© 2020 Craig Brenner ℗ Craig Brenner Music
This activity is made possible in part by the Indiana Arts Commission, which receives support from the State of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.
This original song, which is on Craig’s Passages album, was specifically written because of countless senior citizens – including Craig’s mother, Dorothy Brenner – who are now in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities and are unable to have visitors because of COVID-19.
by Alys Caviness-Gober
The Lemon Seed Grows The Lemon Tree by Deborah Petersen Within this lemon seed This Infinite Potential Is the entire lemon tree. This inner void cradles the process of becoming, Holds the history of the universe and trees come and gone; There is nestled the instructions to grow Lemons And not apples To grow only so high No more, no less. Within this seed Is the entire dance The inevitable changes From sprouts to roots to leaves That reach toward the sun and Grow lemons Unassuming, unfussy Holding, aching to release the story to be continued.
by Alyssa Overton
Much Ado About A Dawn That Dimmed by Ndaba Sibanda the unveiling of a glorified gadget was meant to mark an electronic dawn fanatics formed a line at the gate yet the event turned out to be a yawn
by Alyssa Overton
Rip Up The Floorboards by Alys Caviness-Gober Shall we rip up the floorboards? Thus revealing where the proverbial bodies lie buried just beneath our surfaces . . . . Perhaps its better to let them lie there, resting in proverbial peace, slumbering just beneath our surfaces . . . . Shall we take in hand our crowbars and trowels, and expose what lies lie just beneath our surfaces? Or would that be merely mutually assured destruction, a selfish exposé, excavations of ancient rhymes and times without context or compassion? Shall we rip up the floorboards? (I dare you.)
by Alys Caviness-Gober
“All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber.” - Kurt Vonnegut Bugs In Amber by Alys Caviness-Gober Moments flee like a gas station robber cutting down that hourly wage without warning into nothingness taking that life with no explanation (who cares anyway what the need?) Moments flee trying to escape the trap of time.
by Alys Caviness-Gober
What A Cast Of Characters by Deborah Petersen Bunion, oh, bunion Where art thou from? You and your own delicious power Force me to sensible shoes No heels. You redesign my fashion statement Ending an era. I come to you And all your friends Kicking, fighting, and scratching to this long list of physical changes as the days go by. The breasts making their pilgrimage to my belly, wide and thick; The Kleenex tissue now an accessory; The hair the colors of many stories; The flab wings ready for flight at my armpits; This butt that has rocked the babies has oozed up my back; The nose and ears that overwhelm when my Face reflects in the mirror. You, oh wonderful bunion, Welcome to the cast of characters In this drama of my life.
by Alys Caviness-Gober
What Is Not A Father`s Day by Ndaba Sibanda a disturbed dad told a throng of men that fatherly roles are not chauvinist but protective, and there was a loud amen he took a swipe at those who are sexist he gave a warning to those who copulate haphazardly, here and there as if to populate
by Alyssa Overton
Bits, Pieces, And Quotes by Ndaba Sibanda I’m seduced by words that are powerful and pregnant. The three Ps of writing are passion, practice and perseverance. Sometimes seasons have unseasonal harvests. If an alcoholic is always downing the beer bottles, a ‘literaryholic’ is always prolifically pushing the pen. Beware of what you adapt to and adopt, for bad influences rub off on others easily.
by Alyssa Overton
Betrayal by Alys Caviness-Gober Out of the blue the blow lands In a heartbeat everything changes it’s like you’ve been kicked in the stomach I’ve been kicked in the stomach literally The pain is a blast of red fire in your vision a numbness in your legs as you drop to your knees a white-slash of searing pain as you gasp for air that simply isn’t there Betrayal comes out of the blue like a kick in the stomach And then you have to stand back up You have to stand back up as sorrow streams out in your tears and your lungs won’t inhale and your footing is off and you feel like your heart is fractured You lurch forward then step back into the shadows because you feel wounded and ashamed exposed and humiliated even though you know you did nothing wrong Betrayal comes out of the blue like a kick in the stomach
by Alys Caviness-Gober
About the artists:
Craig Brenner is a blues, boogie woogie, and jazz pianist, composer, teacher, and recipient of Indiana Arts Commission grants. Based in Bloomington, IN, Craig leads Craig & The Crawdads, is a member of The Ragin’ Texans, and has produced seven CDs. The founder of Bloomington Boogies: The Bloomington Blues & Boogie Woogie Piano Festival, Craig’s latest recording is titled Passages, consisting of eight original tunes. More info at: https://www.craigbrenner.com/
Alyssa Overton is an Indiana artist, using a variety of mediums including Graphite, Pastel, Watercolor, Acrylic, Colored Pencil and Mixed Media. Find out more at http://alyssaoverton.art/
Deborah Petersen is a poet and an educator, and for decades she taught middle and high school students and was a Composition professor at some local colleges as well. She is the current President of the Poetry Society of Indiana and a Poetry Contest judge for national and state contests. Her work has been featured in Community Education Arts’ revolving Arts Showcase exhibits and Community Education Arts’ (CEArts) annual projects, The Polk Street Review and Noblesville Disciplinary Creativity Expo (NICE), for several years. Deborah has been the editor and contributor to three poetry anthologies and was a featured poet in the Indiana Voice Journal. It is no secret to anyone who knows Deborah that she is the living epitome of “a Word Junkie.” What first influenced Deborah as a poet were the prayers of her childhood. Later, she was influenced by the complexity and cadence of William Shakespeare’s works. The most recent years have moved her with the writings of the Persian Poet and Sufi Mystic, Rumi, and by the Japanese Haiku Master, Basho. As artists, Deborah believes we are mere conduits. When she is in the moment of being a conduit, she finds herself in an omniscience, a moment of vastness and grace, a connection to a universal wisdom and discerning perception.
Ndaba Sibanda is a 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee, who’s poems have been widely anthologized. His work is featured in The Polk Street Review (2020, 2021), Community Education Arts’ Arts Showcase exhibits, The Anthology House, in The New Shoots Anthology, and in The Van Gogh Anthology, and A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Poetic Intersections. Some of Ndaba’s works are found or forthcoming in Page & Spine, Peeking Cat, Piker Press, SCARLET LEAF REVIEW, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Pangolin Review, Kalahari Review, Botsotso, The Ofi Press Magazine, Hawaii Pacific Review, Deltona Howl, The song is, Indian Review, Eunoia Review, JONAH magazine, Saraba Magazine, Poetry Potion, The Borfski Press, Snippets, East Coast Literary Review, Random Poem Tree, festival-of-language and Whispering Prairie Press. Sibanda’s book Notes, Themes, Things And Other Things: Confronting Controversies, Contradictions And Indoctrinations was considered for The 2019 Restless Book Prize for New Immigrant Writing in Nonfiction. Ndaba’s Cabinet Meetings: Of Big And Small Preys was considered for The Graywolf Press Africa Prize 2018. Sibanda’s other books include Timbomb, Dear Dawn And Daylight,Sometimes Seasons Come With Unseasonal Harvests, A Different Ballgame and The Way Forward. Ndaba Sibanda is the author of The Gushungo Way, Sleeping Rivers, Love O’Clock, The Dead Must Be Sobbing, Football of Fools, Cutting-edge Cache: Unsympathetic Untruth, Of the Salivaand the Tongue, When Inspiration Sings In Silence and Poetry Pharmacy. Ndaba blogs here: Let’s Get Cracking! – Ndaba Sibanda – WordPress.com.
Alys Caviness-Gober is an anthropologist, artist, and writer. She taught Anthropology and Women’s Studies at the university level and was a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics until her disabilities worsened in 2009. Alys is a member of Noblesville’s Noble Poets and the Poetry Society of Indiana. Her poetry has been featured in various global anthologies since the 1980s, and she’s published two volumes of poetry, Naked In Wonderland Vol. I and Naked In Wonderland Vol. II (Vol. III is forthcoming!). She is an artist member of Nickel Plate Arts, and a Juried Artist member of the 70-year-old Fine Arts organization, the Hamilton County Artists’ Association (HCAA), where she’s juried into both photography and 2D categories. Alys and Sarah E. Morin co-founded NICE (Noblesville Interdisciplinary Creativity Expo), which is in its 6th year in 2020. In 2014, Alys founded a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization, Community • Education • Arts, Inc. (CEArts); she serves as the President. Alys is the driving force behind CEArts Press, which publishes The Polk Street Review and books for other authors. She is a FY2017 Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Project Grant Award recipient, for which she created a series of paintings expressing life with hidden disabilities. In 2018, she began writing film reviews as a guest contributor to Midwest Film Journal. Alys’ artwork, photographs, prose, and poetry have received national and international recognition.