From the Mouth of an Underdog

 

Pessoa approves

Azarão lit journal has published a poem of mine: Grave Silhouettes

Getting Big in Swindon

 

Thanks to THE SWINE, put out by Poetry Swindon in the UK. 

Absolutely Not for Profit in Malta

 

Thanks to Antae, I am now published in Malta. Read the two poems that impressed them here.

Ben Takes a Gothic Turn

Pictured above is Frederick III, German Emperor. He was Kaiser for only two months in 1888, until he succumbed to throat cancer. This early demise paved the way for his son ,Wilhelm II, to take charge of the German Empire. We all know how well that went.

What does this have to do with me? Thanks to Macy Skov at A Suffer's Digest, a short story of mine based on the Kaiser's malady is now published. It is called Bureau of Barbarians and is up and ready to be read.

Soup Can Production

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

Getting in the Goulash of the Globe Review

 

And now, two poems published in Hungary as part of the Globe Review. 

Visit France and Croatia

 

...or visit web pages hosted in France and Croatia where poems of mine have just been published. ZVONA i NARI has published two poems from me, and Revue Revolution has work on its English and French sites (photo credit of Christine Stoddard).

The Luck of Submitting to the Irish

 

The second issue of Beir Bua journal is out with my poem "Accordion Grimes" in it. Open the PDF to read it. In case you're wondering, Beir means "bring" and Bua means "victory, talent, or virtue."

Taking Sweden by Some Kind of Storm

 

Hello all. Two poems of mine are up at Tistelblomma a "litterärt nätmagasin" run by Jenny Enochsson. In addition to those works, there's an interview with me as well.

The History in Prospect Park

 

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon c. 562 BC

The Battle of Salamis c. 480 BC

Balboa sights the Pacific c.1513

The Battle of Lepanto 1571

The First PEZ Dispenser c. 1927

Woodstock (not pictured: Hippies) 1969

What's the Deal with Poetry

Some music to get you into the mood

Hello, and happy Saturday to those still observing the weekend. I just published a poem in The Daily Drunk involving a dream I had a while back. Somehow the show Seinfeld got involved, maybe I was watching reruns of it at the time.

History Doesn't Repeat, It Rhymes (Unlike this Poem)

Hello one and all. One last post for the last day of February 2018. I have a poem for you all to read in Weatherbeaten Lit's President's Day issue.

The Dragon of Anapest Shall Rise!

Or is it the Dragon of Budapest shall rise?

Anyway, Anapest, an offshoot of the Paragon Journal, has published three poems written by yours truly.

Here's one

Another one

And the last poem

The Future Is Nice

I got a thing, you got a thing, everybody's got a thing...but not everybody's got a thing in Quail Bell. Enjoy a piece of hybrid absurdity that mixes the real and the unreal, the ethereal of the promise and the mundane of the product.

Owl's Brew Radler is Rad

I'm more of a coffee man than a tea man, but I'm more of a beer man than a coffee man, so when you mix beer and tea together, I'll give it a try. Frankly I've never had the combination before. Yes, I've had vodka and tea, and unidentified malt beverage and tea, but never true, brewed beer and tea. Thanks to the Owl's Brew company, I get to expand my taste horizons this way.

Up for review are two products from this fine business: That's My Jam and The Blondie. They both combine beer and tea to create different flavors, finely balancing bubbly and bitter, sweet and tangy. You might think the use of the Penny Farthing is an homage to the Prisoner. You may be right. But there's solid history behind it, because these kinds of beer, tea, and lemonade drinks were developed for thirsty bicyclists on the go. On the back of the can it reads "Do us a solid and fill in the blank: I drink @theowlsbrew when I____________." Well I guess based on my experience I can say that I drink the Owl's Brew when I watch David Lynch's Mullholland Drive. Owl's Brew Radler didn't exactly clear anything up but that's not a knock against it. Perhaps I should've drank Mezcal instead.

That's My Jam is better on first taste and if you're looking for just one can to drink at a time, I would recommend it over The Blondie. It's a sweet, fruity concoction, perfect for the warm spring days I'm sure we'll be having any day now. It combines Darjeeling and fruit peel, a little heavier than a pure cider.

The Blondie is the drink for those long Sunday afternoons trying to get through an inane conversation at a party. That's My Jam is too sweet to go down six times in a row. The Blondie though, is for any long-haul drinking you might have (but please drink responsibly etc.) It tastes more like a traditional shandy, less like a cider. It combines black tea and citrus juices. Which ones? It's a mystery! Perhaps the red finger lime, or even more exotic, an etrog. Hey, a drinker can dream, right?

The relatively lower alcohol content and the mix of flavors in these beers also means they can be used for cocktail purposes. The Owl's Brew also sells cocktail mixes, but these radlers work just fine. I tried them both with vodka, that universal solvent for unlocking the good and bad time out of everything. I found that the Blondie works better than the Jam. the Blondie covers the vodka and smooths it out.  The Jam gets frothy upon contact and it's pretty sweet after a while. Now sweet might, in fact, "be your jam." it certainly is my girlfriend's. She liked That's My Jam over The Blondie. Then again maybe its because she's The Brunette.

Both of these drinks are fine and if you're a tea enthusiast, I would recommend them both. The only thing I didn't like was the plastic used to hold the six packs together. To be fair, I got these drinks straight from the source. In the store it might be different. The plastic is hard to describe. It's orange and thick, almost like tiny Frisbees settling over each can. My girlfriend had trouble pulling the cans out because of it. The plastic is hard and it's loud when you try to snap a drink loose. If you're trying to hide your drinking from someone, I wouldn't recommend these beers. Or you can just wait until they leave and untangle the cans all at once.

To Lisbon via Adelaide

Adelaide, a publication based out of New York and Lisbon, Portugal, has published five of my poems. Read them here, perhaps while listening to the song "Adelaide" by John Cale.