NILAVRONILL SHOOVRO

WELCOME

TO

OUR POETRY ARCHIVE

With this advent of internet, writing everyday has become more or less a habit for many of us. We like to write status on our wall. We like to post our poetry on our social networks. So we remain busy in writing for most of our spare times. Especially those of us who are publishing poems short stories articles now and then. But if we want to remember the last book which we have read, I think most of us would find out that we have not read much in recent times. In our hectic schedule barely we find out proper time to read a book. Even many of us cannot actually remember the name of the last book that has drawn our interest. Our spare times have been largely occupied by many other activities other than reading. I think this situation is not so conducive for us especially if we wish to be a poet or a writer.  Regular reading is as essential as oxygen for a writer or poet. Without which we can never take our writings up to the next level of excellence. Reading books of eminent writers or poets helps us immensely to broaden our world views. It strengthens our knowledge and wisdom. It provides us with many new avenues to step out. Regular reading actually helps us to enrich our own writings. Yet if somebody asks us to name the last book that we have read, we’ll find out that actually since long we have not read any book at all.

On and often whenever we post our new poems on our social site’s wall we expect that our friends will read it attentively and give us an honest feedback that will help us to evaluate our poetical skills. Most of the times we remain busy to reply the comments, to share our poems to various face book groups, but seldom we find out time to read other’s poem. And read with proper attention, as we don’t have that much of time with us. So actually our reading has become to some extent superficial. Yet we expect attentive reading of our own poems from our poet friends. This is the actual scenario of reading and writing of our present time. Let’s take an example of Our Poetry Archive. Every month we publish near about 150 poems written by near about 50 poets from all over the world. Now if we ask ourselves, how many poems have we read last month apart from our own published poems in OPA? I’m afraid an honest answer might have embarrassed most of us.

So more or less it is apparent that we read seldom but write often. Yes one can argue that it depends on the individual about the ratio of reading to writing. One can never set any rule nor impose to others. Certainly not. Yet if it has become our habit to ignore reading our writing will certainly be affected one way or other. The question is how many of us are actually aware of this fact. Reading books regularly helps us to sharpen our writing as well. We hope one cannot deny the importance of reading books in our everyday life. Especially as a poet one has to keep updated with the trends of his or her time as well. One has to also enrich himself or herself with the all time classics. The vast published materials cannot be remained untouched if we want to seriously cultivate our own writings. So one can easily say, reading also cultivates the writing skills as well.

If we want to probe farther, we would find out that most of our readings are more or less superficial as we don’t have much time. And this superficial reading actually is wastage of time. It helps us neither in building up our conceptual domain nor in the growth of our writing ability. Yet most of the time our reading lacks proper attention. We don’t even give much time to think about the book or the writing or the poem that we have read. This way we put a limit to our own growth which makes our writing vulnerable to the test of the time. Actually superficial reading boosts up superficial writings. Obviously this will make a negative impact on the literary environment worldwide. Ironically very few of us are aware of this painful fact. Yet none of us discusses it publicly. I think it is high time that we should give proper attention to it, and start thinking from within.

Dear readers let’s take this as our New Year resolution this time. Let’s make 2019 the reading year in our individual capacities. Let’s read more and discuss with our friends and co-writers about the books in-depth and the importance of reading as well. Let’s hope, this practice will definitely help us in our writing as well. So we wish Happy New Year to all our readers and writers as well, from the editorial desk of Our Poetry Archive. Let’s hope for a prosperous and eventful year for each and everyone around the world. We need a peaceful world for the actual development of the mankind.

Our Poetry Archive would like to introduce more and more new poets. Anyone can join with us to showcase his or her poetical talent. One can send at least three poems and a current profile picture along with a short Bio written only in 3^rd person narrative attached with the mail to our mail address: <ourpoetryarchive@gmail.com> Sending poems to our mail address will be considered as an explicit confirmation of the permission of the poet to publish his or her copyrighted materials to Our Poetry Archive. The copyright of the published poems will always remain with the individual poet. Please note that .pdf files will not be accepted.

With this note I would like to thank all the readers and writers of the Our Poetry Archive on behalf of my co-editors for your support and contribution to make OPA an international monthly web journal of excellence.

Thank You.

NilavroNill Shoovro.

From The Editorial Desk

OPA

A

WORLDWIDE WRITERS’ WEB

PRESENTATION!

PUBLISHED BY

OPA

OUR

POETRY ARCHIVE

ONLINE MONTHLY POETRY JOURNAL

https://ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.com

email us to:

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***************************************

SUSAN JOYNER-STUMPF

OUR POETRY ARCHIVE FEATURED

POET OF THE MONTH

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF

ALICJA KUBERSKA: What does poetry mean to you?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: To me, Poetry is an expression of one’s Soul, where emotions, feelings and thoughts are put into words.

ALICJA KUBERSKA: What’s according to you the meaning of poetry in the contemporary world?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: The meaning of poetry to me in the contemporary world is the modernistic approach to common trends including stream of consciousness style, free verse, and the preference for suggestion or ambiguity of ideas as opposed to 19^th century more disciplined, structured formats that utilized frequent rhyme scheme.  I enjoy modern poetry for its freedom in expression.

ALICJA KUBERSKA:  Can you describe your creative process while writing a new poem?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: My creative process involves a wave of creativity washing over me with ideas floating around in my mind, heart and Soul begging to be written.  The words won’t leave me alone until I write them down.  It all just comes to me anytime, anywhere ~ ~ my creativity strikes in the waking state as well as dream state.

ALICJA KUBERSKA:  Did it happen to you that a poem was just your dream?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: As mentioned above, many of my poems were composed in dreams and I memorized them in a lucid state and tore myself out of the dream to get the words down before they would be lost forever.  You can almost tell the difference between poetry written in the dream state as opposed to the waking state:  it reads more outer-worldly, almost ethereal in feel.

ALICJA KUBERSKA: Tell us about your inspiration. What’re the most important subjects to you?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: I can be inspired by an animal, a tree, a roaring creek, the sad look on a person’s face in a mall.   Inspiration hits anytime and no place in particular.  I always have a notepad and pen available just in case.  Important subjects to me are Nature, Wildlife, pets, love, loss, and friendship, emotional matters of happiness, fear and sorrow.

MARIA MIRAGLIA:  Which were the emotions that inspired your first verses?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Rejection as a child.  I’ve been writing since the age of six.  I came from an abusive childhood of Sexual and Physical Abuse.  Writing saved my Life.

MARIA MIRAGLIA: Was your aspiration to become a poet or did all happen by chance?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Yes, ever since a young age, I’ve always dreamed of being a writer.  I never wanted to make money or fame out of it; I just wanted to touch lives with my words.  I never thought I’d be rich or famous, in other words.  That doesn’t seem to matter to me as much as someone reading something I wrote and feeling something from it.  That’s the greatest reward.

MARIA MIRAGLIA:  Who is the first person you read your poems to and why?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: I read my poems and short stories to my Baby-Sitter.  My family wasn’t interested in me at all.  But it was my Baby-Sitter (an older woman at the time) that saw my talent as a young girl and encouraged me to continue.

MARIA MIRAGLIA:  Have you published any poetic anthology, if so what did you feel the first time you got it in your hands?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: I have written 40 books.  Your first book is always the MOST special, like your first-born child.  It’s my baby and the rest of my books are its siblings, lol.  It felt remarkable and a keen sense of accomplishment when I published my first book at twenty-two.  I felt like I had made it and could be in the class of Published Writers, in which I was proud.

MARIA MIRAGLIA:  Who are the poets you prefer reading? Do you get inspiration from them?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Yes, at an early age, I discovered T.S. Eliot and e.e. Cummings and thus they paved the way for my own stylistic approach to writing:  the steam of consciousness panache and free verse.

APRILIA ZANK:  How important is accessibility of meaning to you? Do you challenge the readers to work hard to decipher your poems, or do you prefer transparency of meaning?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Yes, many friends have said they require a dictionary or thesaurus to read some of my writings, not all of it though.  It just comes out of me that way by no contrived fault of my own.  I read extensively as a child and thus early on developed quite the affinity for an extensive vocabulary well beyond my adolescent years.  I do like to challenge the reader with hidden metaphors and flowery imagery.  However, I can write simpler, though.  It depends on what flows out of me, I guess, lol.  Mood and subject matter dictate the complexity of it.

APRILIA ZANK:  What kind of poems do you write mostly? Do you have recurring themes, or are all your poems unique?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: I guess one recurring theme is Nature and Wildlife (wolves, etc.).  I write of my pets quite often for they are such an inspiration to me, all my dogs, horses and cats.  Also, loss for some reason, as I’ve experienced much of that in my life.  I’ve been considered a “dark poet” by many, but now I lean towards more metaphysical and spiritual type wordage.

APRILIA ZANK:  Do you think your poetry is typically feminine / masculine? If yes, in what way?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Seriously, I think my poetry is Androgynous.  I don’t lean towards one or the other.  I’ve written in the point of view as a man, as female, through the eyes of a child even when adult, through the eyes of a wolf or horse or dog, so I’m very literary-flexible in that manner.

APRILIA ZANK:  Do you write mostly about yourself, or do you also have an open eye /ear for the issues of the world?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: I most definitely have an “open-eye/ear for the issues of the world.”  I write much on global warming, slaughter of endangered species, and atrocities to Mother Earth and such horrifying subjects to bring awareness to humanity.

APRILIA ZANK:  In what way is your poetry different from that of other poets?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: I’m sure we ALL write straight from the heart and Soul, I know I do.  I search inward when writing, maybe even to the subconscious level, which is more emotional and analytical than cerebral, to be as realistic as possible and yet remain “poetic.”  Sometimes I meditate before I write.

LEYLA IŞIK: What are the main factors to make poetry real poetry?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Number one:  stay true to yourself.  Challenge yourself too, get out of your comfort zone, experiment with different styles, techniques and formats but always remaining true to yourself.  I think that’s number one important!

LEYLA IŞIK: Do you think imagery is important in poetry? Where does the importance of imagery begin in a poem, where does it end?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Oh yes, I write with much imagery because it draws a picture in the mind of the reader.  When you describe a sunset or the fear or courage in the eye of a wolf, it becomes “more real and fetching” to whoever happens upon your words and imagery can help bridge the gap between realism and monotony.  The poem should be filled with such descriptive passages that a clear and concise emotion or thought is brought to one’s imagination even if they never experienced what you are writing about.  That’s the beauty of words dripping with imagery.

LEYLA IŞIK:  What are the most used types of poetry in your country?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Haiku is very popular, as is Pastoral for its power to elicit spurrings of all the senses.  Blank verse like I construct is more common than you would think. Also Limericks; I still read on occasion, believe it or not, different types of Sonnets from time to time.  I’m enthralled many still dive into Epics, these really long-themed writings which I admire the conviction to stick with a poem of such lengthy nature.

LEYLA IŞIK:  What’s important to be a good poet? To write good poems!

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: What I’ve discovered over the years of writing is this:  Message is key, as is form/structure of some type; point of view, voice/tone; rhythm and conclusion.  Some type of ending, people don’t care for poetic cliff-hangars, lol, only in the movies.

LEYLA IŞIK:   Who are the most important poets and their main properties nowadays?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: I still love the Classics like Walt Whitman and Lord Byron and too many others to mention.  After all, they were our first exposure to poetry and writing and it never gets old reading them.  I still enjoy my T.S. Eliot and e.e. Cummings, but the earlier Poets will live forever in our hearts.

DEBORAH  BROOKS  LANGFORD:  Understanding poetry begins with visualizing the central images in the poem. What do you see, taste, smell, hear, and feel? What is the imagery of your poetry?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: As I mentioned briefly above, Imagery is all-important for its magic to bring the reader into a sensory experience of tasting, smelling, hearing and feeling.  The power of words is not to be taken lightly.  You can literally bring someone on an imaginative trip via the train of verbiage.  I believe in making the reader “feel” and “think.”  If I’ve done that, my poem is a success!

DEBORAH  BROOKS  LANGFORD:  What is the mood of your poetry? (Or How does it make you feel?)

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Depending upon the nature of my subject matter dictates the “mood.”  If I’m writing about saving Mother-Earth or stop slaughtering wolves, the tone of the poem will be dark and solemn, maybe even angry.  If I write of loss, the mood puts one in a sad place, almost bringing them to the brink of tears and heartbreak.  At the same time, I can write along the lines of bringing the reader UP on a natural high with a softer, more happier poem.  The mood changes with the subject matter of your piece.

DEBORAH  BROOKS  LANGFORD:  In your poetry who is the speaker of the poem? Are you speaking to yourself or to others?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Like with short stories, I have written in first-person or third-person.  I like to do both, I enjoy different point of views. Often I speak to myself as well as to an audience.

DEBORAH  BROOKS  LANGFORD:  What is the message of your poetry?  What messages do your poetry convey?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: Message is important.  This is not to say that I haven’t written a poem wherein wordplay takes over and no message was meant to be given; it was just a ride into the stream of words put together for how they sound and feel.

DEBORAH  BROOKS  LANGFORD:   Does the internet and social media contribute to the success of your poetry? Is this the reason you write for?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: To the point that I am able to reach a wider audience and share my work with people around the world, so I would venture to say yes, the Internet and Social Media has brought the Poetic World together to experience each other and our different styles of writing.

NILAVRONILL SHOOVRO: Thank you so much dear poet for the interview. We would like to know your personal experience with OPA as a literary web journal. Would you like to share anything more with our readers?

SUSAN JOYNER STUMPF: What a great platform/forum you have developed with OPA; a Haven for Poets to come together and experience one another and even develop long-lasting friendships.  We all learn and grow from each other, so thank you for all you do in giving us a Cyber Space to connect with those we share a commonality of writing.  It’s remarkable to read someone from China or Romania, as I’m sure they are excited to read someone from Little Town USA.  We can touch each other’s lives in such a special way and you have allowed us the time and place to learn, grow and meet new friends across the Globe.  Thank you.

SUSAN JOYNER-STUMPF

SUSAN JOYNER-STUMPF

PREMONITION

As now, I taste disaster on your lips

Wormwood permeates your feral tongue

Stings the tissue of my sensitive desire

I recoil, in blatant fear of your sulfurous power

Your eyes of venom-fire surprise

Seep through pores of languid reprise

Victim of these stars gone awry

Your embrace the scaling of winter’s touch

Our song that’s turned to eulogy, perfuse

Despair’s Iliad that reeks its muse

Upon my Soul’s acceptance to refuse

Delight of no hardened consequence to beg

The door of your heart invisible to endorse

Another storm to weather in my dying sun

I feel the shift, the arpeggios recant

The scythe that falls to its sepulchral remorse

This odyssey of an intermentive affair

Virulent vacillate of maddened air

Between each breath that freezes shocked lungs

Dreams can wither from their scab’s display

A writhing vestibule of its own malevolent accord

I the wounded heroine in your macabre play

And lost love your jeweled and bloody sword.

Copyright ©Susan Joyner-Stumpf ® ♫

 

SPOOKY HORSE

I’m a spooky horse.

The New Orleans wind rushes and hurts through

The meandering Mississippi River, twisting its liquid

Bowels through the everglade of timeless time.

The air startles me ~ the Tornado in my own eyes

Fills with stormy tears.

I’m a spooky horse.

My heart skips many beats and panics

Its way down torture street on its cobblestone pain.

I am without safety beneath that Voodoo Moon on Bourbon

Street.

Esplanade wines its artery of Boulevards through my very

Shaky shadow . . . through its bedlam echo I cemently bleed.

I’m a spooky horse.

My emotions cost me too much.

I close out, hearing only the whispers of those who forgot to love

Or ask me to dance ~ now forever shall they weep near the Swamp’s

Murky edge, begging me back, flesh or spirit.

Spooky or not.

Copyright ©Susan Joyner-Stumpf ®

 

BIRTH OF A POEM

And well its rounded voice

The one that speaks to us

In inertia state

Dream state

Where there is no escape

When defenses are down

And the space between our

Eyes forget their wasted tears

When the rhythm in our chest

Resorts to muted hum

A whisper’s ghost undone

A calling ~ ~

The urge to create as

Vital and strong as the urge to crumble

It’s only the difference in what

Cripples you to solid reason

Or blatant insanity

Whichever feeds your glory

Something screams

In your bones

Louder than terror

And snaps like a twig in a storm

Feathering in its brokenness for

Righteousness

A sovereign whim of mortal gold

That whips you into submissive grace

Free falling

A song in the outcast of oblivion

A wake up call from some forgotten torture

 

And then the revelation, the enlightenment

Call it channeling; call it Dante’s Revenge

A pen is lifted from the tomb.

A poem is born!

Copyright ©Susan Joyner-Stumpf ®

 

BACK INTO EVERYTHING

Back into everything else we go

Call it what you will

Cosmic connection

Elemental as shared breath

The fine-tuned poetry of a harp

Weeping through the porous of our souls.

Our own voices the beat of a drum

Deep inside the earth’s primeval crust

Eyes closing in the shadow of an eclipse

We are the breakdown of inevitable rust.

Our footfalls in the forest

Just one more added mantra to the singing leaves

Majestic overlay of tenor in all that grieves.

What separates us from a blade of grass

A sunlit hue in a meadow’s deep ravine

We are the chaos of a terrible storm

The fraction it takes to smile, shy, serene.

The howl of a lone wolf on the cliff’s rocky edge

Scrapes the surface of our naked bones

Just when we think our footprints have no followers

We look behind and realize we’re not alone.

 

Back into everything we go

Eternal lights married to distant stars

Pulse of time and space moving through our existence

Massaging our mortality, defining, in

Every individual aspect, who we, as a specie,

Truly are.

Copyright ©Susan Joyner-Stumpf ®

 

HUMANITY’S LEGACY

Grander the vision optimal

The sense of us all

Our being as to

Perfect imperfection

A flower with petals drawn

To the open throat of waiting sky

Our quest of truth

In the heart of a conch shell

Or inside a lover’s seductive smile

We bask in the light shown

Not because we so much demanded it

But because like a gift, it was given

And so because of parallels

We can appreciate the cost of darkness

The bliss upon which rides

The spine of sorrow’s velvet equal

Gentle whir of words

Sometimes loudest when unspoken

Breaking into whimsical dance

Even when we fear tomorrow

Rain inside our blood-wept hearts

It takes a stronger courage to

Share our deepest scars once hidden

Drawn to cosmic~sequined interplay

Once ancient man was jealous

Of intangible stars

Now we appreciate the unfathomable distance

Because it defines who we are

What it’s like to be human

No mask to hide mortality

Open chapters our Souls to God

Protégés of his rapturous divinity.

Copyright ©Susan Joyner-Stumpf ®

SUSAN JOYNER-STUMPF

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

FALL

I can see

people at the foot of the mountain

and those at its top

they have other desires and  thoughts

a whole mountain

of incomprehension separates them

I notice

almost everyone wants to go higher

- over the borders of forest and fields

and climbs the rocks

and if it works

- lean the ladder against the clouds

lose sight of Earth

and be the only winner of this race

people forget that

falls from the summit

take place in loneliness

and are very painful

THE SUN

When night ends, the show begins on the scene of sky.

The wind opens curtains made of clouds

- heavy and crimped like Baroque draperies.

Birds begin to treble and proclaim the arrival of light.

Darkness disappears and  night flies away on its black wings.

The gray of morning slowly gains the pearly shades

and pink cloudlets lead the way on blue sky

for an oncoming solar chariot.

DIGITAL PHARAOH

to the image of Mohamed Zakaria Soltan

Bits and bytes swirled, fuelled with colours,

and settled like droplets of rain on a piece of white paper.

Ancient gods of Egypt returned from the past.

The silhouettes of the powerful pharaohs emerged from the shadow

and the ancient world was born again of nothingness.

Anubis did not guard the fugitives from the Canyon Fields.

The beautiful Hathor showed them the way to the present day

and she opened the sealed gates of time.

The sons of Osiris came to Earth on Ra's papyrus boat.

Geb smiled happily at the sight of the reborn children.

Wise Thot, as always, helped humanity.

He collected moments lost in the desert sands

and he called vivid images from his memory

Faded colors became clear, blossoming brightly.

Expressive lines sketched the shapes of the former rulers.

Ascension of the blessed

to the image of Jerome Bosch

Man, leave everything

and go up towards the light.

Five stone circles separate you from the goal.

Here you can meet those who left earlier

Longing like a thin thread,

interwoven with memories,

connects this world and the time of the dead

They are waiting for you.

You have no meetings marked in your calendar

Important affairs scattered on the atoms

Take just a few steps and overcome the steep path

Eternity will open its gate for you

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA