Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
All the Babble of the Souk, Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae, a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
as our planet hurtles through (hurtles hurtles hurtles)
the aftermath of a super nova (super nova super nova super nova)
mid-stream – beyond the void faster – void faster
than entangled space – as stars go out as stars go out as stars go out
as stars go out world wide world wide
on our daily media show
we chat to each other
as if we were in the know
fine tuned to dystopia
in our quantification of atomic seconds
seconds seconds seconds seconds seconds
does anybody know – does anybody know
what we are from before - before before before
in our new normal normalcy normally normal
in our new normal normalcy normally normal
with our daily dance with death on the doorstep
with our daily dance with death on the doorstep
as sudden as a theatre's curtain falls
or calls for a change of costume (calls calls calls)
& nothing more that this isn't
the war to end all wars
at least not yet not yet not yet not yet
just the plague regularly
as empires fall regularly
regularly regularly regularly
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
when it's off why even bother
i'm all done it's just another
it's not on in what's come
& u can in what's well
wonder what's gone well well well
wrong a song wants to come
on but it's never to keep
not what fits bundle to heap
only a bit but got u
what u ask through & through
words must pass an alliterative stash
first & last in onomatepoeic crash
for a poem a mere backlash
to be born mush and mash
beyond the seventh wonder in zenith
come on soon the mirage cometh
in a swoon no doubt about
off's not on all's in rout
what's gone wrong we had thieved
a bitty song to be believed
starts off along i'm all done
put it away in what's come
for another day poem gone astray
it's a play come what may
the talkie talk it's off off
or blackboard chalk just as well
stork & baby but can't tell
drive me crazy in fucking hell
that's to begin off off off
can anyone say cloud into day
a poem's itness is its it?
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
get on with life in whatever hapless fate befalls us
in this evanescent scenario of existence
though our whatever stance may be absurd
nevertheless grasp with final strength at the word
sign of life in what's been left as the millennium tilts
beyond the controle we can circumstantiate
there are those who believe we can be uploaded into
a cloud eternal information ether & the planet will slip
away as we all become timeless satellites in infinite space
so let the planet be consumed by the flames of hell
we're gonna be transported into a silicon heaven
even if we happen to be no more than a cartoon simulation
the cosmic joke to escape extinction the last gnostic
hope of salvation from the failed demi urge creation meanwhile
we have surveillance capitalism the greed of corporations
as super powers wage wars of economy as if should
this anthropocentric creature quit the planet life won't go on
but it will & it won't be uploaded in a cloud but simply
create new cultural non human life forms of communication
where hopefully animal life won't be bred for daily slaughter
to feed our rapacious stomachs in the name of the economy
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
all these years on
& i've given up on reflections
such as the origins of human madness
the limits of what we are beyond our controle
& suddenly as often happens nowadays
i flashback to a dangerous rushing stream
tumbling & cold i remember
the water is green white deep
a slither of a stripped tree trunk straddles
the sheer sided banks
a few strides & a skip
to cross which all in the bleak grey stone village
must old or young strong weak or sick
to enter onto its sparse barren ground
i am alone i see no one
even the tree spar looks slippery shiny
bent with an undersway to the tug of the flow
a fatal slip & i'm gone i could go on
but i cross
a few strides & a skip
i come to the first stone dwelling place
the ground is hard & arid i pass the front dyke space
to enter without a door
the burnt earthen floor room in its dim half light
i don't remember how
there's what looks like a built up large sink
made of stone & shingle & in it half submerged
in clear cold water small white turnips
it's his only fare we stare at each other
he is tall thin gaunt with long white hair & beard
clad in a brown home spun gown & cord sandals
he goes to the sink & offers me a soaked turnip
is this me in another life time could i live
this life day in day out
tonight i will sleep out for i cannot stay
we have not spoken a word
i eat the turnip his only nourishment
& leave as suddenly as i came to a memory
which now hinges on a dream as though
a desert wind should move a dune where
you wake to find what you left behind is beyond you still
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
so far up to now
what comes after after question
what comes after after answer
recognition of an intention
take it or leave it an object of thought
in word & image to a certain extent
on the vertigo edge of vortex
up front after logical
preambles on proof of origins
lead nowhere in particular or general
come to that it may be said do not
begin in the begin but in the 'medias res'
slaughter the insects
the wild wandering albatross
the elephants & the children too
back to normal
everyone sing along
it's all a game of power in the end
for everyone right or wrong
it's an age of controle freak
of totalitarian double speak
on the wrecking light
unfolds the millennium
in a race to get to the next word
to get it heard by might & right
before we're switched off like the radio
a danse macabre of marionettes
after all that's gone before
nothing's left of us at all
but echoes with no promise of return
but our extinction
on that precipice the vertigo vortex trembles
millennium titling outward bound
but bound to the rock jailhouse around the clock
in the billionaire grab market racket packet
the power of money meanwhile back at the ranch
nature in freefall
all creatures great & small we arbitrate
but it's too too late to reciprocate circumstantiate
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
A known killer crocodile
Flaubert strikes fear
into the hearts of the villagers
because its immense size
having eaten many people
hunters want to catch it alive
72 metallic pieces comprise the puzzle
a trap cage that will catch the beast
which only a few have seen
it is said tufts of grass grow from its head
hunters search the mud banks of the vast
delta into the heart of darkness
junkies search between bamboo slime
where concealed as a mud bank they find it
a necklace of terrible teeth in the clay
a flat plain empty as the night
a hole that holds you in its sight
maws
that tear flesh of even hippopotamus
it appears to be more than 100
but teeth reckon it 60
still growing
a cow's head is placed inside the trap
but Flaubert does not take the bait
a white spot beads the infra red night
Flaubert's eye that nightly visits
the villagers say he's a familiar under the spell
of an evil person which must be broken
in the midst of their efforts meanwhile
Flaubert strikes again yet another
human is rent limb from limb
the hunter's plan is not working
they must find a new technology
to capture
this exceptional creature before it
strikes again
Flaubert
is sighted
holding up
on a high delta
plain
where nothing
escapes
its watchful eye
below
they struggle
to set up
hydraulic
cable traps
this time they use live bait
a goat
but Flaubert is never fooled
the hunters
are baffled
the waiting continues
Flaubert springs the trap
snatches the goat
the hunters' time has run out
Flaubert disappears
into delta slime
& the villagers wait
Robin Ouzman Hislop is on line Editor at Poetry Life & Times at Artvilla.com. His numerous appearances include Cold Mountain Review (Appalachian University, N.Carolina), The Honest Ulsterman, Cratera No 3 and Aquillrelle’s Best. His publications are collected poems All the Babble of the Souk,Cartoon Molecules, Next Arrivals & Moon Selected Audio Textual Poems. A translation from Spanish of poems by Guadalupe Grande Key of Mist and Carmen Crespo Tesserae, the award winning (X111 Premio César Simón De Poesía), in November 2017 these works were presented in a live performance at The International Writer’s Conference hosted by the University of Leeds. UK. A forthcoming publication of collected poems Off the Menu is expected in 2020
* A poem by Amparo Arróspide, from “En el oído del viento” (Baile del Sol, 2016). Hers and Robin Ouzman´s translation.
***
Can’t all poets
get a PhD in synesthesia
by the University of Columba in New York?
Can´t they harvest medallions under the moon?
Can´t they work as professors of Punic Sciences?
As kindergarten teachers, can´t they work?
Can´t they afford to pay for
their third self-published volume?
Can´t all poets live on air?
Can’t they rummage, deconstruct , snoop
build for themselves a submerged house
inhabit a crystal palace?
Can´t they repeat over and over the unsaid
incite questions of ethical and aesthetic weight
dismantle and fragment reality?
Can´t they translate their 14th century Chinese
concubine colleagues?
Can´t they receive writing
from a yearning and swift
void?
From a primordial nothingness?
Can´t they mortgage their crystal palace
their submerged house?
Can´t they rebelliously peddle little stars?
Can´t all poor poets steal books?
Can´t they read so
the complete works by Samuel and Ezra and John
by Juana Inés, Alejandra and Gabriela
by Anne and Margaret and Stevie
by Wallace and Edgar and Charles
by Arthur and Paul and Vladimir
by Dulce and Marina and Marosa?
And etcetera and etcetera and etcetera and etcetera?
Can´t all poets
add more beauty to beauty
and more horror to horror?
Can´t they draw maps and routes
of the invisible, futuristic city
foretold by their dreams?
Can´t they pursue the intangible
Move towards permanence
so that a poem
becomes a closed and completed vehicle
to treasure a present without behind or beyond?
Can’t they unfold and transmigrate
can’t they achieve mindfulness
Can´t they stammer forever
into everlasting silence?
**
¿Todos los poetas no pueden
obtener un doctorado en sinestesia
por la universidad de Columba en Nueva York?
¿Cosechar medallones bajo la luna?
¿Trabajar de catedráticos de ciencias púnicas
trabajar de maestras jardineras?
¿Trabajar?
¿No pueden costearse la tercera autoedición?
¿Vivir del aire?
¿No pueden hurgar, deconstruir, fisgonear
construirse una casa sumergida
habitar un palacio de cristal?
¿Reiterar una y otra vez lo no dicho
incitar preguntas de peso ético y estético
desarticular y fragmentar la realidad?
¿Traducir a concubinas chinas del siglo XIV?
¿No pueden recibir la escritura desde un vacío originario
anhelante y veloz?
¿Hipotecar palacio y casa sumergida,
traficar estrellitas, rebelarse?
¿Robar libros por pobres?
¿Leer así
a Samuel a Ezra a John
a Juana Inés a Alejandra a Gabriela
y a Joyce a Anne a Margaret
a Wallace a Edgar a Charles
a Arthur a Paul, Vladimir
a Marina a Dulce a Marosa?
¿Y a etcétera y etcétera y etcétera y etcétera?
¿No pueden
agregar más belleza a la belleza
y al horror, más horror?
¿Trazar mapas y rutas
de la ciudad invisible, futurista
que sus sueños predicen?
¿Acosar lo inapresable, moverse
en seguimiento de lo fijo, el poema
como vehículo cerrado y concluso
para atesorar un presente sin detrás ni más allá?
¿No pueden desdoblarse, transmutarse
no pueden extrañarse, balbucearse
y enmudecer al fin?
*
Amparo Arróspide (from En el oído del viento (Baile del Sol, 2016)
All the Babble of the Souk, Cartoon Molecules and Next Arrivals, collected poems, as well as translation of Guadalupe Grande´s La llave de niebla, as Key of Mist and the recently published Tesserae, a translation of Carmen Crespo´s Teselas.
