Koss Works

Writing | Poetry | Art

Poem

Poem | TV | Rat’s Ass Review

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Happy to have a second poem published in Rat’s Ass Review on 10-27-2021. This issue is full of great writers and has a lovely cover (I’ll update this when I’m not so tired). Read it here, and, of course, here’s an album cover, although I fear I soon won’t have time to make these, half-assed as they might be. Also, check out this other post that includes Cherry Tomatoes in Singing Bowl (the other poem published by Rat’s Ass Review) or just read the poem on their site. Lots of good things happening in October. Peace.

TV, a Poem by Koss in Rat’s Ass Review

Asemic Art

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Finished a couple pieces and am playing around with another asemic art or writing piece. The big-nosed magpie on board is finished. I posted it earlier. I’m still playing around with drawing/writing on crossword puzzles. Used a fixative, but am struggling with (albeit intrigued by) how media behaves on the cheap newsprint/manila paper. Conjures memory of hauling around huge sketchpads as an undergrad. So consider it an in-progress shot. The hare poem is now finished (an earlier state posted in another blog post. The original poem was called “Shoulder Story” and published in Rogue Agent. I shortened it, cut it up, and used it in the piece. I like that there’s a weird positive/negative play and the large black shape could be a womb, a black flower, or a fist. The stem might be entrails . . .

Magpie Asemic Drawing/Collage on Wood
Magpie Asemic Drawing/Collage on Wood
Magpie Asemic Drawing/Collage on Wood Closeup
Magpie Asemic Drawing/Collage on Wood Closeup
Poetry Drawing/Collage with cut out words from an abbreviated poem with hare in a black flower fist.
Poetry Drawing/Collage, from “Shoulder Story” in Rogue Agent
Asemic Writing or Drawing on Crossword Puzzle

Poem | Millais’ Ophelia

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CW SUICIDE |  Once a sonnet, once a not-sonnet, longer and in Entropy in a haibun, now reduced to this. Included is a photo of Millais’ Ophelia, which in its original form was too festively colored to convey the tragedy, imho. I started writing this in my head and with my camera in 2017 . . . With Max’s help. I hate it when artists romanticize suicide, and this wasn’t my intention in writing this. It’s more a poetic recording of an event and conversation. A distancing container.

Poem, Suicide, Ophelia, Millais
Millais Ophelia, Closeup, Muted, Painting
Millais Ophelia, Closeup, Muted, Painting

Kissing Dynamite 32 | Ensnared | Discarded Poem

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Honored to be in Kissing Dynamite’s 32nd “Burn” Issue. If you want to know what inclusivity in literature looks like, check them out. Also, check out my “Featured Poet” section from last year. Kissing Dynamite publishes internationally, with poets from as far away as Nigeria. Their issues are in PDF, so you can download them and carry them with you, which you’ll surely want to do . . .

Poem, “Ensnared/Discarded” in Kissing Dynamite Issue 32 (excerpt only)

Wergle Flomp Humor Award 2021 | My Therapist Sez by Koss

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Utterly thrilled to win first place in the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry contest this year. The poem, My Therapist Sez, was published in Diode Poetry last year and is the only poem with papaya salad, kundalini awakenings, multiple therapy sessions, and trick or treating in it. Adam Cohen and Jendi Reiter have been absolutely wonderful to work with, and they even engaged me to illustrate the poem. Check it out along with the other amazing winning poems on their site.

Here’s the main contest page with a list and links to the other winners (some great writing) and runner-ups (plus commentary by the judge, Jendi Reiter). And find the press release here.

My Therapist Sez Wergle Flomp Humor Winner promo with drooling hare therapist holding rorschach images
My Therapist Sez, Wergle Flomp Humor 2021 Winner

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