Welcome to the Scars Publications 2007 Poetry Wall Calendar     Unlike past Scars Publications poetry wall calendars, this spiral-bound poetry wall calendar is not stapled for binding, and this design makes the calendar hang better when on the wall, or stay open better when placed on a desk or table. And the writers in the 2007 poetry wall calendar were also chosen differently from past years — in past calendar years, Scars Publications ran contests for choosing poems for the calendar, but this year, writings were chosen among past accepted writings, because some of the best writing was already in Scars’ hands. The poetry in this calendar was chosen from past issues of cc&d magazine, Down in the Dirt magazine, past books Scars Publications has produced and writings form the “Chosen Few” section in the 2007 collection book Writings to Honour & Cherish.     The images chosen for this poetry wall calendar were also from a varierty of places and circumstances... The cover image is of a train in Nashville, Tennessee; the January images is of a building at night in Luxembourg; the February image is of the dog Wainaie, photographed in Schellsburg, Pennsylvania; the March image is of a life-size replica of the golden statue of Athena, at the life-size replica of the Parthenon in Nashville, Tennessee; the April image is of a cactus at Three Domes in Wisconsin; the May image is of a cathedral in Helsinki, Finland; the June image is of a silo on the water at the White Cliffs of Dover, in England; the July image is of the top of the Church of Spilled Blood in St. Petersburg, Russia; the August image is of stairs that now lead to water in Venice, Italy. You can almost imagine the sword fights that took place in the September image, of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia; the October image is of the cat Sequoia stretching on carpet on an outdoor porch in Logan Square, in Chicago; the November image is of some excellent spires of buildings in Stockholm, Sweden, and the December image is of snow-covered trees in Illinois.     So enjoy the writings next year, and enjoy seeing sights from around the world in the Scars Publications 2007 Poetry Wall Calendar!

	January Always Learning Eric Bonholtzer It stands like a silhouette in the distance, A pinnacle with dark blazing light Shining amber fire from within the waves of approaching humanity Huddled before the shadow and before the flame Tattered feet bend with white washed soles, Scrubbed clean for this sacrosanct shrine Where they can rest as they await the embrace Of learning, the crisp brightness of volumes of lore The shadow of waiting, to crest the hill and find release As all come in their journey blissfully ignorant Despite all they have learned. It is a long way to go traversing sweeping expanses So long spent Each speck of dust studied until its features Become as well known as their own Ever onward and upward, a progression building To a crescendo and a climax in a house of light Like a construction of ideas resting atop a wave Library of Alexandria, bringing enlightenment To be swept across sand onto muddy banks Where happy memories are deposited for rainy days This material appears in the Eric bonholtzer book Remnants & Shadows.
	February Free Speech Corey Cook Neighborhood dog lifts his leg on a faded Bush / Cheney campaign sign.
	March Helen in the Bronze Moon Mirror Stanley M Noah Let it be known to the world of archaeology. Never desecrate: as the legend be true. Never find the tomb. Search only and retrieve her golden reflection hidden by Aphrodite. Be diligent: Eros is obsessive and jealous. Sail the Aegean sea, walk to Sparta, walk to Mycenae. Ask King Agamemnon. Never find the tomb. Be diligent: as you are a time-traveler. Be diligent: all Greek men would die for her.
	April Overheard J. Quinn Brisben A gray squirrel, alert but not afraid, Scratches, making marks not quite script On yellow leaves with paws not quite hands, So the attempt to get through the leaves To something in the grass or beneath it Cannot be called a manuscript, but The clear and industrious sound from Thick waxy leaves blown off by high winds (Leaving the buds of the magnolia defenseless But likely to survive sufficiently even After all the squirrels eat their fill, With the browning leaves mulching the lawn For at least a few November days) crackling Under squirrel paws like an overplayed And primitive form of recording; there May be some kind of message underneath The opaque white noise which I cannot translate.
	May Emotions Eriol Fox A fine line exists Between love and hate. A tenuous thread, Delicate as a spider web, These two emotions separates. And when this fragile string is pluck’d The strength of the former love Fuels the fire of the burning hate.
	June Thunderstorm Thomas Rucker The rain came pouring down. Thunder jarred the earth’s foundation and stony bottom. Lightning streamed in flashing array. Water, fire and rumbles, came in on that summer day.
	July ODE #3 TO A CHROME ZIPPO LIGHTER Kenneth DiMaggio Every time you made that hollow sharp-sounding click --a little bit of stylized menace --a little more        of your own death That seemed like it was going to be never when you still had to be expelled from junior high school and know the taste and smell and feel of the flesh whose blossoming started separating it from yours so what if in the meantime your black Converse high tops            t-shirt and denim jacket with the collar turned up made you look like a punk --that palm size piece of polished metal that could kiss like the tip of your old man’s welding arc ws your illegal hoodlum badge That is why it was so easy to get taken away --surprising both yourself and the four older bullies who did not think they would actually have to pummel to get you to un-vise what would no longer be yours to make menace but not without a smile that seemed to be        thanking them --Pow! Oh you could easily get a couple of dollars from your paper route money to buy another chrome Zippo lighter --but not something that could get broken but never taken like the stainless steel buckle that was slung across a soul        entering adolescence a thing that you soon learned needed no fugitive or criminal a thing        that just needed to smile when something big like God was going to teach you a lesson
	August INTIMACY Mel Waldman Drill a dark hole through my mask of life & smash my mask of death after 2 deaths, at least, you may discover a secret landscape, my lonely place & cannibal that I am, I welcome you home
	September Turn, Turn Pat Dixon When I was five years old                     And Father was thirty, He scolded me for dunking                     Bread in my soup. On his eightieth birthday,                     When I am fifty-five, Dad and I take soup with our dinner                     And happily dunk our bread.
	October Self Help Linda Webb Aceto I love to crack my back; I can do it by myself.
	November yellow rat bastard © 2006 Charlie Newman yellow rat bastard squints to see in the dark every now and then he spins an involuntary 360 like he’s making sure he ain’t being followed like the hip-no-ticks from New Jersey got his number or he dropped the winning lotto ticket winning lotto ticket                right rat bastard runs on instinct ain’t got no brain        don’t need one too bad for us        eh? bastard runs around and around and around in compulsive circles and        still        he’s way the fuck ahead of us slow motion con in the hyper-mega-turbo fast lane to Nowheresville on a one-way ticket and for what?        I’m askin you for what? rat bastard don’t give a good goddamn do yourself a favor, Amigo        pick the spinach off your teeth
	December Season Consumed Molly Wendtland I consumed the snow until the snowflakes fell out of my pores and I had everything that would disappear, not just in the palms of my freezer-preserved hands, but in my blood – as I inhaled winter and let autumn go – and as it chilled its passage through my veins, I saw the snowflakes start to bleed.