Marble Constant
He was my Anthony for most of my salad days, supporting my cause, to adore Eng. Lit., awarding A’s, the occasional disappointed Bs making me work harder to keep his support. His great soliloquy was announcing my candidacy for a scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge. Hardly the heroic general, this grey bearded, ruffle-haired, one eyed squinter who spoke with excited scuffs out of the side of his mouth, glass eye fixed forward, same tweed jacket. Rarely moved to anger or discipline. His love for the subject, for us, was his sword and eagle. Until one day, he turned Octavius, held up my essay on the play, and threw asps into my eyes in the form of stinging condemnation. My essay had Anthony spelt wrong. Three times. He spat out onion tears and stabbed: such stupid mistakes barred me from being an Oxford or Cambridge boy. Saw him when I was an usher at Epsom playhouse. He shambled down the aisle and mumbled recognition, unaware of my scars. I should have been in Oxford or Cambridge but instead I was helping this former demi-Atlas see Am Dram, a year away from being diagnosed dyslexic, marble-constant. Kaleidoscope I think I was four when I first picked up a kaleidoscope, carefully - it was a cheap one. Same family car for eighteen years. Like most children, I was awed numb by the cutting collision of colours, sliding, shattering, reforming with just a turn. It was more than colour. It was looking down the rabbit hole of the universe seconds after the Big Bang, everything rushing. It was the first hint that the life ahead of me was one to be filled with hues of light cut by the rotation of darkness. Published in January 2022 in Verbal Art vol.5 #1.
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Poetry Biography:I have had over 70 poems published in the following worldwide magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Acta Victoriana (Canada), All the Sins (UK), The Amethyst Review (USA), Amsterdam Quarterly (NL) The Blue Nib (Ireland), Bolts of Silk, Borderless Journal, The Brasilia Review (Brazil), Bushfire Literature & Arts Review (US), Cadenza, Cake Magazine, Carillon, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), DASH (USA), Clackamas Literary Review (USA), Cooch Behar Anthology, Dawntreader, Dreamcatcher, The Dillydoun Review, Earth Love, The Ear (US), Eastlit (East Asia), Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Ginosko, Gloom Cupboard, Hidden Channel, Inlandia Journal, IS&T (Ink, Sweat & Tears), Into the Void (Canada), The Journal, The Lakeview Journal (India), Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lunch Ticket (USA) The New Writer, One Hand Clapping, Orbis, Oregon English Journal (USA), The Passage Between, Prole, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sonic Boom (India), Third Wednesday (USA), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), New Contrast (South Africa), One Hand Clapping, Opportunity Publishing, The Oregon English Journal (USA) Origami Poems Project (USA), The Paddock Review (USA), Panoplyzine (USA), Paper Swan Press, The Passage Between, The Peacock Journal (USA), Pens on Fire, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Potomac Review, (USA) Prole, Pulsar Poetry, Rear View Poetry, Queen Mob's Teahouse, Qutub Minar Review (India), Red Ink, Shiela-Na-Gig (USA), South Bank Poetry Magazine, Stand, Waterford Teachers Centre, (Ireland) We Are a Website New Literary Journal (Singapore), Weber - The Contemporary West Review (USA), Windfall (USA), Writing Magazine, Words for the Wild and Verbal Art (India). Archives
March 2024
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