#Rat&039;s Ass Review

[batgovernor]

Short poem: RHL, 'Pithy'

His words are witty, with a twist. He says they’re “pithy”; note the lisp. ***** This is one of my three short poems published in the current Rat’s Ass Review – thanks, Roderick Bates – where the good and the rude, the mocking and shocking, all coexist harmoniously. Photo: “Protest signs are an ineffectual means of communicating my nuanced views on a variety of issues that cannot be reduced to…

[tlhopkinson]

NO FEE Submission call + editor interview -- Rat's Ass Review, DEADLINE: April 15, 2017

NO FEE Submission call + editor interview — Rat’s Ass Review, DEADLINE: April 15, 2017

Rat’s Ass Review is an online poetry magazine published twice a year. This year they are also publishing poems for a special collection entitled Such an Ugly Time for the first 100 days of the new US administration. Their site includes some great resources for poets, including a page entitled Want to write better poetry? and info on how and the magazine first came to life here: Who the hell are…

[batgovernor]

Using form: Iambic tetrameter: Brooke Clark, 'Celebrities'

They’re insecure black holes of need and here they come to clog your feed with photos and confessionals shaped by PR professionals— a pool glows blue in the backyard next to a pull quote: “It was hard to fight those demons of self-doubt”— How brave you are for speaking out! (“Dinner? Umm…the rainbow trout?”) Some glossy shots show off the house where, on a massive sun-splashed couch the boyfriend…

[batgovernor]

Using form: Sonnet: David Stephenson, 'Hold My Beer'

One day a great idea just comes you, like using some old stuff stored in your shed for some pyrotechnic derring-do, and you can’t get the thought out of your head, and you’re excited but a little scared, since carrying the stunt out would require some tricky timing. You feel unprepared and think of all the ways it could backfire… And yet key elements are on the scene— the tires and lumber, and…

[batgovernor]

Using form: Acrostic Sonnet: Mike Mesterton-Gibbons, 'Lonely As A Cloud'

Life’s trials left me lonely as a cloud On high until I found some daffodils, Not in an adventitious golden crowd Extending by a lakeside near some hills Like Wordsworth in his poem, but below York’s city walls on sloping grassy banks, Arrayed in row upon enticing row. So I plucked half a dozen from the ranks And clasped them and, like Wordsworth, felt a rapt Companionship that filled me with…

[batgovernor]

Short poem: RHL, 'God - pfft!'

All the things God could do,all the things he doesn’t:stop earthquakes and disease,world war between first cousins…Complaints at God may seemrashly impertinent–But so what? Life shows Godclearly omnimpotent. ***** Not much to say about my rude little poems, except that a lot of them get published in Rat’s Ass Review, whose Spring/Summer issue has just (optimistically) been published – thanks,…

[batgovernor]

Excerpt: 'You, Yes You'

You, yes you, contain multitudes, conflicted mobs-– the adroit who holds two jobs, the maladroit who fails and sobs, the shortcut thug, dacoit, who simply robs-– you’ve urges to protect and to exploit: be just! (but help yourself when you’ve the chance and no one’s there to look at you askance.) Priests educate, instruct and rape their flock as farmers care for, milk and eat their herd and…

[batgovernor]

Sonnet: 'Simulating the Past'

In the far future, humans gone from Earth, now disembodied as self-structured flows of energy and information, woes of the unknown replacing old Death, Birth and even Copulation; when a dearth of physical experience bestows rich glamor on ideas of Nature’s shows– sunset, moon rise, trees, seas–the planet’s worth… they’ll lust after these days we suffer through, marveling at the rich chaotic…

[batgovernor]

Short poem: 'Convalescence'

Demonic nurses, finding little sin, all leave my bedside. Doctor Death comes in. He looks around, “I’m only here To get a rough sense of the atmosphere. ” “Please, don’t get up…” He sits. “Not healing with your usual speed, Eh, you young pup? You’ve got a few years left still, don’t you worry. Take all the time you need. I’m in no hurry.” ***** I wrote this in mid-2020; I think Doctor Death was…

[batgovernor]

Poem: 'Village Fetes'

Poem: ‘Village Fetes’

Come learn your fates at the village fêtes, hosted by kindly vicars; there’s lots to eat, don’t be discreet – but your attention flickers… the boys want toys with lots of noise, the girls want glittery stickers, while a gypsy tent, being devil-sent, offers both lust and snickers. The fêtes are fine for beer and wine, less so for fancy liquors; if you want to cruise for a bit of booze, they’re…

[batgovernor]

Calls for Submission: formal verse

Calls for Submission: formal verse

Of the various publication opportunities specifically for formal/traditional poets, three are taking submissions until July 15, and four other formal-friendly publications have submission deadlines of July 31. There is no submission fee for any of them. Here they are – the links are to the submission requirements: Able Muse (magazine) Deadline, July 15.Submit one to five metrical poems (or one…

[batgovernor]

Sonnet: 'One True Religions'

Sonnet: ‘One True Religions’

No vision brings the whole world to its knees. Jains, Hindus, Buddhists, Mithraists, Parsees, Moses, Muhammad, Jesus or St. Paul, One True Religions never conquer all. Humans are simply too cantankerous for any one belief to anchor us. Success at once leads into sects and schisms: the One Pure Ray of Light hits human prisms, and egos, power grabs, love of dispute, traditions, curiosity, all loot…

[batgovernor]

Sonnet: "Viking Slave"

Sonnet: “Viking Slave”

Why did they make me swallow this mead muck? My lord, alive, would barely let me drink. They wouldn’t treat his wife this way, I think. Now all I am is something they can fuck. They say this way they’re sharing in their lord, Behaving as he did with me, his slave. And now they launch his boat upon the wave, The dragon boat with him and me aboard. Just me, his horse, his sword… the boat’s been…

[batgovernor]

Sonnet: “The Quincentenarian Looks Back” “Twentieth century”! – hard to think it through, remember details in that distant view… At her tenth birthday party, why’d I throw…