Happy New Year to our friends in the literary community! We hope you passed the holidays in fine fashion and are looking forward to a wonderful 2018. We sure are! And to kick it off in style, we’re honored and proud to present Issue 8. Once again, it’s chock full of artistry, beauty, and fine craft from a wide array of writers. (Oddly but proudly, we boast a few pieces about fathers, particularly fathers and their tools. But not all are paeans!) We thank you for your interest in Panoply and hope you enjoy Issue 8!

If you like what you see, please consider a donation. Just use the PayPal link located in the right margin.Feel free to like our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/panoplyzine/

Best wishes,
Andrea, Jeff, and Ryn, Co-Editors

Table of Contents

Poetry
Acceptance – Mark Mansfield
The Ambassador of Mirrors – Ray Marsocci
and you, little bird – Lisa Reily
Another Massacre and Driving Home (after Nazim Hikmet) – Patricia Nelson
Biscayne Bay Lies Still, Like Glass – David Colodney – Pushcart Prize Nominee
Celebrity Celibacy – Carl “Papa” Palmer
Civilization in the Here and Now – John Grey
Conversations with Water – Tyrek Greene
A Day from the Window – Alexander Menachem
Dear Dad – Emily Gates – Editors’ Choice
Departure – Sue Scavo
Dinner Time in the Alzheimer’s Wing – Sherri Wright
Driving Down the Mountain at Sunset – Laura L. Mays Hoopes
Elemental – Alan Girling
Empty – Steve Gerson
Evening Walk – Joan Mazza
Fado: The Missing Key – Joe Amaral
A Father’s Shovel – Frank Babcock
The God Kvasir – Bill Garten
Grit: The Resilience of New Yorkers – Kathleen A. Lawrence
The Hail – Jacob Butlett – Pushcart Prize Nominee
The Harrow – Bill Newby – Pushcart Prize Nominee
Helsinki – Robert Okaji
Hidden – Hannah Rousselot
How to Be a Malacologist – Stephanie L. Harper
In the Heaven of Hopscotch – Anne Higgins
In the Orcan Field – Michael Cooper
In the Women’s Locker Room – Carolyn Martin
Intersection, Midtown Atlanta – Jude Marr
It Wasn’t You – Sarah Brown Weitzman
Knees – Sandra Lindow
A Lasting Rhyme – Richard King Perkins II
Leaving Louisiana – George Such
Mimaropa – Michael Mira
Mortician – S. J. Wojo
Mother Tongue – Toti O’Brien
My God – Ion Corcos
A New Hope for a New Zion – Charles McCaskill –Pushcart Prize Nominee
On Meeting Plato in Fairview Cemetery, Council Bluffs – Robert Klein Engler
Osoberry, Overripe – Paula Persoleo
Passing By – Irene Fick
Penny/Heart – James Croal Jackson
The Poison Garden at Alnwick Castle – William Reichard
Port – Laura Madeline Wiseman
The Prairie – Bridget Fertal
Prayer – Darian Kuxhouse
Rite of Passage – Susan Holck
Scholars Hence – Mike Jurkovic
Scratch in My Throat – Hannah A’Enene
Skyscape – Emman Usman Shehu
Some Things Must Be Believed to Be Seen – Kevin Brown
Stripping Scrap Wire – Michael VanCalbergh
Surviving Snappers – Ed McCourt
Toy Park – Beau Boudreaux
Truncated – Devon Balwit
Van Gogh’s Sunflowers – Ann Howells – Editors’ Choice
The Wardrobe – Gareth Culshaw
When Someone Dies – Carla Schwartz
When We Were Together – Colton McLaughlin
The Wolves – Alexandra Gaines

Prose
Adjacent – Mercedes Lawry
Fire – Nancy Tingley
Flavia – Linda McMullen
Fishy Viscera – Tee Linden
If I Could Tell You – Rachel Inberg
Iowa’s Promise – Chila Woychik
A Letter – Leonardo Boix
Mother (Inspired by Grace Paley) – Diane Gottlieb
Motivation – Robert L. Penick
Open Letter, Open Sea, Open Love – Christopher Stolle
Peaches – Hal Ackerman
Resistance – Tony Burnett
Speculative Real Estate – Jen Sage-Robison
The Whole Goddamn Thing – Howie Good

Issue 7 sets a precedent for Panoply. Actually, a few. The bounty of works here in this double issue is due of course, to a bounty of deserving work by our contributors. We cast a wider net during our calls for submissions, receiving about 3 times our historical norm! You’ll notice a whole section for prose, and as you scroll, some great works by young writers. In fact, we’re proud once again to debut some wonderful new voices (regardless of their age).

Since there’s so much, here are some browsing tips (in order of appearance):

• Humor – Downgrade, This Isn’t the Story I Intended to Write, The Waffle House Index, Zeng Shangyou
• Love/Romance – My Lover and I
• Pastoral/Nature – Looking Down on Newgale Beach, Path, Perfect Rain, Zen Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts
• Social/Political – Karuizawa Tales, Like a King
• Edgy – Cage Match, Finals, Stalker in Orange, Tawny Kitten
• Characters – Dear Harold, Everyday Blessings, Firebrand, A Girl Called Rose, Mrs. Neustead, Prize Fighter, White Sheets, You, Frank & Mia & Me, Heroes, Loving Spoonful, Padlock, Patriots, A Slice of Lemon on the Side
• Loss/Death – Intuition, Lament, Moth-Hour, Nowhere, South Dakota, Poem for Honduras, Proper Etiquette for the First Year of Mourning, You

As always, we thank our contributors for uplifting us! And we thank our readers for giving us purpose. Feel free to tell your friends and give us feedback! Look for Issue 8 around year-end.

Best wishes,
Andrea, Jeff, and Ryn, Co-Editors

Poetry

The actor who only gets to play a hitman – Jonathan Jones
After – Patricia Anderson
Afterbloom – Lawdenmarc Decamora
and the crows fall – AM Roselli
Astronautics (or, an email I sent to neil degrasse tyson while sitting in whole foods) – Lily Tice – Pushcart Prize Nominee
The Berryman Trick – Tim Kahl
camera obscura – Claudia Radmore
Cezanne – Patricia Nelson
Cheri’s Montana Lounge, Chester, Montana – Michelle Hartman
Cornflower – Madison White
(the crisp settle of the door) – Dennis Reavis
Elkhorn Avenue – Cameron Morse
Escape from Ellenville – Mike Jurkovic
Everyday Blessings – Sally Zakariya
Firebrand – Thomas McDade
Folclore Tale – Leonardo Boix
Fragile – Mary McKeel
A Girl Called Rose – Bella Smith
The Guitarist – Steven Reese
A Haiku Year – Kendra Leonard
Harvest Moon – Jared Pearce
Home Remedies – John Repp
How Long is this Sentence? – Gary Twynam
Interlude at a Closed Chevron, 11:42 pm – Alicja Zapalska
Intuition – Laura Foley
An Invitation – Paul Lubenkov
Karuizawa Tales – Robert Hoffman – Editors’ Choice
Kathleen Remembers the Flood – John Grey
Lament – Anne Whitehouse
Late Night Talk Show Fantasy – Jennifer Dotson
Like a King – Ion Corcos
Looking Down on Newgale Beach – Robert Nisbet – Editors’ Choice
The Man Cooks Greens While Thinking of Words – Tobi Alfier
Moth-Hour – Claire Scott
Mrs. Neustead – Jim Zola
Nowhere, South Dakota – Andrew Kruse-Ross
Numbers – Isabella Colalillo Katz
The Oboe Will Shine Tomorrow – Devon Balwit
The Old In-Out In-Out – Yu-Han Chao
Once Upon a Time – Baisali Chatterjee Dutt
Passenger – Charles Kell
Path – Steve Gerson
Perfect Rain – Terry Brix
Poem for Honduras – Heather Truett
A Priest and an Indian Walk Into a Bar – Jessica Mehta
Prize Fighter – Martin Hopson
Proper Etiquette for the First Year of Mourning – Jacqueline Jules
Rich Farm Land Drew Settlers to Hess – Ryan Clark
Running at 6:45 on a mid-November morning – Brett Cortelletti
Sunflower Ghosts – Robin Gow
Swift Action – G. Louis Heath
Testament – Deborah L. Davitt
Touch This Elephant – Robert Beveridge
Transfusion –Virginia Boudreau
Van Gogh Paints a Self-Portrait – Ann Howells
The Waffle House Index, or: (if the Waffle House is closed the populace is shrinking) – John McCracken
Walking Stick, A Prayer – Keith Moul
Wave – Alan Gann
What I’ve Lost – Carl Boon
Where My Muse Comes From – Daryl Sznyter
While You Were Trying To Be Cool I Was Snorting Flintstone Chewables – Kristian Kuhn
White Sheets – Shelby Curran – Pushcart Prize Nominee
Winter Plunge – Eileen Malone
You – Anthony Carl
Zeit Heist – Nick Romeo
Zen Garden at the Museum of Fine Arts – Mary Buchinger

Prose

The Bedouin Woman’s Smile – Nektaria Petrou – Editors’ Choice
Cage Match – Jodi Sh. Doff
The Dap – Rosanne Ehrlich
Dear Harold – Christine Seifert
Downgrade – Lois Morrison
Finals – Marie Anderson
For Summer – Anusha Srinivasan
Frank & Mia & Me – Charles Leipart
Heroes – Blake Benson
Letters from My Grandsons – Sherri Wright
Loving Spoonful – Alexander Jones
The Moonshine Ruby – Travis Kennedy
My Lover and I – Maggie Boals
One Smoothie is a Tragedy – Matt Dube
Overhead – Soramimi Hanarejima –Editors’ Choice
Padlock – Beth Gordon
Patriots – Stephen O’Donnell
A Slice of Lemon on the Side – Kristen Olsen
Spillage – G. Emil Reutter
Stalker in Orange – Maddie Woda
Tawny Kitten – Tina Bubonovich
This Isn’t the Story I Intended to Write – Guy Biederman
Tollbooth – Kelsey Maki
Wild Cat Menagerie and Great Intercourse Circus – Catherine Moore
Winter Plunge – Eileen Malone
Zeng Shangyou – Jack Feerick

Welcome back to Panoply. We’re thrilled and honored to share our first themed issue, this one related to “daylight.” Our contributors responded with inspiration, which we hope will prove illuminating. So many of these pieces bask in the light, but a few may surprise you. Daylight can play many roles. Enjoy exploring the dark side of the light.

Once again, we thank our readers, our contributors, our benefactors, and all of you who share in our joy in creating and sharing Panoply. 

Issue 7 will arrive in the fall, un-themed. Look for that Call for Submissions to open in late June. And don’t forget we’re now reviewing chapbooks, with our first review nearly secured for later this month. In the meantime, take a breath, take a walk, soak up a little Vitamin D. Happy reading.

Please like our Facebook page: Facebook Panoply Page

Best wishes,

Andrea, Jeff, and Ryn
Editors, Panoply

Contents
Anoesis – John C. Mannone
April Morning – Virginia Barrett
Arrival – Robert Miltner
As the Parking Lots Lights Flicker – Ki Russell
August – William Blome
Blackbird: Watcher in the Desert – Delores Merrill –Editors’ Choice
Blown Away – Joan McNerney
By the Light of Dawn – Natalie Crick
Chasing Pictograms – Richard King Perkins II
Covered – Sarah Clauson
Daffodils for Papa – Mikaela Curry
Dawn – Sarah Snyder
day – light savings – Ren Weber
Day/ Breaks – Julie Naslund
December Daylight – Patricia Nelson
Desert Wild Flowers – Mike Beck
devil as night / god as day – Kris Tammer
Glance – Barbara Lawhorn
Gulls – J. Thomas Burke
Harbinger – Jenifer DeBellis
Heliotrope – Cathryn Essinger
In a Winter Window – Susan Huebner
It’s Like This – Ivy Page
Joy – Jenny Benjamin
Keske XIV – Jennifer A. Reimer
A Lace Stone Wall at Randall’s Ordinary – Eleanor Kedney
Little Birds – Lauren Scharhag
Marriage – Michael Blaine
Morning – Aaron Dargis
Morning – K. Carlton Johnson
Morning in the North Country – Tom Montag
Nankoweap – Rick Kempa
Natural Light – Neil Leadbeater
New Year’s Day Miscalculation – Lynn Houston
Northwest Winter Day – Joan Moritz
On the Funeral of a Rice Farmer – Ryan Thorpe – Editors’ Choice
Once Planed Straight – Steve Gerson – Editors’ Choice
One Memory I Had of Summer – Gina Ferrara
Past Noon – Ann Howells
Patterns of Intimacy – Heather Gemmen Wilson
Phengophilia – Michael Estabrook
Photo of Mom on the Beach 1950 – Kathleen Strafford –Editors’ Choice
Poems – Lola Haskins
The Position of the Sun – Sabrina Hicks
Rain Delay – Early Innings – Bruce Robinson
Self-Portrait – Kirsten Hemmy – Pushcart Prize Nominee
A Shaft of Sunlight – Patrick Dixon
Silly Drunk Mentioning – Kristin Fullerton –Editors’ Choice
Soham – Lloyd Milburn
Sunken Ships on Fire – Devon Balwit
Sunrise on Llŷn – Aziz Dixon
Synthesis – Carol Berg
The Third Wish: New Dawn – Rachel Dacus
This Morning – Steve Klepetar
This World’s Light – Lois Harrod
Thursdays, 4-7 – Mercedes Lawry
Venusian Engagement – Rachel Reese
vulture sets the world ablaze – Sanjida Yasmin
Wedding Portraits – Diane Kendig
Welcome – Mary Ellen Talley

Andrea, Jeff, and Ryn had a ball at Say the Word in Niceville, FL, joining our gracious hosts Sarah Clauson and Rachel Reese, along with a wide array of talented poets for a night of joy, good cheer, observation, and speaking out. What a way to kick-off Poetry Month! Here we are just before the festivities began.

Again, we thank those who have donated to our financial cause:

• Tobi Alfier
• William Blome
• Alan Harris
• Sabrina Hicks
• Carolyn Martin (twice!)
• Tracy Mishkin
• James Penha
• Rachel Reese
• Plus newcomers Eleanor Kedney, Bruce Robinson, and Alec Solomita

If you’d like to donate to our financial cause, feel free to use the PayPal link in the right margin.

We’re finishing up Issue 6, the “daylight” theme, which is due on or around May 5. See you then! Thanks for visiting Panoply!

Yours always,

Andrea, Jeff, and Ryn
Editors

What a way to start 2017! We’re thrilled and honored to publish Issue 5 of Panoply, featuring works from 25 US States and 6 foreign countries. We hope you enjoy the variety once again, as Issue 5 includes poems about kissing, pregnancy, protests, politics, homages to artists and musicians, humor in many forms, recovery and redemption, some fascinating steps back in time, colorful character sketches, and more. There’s even a ditty about “breakfast cereal!” As usual, we thank our talented, visionary, and courageous contributors.

Remember that Issue 6 will be themed: Daylight. More on that as we move forward. In the meantime, enjoy Issue 5 with our compliments!

Please like our Facebook page: Panoply Facebook Page.

May this year bring you joy, peace, wisdom, and good health!

Andrea, Jeff, and Ryn, Editors

Contents, Issue 5

After Her Father Died – Maria Pascualy
After Visiting the Lourdes of Lebanon – CW Emerson
The Alternative Ending – Catharine Bramkamp
Cat – Paul Vaughan
Cheering the Ponies w/God – Mike Jurkovic
The Condo – Petrula Laudato
County Fair – James Penha
Cry Havoc and Let Slip – Jennifer Highland
Discovery — 30th street, 2:56 PM – Ben Rader
Dog Day Cigarette – Alec Solomita
Exploring the Mountain Range – Martin Willitts, Jr.
From the Back Porch – Sharon Scholl
The Guest – Rowena Cooper
Harbor Mnemosyne – Caroline Simpson
Here – Kendalyn McKisick
How to Keep Your Hungry Ghost Fed – C Derick Varn
I Just Got Back – Georgia Park
If I Had a Way… – Ndaba Sibanda
If Maps Were Hummingbirds – Shankar Narayan
In Search of Meaning – Jan Wiezorek
Jackass Flats – Larisa Harriger
Jagged – Robert Beveridge
Jubilee – Daniel Fitzpatrick
Kiss – Carolyn Martin
Letter from the Great Grandchildren – Ken Poyner
Life in the Past Lane – Alan Harris
Lurk – Linda Bonafield
May 6, 988 – William Allegrezza, Garin Cycholl, Kirk Robinson
The Merchant Marine’s Lover – Matthew Schmeer – Editors’ Choice
Midnight Garden Walk, Key West – Katherine Gekker – Editors’ Choice
Near the Mine – Dustin Pickering
New York Love Poem – Daryl Sznyter
Night Sitting – Seth Jani
November Nights – Deonte Osayande
Old Photographs – Steve Klepetar
Old Woman in a Dry Season – Claire Scott
On the Inclines of a Dune – Thomas Erickson
Pregnancy Pantoum – Kari Flickinger
Prometheus – Charlotte Pocock
Punishment for Moral Deviation – Jude Marr – Editors’ Choice
Raison d’Etre Bran – Nick Romeo
Refusal – Sandra Kohler
Retire to the Netherlands – William Auten
Rhetorical/Waiting – Nate Maxson
Second Daughter Song – Jody Burke-Kaiser – Pushcart Prize Nominee
Sliver of Sunlight – Lois Marie Harrod
Take Two – Jim Ross
Teach Me to Float – Ashanti Anderson
Technique – Dennis Caswell
Third Stool from the End – JB Mulligan
The Third Trimester – Minna Dubin
A Thousand Voices Long – Scott Wiggerman
Va cantando – Susanna Lang
Van Gogh in Love – Ann Howells – Editors’ Choice
Waking – Leigh Allen – Pushcart Prize Nominee
What the Rain Forgot – James Walton
What We Need – Lea Galanter
Your Inevitable Ghost – William Doreski

Please enjoy our back issues by clicking the links below.

Issue 6, “Daylight” Theme, Spring 2017

Issue 5, Winter, 2016/7

Issue 4, Summer-Autumn, 2016 

Issue 3 – Spring 2016 

Issue 2 – Winter 2015/6 

Issue 1, August 2015.

Thanks to Jim Harrington for featuring us in his blog, “Six Questions for…” We hope you find this interview illuminating and helpful. FYI, Jim does this weekly, so check his blog for similar interviews with other editors. What a great free service!

For some reason, we cannot get this link to work. Please cut and paste this url into your browser to reach the “Six Questions for…” blog. Thanks!

http://sixquestionsfor.blogspot.com/2016/08/six-questions-for-andrea-walker-jeff.html

 

Please do not submit previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are ok, but please let us know promptly if your work has been accepted elsewhere.  We generally do not notify submitters until after the submission period has closed and all pieces have been reviewed. Submit one MS WORD document in .doc or .docx with each piece beginning on a new page. Do not include your name or any other identifying information. Instead, submit a separate cover page with your contact information, the name(s) of the piece(s), and a biography of 60 words or less. Please use a popular font such as Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman, 12 point. We prefer single-spaced formats, except when double spacing is a deliberate part of the layout. In order to heighten diversity, if your work has been published in Panoply in each of the last two issues, we ask that you take at least a one-issue hiatus before submitting again. Thank you! Hard copy will not be accepted and will be destroyed. We adhere strictly to our deadline (US Central time zone). Any submissions received after 11:59 pm of the closing date for the Call will be automatically rolled into the next submission period for consideration. Thanks for thinking of panoplyzine.com. https://panoplyzine.submittable.com/submit

Welcome to Panoplyzine.com! Our mission is to share the best in contemporary poetry and short prose, to enlighten and entertain, and to touch our readers’ hearts and minds.  Join us  for our latest gatherings of fine literature. Please share with your friends.  Along with our esteemed contributors, we appreciate your patronage.

Panoplyzine is a fresh new look at poetry and short prose. We seek to publish lively new insights in creativity, outlook, perspective, and analysis. Issue 1 debuted in August 2015. We’re edited by three friends located around Pensacola, FL who got together to offer a new look and a new option for readers and writers and lovers of good writing worldwide. In January 2022, we welcomed a new editor based in Romania to enhance our viewpoint and feel.

If you’d like to go directly to our submissions using Submittable, please visit Panoply Submissions Here. We look forward to reading your work and/or providing some stimulating, fulfilling word craft to grab your attention and hold it. See you soon!  Thanks for visiting.

Panoply is a volunteer endeavor with no revenue other than donations. If you like what you see, consider making a donation by clicking the PayPal link in the upper right-hand column of the page. We appreciate your generosity!