The Seventh Quarry - Swansea Poetry Magazine

_____________________________________________________ THE SEVENTH QUARRY Swansea Poetry Magazine ______________________________________________________THE SEVENTH QUARRY Swansea Poetry Magazine aims to publish quality poems from around the world. Poets from the U.K., America, Argentina, Canada, Israel, Spain, Catalonia, Czech Republic, Japan, China, Australia, Serbia, and Romania have already appeared in its pages. New York’s Vince Clemente, as the magazine’s Consultant Editor: America, ensures a steady stream of American poets. ________________________________________________Each issue features a Poet Profile, a batch of pages given over to a chosen poet. The policy is to try to alternate between a British poet and a non-British poet. There is also a Books and Magazines page, which provides details and brief comments on received publications. ________________________________________________The magazine has recently become a cooperating partner with CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS PUBLISHERS, New York. The partnership has already contributed to the magazine being displayed at several prestigious literary events in America and the publication in QUARRY of work by the late, Pulitzer prize-winner, American Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz. ________________________________________________The magazine has also been contracted to THE POETRY LIBRARY'S (Royal Festival Hall, London) prestigious digitisation project, which will ensure copies of the magazine are featured on its very popular website: regarded by many as the best source for poetry in the U.K. QUARRY was featured in THE GUARDIAN, one of Britain’s leading daily newspapers, in April 2006. It was awarded SECOND BEST SMALL PRESS MAGAZINE IN THE U.K. 2006 by PURPLE PATCH (U.K.). ________________________________________________The Editor also organises THE SEVENTH QUARRY PRESENTS poetry evenings. The first, at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea, featured a visit by American poet Stanley H. Barkan. ________________________________________________The magazine appears twice a year, in January and July. It costs £3.50 per issue or £7 for a year’s subscription (two copies). $10 and $20 for USA subscribers. ________________________________________________EDITOR: PETER THABIT JONES ________________________________________________ CONSULTING EDITOR, AMERICA: VINCE CLEMENTE ________________________________________________ISSN 1745-2236 ________________________________________________DAN-Y-BRYN, 74 CWM LEVEL ROAD, BRYNHYFRYD, SWANSEA SA5 9DY, WALES, GREAT BRITAIN ________________________________________________ SUBMISSION: NO MORE THAN FOUR POEMS (NO LONG POEMS, PLEASE) S.A.E. ESSENTIAL ________________________________________________CONTRIBUTORS RECEIVE A COMPLIMENTARY COPY ________________________________________________ VISIT: www.myspace.com/peterthabitjones ________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ _______________________________ POETS IN ISSUE 10 - PUBLISHED JULY 2009 ............................................................ ...........WALES: ALAN KELLERMANN, SUSAN RICHARDSON, HERBERT WILLIAMS, CAROLE ANN SMITH, JEAN SALKILLD, CAROLINE GILL, DAVID GILL, LYNN HOPKINS, BYRON BEYNON, ROY MORGANS, DAVID ALUN WILLIAMS, MALCOLM PARR
ENGLAND: CHARLOTTE BOULAY-GOLDSMITH, KATE EDWARDS
SCOTLAND: NEIL LEADBEATER
ISRAEL: ORNA RAV-HON
SERBIA: VOJISLAV DERIC
AUSTRALIA: IAN IRVINE
JAPAN: NAOSHI KORIYAMA
CANADA: T.ANDERS CARSON, LINDA KING
AMERICA: JOHN EDWIN COWEN, VINCE CLEMENTE, JOHN DOTSON, ANNABELLE MOSELEY, ROBERT L. GIRON, CAROLYN MARY KLEEFELD, SARAH PETRAK, CHRISTINE REDMAN-WALDEYER, LUIS ALBERTO AMBROGGIO, ROBIN METZ, STANLEY H. BARKAN, SILVIA KOFLER, WILLIAM HEYEN, ALEKSEY DAYEN, CLAIRE NICOLAS WHITE, DAVID ADAMS, A.E. WEDEMEYER, ALYCE GUYNN, TAMMY NUZZO-MORGAN, MIA BARKAN CLARKE, SULTAN CATTO, ALLAN PETERSON
________________________________________________ The morning poet came early
like a worm waiting to be devoured
by very early birds hungry for words.
from MORNING POET by STANLEY H. BARKAN
(c) Stanley H. Barkan, 2009 ______________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________
THOREAU PACKS HIS JOURNALS

Like a child carrying
the first spring flowers
from the dark wood
into the sudden light
of a New England morning,
you pile the slim volumes
tottering, a mason
building a wall
that will last forever.

You mortise the four dozen or so
snugly in the white-birch box,
catch your breath
and pause to hear
in a gust through spruce-bough,
a loon’s call
across the mizzling lake,
the sudden lurch of the early train
in from Boston.

You wedge spaces with alpine moss
until the box, like a coffin
is airtight, then drag it
screeching to the wall
alongside the cane day-bed
down from the attic room
to the family parlor
where you’ll take
your final look at things.

A surveyor to the end,
you want to sound, to measure
the depths of all you love in Concord:
a family already rent by death,
only mother Cynthia
and sister Sophia are left,
and of course, all the maiden aunts.
Your life to the very end
is women-centered.

And all that’s left now
is to wait for death.
You know this for sure:
he’ll come out of the woods
hiking boots flecked with hematite,
a trillium dangling from his ear.
He’ll sit by the fire,
sip birch tea, and won’t leave
until you give in to sleep,

until your eyes are closed
and waters glide
under your eyelids,
porting you downstream
to a cove
where spartina hassocks
hold the sun,

solemn
as wheat fields.

Vince Clemente
America
© 2009
From ISSUE 6 of THE SEVENTH QUARRY__________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________

LONG ISLAND SOUNDS: 2009/AN AMERICAN ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY From Maspeth to Montauk And Beyond, edited by Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan with Guest Editors Peter Thabit Jones, Allen Planz and Edmund White, published by The North Sea Poetry Scene Press. Forthcoming autumn 2009 from The North Sea Poetry Scene Press, 33 Woods Lane, Southampton, New York 11968, USA. Price $20.
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UNDER A BALEFUL STAR - A Garland for Margaret Fuller - by Vince Clemente, published by Cross-Cultural Communications. A new collection from QUARRY’S Consulting Editor in America. A sequence for Margaret Fuller (‘one of the most far-reaching intellectual minds of the nineteenth century’) that is elegiac, a mini-verse drama, and totally fascinating. Bill Negron’s artwork is rhythmic, vivid and a perfect match for the poetry. Available from Cross-Cultural Communications, 239 Wynsum Avenue, Merrick, New York 11566-4725, USA. Price $25 (hardback) $15 (paperback).
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THE LIZARD CATCHERS, a new book of poems, by Peter Thabit Jones, published in America by Cross-Cultural Communications, New York. Art work by Nick Holly. “I love its [The Lizard Catchers] clarity and modesty and truth, in fact, like the poems, the volume never strains - simply is itself!” - Vince Clemente, author of Sweeter Than Vivaldi. Available from Cross-Cultural Communications, 239 Wynsum Avenue, Merrick, New York 11566-4725, USA and from the Welsh Books Council/www.gwales.com Price $25 (hardback) $15 (paperback).
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TERRY CLARKE 'Night Ride to Birmingham' Terrapin TRPCD1506Night Ride to Birmingham is the new album by Anglo/Irish writer/singer Terry Clarke, his first since 2002’s Green Voodoo. Terry Clarke's music is infused with the warm, breezy subtleties of Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael, the rough-hewn, hard-living country of Johnny Cash and the kind of street poetry and vivid imagery that make him one of the most important writers of his generation.Available through Proper Distribution and from Terrapin Records www.terryclarke.com
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TERRY CLARKE AT THE BRUNSWICK, SWANSEA, WALES

(to Kate)
Paul Robeson walks with Johnny Cash
Across the coal-black hills of Wales,
And Stanley Baker lifts a glass
And toasts the streets where miners sat
On sun-blessed steps away from dust,
As your guitar licks through your voice.

Young, breathless Mickey Rourke is sat
Inside the ring where dreams are cash,
While Dylan Thomas weeps for Wales
And stuns New York with his proud voice,
You bring back songs that gathered dust
And music notes that vibrate glass.

Your ballads raise the Nashville dust
And New Orleans is in your voice.
Dream love and blues like gods are sat
In a bar room in Swansea, Wales;
And you’ve met her who laughs like cash.
You see through pain as clear as glass.


Your green guitar earns you your cash
In venues in and out of Wales.
And what hurt gives depth to your voice
That cuts the night like broken glass?
You’ve seen the loners who are sat
With drinks that shift the mind’s old dust.

The cotton fields’ lamenting voice
Was heard in mines that veined through Wales,
Where workers’ lungs were scarred with dust.
The poor have dreams of streams of cash
And bright arcades of gold and glass,
In your heart’s songs their sorrows sat.
Your green guitar, your singing voice
(That has the soul of Johnny Cash)
Take me back to a boy who sat
Inside a room of morning glass,
Which seemed to house the grief of Wales,
Till jailed-up Elvis shook time’s dust.

We pay no cash to hear your voice,
Sad drinkers sat in Swansea, Wales;
Where rain, soft as dust, kisses glass.

Peter Thabit Jones © 2009

From POET TO POET#1 (with Vince Clemente) - The Seventh Quarry Press and Cross-Cultural Communications, New York (2008)____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________

STRANGE SEASONS by Stanley H. Barkan, illustrated by Mark Polyakov, published by Ango Boyav, Sofia, Bulgaria. Available from: Cross-Cultural Communications, 239 Wynsum Avenue, Merrick, New York 11566-4725, USA. Price $15.
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FEBRUARY

Only the rain
reminds,
crystallized
moments.
Trees as stark
as undecorated fancies.
Stars as bright
in their constellations
as the vision
of progression
when first stepping
onto the snowless
but still hard earth
The zodiac of mind
is firmer than
the picture in the dark.


Stanley H. Barkan
America
© 2009
From ISSUE 6 of THE SEVENTH QUARRY ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
ISSUE 10: SUMMER 2009
POETS FROM U.K., AMERICA, AUSTRALIA, SERBIA, JAPAN, ISRAEL, AND CANADA
LOOK OUT FOR: THE SEVENTH QUARRY/CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS (NEW YORK)POETRY EVENTS IN WALES IN OCTOBER 2009, FEATURING AMERICA'S SULTAN CATTO AND ALEKSEY DAYEN _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________
A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT ISSUE
OF THE SEVENTH QUARRY AUTUMN 2008:
WELSH POET TERRY HETHERINGTON
Welsh poet Terry Hetherington died in August 2007.
This Special Issue is a celebration of Terry and his poetry.
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VINCE CLEMENTE
QUARRY CONSULTING EDITOR, AMERICA

is a State University of New York English Professor Emeritus, is a poet, biographer and critic, whose many books include JOHN CIARDI: MEASURE OF THE MAN (University of Arkansas Press, 1987), PAUMANOK RISING (1981), and eight volumes of poetry, the latest being UNDER A BALEFUL STAR (2007)and SWEETER THAN VIVALDI (2002), which features art work by the late Ernesto F. Costa, who is represented in permanent collections in the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and America’s Library of Congress. One of his books of poetry A PLACE FOR LOST CHILDREN (1997) is a text studied on POETS AND POETRY, a Certificate module and a part-time degree module, taught by Peter Thabit Jones at D.A.C.E., University of Wales Swansea.
Brought up in Brooklyn, New York, his work has also appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE BOSTON BOOK REVIEW, NEWSDAY, SOUTH CAROLINA REVIEW, and newspapers and other publications in Britain. It has also been featured in major anthologies, such as DARWIN: A NORTON CRITICAL EDITION, BLOOD TO REMEMBER: AMERICAN POETS ON THE HOLOCAUST (Texas Tech University Press) and SEPTEMBER 11th: AMERICAN WRITERS RESPOND.
For many years a trustee of the Walt Whitman Birthplace and founding editor of WEST HILLS REVIEW: A WALT WHITMAN JOURNAL, he has lectured at Hofstra, CW Post, SUNY Albany, as well as at museums like the Hecksher and Parish. His literary friends have included John Ciardi, who organised many influential NEW ENGLAND BREAD LOAF events, where Robert Frost was a frequent participant, House of Scribner’s New York Editor John Hall Wheelock, who edited many of Thomas Wolfe’s novels, and James Dickey, author of DELIVERANCE.
The VINCE CLEMENTE PAPERS, which is an impressive display of his long life as a writer, biographer and critic, and which includes the correspondence between Vince Clemente and Peter Thabit Jones and poem manuscripts by the Welsh poet, is part of the Department of Rare Books & Collections of Rochester University, New York.

“And this is why you are one of our important writers: because your speaking voice, natural voice, is your writing voice, too. And this means you have earned, by a long life of integrity, such honesty that makes the rest of us listen hard.” - William Heyen, American poet and editor. ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________

BLOOD TO REMEMBER
AMERICAN POETS ON THE HOLOCAUST
Revised, second edition
Edited by Charles Adés Fishman
The sacred duty of Holocaust remembrance — commemorating the dead, honoring the living, and posing the pertinent theological, ethical, and political questions generated by the Holocaust — is the substance of Charles Fishman’s compelling collection of American Holocaust poetry. Fishman successfully assembles works that render a historically remote and often painfully resisted subject in a manner that makes the catastrophe real. . . One is grateful for the book’s sound critical notes, its exploration of the moral implications of the Holocaust and problematics of writing Holocaust poetry, and its witness to the terrifying truths of human history while asserting the indestructibility of the human spirit. Highly recommended. - CHOICE
A book that should be compulsory reading. - THE SEVENTH QUARRY
Blood to Remember (paperback $27.95 / hard cover $42.50)
Payment: Check (payable to Time Being Books)
visit www.timebeing.com
Please send order and payment to Time Being Books, 10411 Clayton Road, #201—203, St. Louis, MO 63131.
[email protected] _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________
THE SEVENTH QUARRY Editor Peter Thabit Jones
won First Prize in the First International Festival of Peace Poetry Competition 2007, organised by leading Persian poet and academic Dr. Rira Abbassi. The Competition received submissions from over sixty countries. The seven prize winners’ poems were celebrated at the Festival, which was attended by hundreds of people. The poems have been translated into Persian and published. ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________

ON A SWIRL OF TEARS
Light and darkness competing.
Swirls of time remain,
Drained bodies disappear.
Only the rich, in the heart and the soul,
Entwining the essence of beauty of life,
Remain in the passage.
Vojislav Deric
Serbia
© 2009
From ISSUE 6 of THE SEVENTH QUARRY
Translated from the Serbian by Ariana Ibrichevich-Deric ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____
INFIDELITY
a lie in the dark
the past in me
battles against the past
a million mutinies pass
falsity ferments
falsehood grows
time protests
wild thoughts protest
in vain
falsehood gains,
falsehood
only falsehood.
Rita Malhotra
India
© 2009
From ISSUE 6 of THE SEVENTH QUARRY ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ___
STATUE PRAYING
From the wells quite full to overflowing
the hours tear themselves away,
like the suicidal shadows;
submit yourself
to the morning’s angel
as the clay bird to the one
who has supported its flight
with his hands.
Magdelena Dorina Sucui
Romania
© 2009 From ISSUE 6 of THE SEVENTH QUARRY
Translated from Romanian by Olimpia Iacob ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________