This issue of Unlikely 2.0 features;

art by Johan Wahlstrom,
photographs by Mary Ellen Derwis,
performance art by Leigh Herrick and Branko Gulin.

Check it out @ http://www.unlikelystories.org/

Jeff

Vol. 5, Issue 2 of The Poetry Victims is now online @

http://thepoetryvictimsvol5.blogspot.com/

Guest artist ... Carol Radsprecher
Guest poet ... Taylor Graham

Check it out!

Jeff

The current mid-monthly multimedia issue of Unlikely 2.0 is now online at ... http://www.unlikelystories.org/

with nine collages by Randel Plowman, eight paintings by Randy Thurman and a short film by Cecelia Chapman.

I hope you enjoy it.

Jeff

gotussome people weve
gotussome foreigners weve
gotussome prisoners weve
gotussome terrorists they say weve
gotussome nasty little critters
gotussome leverage now weve
gotussome col-lat-er-al

Today I'm doing everything BUT what I set out to do today.

I'm under preasure, the dreaded deadline syndrome!

So ... I have started a new book, read some reviews, drove KI to school, worked on photographs, posted a quote, did some blogging, sat outside in the beautiful Colorado spring weather smoking and gazing at the mountains ... some more smoking ... played with Cole, Rascal, Mona and Mr. Grey, spoke to my wife on the phone, spoke to my mother, watched You Tube music videos, put up some new blinds, drank 4 cups of tea and a pepsi ... and so I am ready to start now ... as soon as I eat something that I hope will inspire me.

driving home this morning i think on how
the mountains look so anxious
troubled to some effect by something only mountains understand
and clouds crowd around like pushy fat pigeons
winter is packing to leave

why a picture is nothing
but a painting
waiting i said
i said waiting
to be painted it screams out
in bloody red rage and
gasps of gifted yellow
it bellows some blues
and then
okay
a little black

Here again, another MUST SEE movie for the politically curious.

http://www.freedomtofacism.com/

Politics has been pretty much in my face lately!

Jeff

I was exposed to this film "Zeitgeist" about a week ago. It is incredible in its scope and implications.

This is a MUST SEE for anyone with an opinion on American Politics.

Pass it on ... far and wide!

http://zeitgeistmovie.com/

Jeff

I love the access the internet gives me to resources and publications. Such an improvement over the old days of typing and re-typing submissions, sending photos out by mail and fretting their demise. Waiting for snail mail responses!

I sent out 3 poetry submissions to magazines this morning (within the last 3 hours), as well as, 1 photography submission (just now).

1 of the poetry submissions has already been accepted, granted ... this magazine has published me before, but still.

Along with my monthly story about South Africa and poems published in Sketchbook which I sent out Friday, it's been a great week of acceptance so far.

Gotta love it!

(here is a link to photographs published this Month)...

http://downtownlalife.tripod.com/id185.html

I am knee-deep in disallusionment (once again) with the American political system. I watch the candidates for The Presidency and I am dismayed by the animosity between each other, such venom.

What lies they promise!

And what lies we have already been told; before, now, again and again!

Campaigning, a dog eat dog soapbox opera, is not for the feint of heart (especially during times of a trumped-up war).

We suffer the embarrassment of the world.

(Please join me at ... http://liarmagazine.blogspot.com/)

Jeff

For 30 years I've written poetry, which I started publishing about 25 years ago. Always the poetry, just poetry. In Cape Town, my best friend and I ran the school newspaper ... well ... there was another editor involved, but WE did all the work. I was an art editor in another school journal when I returned to the U.S.

The point is, until I started publishing The Poetry Victims in 2004, I never published (even attempted to publish) anything but poetry and photographs. In The Poetry Victims, I add commentary of my own to the rest of the issue which is in email format, for instance, compared to the blog ring versions.

http://submissionguidelines.blogspot.com/

this feels good
feels solid
eight beats to the bar
the weight of the cameras
keeps me grounded
toe tapping
i am packing
i am invincible
i have missed this power
the drumming in my heart
stand-up bass piano
scratchy guitars
i mean i have missed
this means with which to
capture my rebellion
in shadow and light

(Previously published in Blinkzine Arts Magazine and The Poetry Victims)

http://www.blinkzine.com/pdfs/blinkzine%209.pdf

http://thepoetryvictimsvol2.blogspot.com/

So my poison is Shakespeare ... can't get enough!

In high school (in South Africa), Shakespeare was pounded into us with numbing repetition. Mostly it was the sonnets, shredded apart by the teacher with the expectation that we were all on the same page.

I catagorically was not!

I hated those classes and the disiplined structure of the work, nothing but a monkey on my back. I rebelled by writing nasty sonnets and friends joined me in writing limericks about our teachers. Once, I turned in one of these sonnets and was summarily whipped, or "caned" to be more precise.

This website has a listing of "their" favorite...

Top 40 Photoshopped Images.

Check them out!

http://www.vertustech.com/blog/

Jeff