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Biographies | Editorial | Notice to Contributors Submission Guidelines | URL’s

ISSN: 1446-0505 ---

Featured Poets:

Chris JohnsonChris JohnsonChris Johnson

Martin LochnerMartin LochnerMartin Lochner

Craig Lincoln Craig Lincoln Craig Lincoln (Cragler)(Cragler)(Cragler)

Harvey Hendrickson Harvey Hendrickson Harvey Hendrickson (Barris)(Barris)(Barris)

Beatrice Evans Beatrice Evans Beatrice Evans (Veronica)(Veronica)(Veronica)

Trenton CrawfordTrenton CrawfordTrenton Crawford

Timothy PilgrimTimothy PilgrimTimothy Pilgrim

Lukasz WalterowiczLukasz WalterowiczLukasz Walterowicz

+ Cover Picture

© Anthony Superina© Anthony Superina© Anthony Superina

Edition #36 Dare 2 Share?

You may submit up to three poems. (Due to the large number of submissions, we are unable to read more than three poems per poet. If we receive more than three poems from any one poet, their submission will be discarded, unread). Poems may consist up to 40 lines in length. Any submissions that exceed the specified limit will not be considered for publication and will be discarded.

REMEMBER to proof your submissions.

ALL submissions include the following:

Poem Title(s) Legal Name Valid Email Address (for contact purposes only) Pseudonym (if desired) Biography

ALL submissions submitted via email must be contained in the body of the email. Attachments WILL NOT be accepted under any circumstance. Alternatively, you can use our online form. Simply follow the links on the website. Submissions will be rejected if found to be containing profanity and/or racial vilifying material and/or slanderous material. NB. By submitting your work for consideration by the Curious Record, you

acknowledge your work has not been previously published, received royalties,

currently published in other journals, magazines, periodicals and/or being

considered for publication. The Curious Record WILL NOT accept any submission

that fails to meet the above criteria and/or any other criteria listed above in this

document.

Guidelines: Poetry Submissions

2

You may submit only one short story per issue of any style (fiction,

non-fiction, science fiction, etc.). Short story submissions MUST NOT exceed 3,000

words in length. Any submissions exceeding the specified limit WILL NOT be

considered for the publication and will be discarded.

REMEMBER to proof read your submissions.

REMEMBER to identify your paragraphs!

Inserting a blank line is acceptable.

ALL submissions include the following: Short Story Title Legal Name Valid Email Address (for contact purposes only) Pseudonym (if desired) Biography

Submissions will be rejected if found to be containing profanity and/or

racial vilifying material and/or slanderous material.

NB. By submitting your work for consideration by the Curious Record, you

acknowledge your work has not been previously published, received royalties,

currently published in other journals, magazines, periodicals and/or being

considered for publication. The Curious Record WILL NOT accept any submission

that fails to meet the above criteria and/or any other criteria listed in this

document.

Guidelines: Creative Writing Submissions

3

Editorial

4

Welcome to edition #36 of the Curious Record. Jack Frost has reached our shores on his two-hemisphere road show; truly making himself known to all with the deliverance of clear skies and southerly winds that cut to the bone. Chilling nights make way for brisk and icy mornings, as the sun rises and the air, dry and heavy is filled with the smell of burning wood. I can only speak on behalf of oneself, although, in all likelihood , one’s opinion is shared with many others when it boils down to the bitter chill of winter… “where did the heat of summer go?” Moving along… it has been an exciting past few months in preparation for the Mid-Year Edition. As we’re Sydney based, we have witnessed a few magnificent fog filled mornings that simply engulfed the landscape, let alone, one’s striding gait. A perfect moment for a photographer to document a solitary point in time. On the flip side, the quality of submission content has flourished, thus making our position that more daunting, yet exciting, as the final layout is pieced together. In closing, I would enjoy commending all for the quality of submissions received. It is exciting to behold the energy and passion of a person transferred into verse, where it will be embodied for a lifetime. As always, the Curious Record is in constant search of submissions; providing anyone and all willing, with an opportunity to articulate and share a part of their inner self amongst an immense audience.

Until the release of the “End of Year Edition” #37 ‘Dare 2 Share?’

Joyce S. Editor-in-Chief

Literature: Featured Poetry

5

WHISPER of WINTER

A faint

breeze

stirs

the

waving

fronds,

a hint

of

colder

nights,

ferocious

rattling

doors.

Soon the

moon

will

shiver

too.

And

one

more

freeze

ticks

by...

© Chris Johnson

Literature: Featured Poetry

6

STAY Love devours me

My wife knows

“He suffers beautifully” she says

This is maybe why she stays

© Martin Lochner

SUNSET

A dragon towered ferociously

Poised with fanged out legs;

Sparked from its mouth

The remaining blaze of sunlight;

Mingled at it’s feet, the dust

So dark, it hid the Sunset.

© Harvey Hendrickson THE END

is near - actually, a ways off -

but close to beginning, premonition

in its own right to coda, finis, finish.

With luck, it will be a good day -

pinnacle, climax, crescendo -

having nothing to do with aftermath.

© Timothy Pilgrim

Literature: Featured Poetry

7

THE TIME OF MY LIFE

As the clock strikes twelve

Born into this world I delve

What will become of me

Only time will see

By the hour of one

I am but still young

Ahead lays a life

Full of laughter not strife

As a teen I demand and look after number one

Sure in myself dependent on none

This time is for me not for you

The clock has struck two

As the hour hand touches down on three

The prime of my life is set free

A proud young buck out on the loose

Keeping his neck out of the noose

Approaching too quickly rush my middle years

Have I succeeded or fallen prey to my fears

A decision must be made I must choose a door

The hand has arrived at position four

A family with all the trimmings lay at my feet

Am I a man content or must I still compete

I cannot deny I still need to strive

The hour has reached number five

The clock strikes six

I have a life I need not fix

Happy with my middle age spread

Content to lie in a warm well sprung bed

(...Fifty is near like a song about heaven)

Literature: Featured Poetry

8

Fifty is near like a song about heaven

The time approaches number seven

Passing on knowledge to those around

Gives new meaning to life on the ground

Eight bells have tolled

Though I am getting old

I manage to hold father time at bay

I have not yet finished with this play

In the sand I have drawn a line

The hour approaches number nine

I still have a say I still have a mind

The body however not quite so kind

At the stroke of ten on others I depend

I accept the fact I near an end

Not just yet do I lay down and die

I still have a glint coming from each eye

Eleven o'clock and all is well

A tired body ready for a spell

Time has flown along on its way

Taken away day by day

I reflect now at peace a life well spent

Leaving others a life to lament

The clock has struck twelve

Into this life I no longer delve

© Cragler

Literature: Featured Poetry

9

LILAC ROSE

As summer fades to autumn

in my chilly garden grows,

amidst the vegetation,

a solitary lilac rose.

As darkness fades to dawning

the morning mist sees birth,

of the purple fading yawning

east of mother earth.

One lilac rose is clinging

midst the rustle of the trees

and an early bird is winging

on an oh so gentle breeze.

A little brook is silvered

by the vast horizon's paling sea,

from the sunlight it delivered

to a lilac flower and me.

© Veronica

Photograph: © Anthony Superina

Literature: Featured Poetry

10

SONG OF SUMMER

I’m shadows falling o’er your eyes

a stream of consciousness, love in disguise,

I’m a curling wave on a wayward sea.

Would that you belong to me.

I’m the dawning blush of a of a brand new day

the heady rush of new-mown hay

The smell of jasmine on an evening breeze

Would that you were such as these.

I am mountains, not denied the sky

I’m in wings of those disposed to fly

A floral path beneath the trees

and the stirring bustle of busy bees

buzzing through the floral sea.

Oh that all the world could be.

I’m a quiet cove a with moonlight glare

streaming through its cloudy fare

I’m the one who hears a silent prayer,

Would that I might find you there.

© Veronica

Literature: Featured Poetry

ancoentertainment@outlook.com

0466 265 313

11

BECOMING STREETWISE

Once I was soft to the touch in a plaster mould,

designed for a life.

It had nurtured the gelatinous being

to a full bodied child-woman;

Set a course, the standard of the day

and I wore that flag like a religion,

warm, appreciative, subservient until

death tore down the tower-

bricks and mortar began to crumble.

I could not weep for long,

where I had been was no longer there.

and despair is a hard taskmaster.

© Veronica

ancoentertainment.weebly.com

Literature: Featured Poetry

12

NOT ALONE

(after Alexander Solzhenitsyn)

B.C. camping, two of us, one tent,

lake nestled below nippled peaks,

we watch dusk-sun

play out across water rippled by

fleeing geese, they zigzag upward

in frenzied rush to join

three half-formed V’s

cutting through faded light.

We scan horizon to horizon,

see geese dot the entire sky -

nine rise in the east,

five lift off west,

eight more flap out of mist,

each faint cry echoing fear

they won't link up,

but will fly solitary into night.

On impulse, you stir our fire,

send up sparks, smoke, hope,

spiralling to guide their ragged lines.

I find a log in growing dark,

(...toss it on embers but fail to notice)

Literature: Featured Poetry

13

toss it on embers but fail to notice

the wood is alive with ants.

Desperate, they rush out,

scurry along the top.

We quickly roll the log on its side

so most can drop unburned

onto cool sand.

Safe, they turn, circle, circle

then climb back to their home.

They dance farewell brightly -

tiny orange torches - together,

not alone.

© Timothy Pilgrim

14

Literature: Featured Poetry

POSSE OF ANGELS

They tend to gather at dusk,

ready for the chase - not being saved,

apparently, out of the question -

proudly proclaim many angels

are celestial beings of colour,

an appropriate number, for sure.

Plus, the whole posse, gender-balanced,

including a few who have flitted back

and forth, some have one wing,

or are known to fly a crooked line.

Others cannot hear any prayer;

a few don't see; several have Tourette's.

Yet they are all angels,

equally able to hunt outlaw souls.

Tracked, caught, cuffed, this is on

a pamphlet they nail to my chest.

They are buoyed by success -

I am bound to be blessed.

© Timothy Pilgrim

Literature: Featured Poetry

15

AT THE CLOSE OF DAY

I am claimed by the ambience,

the mood, the closing down of day.

Temperatures plummet and heels are hastening away.

Away from dark skies, starless.

The moon half full, half - who knows where,

pays no heed to the need of light below.

A grey gloom, like a veil, hangs momentarily -

then plunges into night.

Street lights enhance diminutive snowflakes in their ark,

only to die on my shoulders or make slush at my feet.

Slip-sliding my way home.

Curtains are closing;

in warm kitchens, smells, and smiles,

for hot stew and chilled wine are the order of the moment.

Sleepy children, well fed, are tucked up in bed.

A perfumed woman al-together mine, yes mine

winds her tired body around my own

drinking in my every waking moment,

until at long last the new ambience close eyes.

© Veronica

Literature: Featured Poetry

16

FOR MICHAELA

ocean salt wind

charges through skinned bare trees

with a woman's cry

howling over the bay

I toss in the bed

senselessly with the waves

as our distance swells wide as the sea

upright with chest heaving

I blink into stone night

your marooned body

lays apart from mine

I lurch into darkness

blanket slung across shoulders

heart pounding like storm waves below

shaking like a stray dog

head fallen into hands

the pulse of the wind

courses through battered night

with swollen heart sinking

back into the bed

I feel your body

inching closer to mine

the warmth of your flesh

fills the contours of mine

I hold you like roots hold the earth

You're my storm

You're my calm

You're my wind

You're my earth

© Trenton Crawford

Literature: Featured Poetry

17

SECOND THOUGHTS

Why we always look away

From what our eyes desire to see?

Then we think

‘I should have…’

We look back

And we can’t see

It walked away -

We let it be

Why it always walks away

When we want to give a try?

We look back every day

And we pray for one last stand

Then we think back in regret

‘Why I hadn’t…’

Each time we cry

One day we will forget -

The day when we die.

© Lukasz Walterowicz

Biography

18

BEATRICE EVANS Pseudonym: Veronica

Beatrice Evans is a happily retired wife and a mother

of four who likes to call herself a poet.

English by birth, Beatrice now resides in Australia.

Beatrice writes on any subject that comes to mind and has a

deep passion for sonnets, rhyme and free verse. This has led

her to produce her own book of poetry “One Day at a Time”. In

addition, her works have appeared in many anthologies.

TIMOTHY PILGRIM

Timothy Pilgrim, a journalism professor at Western

Washington University in Bellingham, is a Pacific Northwest

poet with over 150 published poems.

His work has been accepted by poetry anthologies such as

Idaho’s Poets: A Centennial Anthology (University of Idaho

Press) and journals such as Cirque, Seattle Review, Tipton

Poetry Journal, Windfall, Meadowland Review and the Curious

Record.

19

Biography

MARTIN LOCHNER

Martin Lochner currently resides in Cape Town while

undertaking studies at the University of South Africa.

He is the Carpe Noctem winner for Afrikaans Poetry, 2012.

CHRIS JOHNSON

Chris Johnson was born in Peterborough, United

Kingdom, 1948 and currently resides in Wollongong, New

South Wales.

He has been included in Stanford’s Who’s Who of Poetry and is

the author of “Just Among Friends” (Xlibris 2009).

Biography

20

HARVEY HENDRICKSON Pseudonym: Barris

Harvey Hendrickson is a Nevisian and now retired Law

Enforcement Officer (Police/Fire), whom begun writing poetry in

1984.

His works have appeared in a variety of anthologies. Some of

his featured works include: Reflections, Children’s Delight, The

Voice of a Caribbean Man and Both Ah Dem.

Harvey has participated in readings, both locally and

internationally. He is a World of Poetry Golden Poet Award

winner and a Distinguished Life Member of the International

Society of Poets organization.

CRAIG LINCOLN Pseudonym: Cragler

Craig was born in Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia

in 1962.

For a brief moment now, he has discovered tranquillity in

reading and writing.

Craig projects an image in words, that he hopes others can

examine from his views. His daily encounters generate the

ignition to generate these images.

Biography

21

TRENTON CRAWFORD

Trenton Crawford lives on a smile island on the other

side of the world, where the toilets flush in reverse.

He plays stringed instruments, eats pasta and attempts to

bash out words.

As of this piece, one of Trenton’s poems is being published in

a locally based journal

LUKASZ WALTEROWICZ

Lukasz Walterowicz, born August 1990 in Belchatów,

Poland.

He is an undergraduate student, B.A. of English Philology at

the University of Łódž, Poland.

An adept of TELF methodology and a beginner scientist, he

actively participates in the life of the academic society.

Strongly inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson and the

Transcendentalist Movement.

Lukasz is an enthusiast of American Literature and the

American Renaissance era.

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LUKE BEASLEY http://voodooinmybasement.blogspot.com/

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THE RED ROOM ORGANISATION http://www.redroomorganisation.org/

THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA http://www.nla.gov.au/

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AUSTRALIAN COPYRIGHT COUNCIL - Information regarding you, your works & copyright.

http://www.copyright.org.au/

COPYRIGHT AGENCY LIMITED - Information regarding you, your works & copyright.

http://www.copyright.com.au/

TODAY’S WOMAN.NET - Bringing poet’s together!

http://www.todays-woman.net/

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