A bird flies over the tower of the church. A boy tries to bring it down with a stone. I gave you one single tin soldier. You grew thousands of them. Led by you there is now an entire army trying to keep every soul away from me. As though love for one soul requires the destruction of all others. In the end, the boy brought down the bird. Hurt, she falls in the sand.
Please do not forget that on March 17 Literary Revelations will publish a fabulous poetry book by PS Conway – Echoes Lost in Stars
Gabriela Marie Milton 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Books:
Below please find a beautiful poem included in PS Conway’s Echoes Lost in Stars poetry collection. Literary Revelations will publish PS Conway’s fabulous book on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2024 (tentative date) to celebrate PS’ Irish origins. You can read PS’ bio and more poetry here. I hope you enjoy the poem and the reading.
born anew
to live in such gratitude born anew – because of you
each sunrise feels warmer when you hug me – hold me
each garnet sip of wine tastes thicker – burns richer
to kiss those lips so full then swim again in those eyes
each moment of quiet reveals “us” in the silence
all goodness paid forward so selfless – such kindness
to be your forever born anew – because of you
alive in such gratitude
PS Conway
Gabriela Marie Milton 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Books:
I have so many projects for Literary Revelations, for me, and for other wonderful writers. However, among them there is one I have never spoken about. I have manuscript of a novel in Spanish and I intent to publish it. It probably needs an editor and it needs a title. It has been sitting in a drawer for quite a bit. Time has come to do something about it.
Below, please find the opening page. I hope you will enjoy it. Before publication I indent to post small excerpts from time to time. I will keep you posted.
Thank you. Gracias.
Please do not forget that Greenlands by Virginia Witch will be release on January 20. Stay tuned on more updates.
Gabriela Marie Milton 2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author Books:
I am thrilled to let you know that Swarn Gill‘s poetry collection Love, Stars, and Paradigms is now live on Amazon. A publication of Literary Revelations, the book speaks about love, social issue, nature and human relations.
Here is the Amazon description I wrote:
Swarn Gill’s poetry collection, Love, Stars, and Paradigms is a must-read for anyone looking for original and stunning poems about love, social, and political issues. Through his work, Gill explores the connection between the natural realm and the human condition with an eye for detail that is both captivating and thought-provoking. Through powerful imagery and vivid language, he paints his own unique perspective on the world around us. Whether it’s about heartache or joy, Gill’s words will touch your soul. Love, Stars, and Paradigms is an unforgettable journey through the beauty of love and the complexities of relationships.
Swarn jokingly telling us why we have to buy his book.
40 POEMS AT 40 by Ingrid Wilson – reviewed by Gabriela Marie Milton
40 POEMS AT 40 by Ingrid Wilson is the manifesto of an extremely intelligent, and talented, woman unafraid to explore her past and her inner and outer worlds. Ingrid’s poetry soars to the sky when the seasons change. It dwells in the most secret corners of the soul when dark moments knock on the door.
Ingrid has written 40 beautiful poems. 40 beautiful poems in which one comes face to face with yearnings to change the world, biographical notes, questions about the birth of the universe, pain, and love. Ingrid’s poems weave splendidly the ontological and the epistemological plans to create art. What, and how, come together in an unbelievable journey into the life of a woman in which children go to school and birthdays need to be celebrated.
Oh, and how the landscape plays a role in her beautiful poetry. Italy, England, Spain are not only used for decorative purposes. In Ingrid’s poetry they become intricate parts of the author’s soul.
The space and the time are perceived through intimate prisms. There is North and South, and there is the sea, with its majesty. There is a certain November sky with its colors. There are dancing ice queens and solstices of the heart. There are striking lines like: “I am the song unsung/the life unlived.”
One can almost hear the opening villanelle with her up and down tonalities. It sounds like the song of a nightingale.
The book will be released next month when Ingrid turns 40. Here are a thousand cheers for this stunning volume of poetry and for its author – a woman who knows how to ask questions about the real meaning of life. A woman who does not mince words and does not submit to stereotypes.
Read 40 POEMS AT 40. It’s a fabulous book. You will not be disappointed.
Publication date: February 11, 2022. The book will be available for pre-order before the publication date. You can find Ingrid’s work here.
Portrait d’amour – love poem by Gabriela Marie Milton
Flowers open like fresh young lips. I avert my mind from the memory of your arms which tries to drag me inside an abyss of naked love; a love blessed with the force of the mistral & the sensuality of linked fingers under the moonlight.#Portrait d’amour. #vss365pic.twitter.com/Kva49R48oo
Thank you to my wonderful followers who have supported my work and showed me love and respect during my almost 4 years of blogging. I am deeply grateful to you and beyond humbled by your kindness.
In this post, special thanks to Joni Caggiano [site link] and to Dave Williams [site link].
Joni is a published poet and author of The Path Toward The Light, available for purchase on Amazon (Paperback and Kindle). She recently posted a wonderful review of my book Woman: Splendor and Sorrowon Amazon. Joni’s gesture touched my heart. Below please find a snippet from her review. You can read the entire review on Amazon, and please do not forget to visit Joni’s blog.
I have discovered [in Woman: Splendor and Sorrow] an amalgamation of emotions that touch on every part of a woman’s existence.
Yet never have I experienced such a strong sense of compassion in every imaginable object as she transcends the physical world and relates to living entities, or nature, in the same way as she does human beings. Some examples that give us a taste of the extensiveness of these writing are as follows:*
“peaches will grow on one side of the moon Injured lambs will scream on the other”
“I am neither a gift Nor something you can keep I am the syllable forgotten on your lip”
Thank you, Joni. I do not know if I would ever be able to repay your kindness.
Before I get to the review, Gabriela Marie Milton is holding a poetry contest around her new book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow. Head on over to her blog post for details!
Now on to the review of her previous book…
Let’s say you’ve walked through a few houses with blank walls. Maybe these are show houses in a new development in town. The blankness of the houses reminds you of routines: doing the same things every day, eating the same foods.
Then you enter a house with tapestries hanging on the walls. The tapestries are filled with vibrant images and suggestions of senses. That’s the kind of feeling given by Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings. Each poem is like a tapestry.
You walk up to each tapestry and absorb the images woven into the fabric.
The poems are celebrations of language, locations, emotions, and senses.
Thank you, Dave. Repaying your kindness will be hard, but I assure you I will do my best. Everyone, please visit Dave’s blog.
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow Poetry Contest Reminder
The poetry contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is now open. This contest honors the literary community that has supported me in my writing journey, and celebrates my becoming a #1 Amazon best-selling author.
To participate, you should write one poem inspired by a piece from my #1 Amazon best-selling poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrowand list the name of the piece that inspired your submission. A number of poems from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow can be found on this blog.
The deadline for submission is September 20, 2021. Please submit your work before September 20 at shortprose12@gmail.com.
Label your submission Poetry Contest Woman: Splendor and Sorrow.
Do not submit more than one poem.
Do not forget to include: the poem from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow that inspired you, your name or pen name, and the email address where you can be contacted.
Please submit your poem in the body of the email. No attachments or links will be open.
Prizes:
First Place: $300
Second Place: $150
Third Place: $75
Funding for the prizes comes from my royalties.
If you do not have a PayPal account, please open one.
All winners will be featured on my blog. So will those who finish in the following places: 4, 5 and 6.
It is my hope that the winners will use part of their prizes to buy two or three books of their favorite fellow poets or novelists in order to help our literary community strive. If you do so, please let us know what you bought.
How the selection will be made?
The selection method is similar to that of a double-blind peer review: the reviewer doesn’t know the identity of the author, and vice-versa.
To achieve that I will do the following:
Create a master document with all submissions. Remove the name of the authors and replace them with numbers.
Create a second document with the name of the authors and their assigned numbers.
I will not participate in the process of determining the winners. Winners will be determined by two of your peers.
However, I will disclose a piece of information and deviate a bit from the fully double-blind process: the editor of Vita Brevis Poetry Magazine, Brian Geiger, will be one of the reviewers.
The winners will be announced in mid-October. I will update you periodically.
Thank you to everyone who already submitted.
To the future winners: please remember to spread love in our community and buy some books written by your WP favorite authors.
A Snippet from Woman: Splendor and Sorrow
In the evening, the sky stretches itself from blue to dark violet. The silk of the gloves hugs my fingers. I feed my iguana with cookies soaked in champagne. She hisses at me. I open a package of silk stockings. The door opens by itself, and you step in. Then it closes. I stare at you. You are in by your own volition. One kiss, and you borrow my tears. One touch, and I borrow your pain. A passage rite. I keep a coffin adorned with lilies in my bedroom. I sleep besides death like Sarah Bernhardt.
Did you hear that noise? A rosary fell from the Spanish chest.
The wind slips between the petals of a rose and opens it.
Who am I? If I knew, I would tell you.
Did you say you love me? The twenty-four hours are up. Nobody is facing in the direction of the sea anymore.
Farewell to you Andalucía, to gypsy moons & to the music of your breasts. Frantic nights, wounds that never heal. White shirts, heated bodies, pulsing veins, rhythmic blood. A woman wears her wedding band around her neck. #Farewell to you my matador Te amo para siempre #vss365pic.twitter.com/ZQooDZXons
— Gabriela Marie Milton (@shortprose1) July 28, 2021
Updates on Woman: Splendor and Sorrow
Amazon US – on August 4 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was in the top 17 new release bestsellers for poetry by women. Number 16 Louise Glück who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Running right behind her like on August 2. Humbled beyond words.
–
Amazon Ca – Today, August 6 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow is in the top #19 new release bestsellers for poetry by women in Canada. Again humbled beyond words.
My dear followers, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind support.
My publisher Brian Geiger informed me that yesterday August 2 my poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow was in the top 20 new release bestsellers for poetry by women. Number 19 Louise Glück who won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature. Running right behind her. Humbled beyond words.
Special thanks to everyone who bought my new book. At the same time special thanks to Brian who worked so hard on the publication of the book.
From Brian’s announcement:
“A poem in itself is a marvelous thing, but a collection of poetry is something else entirely — like the broader beauty of an arabesque, it’s felt more than seen. Perhaps this is what T.S. Elliot meant when he said genuine poetry communicates before it’s understood. The nebulous beauty of art, the feelings it stirs …”
I am deeply grateful to my followers who have supported me. My gratitude to my publisher, Brian Geiger – Vita Brevis Press – for accepting my manuscript and making my dream come true.
Book marketing is exceedingly difficult for me because I write under a penname. As I pointed out in an interview when I publish: “There are no gettings together, no signing of books in bookstores, no flowers, no friends to buy a bunch of your books and start writing reviews.”
Yet I have you, my WP and my social media friends. You make my writing journey beautiful. You make my soul blossom with joy.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
From the back cover:
“Woman is a triumphant collection of poetry. Milton explores with sincerity and great craft the many faces of identity and womanhood. This is the sort of poetry collection that will resonate with any reader.”
writes Brian Geiger, editor of Vita Brevis Press
You can order the e-book and the paperback in the link below.
I am also grateful to Brian for featuring me on Vita Brevis Poet Spotlight a place where, if you wish, you can learn more about my publications, my awards, and you can read my most recent interview.
From the Spotlight:
An Interview with Gabriela Marie Milton
Gabriela Marie Milton is a poet of condition rather than profession. I wrote as much in the foreword to her collection of poetry, Passions, referring to the great Robert Graves’ suggestion that the art of poetry isn’t so much learned as it is lived. This is the first thing readers of Milton’s work will realize; this is poetry with soul.
What’s the Purpose of Poetry?
Gabriela Marie Milton: “My first impulse is to answer the creation of meanings. That which is not directly expressed impacts us differently than a simple narration. A table of contents informs us. It speaks to our reason. A poem takes us to the plans of our inner and outer worlds that lie beyond reasoning, such as for instance the oneiric plan.
“Of course, great poetry was written during the Enlightenment period: a period characterized by the celebration of reason.
