“What delights us in visible beauty is the invisible.”
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
••• The Mad Gallery •••
“Catastrophic” by Featured Artist Thomas Riesner
To see ALL of Thomas’ wild and wonderfully offbeat creations, as well as the rest of our Resident Artist’s works, visit our Mad Gallery!
••• The Poetry Forum •••
This last week on Mad Swirl’s Poetry Forum… we bloomed through as never two; we were fruitly vexed to be picked next; we bet the funk as silent monk; we praised the powers of painted flowers; we diddled digression, disturbed digestion; we mashed mortality known as reality; we slighted the slap of prophetic pap. We have to poke at the joke. ~ MH Clay
The Ideal Reader by Jim Murdoch
Virtually all prophecies possess a potential propaganda value. ~ Harry Rusche
It might surprise you to learn that
Old Nick never cracked open
the Good Book until The Living Bible
came out in 1971.
It was a slow day in Hell.
He found it… dry, to say the least.
Why, he wondered, had God not
handed the task to the Hemingway
or the Steinbeck of his generation?
Or at least a Dickens.
But what really got his goat was how
lop-sided the whole enterprise was.
History gets written by the victors.
Prophecy on the other hand…
This read as so… cocksure.
September 12, 2026
editors note: Yessir! Also, primo performers prophets are. – mh clay
Hard Facts by Ivan Jenson
I stood there
gobsmacked at the
wacky workmanship
of this mothership
strictly watched over
by father time
and I got zapped
out of the clinical
oppression of my own
both selfish and selfless
pity-fest depression
triggered by the triathlon
of keeping on keeping on
all just to get slapped on
the behind at the finish line
by the prankster gangster
otherwise known as
the uneventful inevitable
mash-up of mortality…
this is not about fantasy
it’s about that stone cold
buzz kill known as reality
September 11, 2026
editors note: Why’s he gotta be so mean? – mh clay
acceptance isn’t a dirty word by Jean Bohuslav
when full attention and acceptance met the
ironing board life expanded like a bliss
bomb a pocket full of marbles into other
areas meeting needs outcomes the last
brush stroke or the one leading to many
along with enthusiasm a joy of creating –
accomplishment connecting with quietude
and knowledge beyond all bluster –
but on another level:
friends confided we were worried about
you my interests had digressed beyond
theirs they feared change the unknown
I remember the time she murmured under
her breath while eating dessert I’m tired
I’ll have to go to bed a shared philosophy
(not one that would be expected to upset
digestion) had rattled her cage leading to
quick polite farewelling of guests
September 10, 2026
editors note: Differences, digressions; disturbed digestions. – mh clay
Grateful Wailing Wall by Guest Poet Sterling Warner
Adolescent-like penmanship in a field
baby blue welcomes puffy bubble letters
seemingly drawn by a child with adult
sensibilities without concern about accurate
depictions of daisies and sunflowers—who
can say for sure—that pop like yellow, pink,
orange, chartreuse, and purple pastel roses.
Adjacent to painfully identical office windows
On 22nd Street, van der Stokker’s reaches out
to New York pedestrians who stifle their passions
and star struck couples, arm in arm, imagining a future
couched in a majesty of words courtesy of visual artists
exchanging daily pledges and thankful declarations
as heartfelt as a religious congregation at prayer.
September 9, 2026
editors note: Just as these words reach out from this word gallery. Amen! – mh clay
Perpetual Kid by Randall Rogers
Chastise your rocking horse Zorro
Bucking so Douglas Fairbanks
unbridled
The satori
Of the silent monk you
praying
in Vegas
for rain.
September 8, 2026
editors note: … if not pocket aces. – mh clay
blissfully unaware by Steve Maitlen
bumblebees buzz in concerto
squeezing summer sun-dappled droplets from
fingertips politely plucking berries
bursting black between imperfect porcelain teeth –
juices staining laffy taffy lips & tingling tangy
against her tongue;
I hope she picks me next.
September 7, 2026
editors note: Summertime bliss with maybe a kiss. (We welcome Steve to our crazy congress of Contributing Poets with this submission. Read more of his madness on his new page – check it out.) – mh clay
The Source of Compassion by Guest Poet Dr. Kang Byeong-Cheol
The deeper the wound,
the clearer the spring.
The moment
you awaken
to the truth
that you and I were never two,
the river
relinquishes its name
and becomes the sea.
There, on the silent shore,
a single lotus
blooms in silence.
September 6, 2026
editors note: Selah! – mh clay
••• Short Stories •••
Sometimes you just gotta shout it out loud, like Contributing Writer & Poet Jim Bates does with his latest short story, “Neighbors.“
Here’s what Short Story Editor Tyler Malone has to say about this weekend read:
Knowing what’s worth the fight as the fight.
Here’s how this whistle blows:
“What To Do” by Tyler Malone
It was the first week of February. There was a fresh two inches of overnight snowfall, and I was outside shoveling the sidewalk of my South Minneapolis home. The sun was just up over the trees. Two houses down, my neighbor, Miguel, was shoveling, too.
I waved to him. “How’s it going?” It was cold enough to see my breath.
He grinned. “Not bad.” He threw a shovelful of the heavy white stuff to the side. “Looking forward to spring.”
“Me too!” I said.
Just a little neighborly chit-chat. Nothing special.
Except it was. Since the ICE surge in early December and the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, we were all watching each other’s backs. Especially here in South Minneapolis. For some reason, the federal thugs felt it was their duty to roam our streets both on foot and in vehicles looking for people of color, brown or black, it didn’t matter. Both Miguel, who was of third-generation Mexican descent, and me, an old bearded white guy, were feeling the tension.
You never knew…
Get the rest of this chilling ICEy tale right here!
•••
Somewhere over the rainbow… sits this shortie titled “ACHIEVEMENT“ by Contributing Writer & Poet Ken Poyner!
Here’s what Chief Editor Johnny O has to say about this weekday read:
Somewhere there’s a rainbow just waiting to show itself off! (to read more of Ken’s drabbles, check out his new book “The Lechery of Fish Tuners: A Gathering of Curious Drabbles“).
Photo by Johnny Olson
Since this “drabble” clocks in at 100 words, a tease would give it all away! So we urge you to follow the road to get this featured read on!
•••••••
The whole Mad Swirl of everything to come keeps on keepin’ on… NOW! Every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, every decade, every EVERY there is! Wanna join in the mad conversations going on in our Mad Swirl world? Then come by whenever the mood strikes! We’ll be here bein’…
…delighted!
Johnny O
Chief Editor
MH Clay
Poetry Editor
Tyler Malone
Short Story Editor
Madelyn Olson
Visual Editor