Cambrai, Northern France, November 1917

Sarge reckoned we’d nail the Jerries this time,

nab the town of Com-bree, cut off their supplies.

We was all in it together with our rifles, shells,

machine guns and biplanes but them new tanks

was more trouble than they was worth, groaning

and grinding, getting stuck in the blinking mud.

Jerry whizz-bangs came flying out of nowhere,

blowed us off our feet, we was all over the shop

coughing and cussing be’ind waves of smoke.

My best mate Frank copt it right in the kisser,

I ‘eard ‘im cry No-oo then ‘e was screaming

though ‘e ‘ad no mouth to scream with, poor sod.

We crawled for cover, ‘oled up safe for the night.

Frank used to mither ‘ave yow said yowr prayers

 young Ernie, ’ave yow changed yowr wet  socks?

So I said one for Frank, ‘oped ‘e’d gone to ‘eaven,

took a…

AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER NOW – publishing 16 June (two days before my birthday)

From the website:

Masque is a richly gothic retelling of Gaston Leroux’s phantom of the opera story by debut novelist Bethany W Pope. Centre stage is promising young singer Christine, who, despite being devoted to her art, attracts the attention of both the Phantom (Erik), and rich Parisian theatre owner Raoul.

The intensely ambitious Christine finds herself caught between the twin evils of the Phantom’s murderous pursuit of artistic perfection and Raoul’s ‘romantic’ vision of her as a bourgeois wife. Her own desire to follow her operatic career becomes her guiding light, but none of the three leading characters can control the directions in which their passions lead them, while the beautiful masked skull of the opera house itself looms large over their respective fates. The resulting mix of love, rage, art and murderous intent, is explosive.

Love, lust, adventure…

Check out this brief and easy-to-read article on Poets&Writers about copyright and how it applies to your writing. Key copyright terms are defined for quick reference, including:

• Electronic Rights
• Exclusive Rights
• First North American Serial Rights (FNASR)
• First Serial Rights
• Internet Rights
• Reprint Rights, and more

The article also links to other resources for further research.

Copyright Information for Writers

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The Rose and the Nightingale

Rosa Rugosa,
how long has she lived
behind our house?

Her perfumed bodice,
magenta, the colour
of artistry,

make up, one off;
no other living thing
quite her shade,

no other perfume,
so sensational
in its occasion,

its thrill, like hearing
someone playing a piano
in an upstairs room.

Two ancient bushes
of Rosa Rugosa,
deep-rooted in our ground,

reminder,
of an old fashioned healer
making good works here.

She has drawn
time’s veil to one side,
and is dancing in

the Rosa Rugosa.
How long has she lived
behind our house?

Prior to piano,
virginal, harpsichord,
this is the story,

a nightingale, in love,
settled down to sing
in a flair of scent

from her perfumed bodice,
magenta, the colour
of make belief.

Later, a priest came
through the woods in the dusk,
called by the voice

not of nightingale,
but a singular lady

Daoism has been referred to as the Watercourse Way because of the importance of water images in its key source, the Daodejing. I thought much about these images in translating/versioning these ancient Chinese texts and I want to record a few thoughts systematically here. However, as you’ll see, trying to ‘fix’ something runs counter to the Way – yet even if what we seek runs through our hands, the effort to consider the role of such images is worthwhile. (I have blogged about other images in the Daodejinghere).

The Daodejing uses water images in two ways. Firstly as an image of the ineffable One, the plenitude that lies at the heart of all its thinking – imagine the vastness of the ocean, the unfixable flux of flowing water, never the same river twice. The texts also use water images to suggest aspects of our behaviour (personal and…

15 April 2016
Poetry Month

The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot

I. The Burial of the Dead

APRIL is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten.
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.…

A tidal wave of poetry, perhaps.

Michael Dickel, Contributing Editor

While Eliot declares the cruelty of April, April also happens to be National Poetry Month in the United States and Canada. In our online, social media world, it has become an international celebration of poetry as well. To join in this celebration, we in the Bardo Group Beguines dedicate the…

As a private person, I have a passion for landscape, and I have never seen one improved by a billboard. Where every prospect pleases, man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes who will travel around the world on silent motor bicycles, chopping down posters at the dark of the moon. How many juries will convict us when we are caught in these acts of beneficent citizenship?” David Ogilvy (1911-1999), founder of Ogilvy & Mather, which is part of the biggest marketing and communications companies in the world.

All things considered, Ogilvy’s perspective on billboards is interesting  … But I share Banksy’s (see below) relief when spared yet another sales pitch.  Does that stir your imagination?

Writing Prompt: Write a poem, essay or short story on what today’s world might be like without advertising.

Illustration: banksy.co.uk –…

May 15, 2016

Books are a uniquely portable magic.
Stephen King, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”

Books are a primary way we get to travel, meet new people, and learn about the world and the human condition outside the narrow confines of our personal concerns, our families and communities. They are indeed magic: they inform, heal, spur us to action, offer new perspectives, new ways of being in the world and – perhaps most important – they open us to the joys and suffering of others.

In this month’s lead feature, Algerian poet, writer, university student and frequent contributor to The BeZine, Imen Benyoub, tells how three important books that focus on war and genocide teach us about “courage, tolerance, love and sacrifice” and bear witness to “how generous and resilient a human spirit can be, even in the darkest times.”

Imen’s feature is suggestive of The BeZine‘s raison d’etre: to come together from different parts of…