The LKMNDS Podcast
By Thomas K-Johnson
The LKMNDS PodcastJun 01, 2021
012: Black Child
Lauryn Carroll, affectionately known as “Spoony,” was born in the suburbs of northern California. She has dedicated her work to capturing stories of the 'everyday,' as a way to examine the connectedness and ripples of larger social issues in our daily lives. The poet hopes to continue her work as an MFA student in the near future to strengthen her skills and successfully come full circle as an "adult."
011: Constitution Avenue, 11pm
Sean O'Neill is a law student in Washington, DC, but for most of quarantine he has social-distanced in the woods or by a lake. Although he aspires to write more poetry, mornings pass in a coffee-fueled haze and evenings often find him with a guitar in hand and an unfinished to-do list, wondering where the day's more productive hours have gone.
010: 7
Jay Cuervo was raised in New York, the son of a Peruvian immigrant. On the streets as a teenager, his perspective is one of brilliance seen in maddening situations.
009: Brackets
Nico Olivieri works as a transformative coach with clients from all over the States and Europe. He recently moved with his wife and six-year-old son to a small town in the Italian Alps to embrace a slower life, closer to nature after a decade spent living in 3 big European cities like Amsterdam, Dublin and Milan. He holds a BA in Science and Technologies of Music Communication from the University of Milan and ventured in poetry writing at the beginning of 2020.
008: Hurricane
Steve Gerson, an emeritus English professor from a Midwestern community college, writes poetry and flash about life's dissonance and dynamism. He's proud to have published in Panoplyzine (Editor's Choice Award), The Hungry Chimera, Toe Good, The Write Launch, Route 7, Duck Lake, Coffin Bell, Poets Reading the News, Crack the Spine, Riza Press, White Wall Review, Variant, Abstract, Montana Mouthful, the Decadent Review, Indolent, Rainbow Poems, Snapdragon, The Underwood Press, and In Parenthesis.
007: Charge
Tiana M. Reynolds is the author of the poetry collections Angels in the Dark and 100 Days of Rain. As an American living abroad, with each passing day, she discovers a new lens through which to view her world. It is this which drives her desire to create beautiful, relatable works for those who share her passion for exploration of their spaces and themselves.
006: pH
Alex Andy Phuong earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from California State University—Los Angeles in 2015. He was a former Statement Magazine editor who currently writes passionately. He has written film reviews for MovieBoozer, and has contributed to Mindfray. His writing has appeared in The Bookends Review and The Society of Classical Poets. He writes with the sincerest hope to inspire readers, and fully supports those who dare to pursue their dreams.
005: Off the Beaten Path
Terry Brinkman has been painting for over forty-five years but has also created poems. Terry has published five Amazon E- Books and has poems in Rue Scribe, Tiny Seed, Jute Milieu Lit and Utah Life Magazine. Snapdragon Journal, Poets Choice, Adelaide Magazine, UN/Tethered Anthology, the Writing Disorder, Winamop, Ink Pantry and In Parentheses.
004: Ceremony
Ry Downey is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. He self published his first book of poems, Flowers Leaning Toward the Sun in 2019.
003: Since the Dawn of Time
Harman Cheema is from a small town just off the coast of British Columbia. He is currently working on an undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, and has been passionate about written expression since he was a child.
Currently, Harman has 2 published poems that can be found in anthologies provided by the Poetry Institute of Canada. He also received a Certificate of Excellence from the institution. When he was 15, Harman was honored to take part in an organized poetry contest that allowed him to read his work aloud to a large audience and received first prize in poetry under the youth category.
002: A Million Words
Rahil Najafabadi is an emerging writer and a professional artist who has sold original collections of watercolor and pastel paintings since 2016. She hopes to publish her own poems, fictional short stories, and illustrated children's books under the pen name "Miss Hill." Growing up in Connecticut, most of her work includes elements of the cold northeastern state in both color and style.
001: Vision of Almighty
Aarya Srivastava is a young poet who sees big dreams with small eyes. She has been published in many magazines and wants to aim even higher in the literary world. The ink of her thoughts and her pen of hard work helps elevate her to the next level in her writing career.
014: Not Drowning But Waving
Laurie Kuntz is an award-winning poet and film producer. She has published one poetry collection (Somewhere in the Telling, Mellen Press) and two chapbooks (Simple Gestures, Texas Review Press and Women at the Onsen, Blue Light Press), as well as an ESL reader (The New Arrival, Books 1 & 2, Prentice Hall Publishers). Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her chapbook, Simple Gestures, won the Texas Review Poetry Chapbook Contest. Recently retired, she lives in an endless summer state of mind. You can find a portfolio of her work at the following website: https://lauriekuntz.myportfolio.com/home-1
013: Written A Decade After My Sister Walked Out
Emma Crone is an English major and aspiring writer at Baldwin Wallace University with a passion for fiction and poetry. She's been featured as a poetry author in Baldwin Wallace University’s 2020 edition of their student arts publication The Mill, and won an award for commended short stories from the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation's 'Authors of Tomorrow' contest.
012: Darnella's Duty
Laurie Kuntz is an award-winning poet and film producer. She has published one poetry collection (Somewhere in the Telling, Mellen Press) and two chapbooks (Simple Gestures, Texas Review Press and Women at the Onsen, Blue Light Press), as well as an ESL reader (The New Arrival, Books 1 & 2, Prentice Hall Publishers). Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her chapbook, Simple Gestures, won the Texas Review Poetry Chapbook Contest. Recently retired, she lives in an endless summer state of mind. You can find a portfolio of her work at the following website: https://lauriekuntz.myportfolio.com/home-1
011: May
Nina Murray is a Ukrainian-born American poet, translator, and diplomat. Her most recent collection of poetry is the chapbook Minor Heresies (The Heartland Review Press, 2020).
010: When...
Savage The Poet is a Nuyorican Poet/Healer born and raised out of Brooklyn, NY. In love with words and the effect poetry has on changing and uplifting human emotion, his poems ripple off of influences like Elizabeth Acevedo, Maya Angelou, and Pedro Pietri. Savage’s writing is inspired by Afro-Latino Spirituality, poverty, women, and the everyday forces of nature. In the flawed, yet perfect, blend of poetic beauty and raw emotion…he is also known as the hood’s preacher and therapist.
009: Lift the Veil & See
Simon Havok traveled the world during his time in the US Air Force. He has previously been published in the Air Force Times, Literary Yard and Scarlet Leaf Review. In 2019, Havok finished his first autobiographical book of poetry entitled Through The Eye & Mind of A Frail Vessel. When not writing, he enjoys raising his four amazing sons.
008: Thank you, ADA
Clarence Carter Boucher is blind in one eye; the other eye has been saved for now by multiple surgeries and changes in treatment. Carter’s eye has some field loss and contrast loss. He also has nerve damage in his hands from a car wreck in which he was dead on impact. The EMTs clocked him as dead for 16 minutes. Clarence Carter came back to a broken neck and four years of therapy to regain his fine motor control. In addition, he has Type II Diabetes.
Clarence Carter Boucher’s children’s books are published by Richard C. Owen. His poetry has been published in numerous anthologies including, Poems by the World’s Best Living Poets. He won the International Golden Poet Award and was featured in About the Author. Carter can be found and contacted with the following information:
carter@boucherart.com
007: The Shortest Distance
Ranjith Sivaraman is from Kerala, a small state in India. He is a poetry lover and a fan of true love. This is a short poem dedicated to all those who were lucky enough to experience true love and those who believe in love of life. Ranjith can be found on social media at: https://twitter.com/asranjith
006: Beautiful
Jessica (Tyner) Mehta is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, interdisciplinary artist, multi-award-winning poet, and author of several books. Place, space, and personal ancestry inform much of her work. She’s also the owner of an award-winning small business. MehtaFor is a writing services company that offers pro bono services to Native Americans and indigenous-serving non-profits.
Her novel, The Wrong Kind of Indian, won gold at the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) and at the American Book Fest Best Book. Mehta’s Savagery won the Reader Literary Review's 2020 award for “most innovative collection of poetry.” Selected Poems: 2000 - 2020 received the 2020 Birdy Prize from Meadowlark Books. Jessica has also received numerous fellowships in recent years, including the Everett Helm Visiting Fellowship at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington and the Eccles Centre Visiting Fellowship at The British Library in London.
005: American Consanguinity
Alastair Huntley is currently a post-baccalaureate premedical student at Northeastern University, having previously studied at Norwich University, The Military College of Vermont, where he earned a BA in Studies in War and Peace with honors. Alastair attended the 2018 Yale Writers’ Workshop and also received the 2018 Vermonter Fellowship through the Stowe Story Labs for his feature-length screenplay, Half Shell.
004: Stories
Writing is breathing for Mahloli, poetry, the very air she breathes. Sometimes she questions her sanity, but she is just trying to give something to the world. She wonders what the use of life is, but she has realised we do not enjoy life for its usefulness; we enjoy life for its beauty. She is fierce, ambitious, forever young and a constant striver.
003: Prayer
Rochelle Asquith is a 22-year-old writer and artist from Wakefield, in the North of England. Her essays and artistic works have been published many times before, but she has only recently started branching out into poetry after rekindling her love for it upon the perusal of a Vera Pavlova collection.
Her website can be found at www.rochellemasquith.wordpress.com
002: The Taste of Fear
Kendra Clevenger is a twenty-six-year-old Missouri native. She is the eldest of six children and a single mother to one young child. Her passion for art in many forms started at a very young age and has only continued to grow. She enjoys all things outdoors, animals, travelling, writing, drawing, welding and painting. She aspires to be a veterinary tech and published author. She lives on a multi-generational farm with her parents, child and four of her siblings. When she has down time, her favorite thing to do is travel or watch crime shows. She is an avid activist for many causes and has a natural talent for organizing, planning and executing protests. She is a member of the LGBTQ community and identifies as a pansexual, self-proclaimed “Punk Rock Hippie”. Her most enjoyed topics of discussion involve art, animal sciences and husbandry, activism, natural living and all things crime or horror related.
“The Taste of Fear” reminds us that we should be more proactive in embracing the emotions that we deal with daily, as it may actually help us find the beauty in this life that we live.
001: Hiccups
“Hiccups” was written by Matthew Berg. He is a renaissance man from the Midwest, a follower of Jesus, a husband, and a father who writes poetry, essays, and fiction. He lives in the South with his family and shows us that even in the midst of the most difficult times, we can still find peace and a spirit of overcoming in our quests to eradicate the hiccups of life.
Season 2 Trailer
You heard it here first! The LKMNDS Podcast is returning for Season 2 on September 15, 2020! This season features powerful and original poetry from poets across the world!
If you want your poem featured on our podcast, please visit our Submittable page!
The LKMNDS Podcast is produced in partnership with The Kneeland Center for Poetry, Inc. and The Elevation Review. Be sure to check out both websites for more information on the sponsoring organizations and how you can get involved today.
Visit the following websites!
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Ep. 10 | Breathe
Breathe is a simple poem about living. The poetic form used in this poem is the Lune poem. It has been coined as the American Haiku by Robert Kelly (no, not R. Kelly, haha). The form is comprised of thirteen syllables; the first line contains five syllables, the second has three syllables, and the third line contains the final five syllables.
Ep. 9 | We're Made to Love
We’re Made to Love is a poem that invites a reader to not be afraid of being in love with the right person. The poetic form used in this poem is the Burmese Than-bauk form, composed of three lines with four syllables in each line. The last syllable in the first line rhymes with the third syllable of the second line and the second syllable of the third line. In this poem, chained three Than-bauk forms together.
Ep. 8 | Rules of Disengagement
Rules of Disengagement is a simple tricube poem that speaks on infidelity. The tricube poetic form takes on a simple structure: 3 stanzas, 3 lines per stanza, 3 syllables per line.
Ep. 7 | Return Song
Return Song is a Shadorma poem about coming together to march towards true freedom. The Shadorma poetic form is a six-line poem that doesn’t have to rhyme. The syllabic structure is as follows: 3 / 5 / 3 / 3 / 7 / 5.
Ep. 6 | At Land's Edge
At Land’s Edge is a sestina verse poem that accentuates a journey across the Atlantic Ocean during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The Sestina Verse form is a form that poets either love or hate. To achieve this form, you pick six words, rotate them as the endings of each line in each stanza (without repeating the same position) and then include two word endings per line in your final stanza. That’s a lot to take in, I know. The bottom line is that you’ll have six stanzas, each containing six lines, with each line alternating between the six words you’ve chosen in the beginning. To see this poem in action, visit www.thomaskneeland.com/blog.
Ep. 5 | 2,023 Miles
2,023 Miles is a nonet poem that tells a grandfather and grandson’s journey from California to Mississippi in 1995. A nonet poem is comprised of nine lines; the first line contains nine syllables. Each line after that decreases by one syllable (i.e., 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1). To see this poem in action, visit www.thomaskneeland.com/blog/nonet
Ep. 4 | Redemption
The imayo poetic form is a four-line Japanese poem. It is comprised of twelve syllables in each line. Each line contains an intentional caesura between the first seven syllables and the last five.
Ep. 3 | Ars Poetica
The villanelle is comprised of five tercets and one quatrain. This poetic form relies on the structure of rhyme and refrain.
Ep. 2 | Spectre
Spectre is a poem that starts the dark and terrifyingly beautiful journey of the African Diaspora. Prepare to feel the oceanspray land on your skin like goosebumps of sheer excitement. Feel the spirit of light and the thrill of escape as you take a spiritual journey from the past to the future.
Ep. 1 | Father
Thomas Kneeland delivers an original poem about fatherhood.