Blog Archives - The Voices Project

Untitled~ By Simon Perchik

6/30/2016

This cliff spreading out
and among the black stones
on all sides another rooftop

half marble, half while the city below
street by street catches fire
the way your still unopened lips

use what air is left though that’s
not how you remember it
when some mourner falls behind

and makes it out alive
already in a straight line
as if your arms are closing in

on what they say not to
and the rock you hold up
as the single-minded cry

coming from deep inside the sun
covers your mouth face down
to cool itself off, then louder.

Author Bio:
Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poems have appeared in Partisan Review, The Nation, Poetry, Osiris, The New Yorker, and elsewhere. His most recent collection is Almost Rain, published by River Otter Press (2013). For more information, including free e-books, his essay titled “Magic, Illusion and Other Realities” please visit his website at www.simonperchik.com.

On the Cheap~ By Tempest Brew

6/29/2016

This one's on the cheap,
he tells me,
guiding me to the restaurant
but this is not what
I had in mind

Oh, promise me, future
love that you will not
treat me like a rummage
sale or take me to places

I would rather not go.

Weight Watching~ By S.K. Tatiner

6/28/2016

Like gamblers
in a game of strip poker
we remove the scarves first,
the weighty pearls next,
but never the cardigans we wear to hide our upper arms
while we move down the line
to the weigh-in.
All week, we scooped pot
cheese into lime green pop-
out measuring cups,
trimmed pork roasts and doubled
down on fish, made friends of
Swiss chard and Chinese cabbage,
like we should work at the U.N., sniffed at baguettes and brownies
on our way to the StairMaster.
The line shuffles forward.
It shifts from one hip to another.
Sweat catches in a tangle of underwire.

Author Bio:
S.K. Tatiner, a student at the Writers Studio Advanced Poetry Workshop, lives and works in New Jersey. She is working on a chapbook about the lives of American girls and women. These three poems are from that work.

To Do~ By Kirsten Ellicson

6/27/2016

Hang on to your truth
always
like the beginning of love

Author Bio:
Kirsten Ellicson grew up in rural Richmond, Massachusetts in the Berkshires. A French literature specialist, she has taught university courses in the humanities including French language and literature, major works of Western literature, academic writing, film studies and English as a foreign language. Currently living in Paris, she works as a writer and translator. She is the author of a collection of poetry, "Light in the Dark Pool" (December 2014, available on Amazon), which reflects her conception of poetry as an exploration of the boundaries between self and other. In her free time, she has contributed to Global March Against Child Labor and WorldPulse as a volunteer translator. She enjoys spending time in nature and with her family, and engaging in intense conversations.

The Phoenix~ By Swati Rawal

6/23/2016

I have hurt you,
Fragmented your soul,
In you I stumble and fall.
Then rise up in flames,
Born anew,
Like a phoenix bird.
You have the right to,
See my weakness,
For you have known me,
Through the ages.

Author Bio:
Swati Rawal is a dentist by profession. She loves the arts and nature and is also an avid photographer. A bird-watcher, she has a garden with a plethora of flowers grown exclusively to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. She writes poetry and short stories, mostly for family and friends. Born and raised in India, she relocated to Trinidad and Tobago. Currently, she lives in Memphis, Tennessee with her husband, two boys, and two canine children.

Grey Mornings~ By Rayna Yu

6/22/2016

School mornings are a
Familiar and uncomfortable ritual
Like slipping into a pair of damp sneakers

Car is silent
Grey morning air full of
Groggy half formed thoughts

A familiar worm is crawling inside me again
Twisting my insides into a braid
I open my mouth and let it escape
I ask him
Will you always love me
No matter what?

My father says yes
Why would I ask such a thing?

Words are bubbling out of my throat
Pushing at the threshold of my mouth
I swallow them
Feel their weight in my stomach again
Dab away the dampness of my eyelids

Keep driving to school

Author Bio:
Rayna Yu is a violinist and writer who lives in Virginia. In her spare time, she works on her young adult fantasy novel and plays with her cat. Rayna currently attends Colonial Forge High School.

On thin ice~ By Virgil Saunders

6/21/2016

I had this block,
this bloc decision
of who to let into my life,
to expand my horizons.

I had set out to conquer, and you
were not in the cards
not under the squeak of marker
on scarred glass.

I set out to miss nothing,
and checked you in the corner.

We had 24/7 chances,
but the fluorescence was too bright?
The maze of your friends
and their thoughts
must’ve seemed inconquerable then:
it was all too clear how we would crack,
“we” was a reality too thin
to survive on.

They said that when you saw me
a lifetime later,
you were still in love.
I don’t know whether I was in the mood
to prove it too.

Behind closed doors I saw
that you had scored another one.

I wonder if you look after me too.

Author Bio:
Virgil Saunders is Maryland native with a passion for language and literature. While Virgil has been writing since childhood, it was not until the University of Maryland's Jimenez-Porter Writers’ House came calling that they were exposed to what creation could be. Exposure to various forms of life through the work of journalism has led Virgil to a more realistic sense of storytelling on subjects such as Rwanda and the world of retail. A thirst for learning new languages is only one aspect of Virgil’s appreciation of the art of words through syntax and sound. And indeed it is an interest that has led to many travels. Drawing on life spent in the Washington, D.C. area, Montreal and France, they have crafted poetry published in NEW MAPS and Blackberry: A Magazine, with much more going towards the re-telling of world events.

Mid-flight to India~ By Sultana Raza

6/20/2016

As we race through
the skies
to meet the sun
carrying odds and ends
of plastic
precision smooth

towards that
which has no name
where dust reigns
and the spirit abides

to sunder apart the veil
that lies
like a dust haze
separating reality
from illusion

tangible
on people’s faces
their long-suffering lives
material misery,
that they wear
like a cloak
which serves
to push them up
to merge
with their
Higher Self
at last.

Author Bio:
Of Indian origin, Sultana Raza has an MA in English Literature. Her articles have appeared in Flick Feast (UK), Sound on Sight (USA), the Peter Roe Series (Tolkien Society UK), Le Jeudi, the Wort and paperjam in English and French.

Her short stories and poems have been published in numerous publications, including Ancient Heart Magazine (Australia), India Currents (USA), Kindred Spirit (UK), Arabesque Review, London Grip (UK), Literary Gazette (USA), All Things Girls (UK), and Caduceus (Ed. Yale University, USA), Beyond Bree, (an American MENSA newsletter), The Whirlwind Review (USA), and Silver Leaves Journal #5 (Canada).

An awarded artist, she has taken part in numerous group exhibitions in the USA and Europe, such as ArtExpo New York (alongside Andy Warhol), and Art Monaco in 2014. Visit her at: http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/335930-sultana-raza

Triolet: Franklin Avenue (Brooklyn)~ By Kenny Fame

6/16/2016

Smell of sour exhaled through these
streets. Alive. Buds bloom into blank
stares. Chocolate stuff blazes brownies.
Smell of sour exhaled through these

refer burnt lips. Kiss, taste like trees.
Searching, for the next kid to shank.
Smell of sour exhaled through these
streets. Alive. Buds bloom into blanks...

Author Bio:
Kenny Fame is the stage name of musician Levi Wise Kenneth Catoe Jr. In the NYC area Fame has built an impressive resume as both a: spoken word artist and a sought-after poet /lyricist in less than three years.
After creating a buzz in the competitive world of NYC's spoken word/poetry scene, Fame decided to focus all of his energies into recording music after being introduced to musician's around NYC. Fame wrote
his first song "Another Man's Woman" which was intended to be a country song for somebody else to sing. Once Fame decided that he would be happier writing & recording music for himself, he began recording his demo tape in home studios in the spring of 2013 with the help of local producers. Fame's music is both melodic and thought provoking; just as thought provoking as his published works of poetry. After releasing three album's in 2014 alone; which included three #1 radio hit single's, Fame is once again where he started; doing poetry. Read more at: http://kennyfamemusic.reverbnation.com/

Mother nature speaks~ By Kauser Parveen

6/15/2016

It was an unforgiving tide of water
That was unleashed
Obliterating
Everything in its path
Villages wiped out
Families destroyed
Leaving behind a tide of destruction
A tide of damage
We were unprepared
We saw it happen
We experienced it
We are now calm
We are silent
Only left to pick up the pieces
It was the moment Mother Nature spoke

Author Bio:
Kauser Parveen comments on and observes life and the people around her. She trained as a mental health nurse. A youth worker in the past, she found this career a useful mechanism in order to understand young people.