In this issue we have poems. And how.
But seriously folks. Here in the United States of America there is a lot of news coverage on the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, which is necessary journalism, for sure. But, unfortunately, it has overshadowed another Sept. 11 event, which most of you might not have been aware of, or–worst still–forgotten about. Continue Reading »
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Only the Ground Is Bloodier Than the Sky: A Review of Joseph M. Gant’s Zero Division
by Craig Scott
Zero Division by Joseph M. Gant
Rebel Satori Press
www.rebelsatoripress.com Continue Reading »
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Eeenterview with Neil Rothstein
By Luis Rivas
Neil Rothstein is 34 (but doesn’t look a day over 33), and lives and works in Manchester, England. He studied fine art at Bath Spa University over ten years ago. From his little in-house studio, he produces his artwork, paintings and writing.
Neil has said, “In my artwork I have tried to always evolve and experiment with styles and methods. I think it’s very important to be chameleonic with artwork and to react to different emotional circumstances in a host of ways. I alternate my painting and writing, both of them giving me a certain cathartic relief in specific ways.”
With writing Neil finds it to be a more immediate form of artwork, a distinct and quickly forming, almost absolutely instinctive process, the words forming are removed from him in some dark recess of the mind, where they wait to be unlocked. With his paintings, it tends to be more considered and time consuming but nonetheless important.
Neil has exhibited mainly in the north west of England, Liverpool, and St Helens mainly; and he has sold a good percentage of his artwork. He is also a regularly-published poet and artist on Gloom Cupboard. Continue Reading »
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Alex Pruteanu is the author of Short Lean Cuts, a novella which, amongst other topics, explores the ever-escalating narratives offered for public consumption. Fittingly, my acquaintance with Pruteanu developed online and progressed via Facebook, the ultimate forum for constructed narratives of life and self. A native of Romania, familiar of Moldova, and American of thirty years, Pruteanu isn’t waving a flag for any country, citing the natural clusters forming “villages, towns, or even cities” as the real loci of our allegiance. To quote Gogol Bordello, “Between the borders, the real countries hide.” In the following interview, Pruteanu, the second featured author in “The New Xорошо,” echoes the sentiment that “the programmed robots are buying and buying” and shares his thoughts on place, nostalgia, timelessness, and how bestand will eventually snuff the human species.
~T.M. De Vos
Posted in Editorial, Fiction, Interviews, The New Хорошо | 4 Comments »
In the early 1980s when I transferred to Dalt’s restuarant in Miami as an opening team member, I never imagined I was beginning a life in the restaurant business that would last more than a decade, that I would invent an entire category of health drinks for TGI Friday’s that are still on their menu thirty years later (and for which I would never get credit–ever drink a Silver Medalist?), nor that my experiences in the service industry would comprise enough material to jump-start my writing career. The two years I spent behind Dalt’s bar in Miami, however, would afford me more boredom, horror, and glory than I would ever again experience inside or outside the restaurant business. Continue Reading »
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At Don Quixote’s house, before his journey, there was nothing more dangerous than a poet. Centuries later, one wonders if a poem can still cause any real movement—if a protest poem read from the steps of a capitol can cause any chip in the marble, or in the windmill across the way. Stacia Fleegal’s Versus acknowledges one’s doubts about the real efficacy of political verse before owning that disbelief and sending out marching orders to poets and artists everywhere. This work is unabashed, bitingly witty, sarcastic and unapologetic—the work of a self-described pacifist feminist that needs a better word than “ballsy”—and the poet’s target would be shocking to a mainstream American audience that likely will never read her: the beloved American mythos itself. Continue Reading »
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English version by Valery Petrovskiy
after Russian translation by Alexei Prokopyev.
Requiems (2)
1/ Eh, the miserable wide world -
There is the only sun, and the only moon.
There is at least some of the wide world around!
Eh, the miserable other world—
There are seven suns, and there are seven moons there,
But no light.
***
Posted in Editorial, Interviews, The New Хорошо | 1 Comment »
Valery Petrovskiy is the author of numerous short stories—published both in English and in Russian—and IнтимNОе, a collection of short stories in Russian. I made Petrovskiy’s acquaintance online, after reading several of his short stories in English: struck by his symbolic language and compact narratives, I contacted him, and we soon developed a literary friendship. As we corresponded, I became more and more curious about his work, its national context, and the Chuvash Republic, his birthplace and home. In the ensuing interview, Petrovskiy, the first featured author in “The New хорошо,” discusses jazz, publishing, anthropology, and the most comfortable city in the Russian Federation.
~T.M. De Vos
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If you squint hard enough, everything is beautiful–except you. A squinting face is fucking ugly.
Poems. Here. You are welcomed.
Luis Rivas
Henry Ajumeze
Amber Bromer
Poetry Editors, Gloom Cupboard
the girls
By John Grochalski
the girls sit on the bus
making each other laugh
they are doing
strange voices
entertaining each other
caught up in their own world
they are not aware
of the puerto rican boys
watching them giggle
or the old men
watching them kick
their creamy legs
in catholic skirts
the girls
are not aware of their breasts
of mankind’s hunger and cruelty
they are sharing ear buds
and laughing out loud
the girls are sending
text messages to each other
discovering expression
working out a routine
that only they know
they whisper
i love you
to each other
and hold hands
pure
untouched
laughing the whole time
the girls
the evening doesn’t
want them to leave
but when they do
they leave
with cackles of youth and joy
and when they are gone
a cloud settles over the night
those of us remaining
are left with nothing
but this world
the hum of the bus
and the slim hope that something
better awaits us all. Continue Reading »
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In this issue a couple of poetic doctors publically and fictionally breach the doctor-patient confidentiality, college professors profess a professional admiration for sadism. Although these poems smell like Marlboro Menthol Lights, I assure you they are Reds. Your respiratory system has no chance.
Yours truly,
Luis Rivas
Amber Bromer
Henry Ajumeze
Almighty Editors of Poems
Gloom Cupboard
The Pros And Cons Of Education
By Tyrel Kessinger
God forbid
she said
some grandmother in line
at the neighborhood grocery store
wearing her grandson
across her chest
in one of those baby slings
invented by cave women
resurrected for the new age
and of course
some say
they gave us bigger brains
(though I have my doubts)
God forbid
such a thing
by which she meant
heaving storms
the slipping
of overburdened tectonic plates
falling cosmic rocks
the grandson’s brains
growing much too large
and one day
rejecting her god
after just two
philosophy classes
at a local
community college
she means
just bad things in general
as if there might actually be
a god to forbid
although
last time I checked
the one thing I’ve noticed
this god does not forbid
is
sending people
up shit creek
without
a turd to float on. Continue Reading »
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