Publications

Feral Poetry | Space Issue

August 1, 2021 ·

Feral Poetry Space Issue–No. 9 is out today and I’m pleased to be in the company of some interesting poets including Jennifer Martelli. The issue includes a huge selection of 49 poems, all space-themed. Some are about stars, some planets, and some aliens. This piece is a commentary about cyberspace and its dehumanizing aspects, some views Max and I shared. This poem had its ass kicked, and I’m glad it found this excellent home. It’s always an honor to have poetry included in Feral. I have lots of publications coming out in August, so please check back. Here’s the poem.

space with poem excerpt by Koss in Feral Journal of Poetry and Art

Koss Poems in Harpy Hybrid Review

June 29, 2021 ·

Honored to have poems today in Harpy Hybrid Review (plus some images and an Imayo broadside). There are other links, but for today, here is one, my usual square “album cover.” There’s lots of great writing in this issue (will add links later). These editors were some of the nicest to work with. They even asked for me to send them an image contract, which I sent. I will be writing a post soon about contract writing for creatives.

Koss poem I was told there'd be no service with angel review. Harpy Hybrid review publication. — “I Was Told There’d Be No Service” poem by Koss in Harpy Hybrid Review

“I Still Talk to You Two Years Later,” excerpt from a poem in Harpy Hybrid Review

Photo of church in york black and white — Photo, Church in York

Okay, I’m totally giving it all away here, but do read the issue because it has interesting work that is not mine including work by Shareen Murayama, a poet I admire very much (plus she did the cover artwork). Also, I do have explanations not replicated here. This piece is an imayo, a Japanese poetry form originally intended to be sung. It has a fixed syllabic structure: 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, 5, 7, and 5. Some imayos were very melancholy and some conveyed spirituality (you can read more about online and maybe even write some). I feel a bit uncomfortable about this piece as I really feel I borrowed it (I’m not Japanese). I know many poets write/steal/borrow forms including popular haiku, and I write a lot of zuihitsu-like pieces, but this one . . . I hope I honored the tradition which I feel informed this poem, and yet, this was written with the purest intentions and that it achieves a kind of stillness. You can read a bit about it on Harpy Hybrid’s page. Read about mahasamadi online (Sanskrit or Hindi) and in the calm of this piece, there’s something potentially socially explosive if read contextually (Max completed suicide . . .). I will write more about this aspect in some essays in the near future.

I like how the words form a path that curves opposite of the photo, creating a slight tension or opposition. Note, Harpy Hybrid is hosting a reading on July 17th. Will add this to my calendar.

black and white diffuse photo broadside with imayo poem overlay — imayo: mahasamadhi: her soul grows weary, poem by Koss

Feral Poetry | Two Poems

June 3, 2021 ·

Very honored to have two poems in Feral Poetry this month. One is a sort of zuihitsu abecedarian and the other is about suicide and shaming. Too much going on to make photos for now, unfortunately. Here are the links, however, and there’s lots of other interesting work. Feral is a newer feminist-leaning hip journal made with love. Five for and Through the Body’s Bramble.

Through the Body's Bramble, a poem by Koss, excerpt with bramble imagery — Through the Body’s Bramble, a poem by Koss in Feral

Five for, a poem excerpt by Koss — Five for, a poem by Koss in Feral

Dreich Magazine | Poetry Publication

May 25, 2021 ·

Happy to have five poems in Dreich Magazine (I believe the official name is now the Dreich Quarterly Review). They have changed dramatically since sending them a year or so ago, but happy to have different versions of Max poems sprinkled like ashes throughout the galaxy. “Max’s Bedroom” is an American sonnet about the aftermath of death. It later was reduced (and is no longer a sonnet). Writing is about attachment in so many ways . . . The process . . . The letting go . . .

Dreich, edited by Jack Caradoc, is a newly resurrected print journal from Scotland, and produces “bus-stop” or pamphlet-style quarterly journals and poet-dedicated pamphlets (we call them chapbooks in the U.S.). They are also putting out anthologies. Some of their issues appear to be available for viewing on Issuu. If you’re looking for their site, here it is.

And no, you’re not imagining it crooked. It’s late. I won’t offend any gods with perfection tonight or ever. “Without You” also got cut later, but I am attached to the “chopped up hair,” and glad it is here, chopped up . . . Max knows what it means. And I write, also, to the dead. “Headache” is about neuralgia and the “god’s mouth” or “mouth of god” is a reference I once found when studying acuppressure and marma points (Ayurveda), which basically refers to the atlas, which must be angled properly in order for your brain to properly function.

Two poems from a page of Dreich Magazine written by Koss, Headache and Without You — “Without You” a grief poem, and “Headache,” a sort of mystical poem about neuralgia, also in Dreich Magazine.

Headache poem graphic version red broadside — “Headache” poem, the graphic version

Diode Poetry | My Therapist Sez Featured Poem

May 1, 2021 ·

Pleasantly surprised to find my poem, “My Therapist Sez” was featured on Diode Poetry’s main page (along with an excerpt. It may disappear by the time you find this, so here’s the link to the entire poem. Patty Paine has been good to me and Diode is publishing some really great work in the journal (and in books and chapbooks).

Update: this poem won the 2021 Wergle Flomp Humor Award. Read about the contest on Winning Writer’s site. Listen to the poem on my audio page.

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