The go-to place for all things on the poetic literary fringe.
Author: James D. Casey IV
James D. Casey IV is the author of seven full-length collections of poetry: Metaphorically Esoteric, Dark Days Inside the Light While Drunk on Wine, Tin Foil Hats & Hadacol Coins, Owls in Hot Rods with Pink Elephants and Dead Bats, Isomorphic, Death & Love/Love & Death, and Unwritten Words That Slide Down The Wall. He is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Cajun Mutt Press. James is a southern poet with roots in Louisiana & Mississippi, currently residing in Illinois with his beautiful Muse, their retarded dog, and two black cats. Mr. Casey's poetry touches on a wide range of topics including personal experiences, love, hate, religion, politics, dreams, addiction, sex, parallel dimensions, and many more. His work has been published in print and online by several literary magazines and small press venues including Triadæ Magazine, Medusa's Kitchen, The Rye Whiskey Review, Under The Bleachers, Alien Buddha Press, The Abyss, Midnight Magazine, Boozehound Reviews, Dope Fiend Daily, Academy of the Heart and Mind, Ariel Chart, Piker Press, Madness Muse Press, Runcible Spoon, Expat Press, Walking Is Still Honest(W.I.S.H.)Press, Degenerate Literature, Gathering Stories, Constellate Literary Journal, IT-International Times, Visual Verse, The Blue Nib, Pink Litter, In Between Hangovers, Indiana Voice Journal, Poetry Breakfast, Beatnik Cowboy, Dissident Voice, Scarlet Leaf Review, Horror Sleaze Trash, Mad Swirl, Zombie Logic Review, Whispers, Your One Phone Call, I am not a Silent Poet, Tuck Magazine, Terror House Magazine, Outlaw Poetry, Inquietudes Literary Journal, Duane's PoeTree, High On Poems, Synchronized Chaos, Love Booklet, The Wombwell Rainbow, Bottom Shelf Whiskey, Story Mirror, Stanzaic Stylings, Spillwords Press, The Micropoets Society, Leaves of Ink, PPP Ezine, Poetry Life & Times, Realistic Poetry International, Writing Nights Press, Eber & Wein, and several others. James spends most of his time writing, but also enjoys practicing magick, creating artwork, and cooking Cajun cuisine.
It is said that there are places on this earth where the border between this world and others is very thin. Some call these other worlds parallel universes. Some, the spirit world. No one knows for sure. But on nights like this one when one man wonders at what lies beyond the senses anything can happen. Anything at all. Just waiting for those who have eyes to see…
Will Mayo is the author of Dreams Of Mongolia, Hoodoo Voodoo, The Shells Encasing Our Nothingness, and other books of the extraordinary. He lives with his six-toed black cat in Frederick, Maryland, said by some to be the most haunted city in the state. Most of his writing is done between the hours of 3 a.m. and sunrise. He enjoys wordplay and strange tales, and hopes you do too.
Coming soon from Cajun Mutt Press,The Queen & Her Devil: A Sacred Journey Through Love and Contractsby Rani Whitehead!!! We’re aiming for a Halloween release on this one so keep your eyes peeled. You can also find her other book, Fracture Point, on Amazon. Published by C.M.P. January 7th, 2020.
“Rani Whitehead is a poet of major proportions, a gifted light who has lived the life she words. Her writing is balanced with an honesty that, for some, is frightening. Her latest offering, A QUEEN AND HER DEVIL, a sacred journey through love and contracts, is an amazing piece of work and will ultimately find its place among the country’s best literature. Rani Whitehead’s poetry, although solidly her own voice, reminds me of the poetic journals of Anais Nin. You will, once you start, have trouble stopping reading Rani until you have devoured her whole book. You will sense you have just received the gift of her deepest secrets written with a beauty that’s not seen often except when flowers bloom. She’s a writer to be reckoned with and I have a strong feeling we are going to see a great deal more of her. That is a good thing. Her work is substantial.” —Lee Pennington
“Deeply inspirational from the first moment, Rani Whitehead writes, early on, “I will melt for you / I will become molten lava / Destroying all in my path to hold your eyelashes between lips that whisper / Your longings /My longings.” Imagine the sheer boldness, the True Poet’s ability to catch the words, catch the emotion. It’s like this all the way through The Queen & Her Devil. In honor of Mahakala & Mahakali (a manifestation of Shiva and his consort). Rani opens the gates and the words rush out, standing behind the gates, waiting their turn. In The Queen & Her Devil, “a sacred journey through love and contracts,” as in earlier work, she has such a lot to say. It stampedes, it pours, it reaches us, and we are always moved. I think, How can she find such a different way to say a universal truth? But she finds a new angle, her own. Everything about her writing is her own. From the moment I became aware of her poetry, I sat up, straightened my back, and told myself, Now that’s really A Poet (which I don’t often say). That’s someone with the old magic, the old grace, and depth of The Poet. Though of a very different type, her words are as inevitable as those of the true classical poets. She speaks to us as directly as Neruda, straight in the eye. But most of all, she digs so deep—till she cannot dig any further. And it is in digging for us, holding every stone and chunk of dirt, every root and stem and blossom, she reawakens our own passions and desire to Live. That’s it: Be Alive. She writes as if we are not listening—uncensored, except by Art, and Life, and Truth. Her memories and imagination bring us hypnotically a storehouse of living bundles of Life for our savoring. I know that she will be around a long time, and I expect great things, marveling that her body can hold the intensity. Indeed this book shows us it can.” —Margaret A. Harrell (Author of The Hell’s Angels Letters: Hunter S. Thompson, Margaret Harrell and the Making of an American Classic)
“Have you ever had an all-consuming love? Have you ever felt a connection so deep that you were sure that their breath was your breath? That their heartbeat was your heartbeat? That every ache and pain they felt was felt tenfold in your bones? Have you ever felt the conviction, the undeterred devotion, to another soul so intensely that you are sure that the Universe birthed you both from the same womb at the beginning of time? Rani Whitehead’s latest book of poetry, “THE QUEEN AND HER DEVIL, a Sacred Journey Through Love and Contracts” is the story of one such love. With a mastery of pictorial words, carefully chosen and placed, she paints fantastic images of the magic and the chaos of finding a soul mate who has not yet found himself. Grounded and ethereal, tethered, and righteously free, Rani explores the duality between navigating contracts with another soul and nurturing a newfound devotion to her truth. The road Rani travels in this collection of poetry is bittersweet. We are given an intimate view of every sunrise and sunset. We ride with her to the mountaintop, high with victory, and to the shadowlands, where we nurse our travel-worn and blistered feet. And as the contract with her love bends and twists and ultimately dissolves into mist, a glorious and steady warrior is birthed, soft and strong, and true. It was an honor to walk with Rani on her journey, both in this lifetime and in this collection of poems. Her raw vulnerability IS one of her greatest strengths, and she does not hold back. Rani gives her written words, and ultimately us, the greatest gift… the naked truth of growth and resurrection through love lost and love found. Bravo, friend.” —Peyton Turner (Author ofRise Up From Ash: Follow Your Intuition, Save Your Life)
Randall is fifty-eight, full of no-nonsense, and hopes his picture reflects somewhat of his true worth. Looks you know. Deceiving. Toward the positive! He lives in Rapid City in the midwestern United States. He also writes plays.
Auricular feelers regale the erotic spur. It limns chimeric loops of want. How you quell it is your hail.
Nom de guerre is for others, you are what you are. In discarnate wrangles no one is aligned or askew.
Registers acknowledge validity of uniqueness. In most social orders you are marked by inflections.
Lifer
The robbed are like rites of a reefer: they scale you to roulade of scars. The voice cracks: tears burst and a bond is born.
I abhor disquiet: as a rhapsodist must eschew pleonasm. Dead air in the mew helps me fiddle with frequencies of the menagerie.
Oddities
If eyes had homes you would own a colony. Littleness of our exchange more precious than all the jewels, well almost. Anfractuous designs piece together plans. Sedulous assemblies seize them. The wise cue a hasty wit, others await overtures. Even as cheek by jowl with internal transparencies: parts of you are extortionate, too rich to be rewarded to me.
Ken
Extortionist strikes coerce single adults with metronomic precision. Couples legit or otherwise, handwrite blank cheques of their volition. I face the byword you scratch my back, letter by letter with unamusing regularity. It makes me understand why the bulk imitates the path I am not fain to follow. Tongue finds comfort in word-hoard: leech translates into lubricating the setup.
Sanjeev Sethi is published in over 30 countries. He has more than 1350 poems printed or posted in literary venues. He is joint-winner of Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux organized by The Hedgehog Poetry Press. Recent credits: Pomona Valley Review, The Fictional Cafe, The Cannon’s Mouth, The Poetry Shed, M58, Rochford Street Review. He lives in Mumbai, India.
