“The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation lasts.” ~ Henry Moore
••• The Mad Gallery •••
“Not Welcome” (above) by featured artist David J. Thompson. To see more of David’s mad snaps, as well as our other featured artists, visit our Mad Gallery!
••• The Poetry Forum •••
This last week in Mad Swirl’s Poetry Forum… we prayed to prolong; we got lost in the warp; we sang a (flat) love song; we outlined details, sharp; we stood beneath a stellar glow; we lost to life what we don’t know; we took savage root to heal a heart. Could kill us, too. Can’t say, but we do (anyway). ~ MH Clay
I Am Violet by A.J. Huffman
Unsuitable
shade of flower.
I am temperamental,
difficult to raise.
Enticing, I can be soothing,
healing. Beware.
My roots are savage,
aggressive, poisonous,
deadly if taken to heart.
July 29, 2017
editors note: A shredder, not a shrinker. Beware, indeed! – mh clay
On Loss by Rajtilak Bhattacharjee
I have lost
so many things
to life that
now, I wonder,
if even I
belong to myself
anymore.
July 28, 2017
editors note: Yeah! Do we ever? – mh clay
Empyreal Rondeau by Harley White
In ghostly skies a stellar glow
from erstwhile stars of long ago
that shone with splendor ere they died,
perchance were wished on starry-eyed,
still haunts in heavens’ spectral show.
We gaze with wonder from below,
amidst our scurries to and fro,
at panoramas mythified
in ghostly skies.
The winds of fame and fortune blow
with sound and fury fiercely, though
our life be ebbing like the tide;
for death o’er all shall yet preside,
unfathomed as the cosmic flow
in ghostly skies…
July 27, 2017
editors note: Wishing still, wishing ever… – mh clay
channeling like his love by Sneha Subramanian Kanta
through gray infused
shadows of leaves
he walks with i —
color field abstraction
late 1940’s approach
of oil on canvas
combined with acrylic
pigment soaked white
he creates life —
as wings of a butterfly
we carry transcendence
on rainwater steps.
primordial emotions
mark thick paper edges
ancient architectures
mode of infant impressions
he embodies expressionism —
concrete revelations
distinct figuration —
gesture and exploit infinite
exact symmetry script
sombre tones dilute
he is the emergence —
of representational planes.
July 26, 2017
editors note: Brush strokes into being, a picture of love from oil and water mixed. – mh clay
NeoMath/Word/LoveDeath by Gregg Dotoli
(mathematical proof for dissolved love)
as autumn equals fall
(ditsy crushes, loneliness and love-longing
divided by objective decaying deception
times 2 )
plus dallied days
is equal to common infatuation
rendering
the illusory nearness of berry to Juneleaf
or mistaken strength of rotting bark to trunk
realized pseudo-love
and frail waning desire
produce a cheerless reality
July 25, 2017
editors note: OldEquation/NewVariables/HopeMaybe? – mh clay
Yarn by Hem Raj Bastola
Spinning
Flocculant wool,
Weaving a gravid
Thought.
A blunt tip,
Blindly forged
Into a furnace
Of a brain
To sharp.
Spinning
A sharpener
To pencil a thread of
Wired inkblot
Brood.
Twisting
Yarns the knot,
Giving shape to
A textile she
Brought.
Reading
Undulating
Beats of a heart
In a line of yarns
How I got
Lost.
July 24, 2017
editors note: From yarn to yarn; words woven into a tale. – mh clay
Every Day by Jon Bennett
I got my first medical appliance
a water pick
clinically, my teeth are
“moth eaten”
now it’s a daily ritual
along with the AA prayer,
“God, help me abstain…”
the calorie log,
“¼ cup rice, one entire chicken”
the guitar, the gym,
the words
that keep every day
from being my last.
July 23, 2017
editors note: How we reason with the reaper for just one more… – mh clay
••• Short Stories •••
Need-a-Read? But of course you do! And we got just the right one, from Contributing Writer & Poet Harley White that you can dig your claws into!
Here’s what short story editor, Tyler Malone has to say about this week’s featured read, “Charcoal Gray“:
“Gods, humans, animals, all are as immortal as others say they are. Most of us are just licking ourselves, though.”
Here’s a few lines to get that feline feelin’ goin’:
(photo “Charcoal Gray” (above) by Kirk W. Wangensteen)
Mark Twain asserted unequivocally, “If a man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat.”—no comment from me. And there’s another by him, which expresses sentiments my lady embraced: “A home without a cat, and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat, may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove its title?” Mark Twain also liked to use us as a point of comparison, as in his somewhat puzzling passage, in which nine lives are mentioned: “One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.”
More than two and a half thousand years ago, Aesop posed the question, “Who shall bell the cat?” Of course, there was also T.S. Eliot, who fairly recently wrote a whole book about us, which was made into a hit musical, and a modern play is titled “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” a scorching though highly dramatic image.
We can discover a more dignified line by Kipling: “The Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.”
Pertinent to the efficacy of our claws (of which I will soon say a little more) is a sentence from Benjamin Franklin: “The cat in gloves catches no mice.”
There are also lesser known phrases with pleasant images, such as, “It would make a cat laugh.” And, more profoundly, “Cats and monkeys, monkeys and cats—all human life is there.”
Then, in conclusion, let me add a Lewis Carroll exclamation: “Oh my fur and whiskers!” To finally end, as promised, with Dylan Thomas: “The wise cats never appeared.” I could go on and on…
If you’re feline it like we know you must be, you can get the rest of your read on here!
••• Open Mic •••
Join Mad Swirl & Krude this 1st Wednesday of August (aka 08.02.17) at 8:00 SHARP as we continue to swirl up our mic madness at our mad mic-ness home, Dallas’ City Tavern!
Come on out, one & all. Get a brainful of Krude (Chris Curiel on trumpet, Clark Walker on drums, and guest Ed McMahon on guitar), share in the Mad Swirl’n festivities, & if the spirit is movin’ ya get yourself a spot on our list. Come to be a part of this collective creative love child we affectionately call Mad Swirl. Come to participate. Come to appreciate. Come to swirl-a-brate!
Catch us swirlin’ up our madness at The City Tavern located at 1402 Main Street • Dallas, TX
P.S. If you’re a Facebook’r and want to get on our pre-list, visit our event page and let us know you’re gonna be there.
•••••••
The whole Mad Swirl of everything to come keeps on keepin’ on… now… now… NOW! Every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, every decade, every every EVERY there is! Wanna join in the mad conversations going on in Mad Swirl’s World? Then stop by whenever the mood strikes! We’ll be here…
Gettin’ Addicted,
Johnny O
Chief Editor
MH Clay
Poetry Editor
Tyler Malone
Short Story Editor
Madelyn Olson
Visual Editor