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       Featured Poem of the month​

 

I can lie and tell you i care-

 

I can lie and tell you i care-

About the deteriorating earth,

That I donate to Sarah McLachlan,

And cry when “arms of the angels” plays,

While skinny dogs and bloated African children ask for my help.

That I work out every day,

And only eat organic fruits and vegetables.

That I preach that animals have feelings too,

And started a go-fund-me to save the forests.

But truthfully-

I only care about the fact that I could cross the street tomorrow,

And not make it to the other side.

I only care that I could cough up blood, lose my hair,

And die because my body decides it has had enough.

I only care that my brakes could give out on 202,

And i could hurtle into a cement truck.

I only care that I could live today,

Die tomorrow,

And not have a chance to say,

Goodbye.

Sydney Szwarc is writer/musician based in remote Downingtown, Pennsylvania. In the time that she doesn’t spend composing poetry from the comfort of her twin sized bed, she can be found driving down the turnpike with her windows down and music blasting.

....and now...

...from the mind of...

the Mad Poet 

poetry magazine, editor, Anthony Uplandpoet Watkins, Anthony Watkins

The Interview with Jared Carter

by Vera Ignatowitsch

Anthony Uplandpoet Watkins

Lucy © Jared Carter

Jared Carter was born in 1939. He lives in Indiana. His most recent collection, Darkened Rooms of Summer: New and Selected Poems, was published by the University of Nebraska Press.

Vera: You’ve had a decent career, publishing six collections of poems and acquiring a few accolades along the way. But you’ve been at it for a long time now – for most of your life, as a matter of fact. Why do you continue to write? What keeps you going?

JC: Habit.

Vera: Do you have any advice for younger or aspiring writers?

JC: Certainly. My advice never changes. It’s from the perennial philosophy: The way is not difficult. Only cease to cherish opinion.

Vera: That’s all?

JC: It’s sufficient.

Vera: Speaking of things perennial – some of your poems are written in free verse, some in traditional forms. Can anything be assumed about this?

 

JC: I don’t believe so. I’ve always been slow to make up my mind and I’m seldom consistent. I fire a pistol right-handed, a rifle left-handed. I shoot free-throws right-handed, play a ukulele left-handed, pick up a violin right-handed. I compose sonnets, write free-verse poems, and experiment with prose poems. Clearly a mix-up.

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