Back to the Square for a Feral Poet

 

Feral Poetry published a poem of mine called Back to the Square. It's based on the aftermath of all the recent failed uprisings of the human spirit the CIA didn't back.

Le Mot Juste (Literary)

 

Juste Literary put out two of my poems into the world: The Great Displacement and LOL Bot Is Serious

Soup Can Production

 New poem about anti-colonialism can be found in the latest issue of Soup Can

Biblical Episodes with Ben Nardolilli

 

Meanwhile in Nigeria, the Lunaris Review has published my poem "Biblical Episodes." 

Fresh Words from a Fiery Scribe

 

A soul is for sale and a guilty party pleads in front of a judge in poems of mine published at Fresh Words. Meanwhile a man with a lease speaks over at the Fiery Scribe. 

Writing with Salamander Ink

 

A Nigeria literary outfit named Salamander Ink has published two poems from me. The first one is called In a Bend of the Paper  and may or may not be based on my life during summer of 2020. 

I'm Big in Malawi

Pictured: Not the current flag of Malawi

Three poems of mine are on a Malawi-based literary site: Nthanda Review.It case you've never heard of the country before, here are some facts about Malawi to share.

TL;DR New Poem about Bank Fraud

Or I should say, prelude to a bank fraud, up at TL;DR Magazine. It's a nifty little creative outlet with work by Mary Two Teeth and a short musing on Pokemon Go by William Lessard.  My poem is a musical re-rendering of an email I got from a bank in Africa promising me big returns if I shared a little bit of data about my debit card with them.

In Between Hangovers and Other Updates

A poem of mine "Father and Son Safari" is up at In Between Hangovers. It was inspired by a story I read about Soren Kierkegaard's childhood.  His father used to walk him around a room in their Copenhagen house and they would pretend to visit a world city, say Paris. Young Soren would be asked to describe various monuments and landmarks one might see in the city while staying in the confines of the room. I guess an armchair would be Notre Dame and so on.

I've decided to begin the process of querying agents again. I took a break the last couple of years because I got discouraged. In that time I wrote several more novels, honed my skills, and rewrote my first novel "The Daybreak Boys," I changed the title from "Everything with Wings Is Restless," and gutted out the interior. It was once a series of journal entries by the narrator. Now it is just straight first person storytelling. The exterior remains: the great bromance of our age. I think it's ready for some strangers' eyes. Not just any strangers. Strangers with contacts in publishing, of course.

So, wish me luck with that. If you've been wishing me luck so far, but in regards to getting poems published on websites, you can stop. Thanks for the vibes and prayers so far, now you just need to direct them towards the world of literary agents.

I'm Big in West Africa

I'm almost as big as fufu.

This is the second time I've been published in West Africa (remember when I wrote that poem Erica Shumener?). The Ehanom Review, a literary publication based in Ghana has put a poem of mine up online. Read it while drinking a nice palm wine.

Vexing Vexillological News

In case you do not get your news from the Wikipedia front page, the African nation of Malawi has changed its flag. Some of you may recall Malawi as the former Nyasaland. In which, I would suggest getting a new map. Unlike Georgia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi made a few major changes, but it was more noticeable than what Iraq did to its flag after the current invasion.

Malawi's flag from 1964 to 2010 was this:

It had a pretty standard color scheme in use among African countries, based on the colors of the Pan-African movement. It also added a sun at the top, in red. I think Malawi's old flag was decent, although I never liked that sun being red. It made the flag too dark overall, and did not stand out enough.

Now Malawi has a new flag, though there is some debate how long it will last:

The color scheme was maintained, which is good, and the usage of the sun as a symbol to help distinguish the flag remains. Overall these were good ideas, and changing the color to white does brighten up the flag significantly.

Still, I think problems remain. The white is too striking a color. Malawi should have gone with yellow or gold instead, creating a flag reminiscent of the now defunct Biafra. Maybe though, that is what they were trying to avoid. I think having so many rays around the sun is distracting and makes it hard for people to replicate the flag. One of the cardinal rules of flag design is to make flags simple enough for children to draw. On this basis, both the flag of the United States and Malawi fail, too many unnecessary little pieces. A white circle set inside another one empty in the middle would have sufficed.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

One Ghana, One Voice

I have a new poem published at One Ghana, One Voice, about the founder of modern Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. I am also interviewed on the site as well. The poem was a product of my boredom at a Minetta Review party. Erica Shumener can attest to that. She has the original in her Ghana textbook. Hopefully it will be worth mad money someday. Or a couple of Cedis at least.