Archive
On the Folly of Not Being James Bond
Real bombs go off, and famine chases droughts,
while markets crash and burn like satellites.
The world is far too much, and full of doubts.
Only old movies get us through these nights.
We envy tuxedo pleats and savoir faire,
the gold and the guns, the girl in the gown,
the danger and the daring not to care.
Whether or not we choose, we all go down
the mountain in a cello case. It’s nice
to go down as Bond, bow tie to socks,
as cool as a martini. Over ice
we sweat and swear, careening on the rocks,
machine-gunned, knuckles clenched, and vision blurred.
Most of us are shaken; a few are stirred.
__________
Notes: The cello case chase is a well-known Bond segment from the 1987 The Living Daylights. The World Is Not Enough is the 1999 offering from the franchise.
Leslie Ann Minot received an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in 2004, and has previously published poetry and translations of poetry in The Chicago Review, The Red Rock Review, New Letters, and neon geyser/porcelain sky. She has published critical articles in The European Romantic Review and Excavatio, as well as in collections on Victorian sensation fiction, Caribbean literature, Georges Sand, and Muriel Rukeyser. Currently, she is watching too much Dark Shadows on video.
Call for Submissions: New Classics
What is a classic? What does it mean to us?
In this issue of qarrtsiluni, which will begin publishing around May 1, we invite you to engage, interpret, revisit and re-invent classics through your own idiosyncratic and modern sensibility.
We’re looking for work inspired by the archetypes and forms of familiar pieces of art, sacred story, poetry, iconography or folk tales, but the term “classic” should be interpreted both broadly and internationally, and could certainly encompass contemporary work so familiar it has become part of our collective psyche.
Yes, Greek myth or Roman epic as archetype or inspiration for your own peculiar spin, but also: Sundiata, Pride and Prejudice, Andy Warhol paintings, Basho’s haiku, the Green Man, the VW Bug, Frankenstein, Tiamat, The Dhammapada, rock and roll, Anansi tales, banshees, Sedna, avatars turned online/gaming identity, fox woman, Nero Wolfe, creation stories, 1950’s creature features — surprise us with something we can’t help but recognize, even as we’ve never seen it put to your uses.
Transform, transpose, transgender, trans-border our expectations with your wholly familiar, yet wholly new, take on a classic.
We’re open to any forms, including cross-genre. Flash fiction/very short stories are especially welcome (1,000 words or under). Please send no more than three poems or photographs, and only one video, at a time. As always, be sure to refer to the general guidelines before submitting. The deadline for submissions is March 31.
Looking forward!
—Ann E. Michael and Jessamyn Smyth, guest editors
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Poet, essayist, librettist and occasional radio commentator Ann E. Michael (website) is also a college educator/tutor in eastern Pennsylvania. She is the author of three chapbooks of poetry, an avid gardener, and an advocate for the arts.
Jessamyn Johnston Smyth’s writing (website) has appeared in American Letters and Commentary, Red Rock Review (forthcoming), Nth Position, Abalone Moon, qarrtsiluni, and other journals and anthologies. She won listing in Best American Short Stories/100 Distinguished Stories of 2005, and has received a Pushcart Prize nomination, a Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference grant, a Vermont Community Foundation Artist Grant, and a writing grant from Change, Incorporated. Jessamyn has just finished a collection written during a year spent in the forest, and is working on placing Green Mountain Prose Poem. She has several other books in progress.
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