportunities for atypical composition via my little handheld iPhone. “Emerging Idea” is actually a view through a privacy film on a household window. The bubble formation reminds me of cells, and the bright light leading to greenery suggests fruitful illumination.”

Janis Butler Holm served as Associate Editor for Wide Angle, the film journal, and currently works as a writer and editor in sunny Los Angeles. Her prose, poems, art, and performance pieces have appeared in small-press, national, and international magazines. Her plays have been produced in the U.S., Canada, Russia, and the U.K.

The post “Emerging Idea” by Janis Butler Holm first appeared on Prachya Review.

The post Artwork by Cynthia Yatchman first appeared on Prachya Review.

Irina Tall (Novikova) is an artist, graphic artist, illustrator. She graduated from the State Academy of Slavic Cultures with a degree in art, and also has a bachelor’s degree in design. The first personal exhibition “My soul is like a wild hawk” (2002) was held in the museum of Maxim Bagdanovich. In her works, she raises themes of ecology, in 2005 she devoted a series of works to the Chernobyl disaster, draws on anti-war topics. The first big series she drew was The Red Book, dedicated to rare and endangered species of animals and birds. Writes fairy tales and poems, illustrates short stories. She draws various fantastic creatures: unicorny the Exhibition is Irina s, animals with human faces, she especially likes the image of a man – a bird – Siren. In 2020, she took part in Poznań Art Week. Her work has been published in magazines: Gupsophila, Harpy Hybrid Review, Little Literary Living Room and others. In 2022, her short story was included in the collection “The 50 Best Short Stories”, and her poem was published in the collection of poetry “The wonders of winter”. Here are some of her artworks:

The post Artwork with Poem by Irina Tall first appeared on Prachya Review.

Painting is my first love—a vital, pure passion. Creating a painting, commencing with the fervent exploration of a concept through which I aim to convey a message, forms the foundation of my artistic expression. Sculpture, on the other hand, serves as my artistic infidelity to painting—a voluptuous and sensual lover evoking diverse emotions and striking forbidden chords.

In recent years, I have exclusively devoted myself to crafting concrete sculptures. For these creations, I employ my personal clothing. Through an artistic process involving plaster, resin, and cement, I transform these garments into hangable artworks. My memories, DNA, and experiences become concretized within, turning the observer into a sort of post-modern archaeologist studying my work as if they were urban artifacts.

I like to believe that those who gaze upon my sculptures created between 2020 and 2022 can perceive the anguish, vulnerability, and fear that each of us felt in the face of the global issue that was COVID-19. Beneath a layer of cement lie the clothes with which I endured this calamitous period—garments that, much like the relics preserved after Pompeii’s catastrophic eruption two millennia ago, narrate humanity’s struggle to cope with shattered lives and devastated economies.

The post Artworks of Mario Loprete first appeared on Prachya Review.

Light (of Country Road and City Street)

Street photography can take many forms, and its content and style can be interpreted broadly. This series of photographs exhibit the nuance of light upon the subject matter I feel inspired by. Sometimes this light is from the sun, the day, and easy to explain, while at other times, it is electric light say, in the carnival barker’s summer night or the small town’s main street mise-en-scene of buildings and walkways. I like to sense and possibly imagine that places have a secret inner spirit that is sometimes visible. The rural loam and solitary barn and what they say about themselves, their seasons, and their history. Or the fairgrounds in the evening, buzzing electrical bulbs in the late summer dark, people at ease and quietly excited and proud to be amidst their metropolis and the warm weather. Street photography in my ideal series of photos would not exclude what some might consider prosaic; the regular items and symbols of the world come alive. Cable wires, signs, old and forgotten windows, a long fence nobody thinks of one way or another. All do their job and have a place in the world. All were made for a reason. The photographer’s job is to document and take note of that, to shed light upon the subject matter.

About the Photographer:

Brian Michael Barbeito is a Canadian poet, writer, and photographer. Recent work appears in The Notre Dame Review. 

The post Street Photography by Brian Michael Barbeito first appeared on Prachya Review.