Congratulations to OLD SCRATCH PRESS founding member Robert Fleming, whose poem “we were before waring,” featured in impspired was a Delaware Press Award winner.
WAY TO GO ROBERT!
we were before waring
we were before waring
we wore hair keratin like baboons & knocked our chests like gorillas
we wore skin like zebras & bent-over to water like wilder-beasts
we wore muscle like lions & paw swatted flies like bears
we wore bones like swine & dug dirt worms like robins
we wore blood like falcons & taloned on branches like pigeons
we wore fig leaves like chameleons & hide motionless like a rat out-preying an ambush snake
Ten dedicated writer poets comprise the Old Scratch Short Form Collective, with the goal of working with the Devil’s Party Press, a small independent publisher, to bring to fruition the concept of publishing chapbooks of poetry and short form prose under the imprint Old Scratch Press.
This week we are introducing Robert Fleming. His chapbook White Noir will be published in the fall of 2023. Don’t forget to subscribe to our blog, as we’ll be introducing the contributing editors, member of the collective, one by one each week. You’ll also learn about poetry events, publishing opportunities, and new ways of approaching the genre of short form.
MEET ROBERT FLEMING
Robert Fleming is a word-artist born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who emigrated to Lewes, Delaware, United States. Robert follows his mother as a visual artist and his grandfather as a poet. In his work, Fleming explores masculinity, sexual orientation, sin and virtue, and dystopia in words and graphics on earth and beyond.
Since 2017, more than 400 of his works were published internationally in more than 95 print and online publications, art galleries and online mic features. His style is influenced by the writers Robert Frost, Dr. Seuss, and the Beats and his graphics by surrealistic artists like Salvador Dali. A Member of the Rehoboth Beach and Horror Writers Association, nominated twice for the Pushcart Award and twice for Best of the Net, Robert Fleming’s is the winner of the 2022 San Gabriel Valley California Poetry Broadside Award and is in the 2021 Best of Mad Swirl.
Robert’s chapbook, White Noir, a Black and white visual poetry exploration of human birth to death and beyond on earth, is scheduled for publication in the November of 2023. He says about the book, the vibe is dark, goethe, and dystopian, but I lighten it up by including humor. And,” he adds, “ it offers a hopeful ending.”
In just four more days April will be here, and you know what that means?… National Poetry Month! If you have a favorite poem, we’d love to hear about it and possibly post it ( if it is in the public domain). Please use the comment space to get in touch, We’ll be sharing favorite poems and pieces we admire along with writing prompts, thoughts and musing about poetry, short form prose and other hybrid forms.
Do you have an idea for something you’d like to read about in this space? Let us know. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Hi~
Dianne from Devil’s Party Press (DPP) here.
Did you know I studied the writing of poetry when I was in college?
I love poetry, and there is a growing interest in it, but still not enough places to share it.
I reached out to some of the poets we’ve published at DPP, and asked them if they would like to do some volunteering to get a poetry imprint going, and, luckily, many of them said, “Yes!”
Poets are, by nature, generous people.
Together, I hope that we can publish good poetry. I hope that, over time, the poets will run the kitchen, cooking up new books, anthologies, opportunities, awards, who knows what all for poets!
My goal for this year is to put out a single author collection of poetry for three of the poets who are volunteering to create and run the press.
Our “poets” decided, to begin with, that poetry is as unique as the poets who create it. So they decided to make poetry include what we might consider to be a traditional poem, as well as more short-form works, mini memoirs, bits of story, and to include art, as it please the members to do so.
I think it’s going to be creative and exciting, and I cannot wait to see what they dream up.
Look for posts from the members here as we get underway on this project. I’m starting us off, but I hope they’ll soon eclipse me as they create something wonderful to which DPP becomes the helping hand.
The members of the group are: Alan Bern Anthony Doyle Ellis Elliot Gabby Gilliam Janet Holmes Uchendu Morgan Golladay Nadja Maril R. David Fulcher Robert Fleming Virginia Watts
And the first book from the group, A Break in the Field, by Ellis Elliot, is forthcoming from Old Scratch Press (OSP) this summer!
I wish all these wonderful authors a lot of luck with the OSP project!
And thanks to you for loving poetry, following this group, and maybe even buying a book!
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 