Villa Copenhagen. Taken by me. Aug. 2024.
Editor Tom Zimmerman, of The Big Windows Review, has accepted my poem, "Swimming at Villa Copenhagen." This is especially sweet because I submitted pieces to the predecessor of Big Windows, Blood Orange Review, and all were rejected. Can it be that I have learned something over the years? Anyway, the pieces I have read in Big Windows are impressive. I am flattered to be in such company. A big thank you to Editor Zimmerman.
This poem was not written in the Forever Workshop on surrealism and prose poetry, but it was written at the same time as the pieces I wrote for the workshop, so I credit it for getting my creative juices flowing. I also brought in Magritte in this poem, and that was due to his being on my mind from the workshop exercises. The picture above is from the front of the hotel, not the back where the pool is, but the windows are filled up in the same surreal way I saw in the ones around the pool, so the image is connected with the imagery in my poem.
The poem is about being temporarily in an alternative world. This was only possible because of privilege, however, and is ultimately illusory. The contrast between the privilege represented by such "Frivoli" worlds (the hotel is right next to the Tivoli Gardens) and the necessity of dreaming alternative worlds in order to escape from but also envision alternatives to this one is the main theme of the poem.
In other news, my pieces, "Personality Test Question" and "Refuse I and II," which I discussed here, are out in Alien Buddha Zine #70. You can get the zine in black & white here or in color here. I find these zines are always filled with various pieces that allow you to stretch your reading boundaries, or at least find something to your taste.
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