The Seers’ Table November 2023
Kate Maruyama, Member of the Diverse Works Inclusion Community
Kate Maruyama here. Spooky reading is a joy year ‘round for those of us at the Seers’ Table, but November, with its shortened days and gray skies, amps up the mood a bit. This month there is some poetry in the mix, along with some pizza and New Orleans. So, grab a cup of something warm, curl up, and dig in!
Linda D. Addison recommends:
Carol Edwards is a northern California native transplanted to southern Arizona. She lives and works in relative seclusion with her books, plants, and pets (two dogs, five cats, + husband). She grew up reading fantasy and classic novels, climbing trees, and acquiring frequent grass stains. She currently enjoys a coffee addiction and raising her succulent army. Her chosen superpowers would be to heal and to fly.
Her debut poetry collection, The World Eats Love, released April 25, 2023 from The Ravens Quoth Press. It is a powerful peek of our deepest need for relief from the pressure of living up to the expectations of others, and the drive to find (or lose) ourselves in the shadows of others.
Recommended Reading: The World Eats Love (The Ravens Quoth Press, 2023)
Poem, Haunted
“Voices linger in this house,
cracks and corners breathe in echoes,
carpets stained with memories.
Sitting on the floor,
sunlight creeps shadow leaves
across my knees, up the wall
until they blend in dusky hue
with the gray residue of loss, grief
dyes of pain soaked in curtains,
painted on door frames.
Laughter may be somewhere still,
but I find it so light it flies
sometimes right out the window.
Golden rays blind me through the trees,
the sun cradled certain days each year
where the hills dip to a V,
though today it seems more wane
like it wears a dingy mourning veil,
tragic heroine of its own gothic tale.
The ghosts clinging here
never wish to leave
nor be by any other creature seen,
but their cobweb airs my ears still reach
whatever path I choose
dwelling long after each haunting strain
overshadows twilight’s blues.”
Follow the author at: Site: practicallypoetical.wordpress.com; FaceBook, Twitter: @practicallypoet; Instagram: @practicallypoetical
Rob Costello recommends:
Alex Brown is a queer, biracial Pilipino-American writer who loves rooting for the final girl—especially if she’s a monster. Alex is also one of the co-creators and producers of The Bridge, a spooky, folklore-filled audio drama podcast that has over 1,000,000 downloads to date. In a past life, Alex worked on SUPERNATURAL and Netflix’s RESIDENT EVIL, though now she lives a quiet life in Los Angeles with her partner and their three chaotic cats.
Alex has a short story in The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror, which was an instant Indie Bestseller. Her sapphic YA comedy-horror debut, Damned If You Do, was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. Alex is also contributing co-editor of Night of The Living Queers, a YA Horror anthology featuring stories solely written by Queer Authors of Color.
Recommended Reading: Night of The Living Queers, “The Three Phases of Ghost-Hunting,” page 120:
A tentacle slithers out from the silhouette, grabbing the slice and retreating into the monochromatic blur. There are a few seconds of silence before a voice booms around us. “Cheese is … acceptable. Though I would have preferred pepperoni.”
“Um, okay. Sure. Sorry about that,” I reply.
Iris runs up with a slice of pepperoni. “Here you go.”
A spiky arm reaches out. Barbed fingers skewer the pizza and bring it back to the entity. Something that sounds like a burp fills the air shortly after.
I raise my hand. “Was that a … um, a proper sacrifice?”
“For now,” it replies.
Iris and I exchange glances as I continue. “Right. Can we get your name now?”
“Humanity has given me many names. And I have existed in more realms than I can recall. But here, I am known simply as Bob.”
Find out more about Alex at https://www.alexbrownwrites.com and follow her on X @gravity_fail09 and on Instagram @madethisforlu.
Author photo credit: Scott R. Kline/SRK Headshot Day
Kate Maruyama recommends:
Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and author of Posada: Offerings of Witness and Refuge (Sundress Publications) and Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites (Mouthfeel Press). A former Steinbeck Fellow and Poets & Writers California Writers Exchange winner, she’s received residencies from Hedgebrook, Ragdale, Yefe Nof, and National Parks Arts Foundation in partnership with Gettysburg National Military Park and Poetry Foundation. Her poem “Battlegrounds” was featured at Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, On Being’s Poetry Unbound, and Poetry Unbound: 50 Poems to Open Your World (W.W. Norton). She teaches with Antioch University, MFA and UCLA Extension, and is the director of Women Who Submit.
Recommended Reading: In her new book, Incantations, Bermejo is in conversation with the ghosts of Gettysburg, the ghosts of those citizens murdered by police, and La Llorona.
Living with The Dead
After 11th Massachusetts Infantry Monument, Gettysburg National Military Park
A ghost yanks at my feet
dragging me from navy sheets
and onto the floor. I fumble
for the phone, my hand asleep.
I’m pregnant, I say.
The baby is yours. Tingling fingers
speak to what’s real and not.
It’s pitch black, and yet, I feel
the line of teal cannons
below my second-story window
watching. In the living room,
a battle flag set in a field of white,
hate on display, taunts. I never
turn out the lights.
The land is so dark, I doubt
the day. At dawn, I rush out
barefoot to meet the sun
and name the fog. Down the lane
a single hand rises from concrete
clutching a saber. The hand thrusts
into the air like the living dead.
Well, all ends that is well, the hand
thinks, but thoughts choke
on stone and stumble. The hand
hacks before trying again:
Well ends well. That’s all.
And again: Well, well, all’s that ends.
No, the thought is simply, All ends.
You can find Xochitl online at xochitljulisa.wordpress.com or on Instagram @xochitljulisa.
Nicole D. Sconiers recommends:
Ashon Ruffins is a native New Orleanian and a veteran of the Army National Guard. He loves the art of storytelling in all genres and believes the best lessons in life can be told through fiction. He holds a master’s in business administration and loves spending time with his family or getting lost in a good book or movie.
Ashon is a huge mental health advocate, and he explores the stigma of Black men managing mental illness in his debut novel Descent of a Broken Man. His protagonist, James Corbin, is a Black high-school history teacher who lives with depression and anxiety and fights for respect at work and in his crumbling marriage. The despair James feels in his personal life seems to echo the hopelessness he sees in his New Orleans community rocked by drugs and violence. James discovers an ancient book, which unleashes a wave of terror in a city already plagued by brutality.
Recommended Reading: Descent of a Broken Man (Dreadful Times Press, 2022).
Excerpt from Descent of a Broken Man:
Joseph’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped with disbelief and concern. “James,” Joseph pleaded, “you need to get some help. You must talk to someone—someone professional.”
“Man, you know I can’t do that. The minute someone finds out, I will have an entirely different set of problems on my hands. That’s not what Black men do. I can handle this myself.”
“James, I’m a Black man. Your depression isn’t something for you to handle by yourself. Who gives a damn what others think? I get it. I know how we were raised. You deal with your problems alone and keep pressing forward, but that doesn’t mean we were taught right. I need you to get professional help. I need my friend to get some help.”
I sighed and turned my attention to the Book of Blood from Nadia’s Voodoo shop. “Joe, I wanted to show you what I found. It could be what I need to help bring me out of this funk.”
Follow Ashon Ruffins on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dreadfultimespress, Twitter @ lifethrufiction, and Instagram @life_thru_fiction.
