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Eye on Life Magazine is a Lifestyle and Literary Magazine. Enjoy articles on gardening, kitchen cooking, poetry, vintage decor, and more.
John Grey has been published in “Talking River”, “South Carolina Review” and “Karamu”. As of this writing he also has work upcoming in “Prism International”, “Poem” and the “Evansville Review”. He was also previously Featured Poet at Eye On LIfe.
Read John’s new poetry:
Brian has been writing poetry since he was a teenager. He studied English and History at the University of California, Irvine, and then moved on to a joint degree in law and public administration at Syracuse University with a concentration in Children’s Welfare. Currently he works as law clerk for his father, a criminal appellate practitioner representing indigent clients in Los Angeles. He is also moving into mediation having recently been admitted to the LA Superior Court Mediation Panel. The poems, “The Ghost of You,” and, ” I Don’t Want to Be,” are from his poetry anthology, “The Bells of Avalon.”
Eye On Life welcomes back regular contributor Donal Mahoney and Eye On Life Poetry Contest winner for 2009-2010, Kelly Cahill.
Donal brings us a vivid scene from the night streets of Chicago, leaving us wondering whether we have witnessed compassion or weakness in his poem, Officer Friendly.
Kelly brings us emotion that twists heart, soul and spirit in her poem, The White Of I.
This interview re-published with permission from the Fractured Atlas Blog.
by Tiffany Bradley | Originally blogged on Sep 13, 2011 8:00 am
Poet and playwright Alice Shapiro has had a whirlwind year. From her appointment as the Poet Laureate of Douglasville, GA to launching the Poetry TV series, Alice has found new ways to infuse poetry into her community. She spoke with us about reality television, the creative process, and being a native New Yorker.
What inspired you to become a poet?
After a divorce, I decided to follow an art career. I painted for 15 years, but I burnt out. I was looking for another direction, and I remembered a psychic once told me I should write. I took a summer workshop at NYU and realized I liked poetry and playwriting. Of course, I don’t recommend people go to psychics.
What is Poetry TV?
After I published my first two books, I realized that people’s eyes would glaze over after I started talking about poetry. I was looking for a way to show people how fun poetry could be. I had a bad experience at school, but almost everyone has written poetry at one time in their life. It popped into my head - I could have a competition like American Idol where people could vote for their favorite poet.
How did you make your vision a reality?
The first thing I did was write a treatment and register it with Writers Guild of America East. I made the website and sent out a call for poets to register to audition. My publisher “Total Recall Press” offered a book contract as a prize. I went to an event at the 1100-acre Foxhall Resort & Sporting Club and was taken by how beautiful their space was.
I got people from the community to help out with the production part. We put together a day of filming as the community volunteered goods & services. I got judges who are high-level in the poetry community who traveled here from Florida and Oregon, and a production company that agreed to film on spec. We have 4 contestants going on to the final round, plus a 10-year-old youth spokesperson. The first episode is now in its second editing phase.
What did you learn about fundraising through this process?
I learned that large corporate donors had their charities already set - they didn’t want to go out of their comfort zone. Social services were seen as more important than the arts. When you approach a donor or corporation, the best thing to do is establish a relationship with someone first.
All the contributions for my project, whether cash or in-kind, have come from individuals or small businesses. Our venue gave a huge discount because they have a visionary perspective and saw the value in the project.
Moving on to your personal work, why did you write Remembrance?
I was just appointed as Poet Laureate of Douglasville in August, and this is my first official duty (reading a poem for a 9/11 commemoration.) It’s amazing because I’m originally from New York. I moved to Douglasville in April of 2001, right before the attack. I was waiting for my New York house to sell and staying with my sister. I had mixed feelings about not being there to help, but was also relieved that I was not in the chaos. A week after 9/11 my house sold and I moved from Douglasville to Florida. I was glued to the television for a week, but then I had to leave.
A decade after 9/11 I feel privileged to have an opportunity to express my feelings. Reflecting on these events rekindled my feelings of community with New York, but also strengthened my connection to my current community in Douglasville.
Why did you join Fractured Atlas?
I thought the nonprofit benefits of fiscal sponsorship would influence donors to give to my project. I didn’t see this as a profit-making project. Fiscal sponsorship gave an air of integrity to the project that an independent artist might not be able to gather on their own. I attribute all of the support for the project to the fiscal sponsorship process.
What’s next?
We still need funding to film the remainder of Season 1, five more episodes. But that can be shot in one day, but we also need to pay the production company for previous work. After that we can start thinking about starting Season 2, or finding another producer to take the series to the next level.
Lisa Cappiello is a learning specialist, freelance writer, and poet. Her poetry has appeared in numerous international publications including WRITE On!!! Poetry Magazette, CC&D Magazine, Challenger International, and SpeedPoets Zine. Lisa’s poems are greatly influenced by her unique life experiences and observations of the world around her. She strives to create artistic, relatable pieces that provide comfort to her readers while inspiring them to reach for the stars. Lisa earned a MSEd in Education and Literacy from Bank Street College of Education. She was born and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.
Read Lisa’s Poetry:
As Labor Day approaches, here in America, with it approaches the feeling of endings and beginnings. The warm summer passing, the brightly colored autumn approaching, school starting, vacation ending. Transitions like these are fertile ground for raising a poem or two. And as I was looking for a good end-of-summer poem, in walks Donal with just the thing.
Here’s Donal’s new poem: End of Summer
Tagen Towsley Baker is from the rural community of Mackay, Idaho. She studied art at Idaho State University and received her BFA with an emphasis in photography and mixed media. Being raised in a home with a speech pathologist for a mother and an English teacher for a father, language has always been an important part of Tagen’s life. After working as a writer and photojournalist for many years she is now pursuing an MA in English from Weber State University.
Tagen enjoys writing poetry and is working on a collection of poems and images that celebrate the landscape of the American West. When she is not writing poetry she can be found working on her 100-year-old farmhouse in the heart of the Salt Lake Valley. When she is not working on her farmhouse she can be found writing about the weekly happenings on her blog or spending time with her husband, two cats, and her Great Pyrenees dog, Scooter.
Read Tagen’s Poetry:
Boston MA - On Saturday, August 13th, 2011, at the fabulous Berklee Performance Center, the Slam Nuba slam team of poets from Denver took the big trophy from the three other top finalists from Providence, RI, New York City and Columbus, OH. These four finalists emerged from a field of 76 competitors who competed in bouts held in several standing-room only venues in Cambridge and Boston over the course of the week, beginning on Tuesday evening. The buzz in the crowd was that this National Poetry Slam was the best attended ever, as every venue was not only filled, but felt the pressure of long lines of folks left over, waiting their turn to get in.
When I arrived at the finals two hours before showtime, tickets were already sold out.
The finals, like every other slam, were judged by audience members chosen at random that night, reinforcing slam’s fundamental philosophy: “It’s not about the points, it’s about the poetry.” The volume of emotion flowing from the stage was like a river. All though the week, emotion flowed from every stage at every venue. NPS2011 was a colossal, week-long flood of poetically expressed emotion. Were it not for the random criteria of the judges and the equalizing system of points calculation, there would have been no possible way to judge these startlingly talented poets fairly. This is the genius of slam.
Slam Nuba performed poetry primarily about the history of racial oppression and triumph over it. I saw them perform several times during the week, and every performance seemed almost flawless. Congratulations to Slam Nuba for their well deserved and hard-earned victory.
Next year NPS2012 will be in Charlotte. Judging from this years finals, they’d better find some bigger venues. If the creek don’t rise, I’ll see you there.
The Line
Cambridge MA - Today with a few hundred other slam enthusiasts lined up outside the Cantab Lounge to wait my turn to witness the best slam poetry in America and maybe the world, and I was not disappointed. Though the Cantab is not a large venue and I waited for two hours for my turn, it was well worth the wait.
While we stood in line, poets from all over the United States and beyond performed for us on the sidewalk while passersby had mixed reactions. I got into a conversation with Jerry Bushnell, 27, a writer and entrepreneur looking to start a poetry reading in the cafe where he works in Marlborough. During the conversation, he said an astounding thing. “Poetry is selfish in the most unselfish way.” I could only nod and smile.
Once inside, I and four other random people were selected as judges. The example poet who read first to set the standard for the bout set the bar high, I thought, which boosted the scores I gave. All four teams made an excellent showing. Two of the poems actually made me cry - and not just because I had been on my feet for three straight hours.
I’ll not share the results here, but will leave that to the folks at NPS2011 to share when they see fit. They are doing an excellent job of hosting an amazing event.
Maura found the ability to express her life through words from a young age. Although she has been writing for years, it is only now that she is beginning to share with the public. A graduate from PACE University with a BA in Psychology, Maura is now studying her Masters in Social Work at Fordham University.
Although she is passionate about poetry and the pattern of words on a page, she also finds happiness in helping people find ways to better themselves; in doing this she has also been able to find herself.
Read Maura’s poem:
