Pond 26 - 2017
Let’s start 2017 with a bang. First, I’m pleased to announce the 3rd Annual SPANK the CARP Poetry contest. Previous years were somewhat restrictive so this year any type of poetry will be accepted with a theme of “Up Jumped Spring”. There is no entry fee.
Professor Patrick Dunn will be our guest judge. And part of first prize is being contributed by the talented author and humorist William Swarts, whose newest work you’ll see below in Author’s Row. I’m honored to have both of these gentlemen participate. Click here for full details. Second, Nobel Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck has graciously provided a very special Author Profile this issue. If you haven’t read her book The Good Earth, I suggest you stop what you’re doing and read it. Third, I’m going to do a little special presentation of one of my own pieces alongside Gabriel Neustadt’s. They are both sci-fi and went so well together I couldn’t resist. And finally I’ll end my welcome with a fresh New Year’s wish - May your clicking find its way to the Support button to help the Carp stay belly down. Enjoy! - Ken |
 
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P O E M Gayane M. Haroutyunyan’s ‘Beauty, Fragility, Poetry’ is a wonderful going away gift of sorts that contains one of the most beautiful lines I’ve ever come across.
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P O E M The more my graduate student daughter explains Harry Potter, the more I like it. And Jacqueline Jule’s ‘Hogwarts Motto Expanded’ proves that HP’s appeal is universal.
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S H O R T S T O R Y ‘The World Could Have Ended, I Suppose’ by Jackson Arn is a wonderfully crafted mystery whose imagery is perfectly tuned to its progression.
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AUTHOR PROFILE - Pearl S. Buck Pearl Buck is one of my favorite authors. Marie Toner, Curator with Pearl S Buck International, a wonderful charitable organization, has graciously contributed an excellent in depth profile for us.
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S H O R T S T O R Y - Special Feature Gabriel Neustadt’s ‘Obsolete in 20XY’ presents such a perfect dystopian counterpoint to my own ‘Age of Wisdom’, in which I implied a utopian future, that I couldn’t resist the ‘special feature’ of presenting them together. Forgive my self-serving indulgence.
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S H A P E P O E M ‘Concrete Peony’ by Karen Greenbaum-Maya perfectly captures the essence of beautiful flowers - Joy!
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P O E M I try to keep StC non-political, but Martin H. Levinson’s ‘Rally Round The Flag’ is too good to not share. It reminds me of e.e. cummings ‘god bless america i’. I suggest you read that as well, as both are horribly apropos.
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Friends of the Carp
American Life in Poetry The Art of Elizabeth Darrow National Steinbeck Center Barking Moose Press 
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AUTHOR'S ROW
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William Swarts
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Readers praise William Swarts’ latest poetry collection, Harmonies Unheard: for example, ”Bill Swarts rewards us with poetry of an often delightful earthiness and much ironic humor,” says Black Buzzard Press publisher and poet Bradley Straham. “This is a book not to be missed.” And, University of Vermont English Professor Emeritus Richard Sweterlitsch agrees, “His verses resonate with rich images; his themes are universal.”
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Peter Dabbene
You've got spam! And so does everyone else. But what happens when you reply to those spam e-mails?
Peter Dabbene poses as his alter ego, Dieter P. Bieny—a man who gives spammers just enough hope to keep them coming back for more abuse. |
Fred McGavran
The Butterfly Collector has more Fred McGavran stories like those in Spank the Carp.
“The humor is understated and often wicked.” William Pratt, Miami University, World Literature Today. |
Jacqueline Jules
“Jules’ gift is in finding the small moments — green paisley pajamas, carrot cake, the giggle of a nine-year-old boy — and gracefully elevating them to tell the story of a life. If half of all marriages end in widowhood, Stronger Than Cleopatra is a manual for how to go on.”
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Jeanne Julian
The changing seasons provide a framework for these poems that explore the loss and rebirth in the natural world and in the spirit. "These poems challenge and resonate; the reader will be haunted by them." - David E. Poston, author of Slow of Study
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Ken Poyner
Forty-two surreal, irreal, subreal fictions of master bird races, nine foot tall women, chickens and their cell phones, the collection and consumption of oxygen, a surrogate lover for a mermaid.
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Brett Stuckel
Guided by Shadows: A Westward Walk on Spain's Camino de Santiago. Discover the absurdity of Europe’s most famous pilgrim path (a Kindle eShort, ~15,000 words, also available for Nook and Kobo).
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Carol Roan
When Last on the Mountain: The View from Writers over 50 offers nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that range from the heart-wrenching to the hilarious. Who better to bear witness to the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune than writers over 50?
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Carol Roan
Speak Up: The Public Speaking Primer is an inspirational guide through the thickets of stage fright, in all its forms, to the freedom of speaking up. The journey begins with a breathing exercise and wends its way through practical advice about the use of space and energy.
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William Quincy Belle
Fate can be kind. Fate can be cruel. However, every once in a while, fate can be funny. This is the lust love story of how one man met the most unusual of women in the most unusual of circumstances.
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