Poets

Shobhana Kumar's first volume of poetry, ‘The Voices Never Stop,’ was published by Writers Workshop, Calcutta in 2012. Her work is featured in ‘The Dance of the Peacock—An Anthology of English Poetry from India’ edited by Dr. Vivekanand Jha and will appear in a forthcoming anthology of contemporary women's writing from India.

Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in 11 journals including Journal of the Poetry Society of India, Red Leaf Poetry, The Brown Critique, Taj Mahal Review and Kritya Journal of Poetry. She has authored four books of non-fiction.

On a side note, we learned that Shobhana also runs Small Differences, an organization that brings forward storytelling and other creative art forms to children, particularly those who are disadvantaged.

silent lotus is is a spiritual advisor with an additional gift of sharing through poetry and art. Descending from grandparents who traveled from homes in Hungary and Russia, silent lotus was born in America. He was raised in the small unique community of Roosevelt, NJ, which was designed in the Bauhaus style by Louis Kahn and Alfred Kastner in 1936.

In his mid-twenties he left for the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean to give priority to his talents as a visual artist. Almost two years later, as crew of a 30-meter sailboat, along with film producer Saul Zaentz, he ventured across the Atlantic Ocean. From the Mediterranean he traveled overland through Europe and settled in the city of Rotterdam. He began a unique friendship with the elderly Willem Sandberg. Shortly thereafter his work was purchased by the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam for the permanent collection. One of his earliest lithographs was commissioned by the art editor of the NRC Handelsblad and the entire edition was sold out in less than a week.

He was interviewed in 2004 about his poetry by Louise Hutner, editor of Sacred Journey and in 2006 by Donna Stein the publisher of Tiferet.  In June 2006, silent lotus was one of the opening speakers at the United States Department of Peace Northeast Conference.  He was the opening speaker at the commemoration of Hiroshima & Nagasaki held August 2008 at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey.

silent lotus received an award from Peter Kilmartin the Attorney General Of Rhode Island as well as one from Gina Raimondo the General Treasurer of Rhode Island in April of 2011 in recognition for the program he facilitated at the Institute For The Study & Practice Of Nonviolence in Providence to teach victims of violence to learn how to express themselves through poetry. Also awarded for their participation were his Ocean State Poets colleagues Kathleen O'Kula and Lisa Starr the Poet Laureate of Rhode Island. The awards were presented during National Crime Victim's Rights Week.

His poetry has been published in Europe, America, England, Canada and Australia.

The oeuvre of his visual art is known as Icons Of Silence and his poetry Listening To Love.  His webpage link is here.

silent's poem, "Rosewood & Inlays" can be found under the Introspection category in the Origami Poems anthology The Best of Kindness available on Amazon.

•

    Jason Heroux is the author of four poetry collections: Memoirs of an Alias, Emergency Hallelujah, Natural Capital, and Hard Work Cheering Up Sad Machines. His most recent book is the short story collection Survivors of the Hive (Radiant Press, 2023).

•

Dr. Mary Annie, A.V., who writes under the pen name Anna Maria, is a senior official at the University of Kerala,Trivandrum, India.  She has two collections of poems published entitled, My Beads Unstrung and More Beads Unstrung. 

Her poems have been published in several anthologies & e-magazines in India and abroad.

Malcolm Davidson began writing poetry in his mid 40's and enjoys it as good balance for the left side of his engineering-focused brain. He is an active participant in Ocean State Poets activities and is part of a small group that does a poetry workshop at the ACI in Cranston every two weeks.

He also shares his work at two Assisted Living homes, one in Middletown, the other in Providence. 

In addition to writing poetry his creativity propelled him to writing a musical about corporate corruption. Some of the songs from this can be heard at www.companymatters-themusical.com.

He works as a software consultant and enjoys his travels which take him all over the globe.

Claire Feild is an English composition instructor. She has had numerous poems accepted for print publication in literary journals, such as The Carolina Quarterly; Birmingham Arts Journal; Hurricane Blues: Poems about Katrina and Rita; Folio; South Dakota Review; and most recently, in these print journals: Perceptions:Magazine of the Arts; Turbulence Magazine; Black Magnolias Literary Journal; Windmills (Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia); The Chaffey Review (Chaffey College, CA); The Eclectic Eel (Hull, England); Eye Contact (Seton Hill University, Greensburg, PA); Polluto (U.K.); Spillway;Tulane Review; Chinaberries & Crows: An Anthology (Solomon and George Publishers); University of Colorado’s Palimpsest: A Creative Journal of the Humanities; (SUNY press: State University Press-Albany); The Path: A Literary Magazine; Dewpoint Literary Journal; Zymbol; Twisted Endings; Pinyon Review; Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine; Calidum Literary Magazine; and Welter. 

Her first poetry book, Mississippi Delta Women in Prism, is set in Yazoo City, Mississippi.

Excerpts of her memoir, A Delta Vigil, have been published in Boston’s FullCircle: A Journal of Poetry and Prose.  Her second collection of poetry titled Southern Aunts: The 1950s has just been published (summer 2013).

Ira Schaeffer,an active member of Ocean State Poets and a proud supporter of the Origami Poems Project, is the current recipient of the Editor’s Choice Loft Chapbook Award. In addition, Ira’s recent poetry has appeared in a variety of publications, including, Penumbra; On the Dark Side: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry; Tastes like Pennies; 50 Haiku; Wising Up Press; and Silver Birch Press  In addition, his poem Primavera, was a 2014 nomination by The Origami Poems Project for the Pushcart Prize.

Elizabeth Stamper is a poet, author, and licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Florida. She has led workshops in meditation, breathwork and yoga, energy healing, sacred relationships, inner child work and women's spirituality. Her life and practice have been enriched by studying the major religions and spiritual traditions, by "sitting at the feet" of many spiritual masters, and by traveling to pilgrimage sites around the world. She holds a Master’s Degree in Counseling, and is an Interfaith minister with ordination through the Chaplaincy Institute, Berkeley, California.

December 2013 update:  Elizabeth's poem, 'What the Gods Long to Give,' was nominated for a Pushcart Prize by the Origami Poems Project.