Delbert, art by Cheryl Townsend

---

Hurricane Jeanne

Michelle Greenblatt

I am a letter I have not addressed
but I have read so many times the ink
is fading & the paper is crumpled

& I wanted you to know I am
Moving On & this is a Love Poem
written in free verse
It is written to you
or maybe to myself

I wanted you to know
you live on the beach
& today at midnight a hurricane is hitting
so you might wanna get out of your house
Her name is Jeanne not Michelle
like the hurricane of 2001
that swept the roof
off your apt

I wanted you to know
today is my eleven month anniversary
with the man that I love now
& he has not left me in an alley
with a gun under my chin

But what I don’t want you to know
is that tho I am growing
I don’t
give myself much of chance
anymore

---

Added Color, art by Cheryl Townsend

---

Larry’s House

Michelle Greenblatt

I sit outside smoking a cigarette. Mom
used to work with him. They say
he doesn’t have much time
to live.
Weeks, a month maybe. The cool menthol
smoke slips down my lungs. Larry is dying
of cancer.

I live with illusions, stay current with updates.

The wind bends the mango trees into
submission. In Larry’s house the air is never
on because he gets too cold. In Larry’s house
it never smells of death but his handshake
is getting weaker.

From behind the mango trees emerges
death, her black (faceless formless)
spreading widening raspy whisper says
tick tock tick tock
scratching open the air
and letting
it
all
fall
Through

---

1, art by Christine Sorich

---

Minnesota

Holly Day

my friend in San Francisco sends me pictures
of her new friends, and I realize
how trapped I am here
how I can never really leave.
All the girls in California
are as thin as I used to be
and all this Midwest living
has changed me, man, I’m lost.
Boys still smile at me at the grocery store
and I feel so pretty here
a little thinner than the average
at my worse if I was young.
My friend in San Francisco
sends me pictures of her new life
I tell her how I’m pretty here
and why I’ll never leave.

---

BR>
aaron tat October 14 2004, art by David Matson

---

Trust

Holly Day

such profound
disfigurements, I wonder
were you pretty as a child? all adults
have bumps and scars
but did friendly hands
chuck you beneath the chin
look into innocent eyes and see
only a happy baby?

struggling to catch breath against
the weight of too much meat
thin bones ache
I wonder
when you were young, with this
limp, these twisted bones
did loving voices coax you along
give you hope

that someday
everything would be all right?

---

Attack, art by Edward Michael O’Durr Supranowicz

---

de martelaar en de heilige

Ze gaven hun dochter de naam
van de patroon van de televisie

en de televisie was iets
dat ze altijd haatte bij hem

of was het dat drinken dat hij nodig had
meer dan hij haar nodig had

de zaken gingen slecht
ik ben een mislukkeling ik ben geen man

hij zei haar te respecteren
dan belde hij haar

voor twintig dollar gewonnen in Vegas

en de moeder wou het kind, de heilige, de echte engel hield haar oor
in de hoop iets te kunnen opvangen

(the martyr and the saint)

Finnish translation by Jean Hellemans

---

PeaceFull, art by Edward Michael O’Durr Supranowicz

---

Gary In His Dad’s Russian Cell., art by Mark Graham

---

A Better Use for Babies

Allyson Whipple

“Did that billboard say ‘Babies Were Meant to be Breakfast?’”
My father laughed, and I resented his amusement. It wasn’t my fault I couldn’t read the billboard correctly. I was concentrating on keeping up with the flow of traffic and making sure I didn’t drive into a ditch.
“No, it said ‘Babies Were Meant to be Breast-Fed.’”
“Oh.” The amazement I got from my mistaken perception was gone. There was nothing shocking or amusing anymore. Just some more propaganda designed to encourage extreme conservatism and keep women in the home, chained to their kids, I thought.
My misreading reminded me of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” Written in 1729, it is one of the best examples of political satire. The subtitle of this essay is: “For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland From Being A Burden to Their Parents or Country, and For Making Them Beneficial to The Public.” Swift saw the poverty around Ireland and knew something had to be done about it. Since so many children were born in a year (he estimates 120,000), it is obvious why he saw them as a solution to the problem. To make them beneficial, this essay does not advocate a conventional remedy such as education reform. Instead, Swift calls for something a bit more unconventional: reserve 20,000 children for breeding purposes, and turn the rest into commodities. “That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom . . . A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish . . . “ Beyond eating infants, Swift also suggests that their skin “will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.” Swift does an excellent job of making strong arguments for his unconventional idea. He reasons: “Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord’s rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.” When I first read this, before realizing it was a satire, I was half-convinced that raising children as commodities would actually be a practical idea. We breed all sorts of animals for food and clothing; why not our own species? It would certainly help the overpopulation problem. Even I might be more enticed to have a few kids if I could make some money off of them. Instead of them draining all my money, I could get something in exchange for all my trouble, without having to go through the hassles of toilet training.
In the animal kingdom, consuming one’s offspring for nutrients is a common practice among many species. Last year, when I was in my women’s studies phase, I took Psychology of Women. One of the many articles we read was “Natural-born Mothers,” by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. This article broke down the notion that motherhood is the most natural thing in the world by showing that, if faced with adverse conditions, animals will engage in fitness trade-offs. If animals conceive or bear offspring during periods of food shortages or other hardships, the mother will sacrifice her young if it means preserving her own well-being and the possibility of being able to reproduce again under better conditions. The most common example is that of the golden hamster: “In addition to building a nest, licking their pups clean, protecting and suckling them - all pleasantly conventional maternal pursuits - these hamster moms may also recoup maternal resources otherwise lost in the production of pups by eating a few.” But hamsters aren’t the only ones: mice, lemmings, voles, and badgers all have similar strategies to maintain their reproductive fitness if their babies are born during food shortages, droughts, or if there are predators lurking around. Some people might argue that fitness trade-offs in animals are the equivalent of adoption in humans. The point of a fitness trade-off, however, is to restore the resources lost in pregnancy and birth. In giving a baby up for adoption, the mother loses the child, but does not have the chance to gain anything from the sacrifice.
When I first read this, I thought it seemed like such a waste. I couldn’t imagine why, after all the work that went into producing offspring, a mother would want to just give it up. All that time and all those resources wasted for nothing. Even if animals recoup the losses by eating their children, it still means that all the energy they put into procreation went right back into their systems, leaving them where they were before.
However, most animals don’t invest as much into a pregnancy as humans do. None of the above animals has a gestation period of more than two months. Since the maternal investment is smaller, these animals have less to lose if they decide they need to give up and try again. When fitness is based solely on fertility, any method of improving reproductive potential is acceptable. An animal’s most important mission in life is to make sure its genes get passed on; the only way for it to secure a permanent spot in the world is to produce as many offspring as possible. So if a female bears children while there is a predator lurking around, it makes all the sense in the world for her to cut her losses, replenish her resources, and try again later. Maybe the babies would survive, but with all the uncertainties in life, sometimes it’s better not to take a chance.

Despite the fact that it was originally intended to be satirical, “A Modest Proposal” provides some very practical ideas for dealing both with poverty and overpopulation. Although nearly 300 years have passed since this was written, these are still two common problems all over the world. Strangely enough, nobody has actually taken Swift’s proposal to heart. In the centuries that have passed since Swift made this idea public, nobody has tried it, and we’re still struggling, which leads me to believe it just might work. Plus, we have proof from other species. Human beings are animals just like elephants, cats, and hamsters. If other species can use their offspring for their own benefit, we can, too. Of course, we don’t need to eat our own children. In a capitalist society, Swift’s idea works better. With all the time involved in pregnancy, as well as all the money that goes into good prenatal care and birthing expenses, a healthy baby would be worth a large sum of money in the eyes of gourmet chefs. As more and more women caught on to this idea, the price of babies would drop, and they would be an accessible food source for everyone. Of course, this leads to ethical questions about genetic engineering and methods of artificial reproduction such as in vitro fertilization. Some people might try to design exceptionally edible children that would be worth more on the food market, and some might try to artificially conceive twins or even triplets to increase their earning capacity. But I doubt multiples would be as desirable, considering they tend to be smaller; people would want the plumpest, juiciest specimens available. I feel similarly about genetically engineered children; they might have excellent characteristics, but since they would just be stock animals, they would fetch only a basic price. The exceptionally rare babies would be worth more. A genetically engineered baby is like salmon reproduced in a farm setting. But a perfectly formed child conceived naturally would be the equivalent of salmon caught in the wild.
Critics of the American capitalist system maintain that it puts families at a disadvantage, particularly the ones in which one of the parents (usually the mother) stay home to raise the children. They also say it puts single parents, especially those living in poverty, in a no-win situation. They argue that the work it takes to be a full-time parent is equivalent to any paid occupation, and we need to value it in the same way. I agree that society has to place a stronger emphasis on caring for children. But we don’t have to revert to a socialist system of government-controlled childcare to improve the situation. Instead, we need to recognize the economic potential of motherhood. Family life does not have to be an oppressive institution which costs one of the parents their economic mobility. Instead, being a mother could lead to a great deal of prosperity and freedom. A woman would not depend on her husband’s wage due to the income she earned from her offspring. Swift’s proposal creates a win-win situation for everyone in society. Family life does not need to cut mothers off from the work world; the home can become one of the most lucrative sites of labor in the world, and womanhood would finally earn the respect it deserves.

---

It’s Not A Game Anymore, art by Rose E. Grier

---

LANDLORD

Michael Keshigian

The tenants left him a bar of soap,
two rolls of toilet paper,
shredded paper towels,
and a ripped sponge mop with bucket.
He tried to rub the white wall clean,
discovered it impossible,
realized they tried as well.
He decided to paint it over.

Hair choked the bathroom sink,
long hairs, male and female,
they both wore ponytails,
short of acid, nothing else would work.
The hardwood floor
wore rubber scuffs and high heel turns,
no doubt they danced and laughed,
but only broom swept it clean.

He began to know who they were,
seldom did he speak to them,
the check always arrived in the mail.
They breezed through, a great wind,
leaving behind a trail of dirt,
a thank you of sorts,
the residual continuity of broken leases
and painstaking interviews.

He seized their soap,
a green veined, marbled bar,
curved like a woman,
took a bath
after he cleaned the tub,
and dried with no towel,
in the air
with the walls and floors.

---

No abstract Thought, art by Xanadu

---

Remember the Day

Jonathan Wise

I do not bleed so easily as one might think.

I never come to a party empty handed so don’t believe everything you night hear.

I won’t run for cover when the bomb is dropped I want to see it explode in

the horizon.

I will take a picture to remember the day the world was liberated.

Oh what fun oh the sweet smell of revolution.

---

art by Louis Faber

---

Uncle Larry

John Carr

Uncle Larry is cool.
I’m eight years old, and he’s living with us – when I come home from school
he’s on the fuzzy couch,
the one that’s sorta orange or brown with the flowers or suns (I’m not really sure what they are),
in his Marlboro t-shirt (it’s a big word but I know it).
He’s skinny, like the Scarecrow in my picture book.
“Johnny, kamere, watch some MTV wit me,” he says
smiling (no one else calls me Johnny),
his curly red beard makes him look like Doctor Teeth from the Muppet Show,
but instead of big and white
his teeth look like my yellow sidewalk chalk.
I sit down next to him, “How was school?”
I tell him it was fun, we’re reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“Good shit,” he says, smiling again, this time looking like a bug
with his big glasses.
There’s a video on, and it remind me of Star Wars,
so I say so.
“It’s The Cars,” he says.
He’s still smiling, and so am I,
but as he stretches I notice he must have fallen
or hit the stove or something
because he has boo-boos on the inside of his arms.
Then I notice there’s these blackish bumpy lines
growing out from the boo-boos, they kinda look like
lightning or spider-webs or something.
I’ve never seen any one with lightning on their
arms before –

Uncle Larry is cool.

It’s a thought that I’ll recall
at thirteen, standing in Saint Frances DeSales, choking on the incense congested air,
dying for a hit off my inhaler.
My vestments itch. I’m boiling alive as I stand before the mourning,
midnight-clad
moments of his life.
Father John whispers to me that it’s okay
for me to go stand with my parents and my brother now.
I join them, together we step up, he’s lying there
in a suit he never would have worn,
he’s clean shaven and his face is stern.
Still the Scarecrow, though.
I reach out, touch his hand,
to find that
Uncle Larry
is
cool.

---

from Heroines Unlikely, art by Stephen Mead

---

downstairs from the magic stick

john dorsey

the music has faded but
this dirty blonde keeps
groovin’ to the knack
like it’s still 1979 wearing a misfits
patch on her denim jacket and a
weathered button with a smiling picture
of jimmy carter licking his
lips at mr.
peanut

it’s cold and rainy and i’m
sitting there drinking a bud light
just a little too fast cuz marie’s gotta split
thinking about how i’m told
the beatles never played here
but the beat goes on with or
without john lennon that’s the truth
i already know my birthday’s gonna
suck next year i light
a candle for
tradition

---

colon37 AM, art by Nicole Aimiee Macaluso

---

Coffeehouse Sonnet (12)<

Michael Ceraolo

for Julie

She graced the place on a Saturday afternoon,
blonde hair and hazel eyes brightening drab December,
a scarf screening her sleek sexy neck,
slowly sipping her coffee chin sitting in hand,
mysteriously scribbling in a notebook
until interrupted by an equally mysterious phone call,
for which she walked past with a purposeful grace
in order to take it in the privacy of outside
Introductions, and she shakes hands with meaning
I ask if she is a writer and she laughs demurely,
saying that she was just jotting down her schedule,
that she is in fact an artist,
one who works in the medium of metal
An artist and a work of art all in one

---

Cats Garden, art by Irene Ferraro

---

HARTFORD BRAIN SCAN POEM #1

Kenneth DiMaggio

Beef patty
mutating into a hamburger

and the fast food processed
meat is sinking into

more apocalyptic visions
from the Bible

We are still trying to find
the gang war bullet

lodged somewhere in a dying Puritan consciousness

which is why
the next middle school social
studies class trip
will be to the nursing home where

the kids who speak English
with a Caribbean patois
or a Spanglish accent

can get a valuable
hands on lesson in history

by pulling the plug
on the machinery keeping alive an old brain dead
Yankee tradition

and to ensure
that memos continue
in the sterilized cubicles
that must get wiped

here come the corps
of West Indian women

who will achieve
the American Dream

by taking courses
at the community college
to become nurses
for a culture

that has crashed into a coma

Code:
blue

code:

red and when
you get to the white

that means the cosmic
dissolve

of the previous generation has begun

losing shape form

before settling into a mud

that will yield

no footprints
or bones
that can ever be fossilized
into wasteful fuel

Frozen
is how the rest of us
will keep from rotting
in ice-cube tray
insurance offices
counting up

the numerous ways

a 21st Century American can die

counting
everything except the death

that will be our isolated anonymous own

---

1159Buckingham, art by Nick Brazinsiki

---

HARTFORD BRAIN SCAN POEM #2

Kenneth DiMaggio

Mark Twain
once had a house here

which is now
a museum you can visit
and except
for a word
dehumanizing African Americans

most of the local
high school kids taking
the English class field
trip to the house of a famous author

can’t read through
Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer

beep beep beep
the machinery
still indicates

a comatose state
kept alive
through Friday night revival meetings
temporary
insurance company
work filing
metaphysical crisis claims

and just hanging out
on the bomb crater’d corners talking about
finishing your diploma
or joining the Marines

but if we cannot find out
how to resuscitate
or even where to put our mouth

on this stagnant toxic sewage
that has become our soul

someone
with an M.B.A. degree
in the actuary department
will be able to calculate

who will most likely get their first heart attack

but what about the elaborate psychological
scaffolding and why it collapsed

And what good
in finally knowing thyself

when the last structure
you were able to erect
from the shattering

was a scaffold
that hanged

what in its dangling
larva glistening
death

looked like an angel

---

art by Joel McGregor

---

philosophy monthly

Trials and Tribulations with Morals

After seeing the ball drop in New York January 1 1995, we stopped in the Poconos on our drive back home to Chicago. As we went into our cabin in the Poconos, another guest’s cat (even wearing their owner’s neon collar) walked up to our door and pretty much invited itself in. We actually played with this cat for almost an hour, knowing it was someone else’s cat, and I started thinking about this cat as it played in out hotel room.
I looked at this cat and thought, ‘You know, in other parts of the world you’re considered a delicacy.’
I sat for a second, and then I thought, ‘And in some parts of the world, the cow is sacred.’
This was probably about the time when we decided that we had to let the cat out of our hotel room so it could get back to it’s owners. And I thought for a minute, and I knew that, well, I could never kill a cow or a chicken or a turkey or anything. But then I quickly reminded myself that that was the beauty of capitalism, that we can work on what we want to do, and pay other people do to everything else.

And after a second, I thought, well, maybe I don’t want to pay someone else to kill the animals for me.
And that’s when I decided to become a vegetarian.
Why did I tell that story? Well, because when I tell people I’m a vegetarian, people ask me, “Can you eat eggs or milk or cheese?” And I respond by saying, “Ah, I’m all for the animal’s torture, just not their death.” Translation: although they don’t treat cows well to get milk and make cheese, and they don’t treat chickens well to get eggs, I am willing to have that. I just can’t tolerate letting animals die so I can have a roast beef sandwich or a Chicken McNugget from McDonald’s (which, by the way, is made with all the remnants from parts of the chicken you’d never eat unless it was fast-cooked and lost all of it’s flavor, and then mashed back together and have spices added to it so it would taste like meat again).
So this is how I have lived, as a vegetarian, for almost ten years, by having a stir fry and adding an egg to the mix to hold flavors together there, or by enjoying a good deep-dish pizza with extra cheese (but no meat), and maybe adding a topping, like a good amount of garlic.
And yeah, just under the ten-year mark I learned of some more bad news for us vegetarians. I thought we were in the clear on this test, but the majority of cheeses that are produced (like Kraft cheese), use rennet to help process the materials that end of making cheese.
Oh, and rennet is an enzyme derived from calf’s stomach lining.
Yeah, I know they could be getting the enzyme from the calf (you know, the baby cows they keep restrained so the baby cow meat will stay tender) they’re killing for veal, so...
Wait, I don’t want them making veal either.
The thing is, cheese can be made with vegetarian products, and it actually costs less to make it that way. I think big name companies just use the products they’re used to in making cheese, and it doesn’t matter to them that a vegetarian option not only costs less, but is also more moral.

Why bother being more moral when you could spend more money, and help contribute to more animal deaths?
So in the last few months (well, since right before Thanksgiving 2004), I’ve been trying to remove most cheeses from my diet as well.
But adding a good slice of Farmer’s cheese to a vegetarian sandwich makes it taste so much better. And I know that having some of the animal derivatives in dairy products can be helpful for the human dietary needs (if they don’t eat a highly specific diet as a vegan), so I’ve tried to figure out if there is a way I could continue to being moral and still eat well.
My husband John took me to the store Trader Joe’s, where they have listings of what kinds of cheese don’t have rennet in them. Found some fresh mozzarella, and since John eats meat, he had no problem with eating the rennet-derived fresh mozzarella in our fridge, so we could have caprice salads. And we bought shredded rennet-free cheese, so that we could go to our favorite local pizza parlor and ask them to use our own cheese when making their pizza (which, by the way, tasted great, and our cheese when reheated melted better than their original cheese). And it was nice to know that where we went to get sliced Farmer’s cheese, they didn’t use rennet in the production, so it was safe for me too.
And I know to the meat eater it sounds like I’m whining, but... But I guess that’s what you get when you have to be moral like this.
Sorry, that was blunt and rude of me. It’s just hard.

It’s just hard when I can’t eat Cheese Doritos or Cheese Pringles, or eat nacho cheese at a bar. Or have cheese fries. Or if a place happens to serve a veggie patty hamburger, you have to make sure they don’t add cheese to the burger. And don’t get focaccia bread or Asiago cheese bagels because of the cheese. And remember, pesto sauce uses cheese in it. And Parmesan cheese is right out, which people add to spices and mixes. And the Brie and hard cheese my husband and I had for a romantic evening are foods I can no longer eat.

God, is this poor wench bitching. She’s complaining that she can’t eat the Brie has already has in her fridge.
Sniff sniff. Bitch moan.

I have to say that so I know how trivial this may sound to the meat eater. But when you decide to make a moral decision like this, these little things are a big deal when most of your diet is altered in this meat-eating country.
The United States is the country where fast food restaurants have decided over the years to make it expected to have French fries go with their Whoppers or Big Macs. Where over the years fast food places have decided to expand the amount of processed meat in their menus (consider things like the Bacon Double Cheese Burger). Consider the notion that all drinks and all orders of fries have been made larger and larger over the years (Hell, a man tried to eat only McDonald’s for one month straight, and whenever he placed an order, he had to answer “yes” whenever he was asked if he would like to “supersize” his meal).
This is the society we live in. A society that has gotten used to having an excess of everything, and when we in America don’t have to worry about killing the animal to get the prime rib steak on our plates, we have a much easier time forking over the cash and diving in.

There I go, ripping on people again.
Sorry, I get on my irritating moral high ground, and... well... I get snippy.
I mean, I have much less of a problem with meat eaters who understand the entire process of how this meat gets on their plate than I do for the average person. I’m married to a meat eater, but he was a hunter since he was a child, and has, after killing his animal, brought it back home, skinned it, cut it up and prepared it for food.
I’ve got to have some respect for that.
I understand that we have gotten to the top of the food chain, and we can kill animals for food if we need it. But I also remind myself that we’re at the top of the intellectual chain too, and we don’t have to kill others in order to eat.
So, I still have to say that if someone can understand the process of killing that animal for food, they have earned my respect.

And Hell, I wasn’t looking for this in my potential meat-eating husband when I was single, but I like thinking of this story of when John was hunting deer. He used a rifle, and was able to kill the deer. Then he heard that he could use a handgun, but he might not be able to aim as well with it. So he tried it, and when he was able to hit and kill every deer with one shot, he decided he would learn archery, to use a bow and arrow to hunt deer.
Which he did, and did wonderfully.
He did this because he didn’t want it to be too easy for him to just randomly kill an animal. He wanted the animal to have a chance in the struggle. So he restricted his abilities, until he could get better at his hunt.
I think of this, and then I think of my past, where I worked for a food magazine publishing company, where magazine editors would have meal tasteings (with meat) from different restaurants for reviews. An associate editor (whom I won’t name, you know, because I don’t like picking on people without giving them a chance to respond...) said that she would never eat rabbit for a meal tasting, in her words, “because a bunny is cute.”
And I thought, ‘Oh, so since cows and chickens are ugly, they’re okay to eat. Good philosophy.’
This is the mentality that kills me. This is the mentality that makes me sick of how people don’t keep a cohesive set of values in their lives. This makes me think of people who are whores, contracting Herpes from sleeping with the wrong men, who then later cover their lives up to get married in the Catholic church, and have the gall to wear a white dress.
And I’m afraid this is the mentality of a lot of people in today’s over-consumption society, where we don’t have to think about what we’re doing with out lives. We have become a people that thinks it’s okay to purchase things on credit cards, and just pay the minimum balance every month, just so we can have that second SUV (which in my book is a Sub Urban Vehicle, or something that is only for the people less than urban, or something lower than urban, or something below urban). There is a mentality that we can over-extend ourselves now, and we’ll somehow make up for it later. We won’t think about the consequences (I mean Hell, there will be a credit consolidation company to help us with our debt later, or worst-case scenario, we can declare bankruptcy and still keep our car so we can make the payments on the house we own).
We’ve decided to push ourselves too far, and we wonder why American has the highest rates of heart attacks (could it be the stress in our lives and our excess meat in our diets?). And we wonder why diseases strike us like AIDS (of course it has nothing to do with sharing needles with sick people when you’re taking illegal drugs, and it has nothing to do with having unprotected homosexual sex, both of which are habits we could change). And we wonder why people age and get osteoporosis (because we drink milk from another species, and we drink it after infancy, and we consume so much protein that it actually pulls the calcium from our bones, making it easier to make our bones weak as we get older).
We define our own problems with our actions. We work to solve our life-threatening diseases, when we give oursevles these problems with our behaviors. We accept the way things are, then work to try to solve their damaging habits, instead changing the habit that cause our downfall.

“If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” - Voltaire “Religion is the opium of the people.” - Karl Marx “Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.” - Friedrich Nietzsche “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.” - Napoleon Bonaparte “Faith is believing something you know ain’t true.” - Mark Twain

---

Nick DiSpoldo, Small Press Review (on “Children, Churches and Daddies,& #148; April 1997) Kuypers is the widely-published poet of particular perspectives and not a little existential rage, but she does not impose her personal or artistic agenda on her magazine. CC+D is a provocative potpourri of news stories, poetry, humor, art and the “dirty underwear& #148; of politics. One piece in this issue is “Crazy,& #148; an interview Kuypers conducted with “Madeline,& #148; a murderess who was found insane, and is confined to West Virginia’s Arronsville Correctional Center. Madeline, whose elevator definitely doesn’t go to the top, killed her boyfriend during sex with an ice pick and a chef’s knife, far surpassing the butchery of Elena Bobbitt. Madeline, herself covered with blood, sat beside her lover’s remains for three days, talking to herself, and that is how the police found her. For effect, Kuypers publishes Madeline’s monologue in different-sized type, and the result is something between a sense of Dali’s surrealism and Kafka-like craziness.

Debra Purdy Kong, writer, British Columbia, Canada
I like the magazine a lot. I like the spacious lay-out and the different coloured pages and the variety of writer’s styles. Too many literary magazines read as if everyone graduated from the same course. We need to collect more voices like these and send them everywhere.

Ed Hamilton, writer #85 (of Children, Churches and Daddies) turned out well. I really enjoyed the humor section, especially the test score answers. And, the cup-holder story is hilarious. I’m not a big fan of poetry - since much of it is so hard to decipher - but I was impressed by the work here, which tends toward the straightforward and unpretentious. As for the fiction, the piece by Anderson is quite perceptive: I liked the way the self-deluding situation of the character is gradually, subtly revealed. (Kuypers’) story is good too: the way it switches narrative perspective via the letter device is a nice touch.

Children, Churches and Daddies.
It speaks for itself.
Write to Scars Publications to submit poetry, prose and artwork to Children, Churches and Daddies literary magazine, or to inquire about having your own chapbook, and maybe a few reviews like these.

Jim Maddocks, GLASGOW, via the Internet I’ll be totally honest, of the material in Issue (either 83 or 86 of Children, Churches and Daddies) the only ones I really took to were Kuypers’. TRYING was so simple but most truths are, aren’t they?

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what is veganism?
A vegan (VEE-gun) is someone who does not consume any animal products. While vegetarians avoid flesh foods, vegans don’t consume dairy or egg products, as well as animal products in clothing and other sources.

why veganism?
This cruelty-free lifestyle provides many benefits, to animals, the environment and to ourselves. The meat and dairy industry abuses billions of animals. Animal agriculture takes an enormous toll on the land. Consumtion of animal products has been linked to heart disease, colon and breast cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and a host of other conditions.

so what is vegan action?
We can succeed in shifting agriculture away from factory farming, saving millions, or even billions of chickens, cows, pigs, sheep turkeys and other animals from cruelty.
We can free up land to restore to wilderness, pollute less water and air, reduce topsoil reosion, and prevent desertification.
We can improve the health and happiness of millions by preventing numerous occurrences od breast and prostate cancer, osteoporosis, and heart attacks, among other major health problems.

A vegan, cruelty-free lifestyle may be the most important step a person can take towards creatin a more just and compassionate society. Contact us for membership information, t-shirt sales or donations.

vegan action
po box 4353, berkeley, ca 94707-0353
510/704-4444

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C Ra McGuirt, Editor, The Penny Dreadful Review (on Children, Churches and Daddies) CC&D is obviously a labor of love ... I just have to smile when I go through it. (Janet Kuypers) uses her space and her poets to best effect, and the illos attest to her skill as a graphic artist. I really like (“Writing Your Name& #148;). It’s one of those kind of things where your eye isn’t exactly pulled along, but falls effortlessly down the poem. I liked “knowledge& #148; for its mix of disgust and acceptance. Janet Kuypers does good little movies, by which I mean her stuff provokes moving imagery for me. Color, no dialogue; the voice of the poem is the narrator over the film.

Children, Churches and Daddies no longer distributes free contributor’s copies of issues. In order to receive issues of Children, Churches and Daddies, contact Janet Kuypers at the cc&d e-mail addres. Free electronic subscriptions are available via email. All you need to do is email ccandd@scars.tv... and ask to be added to the free cc+d electronic subscription mailing list. And you can still see issues every month at the Children, Churches and Daddies website, located at http://scars.tv

Mark Blickley, writer The precursor to the magazine title (Children, Churches and Daddies) is very moving. “Scars& #148; is also an excellent prose poem. I never really thought about scars as being a form of nostalgia. But in the poem it also represents courage and warmth. I look forward to finishing her book.

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MIT Vegetarian Support Group (VSG)

functions:
* To show the MIT Food Service that there is a large community of vegetarians at MIT (and other health-conscious people) whom they are alienating with current menus, and to give positive suggestions for change.
* To exchange recipes and names of Boston area veg restaurants
* To provide a resource to people seeking communal vegetarian cooking
* To provide an option for vegetarian freshmen

We also have a discussion group for all issues related to vegetarianism, which currently has about 150 members, many of whom are outside the Boston area. The group is focusing more toward outreach and evolving from what it has been in years past. We welcome new members, as well as the opportunity to inform people about the benefits of vegetarianism, to our health, the environment, animal welfare, and a variety of other issues.

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Gary, Editor, The Road Out of Town (on the Children, Churches and Daddies Web Site) I just checked out the site. It looks great.

Dusty Dog Reviews: These poems document a very complicated internal response to the feminine side of social existence. And as the book proceeds the poems become increasingly psychologically complex and, ultimately, fascinating and genuinely rewarding.

John Sweet, writer (on chapbook designs) Visuals were awesome. They’ve got a nice enigmatic quality to them. Front cover reminds me of the Roman sculptures of angels from way back when. Loved the staggered tire lettering, too. Way cool. (on “Hope Chest in the Attic& #148;) Some excellent writing in “Hope Chest in the Attic.& #148; I thought “Children, Churches and Daddies& #148; and “The Room of the Rape& #148; were particularly powerful pieces.

C Ra McGuirt, Editor, The Penny Dreadful Review: CC&D is obviously a labor of love ... I just have to smile when I go through it. (Janet Kuypers) uses her space and her poets to best effect, and the illos attest to her skill as a graphic artist.

Cheryl Townsend, Editor, Impetus (on Children, Churches and Daddies) The new CC&D looks absolutely amazing. It’s a wonderful lay-out, looks really professional - all you need is the glossy pages. Truly impressive AND the calendar, too. Can’t wait to actually start reading all the stuff inside.. Wanted to just say, it looks good so far!!!

Dusty Dog Reviews: She opens with a poem of her own devising, which has that wintry atmosphere demonstrated in the movie version of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. The atmosphere of wintry white and cold, gloriously murderous cold, stark raging cold, numbing and brutalizing cold, appears almost as a character who announces to his audience, “Wisdom occurs only after a laboriously magnificent disappointment.& #148; Alas, that our Dusty Dog for mat cannot do justice to Ms. Kuypers’ very personal layering of her poem across the page.

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Fithian Press, Santa Barbara, CA
Indeed, there’s a healthy balance here between wit and dark vision, romance and reality, just as there’s a good balance between words and graphics. The work shows brave self-exploration, and serves as a reminder of mortality and the fragile beauty of friendship.

Mark Blickley, writer
The precursor to the magazine title (Children, Churches and Daddies) is very moving. “Scars& #148; is also an excellent prose poem. I never really thought about scars as being a form of nostalgia. But in the poem it also represents courage and warmth. I look forward to finishing her book.

You Have to be Published to be Appreciated.

Do you want to be heard? Contact Children, Churches and Daddies about book or chapbook publishing. These reviews can be yours. Scars Publications, attention J. Kuypers. We’re only an e-mail away. Write to us.

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Brian B. Braddock, Writer (on 1996 Children, Churches and Daddies) I passed on a copy to my brother who is the director of the St. Camillus AIDS programs. We found (Children, Churches and Daddies’) obvious dedication along this line admirable.

The Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology
The Solar Energy Research & Education Foundation (SEREF), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., established on Earth Day 1993 the Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology (CREST) as its central project. CREST’s three principal projects are to provide:
* on-site training and education workshops on the sustainable development interconnections of energy, economics and environment;
* on-line distance learning/training resources on CREST’s SOLSTICE computer, available from 144 countries through email and the Internet;
* on-disc training and educational resources through the use of interactive multimedia applications on CD-ROM computer discs - showcasing current achievements and future opportunities in sustainable energy development.
The CREST staff also does “on the road& #148; presentations, demonstrations, and workshops showcasing its activities and available resources.
For More Information Please Contact: Deborah Anderson
dja@crest.org or (202) 289-0061

Brian B. Braddock, Writer (on 1996 Children, Churches and Daddies) I passed on a copy to my brother who is the director of the St. Camillus AIDS programs. We found (Children, Churches and Daddies’) obvious dedication along this line admirable.

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Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, PA
“Hope Chest in the Attic& #148; captures the complexity of human nature and reveals startling yet profound discernments about the travesties that surge through the course of life. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork reflects sensitivity toward feminist issues concerning abuse, sexism and equality. It also probes the emotional torrent that people may experience as a reaction to the delicate topics of death, love and family.
“Chain Smoking& #148; depicts the emotional distress that afflicted a friend while he struggled to clarify his sexual ambiguity. Not only does this thought-provoking profile address the plight that homosexuals face in a homophobic society, it also characterizes the essence of friendship. “The room of the rape& #148; is a passionate representation of the suffering rape victims experience. Vivid descriptions, rich symbolism, and candid expressions paint a shocking portrait of victory over the gripping fear that consumes the soul after a painful exploitation.

want a review like this? contact scars about getting your own book published.

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Paul Weinman, Writer (on 1996 Children, Churches and Daddies) Wonderful new direction (Children, Churches and Daddies has) taken - great articles, etc. (especially those on AIDS). Great stories - all sorts of hot info!

The magazine Children Churches and Daddies is Copyright � through Scars Publications and Design. The rights of the individual pieces remain with the authors. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.



Okay, nilla wafer. Listen up and listen good. How to save your life. Submit, or I’ll have to kill you.
Okay, it’s this simple: send me published or unpublished poetry, prose or art work (do not send originals), along with a bio, to us - then sit around and wait... Pretty soon you’ll hear from the happy people at cc&d that says (a) Your work sucks, or (b) This is fancy crap, and we’re gonna print it. It’s that simple!

Okay, butt-munch. Tough guy. This is how to win the editors over.
Hope Chest in the Attic is a 200 page, perfect-bound book of 13 years of poetry, prose and art by Janet Kuypers. It’s a really classy thing, if you know what I mean. We also have a few extra sopies of the 1999 book “Rinse and Repeat& #148;, the 2001 book “Survive and Thrive& #148;, the 2001 books “Torture and Triumph& #148; and “(no so) Warm and Fuzzy& #148;, which all have issues of cc&d crammed into one book. And you can have either one of these things at just five bucks a pop if you just contact us and tell us you saw this ad space. It’s an offer you can’t refuse...

Carlton Press, New York, NY: HOPE CHEST IN THE ATTIC is a collection of well-fashioned, often elegant poems and short prose that deals in many instances, with the most mysterious and awesome of human experiences: love... Janet Kuypers draws from a vast range of experiences and transforms thoughts into lyrical and succinct verse... Recommended as poetic fare that will titillate the palate in its imagery and imaginative creations.
Mark Blickley, writer: The precursor to the magazine title (Children, Churches and Daddies) is very moving. “Scars& #148; is also an excellent prose poem. I never really thought about scars as being a form of nostalgia. But in the poem it also represents courage and warmth. I look forward to finishing the book.

You Have to be Published to be Appreciated.
Do you want to be heard? Contact Children, Churches and Daddies about book and chapbook publishing. These reviews can be yours. Scars Publications, attention J. Kuypers - you can write for yourself or you can write for an audience. It’s your call...



Dorrance Publishing Co., Pittsburgh, PA: “Hope Chest in the Attic& #148; captures the complexity of human nature and reveals startling yet profound discernments about the travesties that surge through the course of life. This collection of poetry, prose and artwork reflects sensitivity toward feminist issues concerning abuse, sexism and equality. It also probes the emotional torrent that people may experience as a reaction to the delicate topics of death, love and family. “Chain Smoking& #148; depicts the emotional distress that afflicted a friend while he struggled to clarify his sexual ambiguity. Not only does this thought-provoking profile address the plight that homosexuals face in a homophobic society, it also characterizes the essence of friendship. “The room of the rape& #148; is a passionate representation of the suffering rape victims experience. Vivid descriptions, rich symbolism, and candid expressions paint a shocking portrait of victory over the gripping fear that consumes the soul after a painful exploitation.

Dusty Dog Reviews, CA (on knife): These poems document a very complicated internal response to the feminine side of social existence. And as the book proceeds the poems become increasingly psychologically complex and, ultimately, fascinating and genuinely rewarding. Children, Churches and Daddies. It speaks for itself.

Dusty Dog Reviews (on Without You): She open with a poem of her own devising, which has that wintry atmosphere demonstrated in the movie version of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago. The atmosphere of wintry white and cold, gloriously murderous cold, stark raging cold, numbing and brutalizing cold, appears almost as a character who announces to his audience, “Wisdom occurs only after a laboriously magnificent disappointment.& #148; Alas, that our Dusty Dog for mat cannot do justice to Ms. Kuypers’ very personal layering of her poem across the page.
Children, Churches and Daddies. It speaks for itself.

Debra Purdy Kong, writer, British Columbia, Canada (on Children, Churches and Daddies): I like the magazine a lot. I like the spacious lay-out and the different coloured pages and the variety of writer’s styles. Too many literary magazines read as if everyone graduated from the same course. We need to collect more voices like these and send them everywhere.
Fithian Press, Santa Barbara, CA: Indeed, there’s a healthy balance here between wit and dark vision, romance and reality, just as there’s a good balance between words and graphics. The work shows brave self-exploration, and serves as a reminder of mortality and the fragile beauty of friendship.

Children, Churches and Daddies the unreligious, non-family oriented literary and art magazine Scars Publications and Design ccandd96@scars.tv http://scars.tv Publishers/Designers Of Children, Churches and Daddies magazine cc+d Ezines The Burning mini poem books God Eyes mini poem books The Poetry Wall Calendar The Poetry Box The Poetry Sampler Mom’s Favorite Vase Newsletters Reverberate Music Magazine Down In The Dirt magazine Freedom and Strength Press forum plus assorted chapbooks and books music, poery compact discs live performances of songs and readings Sponsors Of past editions: Poetry Chapbook Contest, Poetry Book Contest Prose Chapbook Contest, Prose Book Contest Poetry Calendar Contest current editions: Editor’s Choice Award (writing and web sites) Collection Volumes Children, Churches and Daddies (founded 1993) has been written and researched by political groups and writers from the United States, Canada, England, India, Italy, Malta, Norway and Turkey. Regular features provide coverage of environmental, political and social issues (via news and philosophy) as well as fiction and poetry, and act as an information and education source. Children, Churches and Daddies is the leading magazine for this combination of information, education and entertainment. Children, Churches and Daddies (ISSN 1068-5154) is published quarterly by Scars Publications and Design. Contact us via e-mail (ccandd96@scars.tv) for subscription rates or prices for annual collection books. To contributors: No racist, sexist or blatantly homophobic material. No originals; if mailed, include SASE & bio. Work sent on disks or through e-mail preferred. Previously published work accepted. Authors always retain rights to their own work. All magazine rights reserved. Reproduction of Children, Churches and Daddies without publisher permission is forbidden. Children, Churches and Daddies copyright through Scars Publications and Design, Children, Churches and Daddies, Janet Kuypers. All rights remain with the authors of the individual pieces. No material may be reprinted without express permission.