On Winning and Hate By Gabriela Marie Milton #poetic prose #short prose

On Winning and Hate

The afternoon smelled of brick; the wall I used to scratch with the knees and the nails on my way to the sea.

My blood stained my socks and fed the roots of the orange tree mama planted one spring before my seventh birthday. Soon after, the tree grew blood oranges.

I used to dream I would reach the port before crickets would serenade the white cement between the bricks, and the evening wind would sew the wounds from the face of the wall.

I needed a God to lead me to the sea. In Mama’s stories, there were too many Gods leading souls to heaven. I did not want to go to heaven. I wanted to go to the sea.

I used to fail. I did not understand what failure is. The next afternoon, little ducks embroidered on the rim of my blue dress, I would start climbing the wall again.

One day I thought I would get to the port and run straight into the sea.

Little did I know that day came when I first looked into your eyes. The sea inside your eyes like laundry left to dry on a wire. Long red poles floundered left and right like the wings of a moribund bird. The body of a boat eroded by salt, and by the kisses of the women of your past agonized in green and blue.

The sea inside your eyes: on the right your love for me, and on the left, your hate for the world.

Did I say your love for me? You see, over time, I had to reconsider that formulation. Your feelings resembled more a never-ending animal magnetism than love.

Let me make one thing clear. No one person is sufficient to drive all demons from another one. You can think Goethe’s elective affinities if you wish. I cannot save you from you. You need to help me. I can carry this conversation into the night and win.

Ah, winning! The day I understood I can win, I stepped into hell.

That day was the day I lost my innocence and with that the paradise. Since then, my blood has never stained my socks anymore. The orange tree has never grown red-fleshed oranges, and Mama stopped telling stories.

featured image: Gabriela Marie Milton, Greece.

Included in my book Woman: Splendor and Sorrow

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

Hidden in Childhood: A Poetry Anthology (ed.), Literary Revelations, 2023
Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women (ed.), Experiments in Fiction, 2022.
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow :I Love Poems and Poetic Prose, Vita Brevis Press, 2021.
Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings, Vita Brevis Press, 2020

I am thrilled to let you know that Literary Revelations will publish Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh on August 11. The book is a splendid collection of haiku and senryu. It contains seven sketches done by C.X. Turner. Literary Revelations hired a highly professional formatter who vectorized C.X. Turner’s sketches and worked on every image to make sure that no pixelation will occur on page. The authors choose the have 3 haiku per page beautifully positioned. The formatter made sure that no matter what devise you may use to read the eBook the integrity of the pagination will be kept. A lot of work went into getting this book ready for publication. I am proud to be its publisher.

The book has received plenty of advanced praise some of which can be found HERE. Below please find one of the sketches from the book entitled Water and the foreword I wrote.

Water by C.X. Turner

Building Sandcastles: A book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh

There has never been a collection of short poems and haiku that stirred so much beauty and so many emotions in my soul like Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X.Turner and James Welsh. I want to be clear from the beginning. There is always a certain degree of disparity between the consciousness of a poet and reality. C.X.Turner and James Welsh fill that gap with intricate feelings, fragrances, colors, flowers, birds, and memories, until we do not understand anymore where dreams stop, and reality emerges. The delicacy of their word and sound impregnates every poem.

around a bend
on a woodland path
the chime of bluebells

river walk—
the gentle weeping
of white peony petals

Make no mistake. Their poems are not only delicate and breathtaking in imagery. They are also philosophical. Moreover, the authors steer clear of “fixing” feelings. They live the good and the bad, a remarkable move in a world in which commercialism and slogans bombard us every day; a world that denies an entire repertoire of human feelings to replace it with the today’s socially engineered state of “happiness.”

weeping cloud
I don’t try to fix
melancholy

a grieving friend
love, blown from a candle
in the wind

C.X.Turner and James Welsh transform the impossible into possible. They transmute the physical world into a world of magnificent beauty and depth that will forever mark those who read them.

Gabriela Marie Milton
author, editor, publisher

Afterword

As I mentioned in the ABOUT section of Literary Revelations we value quality, not quantity. We strive to make sure that our books are high quality and our talented authors get the best publicity. We are proud of who we are. We are deeply grateful to everyone who supports us.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

I am deeply grateful to the Italian poet Flavio Almerighi – a poet whose work I admire – for translating my poem French Symbolism into Italian and for the feature in Gioielli Rubati 257.

French Symbolism in English

It’s still July mon amour
hot sands and old lovers torment my dreams
the waters are frantic
the flowers are dying
smell of fresh tombs and heavy perfumes.

Whispering tongues of burned summers
wrap around a verse from Rimbaud
A Season in Hell and another in heaven
tell me my bones and my blood
breathe only for you.

A Chinoise cup falls on the floor
the cats too lazy to move or to purr
my bras are too tight
the kisses too cool
your decadence
runs my past tense in gerund.

Translated in Italian by Flavio Almerighi

Simbolismo francese

È ancora luglio mon amour
sabbie calde e vecchi amanti tormentano i miei sogni
le acque sono frenetiche
i fiori stanno morendo
odorano di tombe fresche e profumi pesanti.

Lingue sussurrate di estati bruciate
avvolgono un verso di Rimbaud
Una stagione all’inferno e un’altra in paradiso
dimmi che le mie ossa e il mio sangue
respirano solo per te….

…

Read further HERE. Gioielli Rubati 257 features several other wonderful poets.

A quick reminder: Literary Revelations will release Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh in late July/early August. Please stay tuned for more updates.

Thank you everyone.

Featured art: Pierre-Auguste Renoir – Sleeping Cat, Public Domain

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

French Symbolism – poem

It’s still July mon amour
hot sands and old lovers torment my dreams
the waters are frantic
the flowers are dying
smell of fresh tombs and heavy perfumes.

Whispering tongues of burned summers
wrap around a verse from Rimbaud
A Season in Hell and another in heaven
tell me my bones and my blood
breathe only for you.

A Chinoise cup falls on the floor
the cats too lazy to move or to purr
my bras are too tight
the kisses too cool
your decadence
runs my past tense in gerund.

Featured Image: Edmond Aman-Jean, Woman with the Blue Vase, Public Domain.

Updates on Literary Revelations

Literary Revelations will release Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh end of July/beginning of August. Please stay tuned for more news.

You can read the advanced praise for this wonderful collection HERE.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. Late July/early August my publishing house Literary Revelations will release a superb book of haiku and senyru co-authored by C.X. Turner and James Welsh and entitled Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems.

I am thrilled to share with you two beautiful poems from the book and the advanced praise we received. I hope you enyoy reading them.

Advanced Praise

“Back in my art teacher days, I used to remind students when they were having difficulties that art was fundamentally an act of play. This artistic playfulness is just what we find in Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems. Turner and Welsh dive deep into their subjects. Exploring every angle and defining every tint and shade along the way. With both broad brushstrokes and intimate details, these two poets paint the beautiful experience of their haiku worlds.”

Bryan Rickert
Editor: Failed Haiku Journal of Senryu
President: The Haiku Society of America

“In one breath tender and poignant, in the next stark and arresting, this collection of short poems is a journey of discovery through an evocative series of moments in nature. It is an exploration of that yearning to glean meaning from the chaotic lives we all lead.

There is a deftness to the poems in this selection, a lightness of touch that beckons the reader inside, leading them gently to the deep meditations and thoughts waiting behind the words.”

Joe Woodhouse
Editor: Wales Haiku Journal

“Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems, the stunning new collection by C.X. Turner and James Welsh, is a must-have for your shelves. These thought-provoking haiku and senryu left me breathless.”

Roberta Beach Jacobson
Editor, Cold Moon Journal and Five Fleas (Itchy Poetry)

Poems

I look out to sea
and see an ancient story
told in shades of blue

unsure of direction
I float my dreams
downstream

Please stay tuned for more news.

Literary Revelations Spanish Feature

Read Here

Building Sandcastles – Front Cover Reveal

Click Here

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

Waltz – poem

I waltz into an empty ballroom
yesterday the ghost of Maja haunted Goya in the streets
hungry demons haunted you
effervescence, the molecules of those who’ll never be,
a door gets slammed
a key gets turned
the breath of earth is choked
initiation
I buried our wedding bands
inside the mist of that which never is
I snow on you white flowers from the one forbidden tree
I jump like a wild lynx
I look for prey
you make pianos sneeze old rhapsodies
stop
it is too late to understand
who’s me

featured image – Goya, La Maja Vestida, Public Domain

Literary Revelations is getting ready to publish a new poetry collection Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X. Turner and James Welsh.

You can read the advanced praise for Building Sandcastles from the President of the Haiku Society of America Bryan Rickert HERE.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

I Wanted to Love You – poem by Gabriela Marie Milton

each word I write cries on the tunes of spring,
a spring that ends in graveyards and in dreams
the night I abandoned you on that bench and left
snows in my mind the syllable of hell
I bought one ticket from a shaman dressed in red
and flew towards the island of nowhere
and now between the mighty heaven and the hell
I love you and I hate you are the same
and I return to find the pardon of the sands
to kiss your dust left on your mother’s hand
I dress in colored ashes and I speak
the language of the prophets with no tongues
on a new bench, I sit alone at funerals
and wait until the sea closes its eyes
to resurrect the ghost of love that you inscribed
on the red bridge between your spring and mine
I wanted to return
I wanted to love you

Explore

Visit Literary Revelations for more poetry and art

Explore

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

The Hour of Sunsets – first published in 2019 by Heretics, Lovers, and Madmen

frontiers of my being
the hour of sunsets has come
with bare hands I drown you in the coldest seas
red lilies burn you in the hidden valley
birds delight on carnal straps
I run barefoot through streets of no return
I knock on doors
a piece of bread
for my entire heart

oh, it’s midnight
I step into the land of fantasies that are not mine
I play with dreams like children play with kites
fires taller than the sky burst from my pregnant heart
nocturnal marigolds crawl on my skin like ants
I interrupt the voice of number Pi
from the clouds
I rain on you, my love, the silence of the prophets without tongues

was that a ray of light?
skyscrapers yawn
destinies melt in the taste of coffee and mistrust
car cough
the day confines me to the sick banality of its own land
my hands, aquatic pillars of forgotten fantasies
wait like thieves on corners of the streets

for yet another night

Featured Image: A gift for me from Tasmania

Reminder

From Literary Revelations: Coming this summer – Building Sandcastles: A Book of Short Poems by C.X.Turner and James Welsh

Watch this space for more news and read Literary Revelations Journal.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

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Piraeus by Gabriela Marie Milton

Tongues of white and blue licking the remnants of the old wall. Piraeus, the breeze marries us in its arms, smell of bittersweet oranges, salt, and strong coffee on your chest. The insanity of a lemon phyllo tart grabs at my lips. A nude sea struggles to stay awake.

The same taverna with its small tables, white chairs, and red wild roses crawling on its outside walls. The blue awnings move in the breeze like humongous lungs on a respirator. Three indifferent octopuses dry under the sun.

My train of thought entangles on the rims of your open shirt, somewhere between your curly black hair tied in a ponytail and this insane phyllo tart that still grabs at my lips. It’s something about the ruins of the old wall. The Melian Dialogue, “the strong do what they want and the weak suffer what they must.” *

Lord, this is not Melos. Athens lost the war, and I did not think about the Melian Dialogue. I thought about La salle d’attente, Maurice and his box with pills, one of them supposedly filled with poison. Nicholas had to choose.**

Mind games. The other side of Greece.

Where are the three octopuses? Where did they go? The sea is still here: nude, languorous, beautiful. It resurrects the breeze. A pale dizziness falls from the sky. Between my fingers white sand and the frenzy of your kisses. Beauty is danger. Love, please unbutton your shirt more.

The phyllo tart jumps at me, giggles, and turns itself into a blue chocolate box, tied with a golden bow which reads Leonidas, Maitre Chocolatier, 1913.

Oh, don’t make me choose sweet love. Don’t make me choose.

*Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, (431–404 BC)

* *Reference to The Magus by John Fowles, (1965).

Featured image by Gabriela Marie Milton – Piraeus, Greece.

Literary Revelations – Updates

Please go to our Literary Revelations Journal to read the latest updates. We are thrilled to let you know that our publishing house has signed new publication agreements for this calendar year. We are fully booked. We look forward to showcasing more outstanding poetry. We work diligently to bring our poets to a #1 Amazon bestselling place in Amazon Hot New Releases [poetry categories] – place where they deserve to be. We do not guarantee that will happen but we will work hard with you to try to achieve this goal. More updates coming soon.

We are also open for art submission.

To know more about us please read our About section:

“We expect work that dazzles the intellect, and delights the soul; work that makes feelings blossom into symphonies of love, beauty, and sorrow. Interpret the silence. Find the place where love was born, and tears are entombed. Be the voice of prophets. Be the soft whisper of Sakura.”

A reminder that both books we published until now have become #1 Amazon bestselling books in Amazon Hot New Releases [various categories]. Congratulations again to all contributors to our anthology Hidden in Childhood and to Swan Gill on his book, Love, Stars and Paradigms.

Our #1 Amazon bestselling books

Please click on the images to go to Amazon.com

Have a beautiful season everyone.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books:

RE-CREATE AND CELEBRATE: 7 Steps to turn your Dreams into Reality, A Teaching Memoir and Workbook by Cindy Georgakas is a book structured around 7 sections: – Finding The True You, Finding Your Purpose, Finding Your Want and Why, Plan of Action— Attainable Steps, Processing Feelings, Loving Yourself, Falling off the Wagon, Burnout and an Aftermath entitled Celebrate!

The book is mostly a self-help book, peppered with autobiographical notes and beautiful poetry at the end of every chapter. It provides the reader with the means to overcome obstacles and turn dreams into reality. With her unique take on self-improvement, Cindy sheds light on a human journey that will help readers unlock the power inside and celebrate themselves.

The act of trying to improve our lives becomes a journey of self- discovery. The answers are inside of us, always have been, and, according to Cindy – the magic happens when we heed the call to put ourselves front and center in our lives. Through inspiring stories, practical advice, and poetry, readers will be able to find a new sense of self-love and appreciation for themselves. Cindy’s honesty allows her to connect with the reader at a deeper level.

As a memoir, the book is a testament to the power of positivity in our lives. There is wisdom and there is vulnerability sharing. There is resilience, hope, and healing. The readers find inspiring moments that could change their way of looking at life, and exercises they can practice themselves such as answers to the perennial question, “Who are you?” Have you ever tried to answer that question?

In short, Cindy Georgakas’ excellent book helps you to take ownership of your life and opens the gates toward a better you.

Gabriela Marie Milton
2022 Pushcart Prize Nominee
Publisher, Editor, Award Winning & #1 Amazon Bestselling Author
Books: