Sirius Notes

Pertaining to the verses of Don Pablo Estévez y Blanco, titled ‘Siriusly’, ætherickly publish’d in The Flea; videlicet:  http://www.the-flea.com/Issue20/Siriusly.html

Certain researchers investigating the Dogon have reported that they seem to possess advanced astronomical knowledge, the nature and source of which has subsequently become embroiled in controversy… the Dogon appeared to know that the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, has a faint companion, Sirius B, which requires a fairly large telescope to be seen. They also appeared to know of the rings of Saturn, and the Moons of Jupiter, which were not discovered by astronomers until after the invention of the telescope in the 17th century.This is a puzzle because the Dogon do not have telescopes. The controversy escalated when author Robert Temple suggested an extra-terrestrial source of the Dogon's knowledge.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon

The Nommo are ancestral spirits (sometimes referred to as deities) worshipped by the Dogon tribe of Mali. The word Nommos is derived from a Dogon word meaning, "to make one drink," The Nommos are usually described as amphibious, hermaphroditic, fish-like creatures. Folk art depictions of the Nommos show creatures with humanoid upper torsos, legs/feet, and a fish-like lower torso and tail… Dogon mythology states that Nommo was the first living creature created by the sky god Amma. Shortly after his creation, Nommo underwent a transformation and multiplied into four pairs of twins. One of the twins rebelled against the universal order created by Amma. To restore order to his creation, Amma sacrificed another of the Nommo progeny, whose body was dismembered and scattered throughout the world. This dispersal of body parts is seen by the Dogon as the source for the proliferation of Binu shrines throughout the Dogons’ traditional territory; wherever a body part fell, a shrine was erected…

…the Nommos were inhabitants of a world circling the star Sirius (see the main article on the Dogon for a discussion of their astronomical knowledge). The Nommos descended from the sky in a vessel accompanied by fire and thunder. After arriving, the Nommos created a reservoir of water and subsequently dove into the water. The Dogon legends state that the Nommos required a watery environment in which to live. According to the myth related to Griaule and Dieterlen: "The Nommo divided his body among men to feed them; that is why it is also said that as the universe "had drunk of his body," the Nommo also made men drink. He gave all his life principles to human beings." The Nommo was crucified on a tree, but was resurrected and returned to his home world. Dogon legend has it that he will return in the future to revisit the Earth in a human form.

…Neither does an external cause seem to explain the 400-year old Dogon artifact that apparently depicts the Sirius configuration, or reports that the Dogon were aware of the super dense nature of the white dwarf star, Sirius B, since this was only postulated not long before the Dogon came in contact with the anthropologists.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nommo

Timewave zero is a theory that purports to calculate the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. It is an idea conceived of and discussed at length by Terence McKenna from the early 1970s until his death in the year 2000. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, density of complexification, and dynamic change as opposed to static habituation. According to McKenna, when "novelty" is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as timewave zero or simply the timewave results. The graph shows at what times, but never at what locations, novelty is supposedly increasing or decreasing. According to the timewave graph, great periods of novelty occurred about 4 billion years ago when Earth was formed, 65 million years ago when dinosaurs were extinct and mammals expanded, about 10,000 years ago after the end of the ice age, around late 18th century when social and scientific revolutions progressed, during the sixties, around the time of 9/11, in November 2008, and with coming novelty periods in October 2010, with the novelty progressing towards the infinity on 21 December 2012. Important graphic points in 2009, appear around 19 April, 29 August and 23 October 2009, indicating the possibility of significant events around these dates…

Novelty theory has a few basic tenets: That the universe is a living system with a teleological attractor at the end of time that drives the increase and conservation of complexity in material forms. That novelty and complexity increase over time, despite repeated set-backs.

That the human brain represents the pinnacle of complex organization in the known universe to date…. That as the complexity and sophistication of human thought and culture increase, universal novelty approaches a Koch curve of infinite exponential growth (singularity). That in the time immediately prior to, and during this omega point of infinite novelty, anything and everything conceivable to the human imagination will occur simultaneously, presentation as an implication. That the date of this singularity is December 21, 2012, the end of the long count of the Mayan calendar…

This End of Novelty was to be the final manifestation of The Eschaton, which McKenna characterized as a sort of strange attractor towards which the evolution of the universe developed…

Robert Anton Wilson has the theory of The Jumping Jesus Phenomenon, which he describes at an hour and a half long seminar given in 1988 titled "The Acceleration of Knowledge" and in his book Prometheus Rising. He also theorizes that information has doubled over history, and that these doublings come faster and faster. The Jumping Jesus Phenomenon has more of a philosophical and historical basis than a scientific one, though many parallels between his theory and Timewave Zero can be drawn…

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timewave_zero

One of McKenna's ideas is known as novelty theory. It predicts the ebb and flow of novelty in the universe as an inherent quality of time. McKenna developed the theory in the mid-1970s after his experiences in the Amazon at La Chorrera led him to closely study the King Wen sequence of the I-Ching. Novelty theory involves ontology, extropy, and eschatology.

The theory proposes that the universe is an engine designed for the production and conservation of novelty. Novelty, in this context, can be thought of as newness, or extropy (a term coined by Max More meaning the opposite of entropy). According to McKenna, when novelty is graphed over time, a fractal waveform known as "timewave zero" or simply the "timewave" results. The graph shows at what time periods, but never at what locations, novelty increases or decreases and is supposed to represent a model of history's most important events.

The algorithm has also been extrapolated to be a model for future events. McKenna admitted to the expectation of a "singularity of novelty", and that he and his colleagues projected into the future to find when this singularity (runaway "newness" or extropy) could occur. Millenarians give more credence to Novelty theory as a way to predict the future (especially regarding 2012) than McKenna himself. The graph of extropy had many enormous fluctuations over the last 25,000 years, but it hit an asymptote at exactly December 21, 2012.[20] In other words, entropy (or habituation) no longer exists after that date. It is impossible to define that state. This is also the date on which the Mayan long calendar ends.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna

Omega Point is a term invented by the French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe a maximum level of complexity and consciousness towards which the universe appears to be evolving…

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega_Point

Claim: The Dogon and the Egyptians detected Sirius B because their melanin acted similarly to an infrared telescope…

Source: http://www.ramtops.co.uk/dogonsum.html

starry: ancient, old  (Russian старый, stary)

Source: http://www.fact-archive.com/encyclopedia/Nadsat (Nadsat from Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange)

Eche Flea-some Broadsheete Delay’d for One Monthe

NB: All Broadsheets of THE FLEA,
after May 1611, have been set back for One Monthe, viz.,

Reviz’d Calendar

of
The FLEA
Broadsheet Publickations,
&c.
May, Broadsheet XVI
July, Broadheet XVII
August, Broadsheet XVIII
September, Broadsheet XIX
October, Broadsheet XX

Thus, if your poem be preuiously set to appear in the Avgust Broadsheet,
It will now be publish’d in September,
&c.

Thou FLEA, thou nit, thou winter-cricket thou...

FLEA the XVIIth, with Stephen Edgar, Gene Auprey, Michael Burch, Geoff Page, Angela France & more:

http://www.the-flea.com/

The Utterly Fabulous GOLDEN FLEA Awards, 1611

The GOLDEN FLEA Prizes for Excellence in Psyllophilous Poetry, awarded to the best poems (in Yr Hble & Obdt Editor’s infallible Estimation), originally publish’d in The FLEA from June, 1610 to May, 1611; the afore-said awards consisting of valuable ætheric Trophies, so utterly Metaphysical that they do not euen exist in Body Natural, but only in the Realm of the Ideal. This Year they are awarded to—

Mistress Anna Evans, for ‘The Persistence of Desire’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue12/PersistenceofDesire.html

Mr. Amit Majmudar, for ‘The Yo-yo’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue12/TheYo-yo.html

Mistress Ann Drysdale, for ‘When Mister Nifty Plays the Bones’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue14/WhenMisterNiftyPlaystheBo.html

&,

Mr. Stephen Edgar, for ‘The Representation of Reality in Western Art’:
http://www.the-flea.com/Issue15/TheRepresentationofRealit.html

These awards to be deliuer’d vnto the honour’d Recipients by a host of Angels in a Glory!

For further Intelligence of these Transcendendental Phenomena, please consult the following Æ-Page; viz., http://www.the-flea.com/Issue16/Editorial.html

Down at The Mermaid with The Flea

An evening down the Pub, and aftermath -- with John Whitworth, Ann Drysdale, Les Murray, Geoff Page, Peter Wyton, Anna Evans, Rick Mullin, Stephen Edgar, Ben Jonson, Timothy Murphy, Marly Youmans, Duncan Gillies MacLaurin, Susan Taylor, John Donne, Salli Shepherd &c. &c. Hangover remedies from John Whitworth & Alan Gould. Followed by uplifting ejaculations from George Herbert.

http://www.the-flea.com/Issue16/index.html

Hugh Fox Reading ‘Since’ from Broadsheet 12

Hugh Fox reads his poem ‘Since’, published in The Flea’s Broadsheete 12.

THE FLEA’s Birth-daye Bumper Broadsheet Pub-Crawle

In the Merry Month of May, 2011, THE FLEA will attain his Second Birthday; maugré the vicissitudes of Dame Fortuna, and the desuetudes occasion’d by the Agenbyte of Fleawitte; THE FLEA having so thrived & swyv’d & prosper’d, & swolne moreover, that the once-wee Bug-ger, inflated to this preposterous Girth of Poetick Rotundity, his belly stuff’d with verses Physickal & Metaphysickall, is more aptly address’d as Sir Cumference, than as Sir FLEA!

This Fal-staffe of Fleas, this Ralph Roister Doister of Suttle Inter-netted Verse, this Jiggynge Hobbie-Horse-Pegasus of Poetry, accordingly proposes to celebrate his Happy Anniversarie by heading to

THE MERMAID TAVERN,

or, 

Down the Pub!

THE FLEA therefore invites the Canting Crewe, the Poets, Satyrists, Wittes, Gallants, Fine Ladies, Dells & Doxies, & sundrie divers Revellers, to join it in a Poetic Pub-Crawl to THE MERMAID TAVERN, for a BUMPER BIRTHDAY BROAD-SHEETE, or, it may be, BROAD-SIDE. Thus you may supply Yr Arrogant & Vnruly Editor with select verses compos’d to fit the occasion, on such topicks as:

Ale, Beer, Quaffing, Rollicking, Toasting, Ducke-drunkenness, Lager-Loutes, lustfull Meeting of shining Eyes across a crowded Bar, Wine, Absinthe, Pub-crawling, Pub-brawling, Arrest by the Watch for Drunk & Disorderly, Absinthe, the Heady Intoxication of Love, a Round or two for a Pound or two, Chundering, Beer-goggles, Lost Week-endes, Remorseful Hang-overs;or whatever invention the Poetic Imagination can devize to suit this Bacchanalian & Celebratory theme; and moreover in any mood, from boisterous to maudlin, as may seem apt to the inspiration of the Poet.

Keyboard-Quille THREE of your poetick Effusions in a Fayre Hand, and inclose them in the Submission Forme on the THE FLEA’s Submitte Page, or within an æ-mail address’d to Yr Editor (whose Address may be found vpon that same Submitte page), and be certayne to inscribe THE MERMAID TAVERN as the subject line, or near the toppe of your submission. NB. It is suggested that verses hotly compos’d in a divine afflatus of inspir’d intoxication, be afterwards reviz’d in a more sober & critickal disposition & frame of Minde.

When Yr Editor deems that sufficient lively Bacchanalian Verses have accrued, he will at that point close the Submissions. These Pub-Crawle Birthday Submissions will be in sur-plus & addition to the current General Submissions (which close on the 22nd of January). Authors who have submitted work for the general issues of THE FLEA may nevertheless submit also for this special themed May Birthday Broadsheet.

        Souls of poets dead and gone,
        What Elysium have ye known,
        Happy field or mossy cavern,
        Choicer than the Mermaid Tavern?

Sundrie Adviz’ments Concerning SUBMISSIONS &c.

THE FLEA’s first few Broadsheets for 2011 are filling up rapidly. Poets who have submitted work already should rest assur’d that Yr Editor is working diligently through the very large number of submissions in the order of receipt, and that their place in the queue for consideration is secure.

But Authors who submit henceforth from this present Day, until the close of the general Reading Period, viz. the 22nd day of January, should be appriz’d that Yr Hble Editor probably will not be able to put their work (should he chuse it for THE FLEA) into a Broadsheet before about June, or, it may be, even later. So IF Authors still desire to submit work nevertheless, they should factor into their stratagems that it may be a delay of some several Monthes before Publication. One Broadsheet of THE FLEA will, Deo volente, be publish’d each month during 2011, until August; beyond which Yr Editor hath not deviz’d.

AND MOREOVER there will be a special themed Bumper issue for THE FLEA's Secound Birthday Party in May; the Theme to be announc’d anon. Authors & Readers may summon to mind the extravagant Psychedelic Bug Rave of May, 2010, on the Occasion of THE FLEA's First Birthday. Yr Hmble & Obdt is still recovering from that Event. Not necessarily stoned, but... beautiful... http://www.the-flea.com/Issue8/index.html

The Submissions Portcullis is Open’d!

The portcullis of THE FLEA Broad-sheetes is now rais’d, and Yr Horrible & Obedient Editor is entertaining poetic Submissions during the next monthe or there-aboutes; therefore, Authors wishing to submit poetic Effusions of a somewhat metaphysical complection for Editorial consideration may consult the Principles of Submission, situated at this address on the Ætheric Inter-nette; viz. http://www.the-flea.com/Submit.html

A Timely Announcement

The submissions Portal of THE FLEA will swing creakily open on 22nd December 2010, that being one Yeare and a Day since it laste faste clos’d. THE FLEA expecteth to remain open to poetickal Submissions for at least one month past that daye of December 22nd; thereafter, when Yr Hmble Editor may opine that sufficient worthy Poems have accumulated to keep this Metaphysicalzine a-hopping and a-popping for the next few terms, the Portal will again slam dustily shut. Poems accepted during this reading period will not necessarily be publish’d in the very first Broadsheet of 2011, but will appear in various issues over the first six Monthes of that year.

THE FLEA calls for no enforc’d Theme in workes submitted to it. It prefers to dine on formal verse, but does not revile well-crafted vers libre, in the style favour’d in the Virginia colonies & among some Continental versifyers. The tiny Insecte’s own Proboscine Instincte for what pleaseth it well, must remaine, as from its very inception, its principal Criterion in chusing meete Verses to exhibit within these Broadsheets; but Poetry which toucheth happily on matter or style congenial to our late glorious Elizabethan Age, or to our modern Jacobean reigne, will invite the keene attention of Yr Hmble Bug-Ey’d Editor; as moreover, for the general, will verses that do not resile from complex Allusion, unexpected Imagery, or darkness of poetick Style. THE FLEA ever strives to chuse poetry which shines with exuberant Witte, daring Conceites, & fine intellectual Play, & which is express’d with exquisite imagistic & emotional Modulation. But no doctrinaire Orthodoxy may be discern’d in THE FLEA’s selection regime; merely the sharpe glimmer of the sotte-weede sodden Editor’s capricious Whim and consider’d Judgment.

THE FLEA has been justly endors’d and celebrated by Poets, Criticks & Wittes, from our far-flung colony of New York, even unto Shepton Mallet, and beyond! It boasts an extensive & gentle Readership, having published numerous widely-fam’d Authors, epical, lyrical, mediatative & metaphysickal; shining Luminaries of the vary’d Poetickal-Celestial Spheres.

Therefore, Ye Poets, Bards, Vates, Native-Wittes, University-Wyttes, Gentlemen, Lords & Ladies, Clerkes, Scriveners, Roaring-Boyes, Roaringe-Girls, Tom o'Bedlams, Abraham Men, Upright Men, Dells, Doxies, Cony-Catchers, Bawdie-Baskets, & all the vary’d ranks & degrees of the Canting Crewe — take up your Quills! Invoke the Muse, and cunnyngely compose, with an Eye ever fix’d to thys bright Portal of Poetickal Opportunity!

Yrs &c,

Paul Stevens B.A. (Hons), Dip.Ed, Fellowe of the Royal Society of Alchymists & Astrologers

Robert Hooke, Micrographia: Of a Flea

MICROGRAPHIA:

OR SOME

Physiological Descriptions

OF

MINUTE BODIES

MADE BY

MAGNIFYING GLASSES

WITH

OBSERVATIONS and INQUIRIES thereupon.

---

By R. HOOKE, Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY.

---

Non possis oculo quantum contendere Linceus,
Non tamen idcirco contemnas Lippus inungi. Horat. Ep. lib. 1.

 

---

LONDON, Printed by Jo. Martyn, and Ja. Allestry, Printers to the ROYAL SOCIETY, and are to be sold at their Shop at the Bell in S. Paul's Church-yard.
M DC LX V.

---

~§~ 

Observ. LIII. Of a Flea.

The strength and beauty of this small creature, had it no other relation at all to man, would deserve a description.

For its strength, the Microscope is able to make no greater discoveries of it then the naked eye, but onely the curious contrivance of its leggs and joints, for the exerting that strength, is very plainly manifested, such as no other creature, I have yet observ'd, has any thing like it; for the joints of it are so adapted, that he can, as 'twere, fold them short one within another, and suddenly stretch, or spring them Schem. 34. out to their whole length, that is, of the fore-leggs, the part A, of the 34. Scheme, lies within B, and B within C, parallel to, or side by side each other;
but the parts of the two next, lie quite contrary, that is, D without E, and E without F, but parallel also; but the parts of the hinder leggs, G, H and I, bend one within another, like the parts of a double jointed Ruler, or like the foot, legg and thigh of a man; these six leggs he clitches up altogether, and when he leaps, springs them all out, and thereby exerts his whole strength at once.

But, as for the beauty of it, the Microscope manifests it to be all over adorn'd with a curiously polish'd suit of sable Armour, neatly jointed, and beset with multitudes of sharp pinns, shap'd almost like Porcupine's Quills, or bright conical Steel-bodkins; the head is on either side beautify'd with a quick and round black eye K, behind each of which also appears a small cavity, L, in which he seems to move to and fro a certain thin film beset with many small transparent hairs, which probably may be his ears; in the forepart of his head, between the two fore-leggs, he has two small long jointed feelers, or rather smellers, MM, which have four joints, and are hairy, like those of several other creatures; between these, it has a small proboscis, or probe, NNO, that seems to consist of a tube NN, and a tongue or sucker O, which I have perceiv'd him to slip in and out. Besides these, it has also two chaps or biters PP, which are somewhat like those of an Ant, but I could not perceive them tooth'd; these were shap'd very like the blades of a pair of round top'd Scizers, and were opened and shut just after the same manner; with these Instruments does this little busie Creature bite and pierce the skin, and suck out the blood of an Animal, leaving the skin inflamed with a small round red spot. These parts are very difficult to be discovered, because, for the most part, they lye covered between the fore-legs. There are many other particulars, which, being more obvious, and affording no great matter of information, I shall pass by, and refer the Reader to the Figure.

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15491/15491-h/15491-h.htm

On the Push-Carte Prize

The Editor of the Push-Carte Anthologie hath dispatch’d an urgent Missive to THE FLEA, requesting nominations for the 2010 Push-Carte Prize; & after much cudgelling of the Editorial Brayne-pan, & energetick Resort to contemplative Pype-bowle Puffings of the Pestilent American Sot-Weede, Yr Humble Editor hath chosen the following Poems for THE FLEA’S Nominations; namely & to wytte:

‘Liminal’ by Angela France — http://www.the-flea.com/Issue6/Liminal.html

‘Binary’ by Amit Majmudar —http://www.the-flea.com/Issue6/Binary.html

‘And The Men Kept Coming’ by Nicola Daly — http://www.the-flea.com/Issue7/AndTheMenKeptComing.html

‘Shakespeare in Love’ by Ann Drysdale — http://www.the-flea.com/Issue7/ShakespeareinLove.html

‘Triduum’ by Rick Mullin — http://www.the-flea.com/Issue7/Triduum.html

‘The Pismire Oration’ by Maragret Griffiths — http://www.the-flea.com/Issue8/EpigraphPismire.html


THE FLEA wisheth these meritorious Authores all good Fortune in their contention for that worthy Prize.

The Fabulous Golden FLEA Awards 2010

Your Humble Editor hath, after much meditative scrutiny of his critical Faculties, decided upon Five winners of the totally unsubstantial, impalpable & non-corporeal Golden Flea Awards; whiche trophies, constructed entirely of Golde to ayrey thinnesse beate, & utterly lacking in Ontological Substance, are awarded to the following Poems, publish’d in THE FLEA during the previous Twelvemonth & a Day; viz,

Item, The Once-onlie, Nirvana-Supreme, Non Plus Ultra, Grand Cosmic Order of The Golden Flea is awarded to ‘The Pismire Oration’ by Margaret Griffiths http://www.the-flea.com/Issue8/EpigraphPismire.html

Golden Flea Awards are also hereby presented to,

Item, ‘Against Beauty’ by Alfred Nicol http://www.the-flea.com/Issue2/AgainstBeauty.html

Item, ‘Metre-wanker’ by Ann Drysdale http://www.the-flea.com/Issue6/MetreWanker.html

Item, ‘Small Game on the Prairie’ by Timothy Murphy http://www.the-flea.com/Issue7/SmallGameonthePrairie-2.html

Item, ‘Starfish Harvest’ by Amit Majmudar http://www.the-flea.com/Issue8/StarfishHarvest.html

The 2010 Golden Flea Awards will be delyver’d instanter by shining Angels to the Fortunate Recipients; & that to be done imperceptibly, on the Metaphysical Plane, all with the Blessing of The Soveraygne Muse.

THE FLEA rave -- free bugs!

Come to THE FLEA Circus and Bug Rave — a cast of trillions!

http://www.the-flea.com/

The Green Contagion

Yr Hble & Obdt has a poem and reading in the new issue of Soundzine: The Green Contagion. I am also the reader for the poems of Howard Miller and Martin Elster.

One of my poems, The Hidden Muse, was selected by the Editors as one of the best ten poems ever published in Soundzine.

The Flea Gloweth Deepest Rubedo

A Flea moreover which transmuteth that which is base imperfect Mettle into Gold,  & whych projecteth many a Stone Philosophickal or Nugget Poetickal thereby; as witnesseth Philip Quinlan, Leo Yankevich, Joseph Salemi, Fr. Robert J. Pecotte, Geoff Page, Amit Majmudar, Rose Kelleher, Nigel Holt, Bill Greenwell, Alan Gould, Louis Gallo, Angela France, Nausheen Eusuf, Stephen Edgar, Ann Drysdale, Kevin Cutrer, Peter Coghill, C.E. Chaffin & Jared Carter.

http://www.the-flea.com/

THE FLEA’s Submissions Portal Closing 20/12/2009

THE FLEA will close for submissions from Sunday >>>20/12/2009<<< until further notice. There remain a very few places in future issues up until May 2010. I still have many fine submissions received to evaluate, so if you have already sent me work you should hear from me over the next few weeks. If I have already accepted poems from you which I have not yet published, I will have indicated in the acceptance letter which issue and date of THE FLEA your poem will appear in; that might not necessarily be the very next issue. Poems have often been accepted for several issues ahead: do please check your acceptance letter for the exact issue & date of publication before assuming I have forgotten to publish it. If there is still a question, then by all means contact me.

THE FLEA Broadhseets will always remain online, & will probably also be permanently archived by the National Library of Australia's PANDORA project, as are The Chimaera and Shit Creek Review.

My thanks to all who have supported THE FLEA, & have won for it thereby such high reputation in the Commonwealth's opinion for the excellent quality of the poetry exhibited therein.

The Season of THE FLEA

You've got to pick up every stitch,
The rabbit’s running in the ditch,
Beatniks are out to make it rich,
Oh no! Must be the Season of the Witch...

http://www.the-flea.com

Thomas Zimmerman, Marly Youmans, Gail White, Timothy Murphy, Rick Mullin, David W. Landrum, Rose Kelleher, Clive James, Jan Iwaszkiewicz, Midge Goldberg, Richard Epstein, Ann Drysdale, Kevin Cutrer, Norman Ball, Gene Auprey, Mark Allinson, Mary Alexandra Agner.

___________

NB: If, Gentle Poet, you have sent a submission to THE FLEA since October 5th and have not yet heard back from me, fear not. I have a large pile of submissions and I am methodically working my way through it, placing accepted poems into various issues of THE FLEA for 2010. But if you have not heard from me in over eight weeks concerning your submission, by all means email me and make enquiry.

FLEA Fancier-Fest

Comments on The Flea

* "The Flea is a wondrous new 'zine, marked by the rare imagination and verve of Paul Stevens. What a sparkling, spanking-new idea for a literary magazine!"

—Marly Youmans, The Palace at 2:00 a.m.


* "Paul Stevens’ latest editorial achievement, The Flea, is now online–worth perusing as much for the idiosyncratic house style as for the excellent poetry contained within by such luminaries as Rhina Espaillat, Rose Kelleher, Tim Murphy, and, of course, yours truly."

—Anna Evans, Dreaming in Iambic Pentameter


* "...I’d opened the link to The Flea and been magically transported to a poet’s castle where the emperor’s new clothes were actually made of fabric instead of wishful thinking....

"...I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing really worth reading being published and I was wrong. Go, go to The Flea. Read it and be grateful. I’ll be collecting all the useless print journals I’ve got sitting around and firing up the barbecue. Maybe the light of the flames will inspire me. At least I know that there is still poetry in the world that speaks to the mind and heart without navigating through the navel first and miring us all in the lint so often found therein."

—Christine Kloceck-Lim, November Sky Poetry


* "It's splendid, Paul. I'm proud to be part of it. Poetry and Hudson
pay better, but The Flea is better company."

—Timothy Murphy


* "The Flea's elegance is surpassed only by its high quality of verse. Seeing all the Sphereans together makes me realize what a gaggle of fine poets visit these boards. Paul Stevens has done a fine job--as have all the contributors."

—Lance Levens


* "I've just finished another of several readings of this Flea, and it truly is a wondrous assemblage of quality poems. I wish it was a paper thing I could hold within my hands.

Congratulations to all Spherians involved - all powerful poets showing poems that represent the best of their work, I believe.

Thank you so much for the invigorating experience, Paul. Great work."

—Cally Conan-Davies


* "The Flea always leaves me itching for more"

—Patti McCarty


* "I just hope you know you ruined my well-planned day, Paul. Really, I have a long list of important things to do today, including mow the lawn before the neighbors get up a petition and get the books alphabetically back on the shelves so I can find them when I need them, yadda-yadda.

But now I will have to sit down and read this wonderful broadsheet. Really, there is no alternative.

It looks so inviting. Another fine contribution to the world of "literary labors of love"."

—Janice D. Soderling


"Beautiful fanciful concept."

—Janet Kenny


"Paul, you're tireless! This is impressive and (Peter be praised) gorgeous."

—Kate Benedict, Editor, Umbrella

At the round earth's imagin'd corners

At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scatter'd bodies go!

Yes, me friend, me good friend,
Dem say we free again.
Yes, me friend,
We deh a street again.

The bars could not hold me;
Force could not control me now.
They try to keep me down,
But Jah put I around. Yeah!

Yes, I've been accused many a times
And wrongly abused, now.
Oh, but through the powers of the Most-High,
They've got to turn me loose.
Don't try to hold me up on this
bridge, now.
I've got to reach Mount Zion -
The highest region.
So if you a bull-bucka,
Let me tell you this -
I'm a duppy conqueror - conqueror.

Yes, me friend, me good friend,
Dem say we free again.
Yes, me friend, me good friend,
We deh a street again.

So don't try to cold me up
on this bridge, now.
I've got to reach Mount Zion -
The highest region.
So if you a bull-bucka,
Let me tell you this:
I'm a duppy conqueror - conqueror.

Yes, me friend,
Dem say we free again.
Yes, me friend,
Dem set we free again.
Yes, me friend, me good
friend...

Art by Pat Jones http://imagineii.typepad.com/imagineii/