The winners of Aquillrelle's first Publishing Contest are all included in this book. Oh, the beauty of this child birthed by the marriage of professional and aspiring voices, each voice limited in its expression by nothing but personal talent, avidity of word and poetry of heart.

Our third contest. The good news being that Aquillrelle starts attracting more submissions - with about 1000 poems and 300 poets there is nothing to complain about. The bad news being that high quality submissions were so numerous that choosing the winners was a real ordeal. Oh, what a wonderful ordeal. . . As always - we don't ask others to take our word for it. We ask them to test our taste and judge our judgment. Here is your opportunity. The poems in this book are anything from good to stupendous. - Back cover

An exceptional collection of poems from our members. All of them were posted on our Facebook wall, many of them moved on and found their way into our hearts as well. Lucky the reader choosing to delve into this collection of literate beauty.

“A lesson in history, almost. A lesson in anthropology, tradition, and roots, almost. A lesson in the power of poetry to rend and blend reality and imagination until they become indistinguishable from each other, certainly. Who is the clone of whom? Who is the real child and grown-up artist? Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler’s exquisite handling of language tools and penetrating research into the subject matter of this chapbook and her unique way of mixing what we know and what we think we know provide us with a landscape that necessitates only the closing of eyes in order to transport us to this world of blurred colors and blurred consciousness. Along the way, we get an ‘answer’ for what happened to one of the Panama Canal engineers.”—Yossi Faybish, Editor, Aquillrelle Press, Grimbergen, Belgium “In her latest chapbook, Mola ... Person, Lynn Veach Sadler channels the voice of an albino male with the Kuna tribe, this particular division on the San Blas islands off Colombia and Panama. The focused poems together form a pleasant anthropological analysis in poetry and a well-researched diversion from the more common poetry themes being explored by contemporary poets. As Publisher of several of her history-researched poems the past few years, I find Mola ... Person to be a compelling expansion of Dr. Sadler’s previous analyses of histories and cultures and a chapbook that will be of interest to those who want a ‘You Are There’ approach to learning about an interesting and lesser-known native culture.”—David Messineo, Publisher/Poetry Editor, Sensations Magazine standard definition of mola: "A colorful fabric panel of Central American origin, sewn with a reverse-appliqué technique and used for decorative purposes, as on clothing or furniture or as a wall hanging."

Y'know, somewhere along the line, Ezra Pound and John Cooper Clarke rolled dice for this man's soul, and I can't say who won. Marie Marshall, author of "I am not a Fish," nominated for the 2013 T S Eliot Prize Perhaps the most striking feature of this volume is the poet's portrayal of humanity, which deprives us of any escape from the darker, more insidious depths of our human condition. Richard Vallance, editor of "Phoenix Rises from the Ashes, an international anthology of sonnets" Counterpointing the abstruse and the inescapably basic, these poems draw upon a power that surprises... Hislop's retro-modernist recovery of vision argues for a refreshed perception of poetic possibility. R.W. Haynes, author of "Horton Foote" Poetry that delivered me to a speculation I wouldn't have reached otherwise. And I find that's a critical function of Hislop's poetry. It gathers, then points away. Norman Ball, author of "Serpentrope"

Replete with floor traps and velvet curtains, Haynes' theater-poems include Texas, Mexico, a conference in Tennessee, a backyard barbecue, and meeting rooms at work among their many interchangeable sets. You'll watch the duels of characters named, alluded to, and unnamed. You'll hear the ghosts of Dickinson, Stevens, Shakespeare, and Berryman floating somewhere near the tracked lighting above the stage. Characters named include Heidegger, of course, Jack Ruby, Cicero, Medea, Hurricane Dolly, sometimes central, sometimes walk-ons, sometimes the costume and mask for the unnamed characters or the poet. And you'll recognize the unnamed characters, those people at work vying for power and career advancement, those writers at conferences needing acclaim. Always startling and unexpected, part of the intrigue is wondering who will appear next and where, at a Texas thrift shop, perhaps? Tragedy and comedy mix. Acts of eloquent end-stopped lines, meter, rhyme and hard-won contemplations give us a glimpse beyond the human mess, like a hawk, "Gliding with dignity, unthought intent, / Like part of the wind itself, its weightless ascent." -Suzette Marie Bishop, author of She Took Off Her Wings and Shoes (May Swenson Award), Horse- Minded, and Hive-Mind, teaches Poetry and Creative Writing at Texas A&M International University Whether Heidegger ruminates on hopelessness and desperation in downtown Waco, or Cicero rants at Cleopatra and Caesar, Haynes's well-wrought phrasing and spontaneous wit enliven his speakers throughout Heidegger Looks at the Moon. These meditative poems span the emotional spectrum, showing us a writer of uncommon observational power. The dissolution of Aristotelian form is found in a desert landscape blurred by rain, Gadamer contemplates imagery from Wallace Stevens, the line between the canine and the human is questioned. In this book of musical and philosophical poetry, Haynes not only displays a radiant intellect, but he also ushers us into the hauntings of human interiority, revealing to us both "marvels everywhere" as well as the wounds the "nurse of philosophy" leaves. -C.H. Gorrie, Editor at Consequence These are wonderful poems. In the best poetic tradition, they come alive and prod memories through elegant allusions to classical mythology, literature, and popular culture. Thinkers like Heidegger, of course, pop singers like Sam the Sham, writers like Harry Crews, common folk like Big Jake, as well as literary, classical, biblical and historical characters, populate the world found here. R.W. Haynes' masterful command of language and poetic forms inspires the reader to come on board and enjoy the ride, and we are the richer for traveling along with the poet to Waco or Ft. Stockton, crossing the Rio Grande with Charon, and visiting imagined pasts or literary spaces with Oswald Alving or Chaucer. -Norma Elia Cantú, Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Professor of the Humanities, Trinity University, author of Canícula and numerous other works of prose and poetry

The Dance of the Peacock, focused as it is on poetry in English by Indians and diasporic Indians, is also a celebration of diversity. This anthology is a brave attempt to capture something of the Indian English global poetry scene at this moment in time. It does not pretend to be a comprehensive collection; rather it is a genuine and rewarding sampler for the reader who would like an introduction to its riches. Dr. Debjani Chatterjee, MBE Sheffield, UK Editor of the renowned poetry collections, The Redbeck Anthology of British South Asian Poetry (Redbeck Press) and Masala: Poems from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (Macmillan) The Dance of the Peacock is a diverse collection of contemporary English poetry from Indian. The 151 poets represented in this book hail from the many different states of India as well as from the United Kingdom, United States and Canada. The poets between these covers range in age from 15 to 92. It is rare that one will find a more diverse collection of poets representing Indo-English poetry.