News SCHIZOPHRENIA (not by Kyle Kish) - 06/19/2010 by Kyle Anne Kish SCHIZOPHRENIA by D. James McKee there is a beast hidden beneath my bed. while in dreams, i cower between soft white sheets, his breath, laboured and foul, curdles the warm milk on my stand. he waits, a patient predator fawning on silence and shadow, hugging obsequious corners where darkness and dust- bunnies gather to grow. the moan of a floorboard, a whispered foot- fall and he coils, hoarding charcoal thoughts like leather-bound eggs. with diamond- edged reason and reptile cunning, he plots my demise. he scatters me like heady wine: he steals my strength and blurs my mind. his two-tyned tongue makes meat of innocence, tracing faults in yieldless, prophylactic, lines: a scarred and faithless mar- riage of space and time. his indelible venom pools in steaming indigo: injection sites for the misshapen sanguine faces racing madly beneath my pale skin, making for the pounding red path, chamber of the serpentine drum. with acid-balm lips lapping hungrily at my unguarded throat, he sets my face in a pillow of stone and scales the peaks: a mailed curtain draped from my two-post sleep. surcease: so small, I curl my spine, face pressed to knee: searching for light in an end- less night, seeking the solace of heaven, slamming the door in the side of my head, to silence the voices that follow. through the transparent sides of their pharma-fed ovipositer, the pills glisten: milky gems, tepid and bitter and curdled, wholesomeness expired somewhere in the dark, before the cold bland rays of dawn. tonight, I sleep with the blue angel, who soothes to silence both the beast and me. 03/23/2010 Author's Note: As Alice Cooper once said: "Welcome to my nightmare..." Posted on 03/23/2010 Copyright © 2010 D. James McKee Beautiful, soft poetry (NOT by Kyle Kish) - 06/09/2010 by Kyle Anne Kish TO REITERATE ... KYLE KISH DID NOT WRITE THIS POEM ... WAYNE TATE WROTE IT AND HIS WORDS ARE REMARKABLE. To Yield Soft Words... by Wayne Tate Moments like this rarely come to me... Soft eyes... reflective tears body bent, rent and raw... with words violently slamming themselves back and forth in the dark din I am scared to ask but I need an answer... How do you define with a pen the wet and wrenching rhythm that no longer recalls warmth, nor courage? Should we risk all while seeking the significance of ourselves? Digging our desperate, and frantic heels into the fleshy core of our hearts while softly screaming... Please...don't leave me...? Attached by the threads of sadness Held together by the breadth of a pulse... that beats its own thick cadence before it realizes its mistake and finally turns to beat you... Do we hold onto lovers begging them not to feel what we feel, or hear what we say to ourselves as our once proud souls grow a darker shade of blue...? The murmurs... the whispers.. telling you that blood is blood regardless if it comes from a river or is squeezed from a stone. Within this love... Feeling... Believing... Capturing the senses that are not your own. Embracing the heat that claims your skin... touching every string that connects the "you" to "them" …and that is your pain... That as you soundly sink into the arms of the one you love, wishing them the sweetest of dreams; in the peaceful hours you share before the dawn; pressing your feathers further back into their cage... Completely scared out of your mind; you will remind yourself... that no matter how connected your heart may feel... no matter how much you love the touch and warmth of the lie... ...you will always dream alone... 05/27/2009 Author's Note: I have to thank Sarah Wolf for this piece. I asked her to give me 5 words and a mood and she delivered 5 words: courage, loss, sadness, dream,lie The mood: despair - Thanks for the inspiration Sarah :) Posted on 05/27/2009 Copyright © 2010 Wayne Tate Our next featured poet...Jon Kary - 11/17/2006 by Michelle Angelini Please visit the forum for an enlightening interview and poem links with Jon Kary. Also, if you would like to be featured in The Bell Jar forum or interview a poet to be featured, please contact either Kyle Anne or myself. We always enjoy our roving reporters. ~Chelle~ Wendy Sparling...featured poet. - 07/17/2006 by Michelle Angelini See her interview - very interesting - and links to her poems in the Bell Jar Forum. Thank you Wendy, for being our featured poet. ;-) ~Chelle~ Our next featured poet... - 05/30/2006 by Michelle Angelini is Julie Adams. Her poems are featured here on the main page. I've posted her interview in the forum. I'd like to thank James Zealy and Jersey Gibson for being our last two featured poets. From now on Kyle Anne and I will change the featured poets every 2 weeks, so that everyone in the circle will get their 15 seconds or so of fame. As Kyle Anne mentioned, we are also looking for roving reporters to interview upcoming featured poets. IM either one of us, telling us who you'd like to interview. After that, the poet featured has the choice of picking and interviewing the next one.

Forums (members only) Featured Poems Members Andrew S Adams Julie Adams Michelle Angelini, Circle Moderator Steve Baba Kimberly Bare CM Bauer Ashley Beaudoin Ginette T Belle Nanette Bellman Nikki Benson Jim Benz Ava Blu Kristine Briese Lisa Marie Brodsky William Brunk Amanda Bullington Shayla R Cakes Cathlyn Cartier James Cavet Racquel Cervantes Mo Couts J. P. Davies S. Elizabeth Rhyana Fisher Jared Fladeland Richard D Frederick Wendy Geal Jersey D Gibson Derek Gregory Meghan Helmich Jeanne Marie Hoffman Aaron Howard Rachelle Howe Alisa Js Maria Kintner Kyle Anne Kish, Circle Moderator Martini Koy Ann Krischus Maryellen Lebeda-Parra Paul Little Melina Raven Maness Diebold Amanda L Marron D. James McKee Aaron Michael Cole Miller Harold Millican Jean Mollett Emily G Myers David Neubauer Amy Niggel Katerina T Nix Vikki Owens Robin Patterson Lacy D Phillips Bryan Poole Patricia J Reed Deborah S Regan Nikki Rice Omi Salavea Michele Schottelkorb Mainon A Schwartz Elizabeth Seago Anastasia Selby Eric Seligmann Joan Serratelli Anastasia Shows Robbi Skaera Kalikala Smith Melinda Sordino Wayne Tate Matthew Taylor Indigo Tempesta Uriel Tovar S.J. Tyler A. Paige White Sarah Wolf Arianna Woods Bet Yeldem James Zealy Kate Zimmerman