CHRYSANTHEMUM / FIVE WILLOWS LITERARY REVIEW is an Online literary review of the Chrysanthemum Literary Society for selected works that fit the spirit of Mr. Five Willows. Send your work via email to koonwoon@gmail.com both in the body of the email and as an attached Word file. Response time is immediate to 2 weeks. Thank you. All donations are tax-deductible.
Thursday, November 7, 2024
Wednesday, June 5, 2024
New Forum for Poems: Chrysanthemum Poems (above)
Sunday, June 2, 2024
Monday, April 11, 2022
Poem _______________ David Gilmour
DEPTH GAUGE
Standing on the
sunlit bank
Throw yourself into
the stream, shadow and all
If you are in
substance ready to plumb the depth.
The experience you
suffer daily is enough to appall;
Immersion in that
material swamp—contents not forms.
Viewing the
off-season family theatre from the crack
In the stage door;
star-struck neighbors hanging round,
Stiff with drink,
animated bags, stalking before the flood-
Lights and
backtracking into the barren set.
There’s furniture,
sure, the place is packed,
Furniture and
pictures just for the sake of mood.
You are seeking
contact with the wild world,
Aren’t you? I mean
beyond the daily tragedy,
Where unnerved Furies
can be temporarily tamed
By gutbusting
laughter, or where a saint, crowned
By an atom-bomb
blast, stands as an icon on a knoll,
Glowing like the
beaming Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.
Hey! Forget those
black-light dashboard skeletons.
In this scene The
Presence smiles a happy refugee.
Do you really need
the wisdom of bombastic Agamemnon?
Foreverafter fearful
of the backyard bathroom?
That cannot help
much. Noooooooo!
For the scientist and
the poet,
Creative data abounds
To study humankind in
ways beyond the norm:
You know, fragrant
thoughts of forests in Borneo;
An FM-band humming B.
B. King, the blues bard,
Singing “Hummingbird”
just on the verge of twilight
Greening.
Come on then! The horned Bull has been sacrificed,
The Ram has run,
The Fish have played
upon the horizon
In spring morning’s
celestial stream.
If you are going to
enjoy the Waters,
Fall, sun at your
back,
Throw yourself in,
shadow and all.
David Gilmour
Friday, February 25, 2022
Koon Woon in Quail Bell Journal: http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal-20/poetry-seattle-3-poems-by-koon-woon
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Julie Dickson ________________________ three poems
Earth
sadly
I
am the earth sadly waiting to die
below
a vast canopy of green leaves;
flee
from here into expansive blue,
revel
in the view, expanse of kestrel
wings,
shimmer of sun in knowing eyes;
he
sends me back, time not yet over.
Sit
upon my rocks far out on sea
island,
jagged edges biting flesh, raw
memories
run marathon, overlap,
collide,
reality crashes - the past
cannot
separate until a whale breach
sends
spray, sea mist awakens; stand
high
on melting glacier, feet frozen, boots
rated
for below zero don’t cut it, won’t
feel
toes nor fingers, numb like each time
gunshots
heard, screams of children, knives
slice
silent shouts of protest, unappeased
masses,
more weapons amassed to destroy
what
semblance of calm remains as blood
drains,
rivulets careen down streets, footprints
mark
path of humanity, destined to
destroy
species without habitats, elephants
perform
under duress, bears feast as birds
peer
down from canopy of leaves, I expire
slowly,
painful floating waves of plastic,
discarded
refuse in belly of sharks, oil
slick
pelicans suffocate, death on sand –
no
matter ancient commands of worship,
humans
once knew my worth; still progress
into
state of ruination, await my demise.
Julie
A. Dickson
Exeter,
New Hampshire
freezing to death
if i lie down in snow
will fire still burn,
harsh embers
igniting
a frightening
explosion, white flames
erupting, disrupting
coherence
will fire still burn
if i lie down in snow?
Julie A. Dickson
Vigil
Barren the dunes,
landscape of emptiness,
devoid of humanity,
lighthouse keeps vigil,
watchful over ships and sea birds,
blue horizon meets sea of hopefulness,
lighthouse calls out, answering the waves
Julie A. Dickson
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Poem __________________ David Mason
A Mathematical Abecedarian Poem
A problem is to calculate the
Beta function at alpha = 1/2, where it is
Continuous, has a transcendental value and is
Divisible by Beta at 3/2.
Easy enough using
Familiar properties of this function.
Galois theory does not come into play nor do
Hilbert spaces and their special properties.
Indivisible numbers, as well as,
Jordan curves should be avoided. You might get sucked into a
Klein bottle and never get out.
Latin squares may befuddle you or
Manifolds on Lie groups.
Never try to understand
Ordinary differential equations without
Practice in Fourier analysis and knowledge of
Quaternion valued matrices.
Riemannian metrics are essential in talking about
Space that is very curvy.
Time and time again they are
Useful in describing unexpected worlds.
Vector spaces are helpful too
When defining one’s place in space.
Xeno did not know about them when he fashioned his paradox.
Yet it confused philosophers long ago. By the way,
Zeno came up with the famous paradox, not Xeno.
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Submit poems to Chrysanthemum Poems by email to koonwoon@gmail.com
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Koon Woon in Quail Bell Journal: http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal-20/poetry-seattle-3-poems-by-koon-woon
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A Mathematical Abecedarian Poem A problem is to calculate the Beta function at alpha = 1/2, where it is Continuous, has a transcendental...