January & February 2019
Vol IV No I
Not your ordinary poetry magazine!
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Experimental & Micro Poetry & Found Flash
Snow)(body
Air bites a body/somebody.
Snow strikes a body/somebody.
A body/somebody transfers paint.
Paint finds rock/stone.
Paint layers on paint on rock/stone.
Paint on an unknown stone.
(A body? A somebody?)
Snow becomes a body
s)no(w body
Door beacons
a body
Air caresses
a somebody
Water revives
a body
is
revived
somebody
Katie Vogel is a writing major, performance artist, and poet at Pratt Institute. Her work appears in and is forthcoming from The Prattler’s print and web publications and Southern Smash’s blog.
Dissociation
Then Amnon Don’t tell me
hated her That I cannot get
with very Away from me.
great hatred; On July 17,
so that the Drones will
hatred with Begin delivering
which he hated Packages:
her was greater Objects we
than the love Ingest to be
with which he had Islands. I
loved her. Use speech to
Tamar put Scratch you and
ashes on You unreachable say
her head, Try to keep your
and rent the Body still when
long robe You come. I
which she Remember then
wore; and How I cried with
she laid her Disappointment
hand on On my birthday after
her head, Opening gifts
crying That in real life seemed
aloud as Garish, and no
she went. Longer wanted.
RSV 2 Samuel 13:15a, 19
Dori Elliott is a baker-poet based in Seattle, Washington.
Better than Starbucks began wholly as a creation in my mind. Now the wonderful collaboration of dedicated editors is creating a magazine that I could have only dreamed about when I was starting out as a one person organization.
Having said that, there are no direct connections between U Penn, Al Filreis, KWH (Kelly Writers House), ModPo (Modern & Contemporary American Poetry), or any of the actual affiliated programs to ModPo and this magazine, other than I have been a part of ModPo for several years now. There is, however, a strong spiritual and intellectual connection between BTS and ModPo.
If I had not gotten involved in the larger community of ModPo, I don’t think I would have restarted a literary publication. I am certain I would not have added a Formal & Rhyming Page, and probably not a Translations page. I have a pretty narrow preference for poetry, but the course and the people at ModPo have expanded my view of poetry to the point that I decided if I could find good people to help me do it, we would make BTS as broad of a source of styles and genres as possible.
​
Thus, it seems fitting that we dedicate a page to my fellow students at ModPo, and/or anyone who wants to share experimental poems. The thing about experiments is, they often fail, but as the point is to learn, not to create perfection, even failed experiments in the lab or on this page, will offer something for us, if we will find it. and when the experiment doesn't fail . . . well, you will see! - Anthony Watkins
*
A Maltese ship, tall, with a constellation of masts
was standing on the path of sunlight,
its hull — half sunk in shine.
I was living.
*
The Folegandros Strait
The luminous indigos flattened by southern wind
mirrored a sadness in an eye —
a body of love born to seas of time.
*
A scent of vines in the sultry gust.
Who needs a reason to live?
*
All the sky was moving forward,
all the sea was coming down to me.
I was the movement of the sea.
I was only naked water.
My thoughts were driftwood.
My feelings were sand.
My self was a whiff I was breathing in.
*
Deep inside the water, we were thirsty —
thirsty hands, thirsty skin.
The water was not passing, we were deep.
Ecstasy.
*
The ship was so dark and light
that when it entered the moonlight cast on the sea,
it was not altered.
​
​
Margarita Serafimova has three collections in Bulgarian. Her work appears in Agenda Poetry, London Grip New Poetry, Trafika Europe, European Literature Network, The Journal, A-Minor, Waxwing, Orbis, Nixes Mate Review, StepAway, and more.
Case Study
TIPTOEING
Mirabella takes care not to step on the cracks when she walks down the sidewalk. The MARMOTS are abundant along the riverside of MacArthur Island, in Kamloops . . . and they’re not too shy! Walking quietly and carefully with one’s heels raised and one’s weight on the balls of the feet is the least one should do.
WHISPERING
Mirabella carefully avoids discussing difficult or sensitive subjects. ELEPHANTS have good hearing, detecting sounds as low as 14 to 16 hz (human low range: 20 hz) and as high as 12,000 hz (human high range: 20,000 hz). Whispering a message through ‘broken telephone’ is the polite thing to do.
HIDING
Mirabella does not turn on the lights in her apartment at night. ANTS are social insects, so when one ant enters your home, others follow. Mirabella hears the footsteps of armies marching. She buys plush carpet.
BLENDING
Mirabella likes to wear high-contrast and bright coloured clothing. The bat-faced TOAD found among the leaves of Amacayacu National Park in Colombia is masterful at blending into its surroundings. Mirabella has a playful side and is not trying to make life difficult.
~
People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness.
Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.
First published in CarpeArte Journal.
Karen Schauber’s flash fiction is published and forthcoming in 25 literary magazines and anthologies including Brilliant Flash Fiction, Bending Genres, CarpeArte, Ekphrastic Review, Fiction Southeast, and Poems for the Writing: A Textbook.