Quintessential Poetry: Online Radio, YouTube and Zoom

Jerry Lovelady is an American poet, a Texas native living in Beaumont, Texas where he teaches High School English. He is married to his lovely wife of 27 years, Kristi, who is the subject of many of his poems. Jerry has two books out, the first in 2021 titled Other Worlds, in Other Words and Grief and Her Three Sisters published in November, 2022. Both were published by the independent publisher Atmosphere Press.

Lovelady draws much of his inspiration from the "Mystic" poets: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson, and Robert Frost who got their inspirations from Nature and man interacting in spiritual ways which they recognized as important. Frost, in particular, impressed Lovelady early on with his amazing rhyming ability and the quaint, down to earth characters he wrote about. Lovelady is prone to personify the stars, the rivers and mountains in much of his poetry to good effect. He believes Nature has much to teach us if we would only listen and open our eyes to what is going on around us.  

Lovelady has lived in Florida, New Jersey, California, Georgia, and Arizona and is just as at home in a large city urban environment as he is on a river bank in the woods. He and his wife are well travelled enjoying their trips to Europe.They equally enjoy relaxing at their rustic cabin on the Sabine River in deep East Texas which has been a source of inspiration to Lovelady for two decades. Lovelady began writing poetry in 1997, working sporadically until he accumulated enough to publish in 2020. He is currently working on his third book of poems which should be ready to publish by the end of 2023.

https://jerryloveladypoetry.com

https://instagram.com/loveladyjerry

https://facebook.com/lovelady_jerry

Lisa is a multi-disciplinary storyteller. She is a singer/songwriter (Ropeadope Records), essayist (Huffington Post, Kweli Journal, Family Stories Project, Chicken Soup for the Soul, AfroElle), and published poet currently based in Italy. The American debut of NoteSpeak was at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival in Boulder Co. in September 2017. She was invited to be a speaker and performer at the 70th Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado in April 2018. In November 2019, she presented NoteSpeak (Amore e Tragedie in Musica) in Italy, Austria, and Prague. In January 2020, she presented NoteSpeak in India on the Jaipur Music Stage. Ropeadope Records released her poetic/musical album NoteSpeak (Amori e Tragedie in Musica) in March 2020, which received a four-star review from the iconic Downbeat magazine. In October 2021, she flew to Florida to search for her birth father - Angela Tucker, and her Emmy Award-winning husband, Bryan Tucker, shot a documentary about the search Lisa & Isell: A story about adoption and the Ghost Kingdom, which premiered on June 22, 2022. Angela and Lisa co-wrote an essay advocating for the rights of Black fathers for the Harvard Law Bill of Health digital symposium in May 2022. Her jazz standards album Lisa Meets Gianni with the legendary Gianni Cazzola was released on June 10, 2022, on Ropeadope Records. She was invited to participate in the Biennale in Venice in October 2022 for artist Simone Leigh's Loophole of Retreat. Her poem “Last Supper” was shortlisted for a Creators of Justice Literary Award in November 2022. Her new album NoteSpeak (Dodici), will be released by Ropeadope Records in February 2023. She is currently at work on a fictional memoir.

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author living in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His works can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Cultural Weekly, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and The Oklahoma Review.

Amazon.com: Kiss the Heathens: 9798986109367: Flanagan, Ryan Quinn, McDannold, Michele: Books

Chyrel J. Jackson & Lyris D. Wallace are Literary visionaries. Reared in the South Suburbs outside Chicago. African American Literature influenced their writing and is one of their favorite genres. Jackson & Wallace write in the spirit of their past great Literary ancestors. 2021 & 2023 garnered Chyrel & Lyris their very first literary nominations, Pushcart Nominee-Poem Love Unspoken, Published in Heart Beats Anthology & No Justice for Breonna Social Justice Inks Anthology Pushcart Nominee 2023. The sisters published Mirrored Images and Different Sides of the Same Coin. This edgy writing duo appears in over 10 published poetry Anthologies. You will find them always writing. Creating written legacies one book at a time. Jackson & Wallace are writer's that have found their poetic voice.

Books

Different Sides of the Same Coin: A Collection of Poems - https://a.co/d/fCfkyiH

Mirrored Images - https://a.co/d/4VlSww8

Manatita, a.k.a The Lantern Carrier, is a published author and poet, who has been performing poetry for 22 years.

Equally at home with performance pieces, Lantern Carrier has won a Hammer and Tongue (H&T) Slam, featured at BYOB, Mind Over Matter, Chocolate Poetry, Word Play and many other venues. He has been runner-up in Slams, as well as making the finals in the H&T National Final (Brighton).

Lantern Carrier has read at the famous Nuyorican Cafe and in Nairobi, Kenya. He’s a Creative Writer, who also writes short stories, essays, and Flash Fiction. He is the Author of four books, including Maxims for our Children: A look at the Teachings of Jesus, the Christ, and Blossoms of The Heart.

Lantern Carrier is a poet who tries to serve, to bring Light, to elevate ...enlighten the understanding. He endeavours to reach the Heart; to bring wisdom to his pieces and is a specialist in nature imagery, music, light, colour and dance in their kaleidoscope of different forms.

All his poetry addresses the varying moods of the soul and the human condition, either in mystical harmony or in separation from its Source. Salaam!

My Guru, Sri Chinmoy: Life and Teachings: Manatita: 9789937623049: Amazon.com: Books

Manatita, The Lantern Carrier: An Esoteric Journey to Spiritual Philosophy: Arvanitis, Ioannis: 9781686095849: Amazon.com: Books

Manatita, the Lantern Carrier - YouTube

The Lantern Carrier, a.k.a. Manatita Hutchinson, features at Spoken World Online, 8 February, 2022 - YouTube

Richard Harries is a performance poet, raconteur and storyteller from Yorkshire in the UK. He has been performing at festivals, charity events and community events for around 12 years. He has headlined at events both in person and on Zoom. He has two books published by Stairwell Books of York. AWAKENING (2021 their best seller of the year) and ICONIC TATTOO (2022). He was part of a team that put together the play HAUNT which was Saboteur Nominated.

https://www.stairwellbooks.co.uk/product/awakening/

https://www.amazon.com/Iconic-Tattoo-Richard-Harries/dp/1913432564

https://www.facebook.com/richard.harries.94

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbHZ74zcXKIwsEveVqYUPA

Nayma Chamchoun is a British Moroccan, a self taught writer and poet. Her writing is influenced by her cultural duality. She is interested in female voices in the diaspora community, the challenges they face within both communities and the taboos around mental health within their ancestral communities. She is an active member of british & international poetry community. Her published poetry collection  COVID: THE WORDY WILDS OF A MIND UNDER LOCKDOWN is a cultural fusion poetry collection which explores themes of identity, duality, displacement, loss, race, feminism, culture, family, love and the search for inner peace as experienced alongside the effects of mental health, menopause, the pandemic and world events.

https://www.amazon.com/Covid-Wordy-Wilds-Under-Lockdown/dp/1869848314/ref=sr_1_4?qid=1664579796&refinements=p_n_publication_date%3A1250228011&s=books&sr=1-4

https://www.facebook.com/N.Chamchoun

https://twitter.com/NChamchoun

https://www.instagram.com/n.chamchoun

Poetry plays a vital role in mental health awareness by providing a creative outlet for individuals to express their emotions and experiences related to mental health. It offers a means of self-expression and catharsis, allowing individuals to process their feelings and promote their overall well-being. Through personal poems, poetry helps break the stigma surrounding mental health, humanizing the experiences and encouraging open conversations. It creates a sense of community, connecting individuals with similar struggles, fostering support and understanding. Poetry also educates and raises awareness about mental health conditions, dispelling misconceptions and promoting empathy. Its emotional resonance fosters empathy and a deeper understanding of mental health complexities. Poetry empowers individuals, inspiring them to find their voice and demonstrate resilience, while showing others that recovery and growth are possible. Poetry contributes to a compassionate and understanding society through its role in mental health awareness.

"Paradise Lost" for many brings back memories of reading John Milton's epic poem written in 1667. Milton's poem explores morality, humanity, and man's fall. These same words can also serve as a metaphor for the feelings of guilt, despair, and inner turmoil that can exist when people are faced with mental health issues. As a companion poem to "Paradise Lost," "Paradise Regained" (1671) explores themes of redemption, temptation, and the triumph of good over evil. It is also possible to use the words Paradise Regained metaphorically to describe the sense of fulfillment people experience when they are able to cope with and manage mental health issues through constructive means.

Featured Poets: Ahmad Alkhatat, Skaja Evens, Benjamin Cherif-Goldberg, Richard Harries, Jessica Philie Park, Nicholas Michael Ravnikar, Lisa Simmons and David Thurston.

Megan Wildhood is a writer, editor, and writing coach who helps her readers feel seen in her monthly newsletter, poetry chapbook Long Division (Finishing Line Press, 2017), her forthcoming poetry collection Bowed As If Laden With Snow (Cornerstone Press, May 2023) as well as Mad in America, The Sun and elsewhere. You can learn more about her writing, working with her and her mental-health and research newsletter at meganwildhood.com.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bowed-as-if-laden-with-snow-megan-wildhood/1143368431

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Division-m-nicole-r-wildhood/dp/1635342988

Hazel-Ann Lynch is an up and coming serial writer and networker. Born in Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies. Hazel-Ann transports herself to numerous other locations through her vivid imagination and vicariously through her over 75 pen-pals around the world. Hazel-Ann has an upper-cut sense of humor and desires to bring laughter to the hearts of her readers. This aim has been successfully and most potentially accomplished within the pages of her debut book Señor Fluffy:A Cat's Tale, and in the main character himself Señor Fluffy. And her soon-to-be release Not So Charming After All, a modern day spin on a fairytale. As Hazel-Ann's writing and influence gains momentum,  she can be seen featured on various media platforms locally and around the world.

https://www.amazon.com/Se%C3%B1or-Fluffy-Cats-Hazel-Lynch/dp/B09C1T8HYB

https://instagram.com/lynchhazelann

https://www.facebook.com/hazel.lynch.73

https://youtube.com/...@chatterboxchronicles9711

https://tictok.com/,,,@lynchh167islandgirltt