The November Editor's Pick Poet is Paul Sohar

Please feel free to visit Paul at: sohar.paul@gmail.com

WHAT GHOSTS TELL ME

Smart enough to pass for normal,
I pass through life like everyone,
pretending to know where I’m going,
why I’ve done what I’ve done.

A halfwit knowing less than half
of life’s elusive mystery,
I see a glimmer only when
I have the wits scared out of me,

when the night transfigures slyly
from everyday darkness to a ghost
I realize that worldly wisdom
is nothing but a hollow boast;

when I see things in the darkness
that not supposed to exist
and hear confounding voices coming
from the strangulating mist,

I know the world is full of wonders
only the witless are to see
when ghosts and goblins come around
to poke fun at hard reality.

HALLOWEEN SONG

The night when the invisible, too,
can flash an image in your face,
when the inaudible can cry
out shrieking through the arcane haze,

when the impalpable and
impossible stare you in the eye,
when the otherworld demands your
attention, you mustn’t lie,

pretending you saw nothing at all,
heard nothing worthy of your brains;
you may be clever in this world,
but somewhere another world obtains,

another world that sends you signals
attesting to its reality
from a world where there’s no question
about how  to be or not to be.

The night when ghosts come messing up
your everyday routine and play
a trick on your mind, you can release
the scary secrets you keep at bay.

CHTHONIC DREAMS

No coffin, just dark dirt.
Night solidified. Peace.

Dead. And buried at least
a hundred feet below.

Nothing to do. Nothing to decide.
No noises to fight.

But wait! What’s this?
A rescue squad on their way.

No escape. They’ll get me.
And drag me up into the light.

Better play along with the live
ghosts in this dead dream

Better pretend to be alive.
Like they do. Play the game.

They’ll set me on my feet again.
But not to worry.

They’ll soon catch on to me.
And kill me again.

And banish me from the light
back into the dark dirt
where I long to belong.

Paul Sohar ended his higher education with a BA in philosophy and took a day job in a research lab while writing in every genre, publishing seven volumes of translations. His own poetry: “Homing Poems” (Iniquity, 2006) and “The Wayward Orchard”, a Wordrunner Prize winner (2011). Other awards: first prize in the 2012 Lincoln Poets Society contest; second prize for a story from RI Writers’ Circle (2014). Latest translation volumes: Silver Pirouettes (TheWriteDeal 2012) and In Contemporary Tense (Iniquity Press, 2013). Prose work: “True Tales of a Fictitious Spy” (Synergebooks, 2006) and a collection of three one-act plays from One Act Depot (Canada, 2014). Magazine credits: Gargoyle, Rattle, Rhino, and others.