Issue #3

Greetings, poem appreciators , and welcome to the third issue of Stanza Cannon – a literary quarterly dedicated solely to oral poetry. We continue to be humbled by the quality of work sent this zine’s way, and we are very happy to report that issue views are on a steady rise. You are being heard! Submissions, also, are on the rise, as are the number of places from which they’re being sent. (This issue features voices from the United States, Cyprus, India, Nigeria, and Indonesia!) This is all to say thank you to the poets who trust Stanza Cannon with their work and to the listeners who stop by and take the time to channel the experience. Issue 3 is also the first (hopefully of many) to feature a Grab Bag entry. If you go to the Grab Bag page and click on Issue 3, you’ll find two readings of as many poems by as many poets. With more submissions, we can broaden the fun. How about it? Until winter, happy listening, and enjoy your autumn!

Issue #3 – Playlist

00:00 – 00:57 A message from the editor
Pulkita Anand
01:02 – 02:03 “Poems”
James Penha
02:07 – 03:11 “Proscenium in Bali”
03:16 – 04:54 “Life of Plants”*
Everett Cruz
04:58 – 06:10 “Organic Sedimentary”**
06:15 – 07:39 “White Isn’t Always the Absence of Color”
Dr. Chaturvedi Divi
07:44 – 08:45 “The High Street Beggar”***
Ryan Keating
08:50 – 09:41 “Chalk”
09:46 – 10:37 “Jonah Moves”
10:42 – 11:28 “Time and Eternity”
Alex Carrigan
11:32 – 12:52 “Bob the Drag Queen Gazes into the Purse, and the Purse Gazes Also”

Issue #3 – Individual Contributors

Poem: Poems
Poet: Pulkita Anand
Bio: Pulkita Anand is a student of literature. She likes to listen to music and play badminton. She loves to absorb life to the fullest. At times, she loves to write too. Her creative works have been published in various journals.

Poem: Proscenium in Bali
Poet: James Penha (Twitter)
Bio: Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. His essays have appeared in The New York Daily News and The New York Times. Penha edits The New Verse News, an online journal of current-events poetry.

Poem: Life of Plants*
Poet: James Penha (Twitter)
Bio: Expat New Yorker James Penha (he/him🌈) has lived for the past three decades in Indonesia. Nominated for Pushcart Prizes in fiction and poetry, his work is widely published in journals and anthologies. His newest chapbook of poems, American Daguerreotypes, is available for Kindle. His essays have appeared in The New York Daily News and The New York Times. Penha edits The New Verse News, an online journal of current-events poetry.
*Previously published in print in Waterways 31.5 and reprinted online in Hyacinth Review 25.

Poem: Organic Sedimentary**
Poet: Everett Cruz (Twitter)
Bio: Everett Cruz (he, they) lives in Denton, Texas. He studied creative writing at the University of North Texas. He is a Filipino-American who grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. His work has been or will be published in Brave Voices, Tigers Zine, Morning Fruit, Resurrection Magazine, and The B’K.
** Recorded live at the North Texas Review reception.

Poem: White Isn’t Always the Absence of Color
Poet: Everett Cruz (Twitter)
Bio: Everett Cruz (he, they) lives in Denton, Texas. He studied creative writing at the University of North Texas. He is a Filipino-American who grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. His work has been or will be published in Brave Voices, Tigers Zine, Morning Fruit, Resurrection Magazine, and The B’K.

Poem: The High Street Beggar
Poet: Dr. Chaturvedi Chivi (Twitter, Koo)
Bio: Dr. Chaturvedi Divi’s poems and short stories have appeared in the anthology of Only Men Please , Reading Hour,America the Catholic Magazine, Twist & Twain and Spillwords and elsewhere.He has an MA in creative writing from The University of Wales. His doctoral thesis is on diasporic literature.

Poem: Chalk
Poet: Ryan Keating (Twitter, IG)
Bio: Ryan Keating is a writer, pastor, and winemaker on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His work can be found in publications such as Saint Katherine Review, Ekstasis Magazine, Amethyst Review, Macrina Magazine, Fathom, Dreich, Vocivia, and Miras Dergi, where he is a regular contributor in English and Turkish.

Poem: Jonah Moves
Poet: Ryan Keating (Twitter, IG)
Bio: Ryan Keating is a writer, pastor, and winemaker on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His work can be found in publications such as Saint Katherine Review, Ekstasis Magazine, Amethyst Review, Macrina Magazine, Fathom, Dreich, Vocivia, and Miras Dergi, where he is a regular contributor in English and Turkish.

Poem: Time and Eternity
Poet: Ryan Keating (Twitter, IG)
Bio: Ryan Keating is a writer, pastor, and winemaker on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His work can be found in publications such as Saint Katherine Review, Ekstasis Magazine, Amethyst Review, Macrina Magazine, Fathom, Dreich, Vocivia, and Miras Dergi, where he is a regular contributor in English and Turkish.

Poem: Bob the Drag Queen Gazes into the Purse, and the Purse Gazes Also
Poet: Alex Carrigan (Twitter)
Bio: Alex Carrigan (he/him) is an editor, poet, and critic from Virginia. He is the author of May All Our Pain Be Champagne: A Collection of Real Housewives Twitter Poetry (Alien Buddha Press, 2022). He has had fiction, poetry, and literary reviews published in Quail Bell Magazine, Lambda Literary Review, Barrelhouse, New Note Poetry, Quarterly West, Sage Cigarettes (Best of the Net Nominee, 2023), Stories About Penises (Guts Publishing, 2019), Closet Cases: Queers on What We Wear (Et Alia Press, 2020), and more. He is also the co-editor of Please Welcome to the Stage…: A Drag Literary Anthology with House of Lobsters Literary. For more info, visit https://carriganak.wordpress.com.