Koss Works

Writing | Poetry | Art

Archives for May 2022

South Florida Poetry Journal #25 Poem

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Honored to have a disturbing but important poem in South Florida Poetry Journal’s latest issue (#25). #CW. So grateful to the editors for publishing. Read it along with a bunch of great work and sound files here.

sepia photo of empty swing and promo text: Flint Girl Handcuffed Along Dort Highway in South Florida Poetry Journal

Drawing and Grief

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I’ve been organizing and digging through years of debris as I figure out what I want my life to look like going forward. Haven’t been able to write lately but have been making cards and paper art, which does something else creatively. It’s nice to be outside of language right now. Below, a drawing of a guy I worked with on a ground’s crew (years ago) and a horse, plus a doodle I did today, “The Grief Eater.” Sometimes all you got is a doodle. Strongly recommend watercolors as a way of de-stressing–even if you’re just pushing them around with no purpose. Oh, and scribbling is good too. That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by.

cartoony drawing with red, orange and blue watercolor and a woman slinging snakes while sucking the sludge from the void.
The Grief Eaters (a doodle by Koss)
horse drawing ink
Horse (ink drawing by Koss)
man sitting with arms folded and cap on--a pencil drawing with age stains on it
Man (pencil drawing by Koss

Asemic Writing, Erasure Poetry | Up the Staircase Quarterly

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Grateful to be in Up the Staircase Quarterly #57. This issue is full of great poetry and art. Poetry by these people included:

  • Quinn Forlini | “Attenuation”
  • Sanvitti Sahdev | “I fill up”
  • Fiona Lu | “hunting”
  • Oluwafisayo Akinfolami | “Semantics”
  • Satya Dash | 2 poems: “Elasticity” and “Two Deaths”
  • Jill Khoury | “Subjective Units of Distress Scale 1-10”
  • Ran Zhao | “floodpath”
  • Olivia J. Kiers | “Shower: Arc de Triomphe”
  • Anaïs Deal-Márquez | “Gringa.”
  • Jace Raymond Smellie | “for my grandma doris almost four years after”
  • Chase Dimock | “Contaminants”
  • Kolbe Riney | 2 poems: “sexy villain” and “voyager”

and artwork by:

  • Sara Louise Wilson | Haunt Me + more
  • Elizabeth Wing | Blüd Rites
  • jw summerisle | Strangers
  • Shelbey Leco | Blue.
  • Koss | Wuthering Heights 1, Magpie +more
  • Tomislav Silipetar | WHAT IS LEFT

Emanuela Iorga is the issue illustrator with multiple bullet-riddled images in a starkly graphic (not literal) style.

Also, reviews by:

  • Tyler Friend | Him or Her or Whatever
  • Jasmine Elizabeth Smith | South Flight
  • ​L.E. Bowman | What I Learned from the Trees

I have four pieces from a magpie/hare series slated for my book, plus one visual poem that utilizes text from a poem, “Shoulder Story,” originally published in Rogue Agent. The other pieces reference or erase passages of Wuthering Heights. Find my page here, and read the whole issue here.

I’ve been taking a break from writing poetry and doing visual word art, including asemic writing/recycling from journals, crossword poems, and uncategorizable stuff, but I have lots of work coming out in the next few months, including some difficult abuse writing and some more visual poetry in Diode. It feels good to get back to painting and drawing.

Magpie asemic art piece with writing and Wuthering Heights erasure poetry text in and surrounding black magpie.
Up the Staircase Visual Poetry, Asemic Writing, and Erasure Poetry by Koss

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