TheNewVerse.News : environmental crisis

Showing posts with label environmental crisis. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

HERE WE ARE

by Dan Brook

here we are

we must do

what is difficult

we must do

what is necessary

we must be

the bay

polluted & pissed in

used, abused

trying to support life

we must sustain

we must be

the rainforest

slashed & burned

choking, smoking

trying to breathe

we must regenerate

we must be

the ocean

jumped in & dumped in

crashing, thrashing

trying to wash

we must cleanse

we must be

the Earth

ridden roughshod

quaking, spinning

trying to survive

we must live

we must be

the worm

stepped over & on

wiggling, wriggling

trying to burrow

we must be humble

we must be

the other

feared & hated

mistaken, misunderstood

trying to communicate

we must be compassionate

we must be

democracy

inefficient & empowering

attacked, defended

trying to survive

we must act

we must be

ourselves

proud & vibrant

scarred, scared

trying to be

we must be better

we must be

who we are

together & alone

all of us, together

trying to thrive

we must be the best us

Dan Brook teaches in the Department of Sociology and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences at San Jose State University and is, most recently, the author of Sweet Nothings (Hekate Publishing).

Thursday, October 22, 2020

OCTOBER 2020

by Roberto Christiano

"Fear of Pain," oil painting by Igor Shulman

I have heard the sirens falling

falling like the songs of sorrow

I have seen the black man hobbled

hobbled by the blues of bullets

I have smelt the forests burning

burning till the ashes whiten

I have seen the mermaids leaving

leaving as our rivers rumble

I have heard the children crying

crying with our cupboards empty

I have smelt the fear of winter

winter with the sirens calling

Roberto Christiano won the 2010 Fiction Prize from Northern Virginia Review. He received a Pushcart Prize nomination for poetry in Prairie Schooner. His poetry is anthologized in The Gávea–Brown Book of Portuguese-American Poetry (Brown University). His chapbook Port of Leaving was published by Finishing Line Press. Other poems have appeared in The New Verse News, The Washington Post, Writer.org, and The Sow's Ear.

Emails to The New Verse News that do not follow the guidelines printed at the top of this page and in this column will be deleted. Poets are reminded, therefore, NOT to send attachments unless specifically requested to do so.

Although the editors and audience of The New Verse News have a politically progressive bias, we welcome well-written verses of various visions and viewpoints.

In any event, opinions expressed in The New Verse News are those of the poems' writers (or, perhaps, only of the poems' speakers) and not necessarily those of the editors, the audience, or other contributors to the site.

TheNewVerse.News walks a fine line between News and Literature. We choose not to publish poems that merely restate what one finds in a news article. On the other hand, we dare not offer verse that misleads our audience into thinking that an invented scenario actually happened in reality. In some cases, therefore, we request an author to add a note to explain how a poem veers from documented facts.

We do not accept work that exhibits racism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, ageism, classism, religious prejudice, ableism, or hatred of any marginalized group or individual.

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The editor typically introduces a poem on site with an illustration borrowed from news stories or photo collections. Although we reject any AI-created or AI-enhanced poetry, we do use graphics generated using AI applications at Shutterstock and NightCafé. We understand the ethical dilemmas: https://nightcafe.studio/blogs/info/ethical-concerns-in-using-ai-generated-images and https://www.shutterstock.com/blog/ethical-ai-for-good . If you are uncomfortable with our using AI graphics, you might refrain from submitting your work to us.

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The writer retains all other rights to her/his/their work. The writer of a poem accepted by the editors will be informed of that acceptance simultaneously with the posting of the poem on site. The editors try to respond to submissions within a fortnight.

The New Verse News accepts multiple, but NOT simultaneous submissions. In general, the editors of The New Verse News try not to post the work of any one poet more than once in ten days.

Please create a new email thread for each submission (i.e.: if you’ve submitted to us before, please don’t reply to a previous submission’s email thread).

The editors do not have the time to comment on poems submitted to The New Verse News. Even had we the time, we have found from unhappy experiences in the past that editorial feedback is too often the prompt for argument and too infrequently accepted as constructive. Decisions are based on the needs of the journal on any given day and are not at all meant to be judgements on the quality of submitted poems. Many poems rejected by The New Verse News have been eagerly accepted and published by other fine journals.

Poems published in The New Verse News generally remain available in the site's archives eternally or until a writer requests that her/his/their work be deleted.

The Managing Editor of The New Verse News is James Penha. Interviews with him regarding the editorial policies of the journal are available at:
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Tuesday, January 19, 2021

HERE WE ARE

Thursday, October 22, 2020

OCTOBER 2020