NEW! My poem, "I Am Not Straightforward Movement" appears within Rag Queen Periodical Issue Two

"...how the hell am I supposed to power myself out of my own

repetitive conundrum into some sort of straightforward pathway?

I’d repeatedly crash.  My own darkness would be marooned.

My own limbs would break through a broken mirror, another ex

traction of myself from inside my own curvilinear folds.  

I know I won’t stop folding. I know I won’t sit still inside

someone else’s vehicle while I am still alive."

the end of my poem, "I Am Not Straightforward Movement", appearing in Rag Queen Periodical, Issue Two

read more here - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2018/07/26/1-Poem-by-Juliet-Cook

NEW in Rag Queen Periodical! - 'Ripped Gills Atomized into Lightning" by Juliet Cook & j/j hastain

"Heavy voltage electricity through

which another new life form

might emerge."

inside the poem "Ripped Gills Atomized into Lightning" by Juliet Cook and j/j hastain, which appears inside the NEW Rag Queen Periodical - ISSUE ONE: SELF Cadaver!

I'll link to the whole issue below and then I'll link to j/j and I's poem below that!

Looking forward to reading this whole issue!

The whole issue - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/issue-one-credits

"Ripped Gills Atomized into Lightning" - 

https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2018/05/01/Ripped-Gills-Atomized-into-Lightning-by-Juliet-Cook-jj-hastain

NEW! Paloma Reviewed at Rag Queen Periodical

"If grief is another country, Jennifer Hudgen’s poems navigate that terrain like a native. Her chapbook from the ever amazing Blood Pudding Press, is a carnivalesque romp through loss using the often sharp edges of memory, keen insight and a healthy dose of rage at what is snatched from us without warning.

These 14 prose poems, unevenly spaced, startle with their pyrotechnic wordplay, as they call up the author’s memories and reminiscences, jumping in with both feet, explicit yet honest, full of blind rage at times, yet so tender and so evocative throughout that what she grieves, grieves the reader, too."

from a new review by Michelle Reale at Rag Queen Periodical, of the new Blood Pudding Press poetry chapbook, "Paloma" by Jennifer E. Hudgens

read more HERE - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2018/01/08/Keep-Insight-a-Healthy-Dose-of-Rage-A-Review-of-Paloma-by-Jennifer-E-Hudgens

acquire your own copy of "Paloma" HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/562664430/new-paloma-by-jennifer-e-hudgens?ref=shop_home_active_1

NEW in Rag Queen Periodical - three collaborative poems by j/j hastain and Juliet Cook!

"What is an insane asylum anyway?

Is it a brain or is it a building?"

j/j hastain & I have 3 new poems up at Rag Queen Periodical, HERE -

https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/11/27/Three-Poems-by-Juliet-Cook-jj-hastain

NEW in Rag Queen Periodical - Saint Juliet with Starry Eyes

"Maybe my poems come out
of the veins of my neck
and one day it will explode.

Sometimes I share too much.
Sometimes I don't share enough,
but doesn't that all depend

upon what one considers
to be the deep end
or the blood bath?

Whether or not they want to
dive all the way into me
and whether or not I'll let them?"

from my poem "Saint Juliet with Starry Eyes", at Rag Queen Periodical today

partake of more HERE - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/11/13/St-Juliet-with-Starry-Eyes-by-Juliet-Cook

NEW in Rag Queen Periodical! - Three collaborative poems by Michael Bernstein and me!

"I am a carnival horror show ride that was meant to be safe
for children but keeps snapping their necks
or breaking into their little heads accidentally
invading their brains with imagery that is not even
PG-13, I never will be. Or else I'm lying. I'm lighting
my hair and entrancing a freak show nose bleed."

Delighted to have three collaborative poems by Michael Bernstein and me appearing in the wonderful Rag Queen Periodical!

HERE - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/09/03/Collaborative-Poems-by-Juliet-Cook-Michael-Bernstein

NEW in Rag Queen Periodical - Four Collaborative Poems by j/j hastain and me!

"The nuns change color,

every definition of red. 

They dive out of quiet limbo
towards bloody sainthood. 

Some catch them as specter witches,

as a cosmic diagram"

Thrilled and excited to have four of j/j hastain and I's collaborative poems appearing in Rag Queen AND bearing mention of Twin Peaks!!!!!!

"We love Twin Peaks at Rag Queen, so in honor of the series finale, we'll be posting works that center, in some way, on themes of duplicity all throughout the week!

Today, we have four collaborative poems by one of our favorite frequent contributors, Juliet Cook and new contributor JJ Hastain!"

https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/08/28/Poems-by-Juliet-Cook-jj-hastain

We Can Take the Power Back: A NEW Review of Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius (Blood Pudding Press, 2017)

Thirsty Bones is not for the fainthearted or those who want to bury the issues women face and live through everyday under the rug of oppression and silence. Sarah Lilius makes it so her reader cannot ignore these things...

As I read the poems “[  ] Culture” and “To My Rapist,” I thought about my own dark, hidden experiences as a woman and how I don’t know if I will ever be courageous enough to open my mouth and utter them. Thirsty Bones left me with the hope that maybe one day I will be able to share all my experiences as a woman, and that women around the world will be able to do so as well. Lilius shows us that we can face our demons and demolish them. We can take the power back. The last few stanzas of “[  ] Culture” exemplify this: “My silence, the place I hide, overgrown / with weeds, they smell fresh, / shaking their seeds from green heads. // Now it’s laid out like a snake suddenly / on a table, I want to cut off the head, / feed it to my rapist in the dark. // And when he screams NO, / maybe I’ll take it out or maybe / I’ll make him eat it / with open eyes.”

from a new review of  the poetry chapbook, Thirsty Bones by Sarah Lilius (Blood Pudding Press, 2017)

thank you to Christina Rosso and Rag Queen Periodical for this review.

Read the entire review HERE - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/07/31/We-Can-Take-the-Power-Back-A-Review-of-Lilies-Thirsty-Bones

Acquire your own copy of Thirsty Bones HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/522735584/new-thirsty-bones-by-sarah-lilius-2017?ref=shop_home_feat_1

NEW in Rag Queen Periodical - Four of My Poems!

"...He grows increasingly drunk and angry.

He screams at the TV and sticks up for Hitler.

He yells at your twenty pound dog. You carry the shaking

pup upstairs and let the man keep screaming out hostility.

At least he's not screaming at you.

You go back down for some water or to fix yourself

another vodka & coke, to tone your nerves and convince yourself

this is all normal. It isn't. It's all your fault. 
He comes into the kitchen and glares at you, 

raises his hand above your head like he's threatening

to punch you in the face. He punches

the cupboard above your head, breaks another hole."

from the poem "Your Fault", one of four of my poems appearing within Rag Queen Periodical, preceded by a lovely cicada.

Thank you very much to the Rag Queen team.

If so inclined, read more HERE - https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/07/21/Four-New-Poems-by-Juliet-Cook

NEW in Rag Queen Periodical - Not a Baby Doll

"I growl through another nightmare in the bathtub.
I give birth to more fetal flesh
then use it like shampoo for a witch."

the beginning of my poem "Not a Baby Doll", now up at Rag Queen Periodical (my third and final Not a Baby Doll poem, for now...)

https://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2017/03/24/Not-a-Baby-Doll

NEW in the Rag Queen Periodical - My tendency to feel as if expressing myself is wrong

"My tendency to apologize when I haven't done anything wrong

other than accidentally hurting the feelings of someone

who doesn't understand my feelings.

My tendency to feel like a hissing venomous snake

when the reason I hissed is because my own space was invaded

with mouths that can't stop themselves from approaching me their way.

They don't get me, or they don't see me, or they want to change me,

stomp me down into their so-called solidity"

from my poem "My tendency to feel as if expressing myself is wrong" at Rag Queen Periodical

(somehow I missed this when it meant up last week, so I'm posting it this week. Hey, it's still December after all and I'm very excited to be a Rag Queen. I love the image above the poem too, of a little girl and her snake.)

More HERE - http://www.ragqueenperiodical.com/single-post/2016/12/21/My-tendency-to-feel-as-if-expressing-myself-is-wrong