July 2014

Month

“Long Gone And Never Coming Back” is published in Literary Orphans

“Long Gone And Never Coming Back” is published in the current issue of Literary Orphans.

I am thrilled to have my piece “Long Gone And Never Coming Back” published in the current issue of Literary Orphans. Thank you Editor Mike Joyce and everyone else who works so diligently behind the scenes to make this happen. I’m especially knocked out by the brilliant pairing of visual art with writing. The brilliant photography of Charles Simms turned my piece into a movie! This issue is full of fascinating interviews, book reviews, essays and compelling fiction, poetry and art!

http://www.literaryorphans.org/playdb/long-gone-never-coming-back-michael-gillan-maxwell/

July 23, 2014 0

STREET ART, GRAFFITI & SIGNS Volume IV

Volume IV in an ongoing series of images made from altered photographs of street art, graffiti and signs.

Chairman Mao’s Little Red Lips ~ Chelsea, New York City

Corner ~ Shibuya District ~ Tokyo, Japan

Condomania ~ Tokyo, Japan

Triptych ~ New York City

Voodoo Child ~ New York City

Relax And Unwind ~ Pike Place Market ~ Seattle Washington

July 17, 2014 2

Independence Day

Independence Day

Sitting outside on the 4^th of July

in an Adirondack chair

by the little stone garden

with the scarecrow.

Its white shirt hangs slack

over crucifix arms

straw hat tattered and crumpled

by sun and heavy rains.

I watch clouds float

across the robin egg sky

like helium balloon animals

in a circus parade

pushed asunder by winds

blowing away the storms of yesterday.

I think, not so much, about

the Declaration of Independence,

which was initially published as the Dunlap broadside

and primarily signed on August 2^nd,

but more about the fact

that this was the date when New York State

abolished slavery and Thoreau

moved into his shack on Walden Pond.

Whitman turned poetry on its head

when he self published Leaves of Grass

on this day, and Lewis Carroll

created Alice in Wonderland,

sending imaginations on a flight of fancy

on Independence Day.

July 4, 2014 6

PORTALS ~ Volume IV

Volume IV in the ongoing series “PORTALS” ~ a portfolio of altered photographs that explores doors, windows, alleyways and other openings as passages to other times, places and dimensions.