Ephemera Newsletter Iss April.3

(Creativity and Motivation Weekly)

Welcome to the Ephemera Newsletter free edition, Mitt Phokte! (Khmer for “friends”)

First things first, we intro the letter with the 3rd poem from Jacquelyn Shah, Ephemera’s poet for the month of April! You can review her poems altogether once they publish as well as her artist statement and bio on this dedicated post. We thank you for checking out Jacquelyn’s work.

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Crazy Like a Koan


Are you crazy? he asked me.
First the poems, then the stones,
yoga, zen, and now tarot?

(The cards had come, unpredictably,
into my hands. What could I do?)

They’re just poems, after all,
I told him, and the stones,
just stones, after all.

And yoga, I said, is a way of moving
and not moving, a seeming and breathing
that stretches the body to meet the mind,
to find the spirit, to prepare the whole
to zero in.
		         And zen . . .
Ah, yes, zen.

They’re just cards, quaint relics
from somewhere before, anywhere,
their forms clothed in ancient beauty,
bearing no resemblance to us, of course,
to us––sleek computer-town sophisticates
with bona fide answers to even the bogus questions.

But I see in the cards, the poems, the stones, et al.
possibility––good, bad, but possibility.
And, I said, I've always liked possibility.

Yes, I’m crazy,
crazy like a koan.

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Standard content matters: Won’t you please check out last week’s issue if you missed it.

And here are some reminders:

• Call For Submissions: April 30 is the deadline to appear in June. If you are a paid subscriber to Ephemera, you can submit to poetry @ Ephemera for free as a membership perk! (We email you a secret link at the end of your second consecutive paid month and every month thereafter for as long as you are a paid subscriber). Free subscribers and anyone else can submit, too, with the reading fee and can submit up to 10 poems. Paying the reading fee will grant you 1-month paid access to Ephemera’s full letter. Learn more or:

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In Brief…this week’s features:

• Thoughts on Minoru Muraoka, Japanese folk flute player and his cover of the famous jazz track “Take Five.”

• Looking at the elaborate and fanciful paper creations from the French artist duo Zim & Zou.

• April’s poet, Jacquelyn Shah and her third of four poems, “Crazy Like A Koan.”

• Our weekly lists:

  • 3 magazines with open calls

  • 3 awards/prizes

  • 3 recent job listings for editors and writers.

• **Sponsor our letter! Reach out to info@Litbreaker.com to advertise with us.**

• More ephemera:

  • INTERESANTE: In this issue, an article on the dying so-called “Campus Novel.”

  • Book Recs, bonus content, and our mini-essays to start!

    • Important Book: Richard Powers

• Support us on Bookshop - See our past book recs and others. A highly curated list.

• Last Week’s Issue.

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Merci. Danke. Kiitos. 고마워 Go-ma-wo. Cảm ơn. Xiè xiè.

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Ephemera

Dear Readers,

Eureka! We hope you exclaim upon distilling any shiny gold, deep-mind nuggets unto the page where it continues to be radiant. Good fortune to everyone reading, with life and writing. To be writing is to have your practice so purely integrated that life fuels