Mad Swirl

"I am happy to have some friends here in the kitchen." Charles Olson ••• The Mad Gallery ••• Woods Behind the House ~ Tony Gentry To see all of Tony's mad pics, as well as our other former featured artists (over 50 in total), take a virtual stroll thru Mad Swirl’s Mad Gallery! ••• The Poetry Forum ••• This past week on[read more]

Join Mad Swirl this 1st Wednesday of December (aka 12.01.21) when we'll once again be doin' the open mic voodoo that we do do at our OC home, BARBARA'S PAVILLION! (and celebrating 17 year of open mic madness!) Starting at 7:30pm, hosts Johnny O & MH Clay will kick off these open mic’n Mad Swirl’n festivities[read more]

"Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well." Voltaire ••• The Mad Gallery ••• Rooted Mushroom ~ Tony Gentry To see all of Tony's mad pics, as well as our other former featured artists (over 50 in total), take a virtual stroll thru Mad Swirl’s Mad Gallery! ••• The Poetry Forum ••• This past[read more]

For dad, and his wild heart. Once when we were children, our father kidnapped us from our mother to take us across the desert. His wood-paneled station wagon roared through El Paso, New Mexico, and Arizona. I played with my prize toy, an E.T. plush, in the back of that car under a white sheet. In school I had been called E.T. because of my long neck and big eyes and ears. My plushie made me feel like I at least had one other alien weirdo like myself to go through[read more]

I searched for something the least voguish. The location was an embassy though the occasion was only a job interview. London was in verdure with its tree-fringed roads. Sunrays multiplied in my eyes that beamed with joy - my first job interview since I graduated only three months ago. The interviewees hardly noticed my entrance into a very spacious room, each absorbed in one’s gigantic thoughts. Only a woman in her forties approached me and started explaining how important the teaching position was for her, being a breadwinner with three[read more]

I am the loudest animal on the planet, and the funniest looking, Annelise thought, as she trudged through the snow wearing footgear resembling tennis rackets. Over a long white puffy coat, she carried an ugly black- camera necklace. “How do I look, Mom?” she said out loud, looking to the sky. You look noisy, she heard in response, but she knew it was only in her own head, because her mother died a year ago, while Annalise was pregnant. “I wish you were here, Mom, to answer my questions.” As Annalise talked,[read more]