Koss Works

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Poem

2021 Happy New Year

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Happy New Year! I hope you are experiencing some hope in the bizarre new one. I was quite happy to boot 2020 out the door. Despite the violence and threats in the US, I am harboring a small, inexplicable bit of hope. It seems to come by situating myself in a place of surrender to what I can’t control, while continuing to be a snarky small counter voice in the void. Small things make my small self happy. A coffee. When the sun comes out. The excitement of meeting a new human. I hope you are happying also, with small and large things as they come your way.

I started out this year with some acceptances from some great journals. One is Outlook Springs, in which I have two poems. I can’t share the text yet (contract issue), but I am allowed to share sound files, so I uploaded one for my snarky “Core Values/Interview” poem, which is at the bottom of my “Listen” page. I’ll be adding “When William Burroughs Was Your Secretary” later in the week. And if you want to buy the issue, which is full of really fabulous writing (that isn’t mine), go to Outlook Springs.

I was also fortunate to have my dark poem, “All the Dead People on Social Media Haunt You” poem included in a bright new journal edited by Jessica Kim, The Lumiere Review. She did a great job of assembling some loosely thematic pieces in this issue, and I encourage you to check the zine and the issue out.

Coming up next is a Kissing Dynamite issue and feature next week, which I will include in my next update. Also, in the new year, I hope to add some paintings for sale.

I’m in the process of finalizing my book, One for Sorrow, but after that is done, I will be writing some mini marketing articles for journals and authors/poets (I do this for money, but am sharing with you just because you are kind enough to check out my site).

Stay safe and thanks for checking in.

Koss December 2020 Publications

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Poem in Golden Walkman Response Issue

As an artist, I have to admit feeling extra disappointed at getting rejected from ekphrastic magazines and calls. Was pleased to get chosen by guest editor, Trish Hopkinson for the Golden Walkman Magazine “In Response” theme. My piece is located at about 12:58. I have another art related poem in Filth that includes Andy Warhol and Joseph Bueys. Neither are strictly ekphrastic.

north dakota quarterly cover art and poem by koss
Poem in North Dakota Quarterly

North Dakota Quarterly published a double issue, which I received in early January. This piece is about love and the simple joys in life, which, at times like these, are important to pay attention to. Love NDQ’s 70’s retro/Art Nouveauish logo. I feel in many of these publications I’m spreading Max’s ashes and maybe mine too.

Diode Publication | My Therapist Sez

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Very thrilled to have this poem published in Diode–the only poem in the galaxy that includes papaya salad, kundalini awakenings, and bad therapy. Lots of good writing in this issue and an interesting Diane Seuss conversation/interview where she aptly talks about the differences between poetry and art.

This is an excerpt. Link to read the entire poem.

New Publications | Poetry | Koss | November 2020

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Was pleased to get this copy of Spillway #28 in the mail a couple days ago. Lots of good poetry on the inside . . . This is a dream poem from my forthcoming book, One for Sorrow. I’ve been told it’s cheap to write about dreams, but I rather think of dreams as poems we write when sleeping. This particular one was somewhat nightmarish. I had another dream poem, “Dead People Don’t Dream Hamburgers” (keep reading) published this month in Eunoia Review.

Eunoia Review is an online journal based in Singapore with a large readership, and I was very grateful they accepted these three poems, including a prose poem, “Dead People Don’t Dream Hamburgers,” also from my book. Please click on the links to read the poems, and check out my main page for links to many of my online pieces.

Dead People Don’t Dream Hamburgers, a prose poem
November Betrays All Jiltings, a poem
Airport Meeting, a poem

Amethyst Review also published some poems this month, two mystical pieces.

What Becomes, the Hawk, a poem

I make these half-assed promos for social, but decided I could share them full-sized here, and generally, when someone goes to a blog, they need something to look at. The only thing they all have in common is I try not to spend too much time on them. Most are cobbled together from my own photos, but I have been known to tinker with stock photos. I think if I could say one true thing about death, this passage about absence is IT.

Mourning Aubade, a poem

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