Poetry | Fiction | Visual Art
In this new poem, Lesley Burt explores the work of Van Gogh, discovering in it the possibility of a world ‘unclaimed by names’.
‘At the end of each song he lays the saxophone on his lap, leans over and spits into a tin bucket. The floorboards under his chair are worn from years of heels tapping syncopated rhythms. His toe breaks through the sole of the boot, yet the shine remains jet black and sharp…’
Paul Rabinowitz reads his flash fiction piece Syncopated Rhythms for Long Exposure Magazine.
Art by Karen Boissonneault-Gauthier.
At the end of each song he lays the saxoph
Long Exposure Magazine has now been publishing for 2 years!
During this time the magazine has been fortunate enough to publish a fantastic range of poetry, photography, visual art and critical work from around the world. Many thanks to each contributor and reader who has been involved so far.
Issue 4 will add sharp and engaging short fiction to this output, featuring more writers and artists than any previous issue.
These are exciting times as we look to expand the magazine and above all promote high-quality creative work and those who are producing it.
Long Exposure Magazine is now offering feedback and guidance on a selection of your poetry. For an introductory fee of £10 you will receive rigorous feedback and editorial advice on a set of up to 5 poems through e-mail correspondence.
Editor Daniel Williams holds undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in literature and creative writing and has published poetry widely on-line and in print, including at Cadaverine, Ink, Sweat, And Tears, and Envoi. Alongside his work in editing and publishing, he has experience of teaching creative writing in a variety of contexts, from local community to university level.
Make your payment below and the editor will contact you to receive your work and begin your tutoring session. Any enquiries can be sent to editor@longexposuremagazine.com.
Further opportunities at Long Exposure Magazine.
Long Exposure is looking to put together a list of artists to work with frequently who can respond to the writing published in the magazine, through painting/illustration, photography and other visual art forms, to be featured alongside the creative writing pieces in each issue. This is an opportunity for regular publication and promotion. If you are interested in this project please contact editor@longexposuremagazine.com with a brief introduction and a sample of your work or links to some examples. You can see the type of work the magazine has published so far here.
For the next issue, Long Exposure is opening up submissions to fiction, specifically very short fiction of 700 words or less. In previous issues we explored traditional short forms such as the haiku (Issue 2), and how an economy of language and sharpness of observation can heighten the impact on the reader by using a minimum of words.
Definitions for this type of fiction are various, and as such our criteria are broad. Whether your pieces lean towards a fluid and poetic style or want to focus on delivering an engaging narrative in a tight space, we would love to read your work.
As usual we are open to poetry submissions on any style or theme, but with a particular interest in the Ekphrastic genre or work which combines text and image, as well as to photography and art work and collaborative projects between writers and artists.
See previous issues for the type of work we have published to date.
If you have an idea for an essay or article, particularly on the relationship between creative writing and the visual arts, contemporary poetry and poetics, or the arts in education and society, contact the author to discuss.
All submissions and enquiries to: editor@longexposuremagazine.com
We look forward to hearing from you!
The new edition of Long Exposure Magazine is now available!
Featuring an international selection of new creative writing, photography and visual art.
Access it here:
Long Exposure Magazine, Issue 3, July, 2016.
For our next issue, Long Exposure Magazine is seeking photography or visual art based on the theme of ‘Movement’. The representation of movement, such as the play of light, the movement of animals or the actions of figures, have been a long standing preoccupation for the techniques of creative writing and the visual arts. The theme is open to new possibilities and can be interpreted in any way you choose.
A selected image or art work will then be chosen to feature as the front cover of Long Exposure Issue 3. Submissions to: editor@longexposuremagazine.com
As always, we look forward to viewing your work!
To view the type of work we have featured to date, read our previous issues here.
For the latest updates on the progress of the magazine and to view new content, support Long Exposure on social media:
Twitter: @longexposuremag
Facebook: Long Exposure Magazine
Submissions are now open for our third issue!
So far, the magazine has been fortunate enough to engage with and publish fascinating collaborations between creative writing and the visual arts, and we continue our interest in this type of project, whatever media is involved. We are always open to new projects being brought to our attention, and if you feel your work may be suitable for publication in the magazine or would like to enquire further then don’t hesitate to contact the main e-mail address at: editor@longexposuremagazine.com.
Alongside direct collaboration between art forms, the magazine continues to publish striking and innovative contemporary poetry, photography and other visual art in its own right, from practitioners at any stage of their careers. You can view our general submissions guidelines here: https://longexposuremagazine.com/submissions/
Both previous issues can be accessed online and free of charge, so if you have an interest in this field and would like to see the style and range of previously published work, we would greatly appreciate your support in reading Long Exposure’s output to date.
We look forward to receiving your work, and to continuing to explore the possibilities for contemporary arts.
To keep up to date with the progress of the magazine and our activities, follow Long Exposure on social media:
Facebook: Long Exposure Magazine
Twitter: @longexposuremag
The new edition of Long Exposure Magazine is ready! Featuring an internationally diverse range of creative work in a variety of forms. Access it here: http://joom.ag/g6Ob
Please enjoy the issue and share!
Support Long Exposure on social media:
Facebook: Long Exposure Magazine
Twitter: @longexposuremagazine
The second issue of Long Exposure Magazine will be made available online from this Friday, 19th June.
The edition is focused on a variety of eastern poetic and artistic forms, and features the collaborative work of Ron Rosenstock and Gabriel Rosenstock, combining haiku and photography, a sequence based on the art of Hiroshige, several examples of Haiga art work, visual poetry and more.
Keep updated here at the Long Exposure website, or follow the project on social media:
Facebook: Long Exposure Magazine
Twitter: @longexposuremagazine
At the Water’s Edge
after Cezanne, “At the Water’s Edge” (c. 1890)
Resisting the hot wind, this house at the water’s edge
retreats beneath the whir of trees.
Their dry brushstrokes are blue like water or sky
and green as the end of spring.
But mostly they are the colors
of canvas, earth, and parched leaves.
The sky is a haze of brushstrokes, a wash of turpentine,
smoke to the water’s edge.
Hills loom behind the house;
they are mirages made of thinned paint.
More buildings appear, shimmers in the haze,
reflections in the water.
No swimmer, no boat breaks the surface,
more mirror for land and sky than home for fish and weeds.
But the house’s heart is dark and sweet
with sage and lavender, with the scent of grass and lake
protecting its guests from the hot wind, the drought,
and the smoke to the water’s edge.
Birch Trees in North Carolina
Seen from the window of the slow train south,
the needle-thin trunks glint
the way the odd, white threads do
in a quilt of blues, browns, and greens.
I do not recognize all of these trees,
but I know the birch.
Its peeled bark is snow clinging to spring.
Its leaves are wind chimes.
Its roots clutch at the stone wall
between long-gone pasture and forest.
I see this birch in Carolina,
not where I expected it,
but here among the rows
of oak and pine, beside
pools of water, part of
this quilt of sky, earth, and vine.
Bio: Marianne Szlyk is a professor at Montgomery College and the editor of The Song Is… Recently, she published her first chapbook, Listening to Electric Cambodia, Looking at Trees of Heaven, with Kind of a Hurricane Press: http://barometricpressures.blogspot.com/2014/10/listening-to-electric-cambodia-looking.html Her poems have appeared in a variety of online and print venues, including ken*again, Of/with, bird’s thumb, and several anthologies by Kind of a Hurricane Press. She hopes that you will consider sending work to her magazine. For more information about the spring/summer contests, see this link: http://thesongis.blogspot.com/2015/04/contests-for-springsummer.html
The cicadas already
conduct the sound of the day.
Early conversation in a garden
with olive trees and a view
towards the Mediterranean.
The optimism you had –
being an old man
with crippling arthritis –
for life, health,
the beauty and vigour it could afford.
Inside the house your studio
with armchair, easel,
brushes and frames,
the quiet edges of the room.
The hushed strokes of passing
time, the depth of eye
as figures walk by
flooded in red-golden light,
the sensuality touching
a disclosure of heat.
Bio: Byron Beynon lives in Swansea. His work has appeared in several publications including Kentucky Review, Planet, The Independent, Poetry Wales, The Blue Moon Literary and Art Review (California) and the human rights anthology In Protest (University of London and Keats House Poets). He has given talks about “Poetry and the Mirror of Art”, how paintings have been used to inspire writers. Collections include Cuffs (Rack Press), Human Shores (Lapwing Publications, Belfast) and The Echoing Coastline (Agenda Editions).
Image: ‘The Farm at Les Collettes’, by Auguste Renoir. Date: 1908-1914. Oil on canvas. Property of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
foirfe amach is amach –
ciúnas an laindéir
ar a chrúca
utterly perfect –
the silence of a lantern
on its hook
Gabriel Rosenstock
(Composition in Irish Gaelic and English)
まこと見事な―
フックにかかった
ランプの沈黙
Mariko Sumikura
(Japanese Translation)
Provisional cover for the upcoming issue, featuring Haiga art work by Gabriel Rosenstock and Ion Codrescu. Submissions for our Eastern poetic forms specialism as well as other textual and visual work remain open. See our submissions guidelines for further details.
I cannot find myself
in a threatening form with bird’s head. I stand
naked on a beach.
I was of two selves
and met my other self walking
towards me down a familiar street.
Art’s created from heart’s blood.
I paint Self Portrait in Hell,
a blood vessel bursts in my eye.
My relationship with Tulla ends
in violence and I lose a finger
joint from my left hand.
I do not know which to prefer,
the truth and anguish of art,
or the anguish of each day.
I’m sitting by a window,
my disfigured ‘hand of destiny’
clearly framed.
Another portrait in another room,
the space behind me shining through
my physical body.
Eyes of fire glow in the window pane.
I smell the resin
from the tall pines in the forests
of my childhood.
Each moment the door shuts.
I carefully measure the slow decline
into infirmity and old age.
I’m staying at Asgardstrand Hotel.
I walk with my hazel stick among
the violets and primroses in the perfumed
brilliance of spring.
The sunshine glances
off the south face
of Hardangerfjord. My mountain of mankind
rumbles in the distance.
Now the waterfall’s rushing
in my ears.
Bio: Eric Nicholson is now retired. He worked as an ESOL teacher and in other fields of education. Now in his retirement he enjoys countryside conservation, writing and walking. His work has previously been published in www.neutronsprotons.com,www.literaryorphans.org and www.emptysink.com. He blogs on http://www.erikleo.wordpress.com
More of Eric’s work is forthcoming in Long Exposure, Issue 1.
Image: Self Portrait in Hell by Edvard Munch, oil on canvas, 1903. Property of the Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway.
you can almost hear a siren’s distant howl
his cigarette is fresh and will take a while to smoke –
she will stand and wait for an answer
their window is closed against the night air,
noise and car fumes – they prefer their own temperatures
and aromas, half undressed or dressed
her perfume stronger; she wears a black skirt
and bra for heat rather than warmth – the red mask
hooked on the window frame is for a perspective
to see through any party masquerade
that has been or is yet to be – while
both sets of eyes are locked together
they see each other with the same expression – question
whether resolution will arrive before dawn
Bio: James Bell has published two poetry collections, the just vanished place (2008) and fishing for beginners (2010), both from tall-lighthouse. He lives in Brittany where he contributes articles and photography to an English language journal and continues to publish poems nationally and internationally. His recent print appearances include Tears In The Fence, Elbow Room, The Journal, Shearsman, The Stony Thursday Book, Under the Radar and Upstairs at Du Roc.
The label on my suitcase …
… reminds me I do not belong.
Outside, sky darkens over a line
of could-be-anywhere mountains.
Electric light casts shadows around
plain walls, plain carpet, plain curtains;
and the chair with no cushion
where I drop my wrap; perch
on the king-size bed, careful
not to rumple its dull coverlet;
turn sideways from my Buick
parked by the window. Wait.
Anticipate that knock at the door.
(After ‘Western Motel’, Edward Hopper, 1957, Yale University Art Gallery)
White paste, skewed lips, hospital green
you have been drained of blood
your heart clenched tight around your throat
your hair is an oil slick, a shield, a shadow
the line down the centre of your face
jags left and right, dodging bullets
your ear is a walking cane
your shoulders an encampment
asteroids your eyes
Continue reading “Remember Breton: A New Poem by Mary Jacob” →
Totes Meer
after Paul Nash.
In the time it would take for the light from the moon
to evaporate the oceans we could begin to
pile up an island with the collected dreck of wars. Downed
planes, tanks like evacuated beetles and other
chewed vehicles would provide rigor mortis foundations.
The island would be looking as if it was badly
tin foiled. Then we could skim the globe, lifting bits up
like finger nails – acned sabres, tobacco
cannons and mistakable buttons. But after the obvious
litter how do we then reclaim all the flint
axe-heads for some placement? Do we include found pots
and pans once loved by men more than
pikes and javelins? And what of the articles of the innocent –
was the trunk of sleeping schoolbooks never
opened after a certain siren? Were the child’s ditched
bike and the winded radio still tuned
to a mother’s favourite station forgotten beyond a rupture?
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