BELINDA SUBRAMAN

 

 

Comfort In Chaos

 

Helping or hurting

are games of choice.

Time dulls passion so elders

calmly observe the games

and changing rules.

Egos cling to air.

Illusions cling to ethereal roots

in a maze where the exit is death.

 

Say the names of humans who

who affect you profoundly

who light you, vibrate your aura

who awaken something you can not name

or know that it is you.

To reach out is to reach in.

We are the wizard

We are the Oz

We are the writer, director, editor and star.

We are single. and collective.

We are fragments, explosions and saving bliss

separately, gloriously searching

bumping into the walls we built

to keep us safe.

 

Say the names of your loves, your hates

your fascinations.

Say their names. Say your name.

They are you.

 

Mundane Miracle

 

Six weeks old

the helium balloon is dying.

Sway-pulled from the dresser

down to its knees now

dancing ten feet closer.

 

 

Six weeks old

the helium balloon is dying.

All night long it made soft plastic sighs

as it bumped the lamp

dancing wild but weak

In the fan wind.

 

Time is ego pinned down

a log of acknowledgement

and concrete illusion

consensual map of being

to blind us to our common eccentricities

each an invisible essence

our own velocities of wind

under the same sky, on the same earth spinning.

 

If we are willing to walk through the darkness

not with fear but with curiosity, we are saved by wonder.

 

BELINDA SUBRAMAN

 

BELINDA SUBRAMAN: While living close to Nuremberg, Germany, Belinda developed many international literary and musical connections and one day decided to start a magazine. Other editors were generous in sending her literary contacts. Bukowski was in the first three issues and an interview with Burroughs was in the second issue of Gypsy Literary Magazine (1984-1994). During this same time period she edited books by Vergin’ Press, among them: Henry Miller and My Big Sur Days by Judson Crews. She also published Sanctuary Tape Series (1983-90) which was a mastered compilation of audio poetry and original music from around the world. Earlier in the 2000s she had a podcast interview show that was broadcast on several internet stations. Through all these venues she’s published and interviewed many notable poets, artists and musicians. In 2020 Belinda began an online show called GAS: Poetry, Art and Music which features interviews, readings, performances and art show in a video format as well as online journal and group by the same name. A few of her 100s of publications include Maintenant 17, New Generation Beats, Setu, Harbinger Asylum, Voices:  Dahlia’s, Gods and Mermaids and Nerve Cowboy.  Books include Blue Rooms, Black Holes, White Lights and Left Hand Dharma and Full Moon Midnight. She was named Texas Beat Poet Laureate in 2023. Belinda is also a mixed media artist. Her art has been featured in Beyond Words, Epoch, Flora Fiction, Unlikely Stories, Eclectica, North of Oxford, Raw Art Review, El Paso News, Litterateur RW, Setu, Texlandia, The Bayou Review, Red Fez, Chrysalis, Ghost City, Maintenant 16 and many others. In November 2022 she won 2nd Place in the Sun Bowl Exhibit, the longest running art show in the Southwest (since 1949). In 2024 she won Best in Show at the precious objects exhibit at Crossland Gallery in El Paso.