Editors, Moya Pacey and Sandra Renew
Guest Editor, Anita Patel
Production Manager, Tikka Wilson

Contents

She is definitely on her way Anita Patel
Women’s voices – circling the globe 2018 Moya Pacey and Sandra Renew
Comme des garçons Akka Ballenger Constantin
Eating my Ghost Ration Devon Balwit
Ekkentros Toni La Ree Bennett
Forgive Nicola Bowery
It’s Later Than You Think Michelle Brooks
The Feminist Denise Burton
Bones Brooke Callen
Malthus Monica Carroll
In one hundred days Anne Casey
SWEAT / SHOP Melissa Coffey
Mining time PS Cottier
A Bomb MTC Cronin
In Paris, my eyes made me Chinese Caris Cruz
three tanka Anne Louise Curran
Black Dream Bird Moyra Donaldson
Deeds of War and Peace Anne Elvey
Two ravens sijo Anne Elvey
Geese Pond, 1985, and a Photo of My Daughter Apryl Fox
If there’s loss here, I’ll never find it Kathryn Fry
White Kathryn Fry
Her Last Post Penny Gleeson
Flying Mary Ellen Greenwood
Dalit Hazel Hall
Peafowl Erin Halliday
Delinquency Patricia L. Hamilton
Eating the Reef Kristin Hannaford
Gethsemane Kristin Hannaford
Icarus Maggie Harless
Jesus puts up a Facebook page Michelle Hartman
Captain Longstocking Laura Hoffman
Send my roots rain Cheryl Hopson
Sinny and the circus Kathryn Hummel
Winter Romana Iorga
The Postman never knocks twice Shokoofeh Jabbari
The Accession Kendall Kirkwood
Blade Runner 2049 Wes Lee
Duende Christina Lengyel
Long Live L.A. Christina Lengyel
Mary Anning discovers the plesiosaur, 1824 Rosanna Licari
Bodhi of a poem Victoria McGrath
Death For Beginners Vivienne Mohan
Here the birds have learned Arezu Montazer
What a time to be alive! Rosalind Moran
Prayer to Kali Brianna J Muir
The Night Shift Sheila Mulrooney
Jobs I would never apply for K A Nelson
Sleeping with Paul Kelly in the desert K A Nelson
orderly queue jenni nixon
Bargain Angels Christine Paice
I Am A Stranger Christine Paice
Wool, Cotton, Silk Joyce Parkes
Juche Paula Persoleo
After Charlottesville Donna Pucciani
Her heart seeks Michele Seminara
In the Future, they Ate from Plates of Finest Porcelain Abeir Soukieh
Fair Condition Chelsea Stone
Midnight Lexicon Gillian Telford
Shame Helen Thurloe
War palette, Syria I & II Mira Walker
Aeneas escaping Troy Jen Webb
On the picket line Jen Webb
Wind Chimes Irene Wilke
Enough Jo Wilson-Ridley
Husband Elana Wolff
Anemospilia Jena Woodhouse
Endangered Act of Nesting Jena Woodhouse

View all poems in Issue 2 on one long scrolling page.

Theme, prompt, provocation, tease, dissonance

Each issue of Not Very Quiet begins with quote and/or image as a prompt, a provocation, a reminder note, a tease, a dissonance.

For Issue 2 guest editor Anita Patel has chosen the following quote and image.

Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe.

The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability.

Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.

Arundhati Roy, War Talk

This image is of the ancient Hindu goddess, Kali. Kali is known as a fierce and powerful warrior who slayed demons and danced on their corpses. She is also worshipped as a great and loving primordial Mother Goddess, Kali Ma – protector and nurturer. Kali is shakti (female energy) incarnate. She is the consummate representation of the classic power of the Divine Female – the power to give birth, to bring death and to regenerate. I feel that Kali is the perfect character to complement this quote by the writer and activist, Arundhati Roy. Another world is possible and we will need the indomitable spirit of Kali to lead the charge towards it and to dance on the corpse of empire. We will need the nurturing spirit of Kali to regenerate, cherish and speak our stories.

(Image courtesy Anita Patel.)

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Published 10 March 2018
© 2018