Old red bandana
collected memories

New red rag
collecting dust

S.M. Abeles

S.M. Abeles’ work has recently been featured in Tuck Magazine, High Coup Journal, and Railroad Poetry. He frequently posts Japanese-style and other forms of poetry at his website. | everythingisemptypoetry.blogspot.com

David C. Kopaska-Merkel

David C. Kopaska-Merkel’s poetry has appeared in scores of venues, including Asimov’s, Strange Horizions,and Star*line. He edits Dreams & Nightmares magazine and is president of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.| dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com

Painter of abstractions:
Visceral and sincere,
Might it be that I find
My face within the lines.

Darren Crawford

Darren Crawford is a freelance writer, a full-time nurse, and a student. His work has been featured in several editions of The Anthology, Winthrop University’s literary magazine, and in the curriculum of his community college in South Carolina.

This issue of the journal features poetry by S.M. Abeles, Jack Brown, Helen Buckingham, Joel Chua Hiang Yang, Darren Crawford, Sarah Crossland, D.W. Cunningham, Tracy Davidson, Ed Higgins, Julie Israel, Bharati Jagannathan, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Peter Massiah, Catherine Owen, Kushal Poddar, Kristin Roedell, Steve Shultz, and Karen Stromberg.

A new issue of the journal is released the third Tuesday of each month. The next issue of the journal will be released on Tuesday, February 21.

I’m flying on a bike,
Spinning and spinning and spinning
With the wind in my hair—
“Wait, where’s my helmet?”

Alan Johnston

Alan Johnston, a senior at Clackamas High School in Clackamas, Oregon, is a running fool. He runs fifty miles a week. When he’s not running, he’s trying to be funny.

Right now
you are taking part
in a strange coincidence.

Don’t resist.

Jane Røken

Jane Røken is Norwegian, lives in Denmark, and likes to think of herself as an internationalist. Her writings have appeared in online magazines, most recently Antiphon, Sein und Werden, Snakeskin, and Shit Creek Review.

We look to the floor
The feeling we get
The rattle of the space
Through our spines

Wyatt Croxton

Wyatt Croxton is a young artist from Las Vegas who took up writing when he was five years old in Singapore. He has been experimenting with the different styles of different cultures ever since.

frost-painted cobwebs
hang like silken drapes
against the bare window—
the bailiffs have been

Tracy Davidson

Tracy Davidson lives in Warwickshire, England, and enjoys writing poetry and flash fiction. Her work has appeared in various publications including Modern Haiku, Mslexia, Moonbathing, Ribbons and Notes from the Gean.

Dreaming in Red is a new collection of poems by Howie Good.

All proceeds from the sale of this book benefit the Crisis Center (www.crisiscenterbham.com), a non-profit agency in Birmingham, Alabama, offering suicide prevention, services to victims of sexual assault, day treatment for the indigent mentally ill, and other services.

Dreaming in Red can be ordered from Right Hand Pointing Press through Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/dreaming-in-red/18726602).

***

Poetic Images
By Judy Davies
Available for $12.00 though Kenvad Books

Judy Davies first book of poetry, Poetic Images, is now available through Kenvad Books. In her collection of nearly forty poems and numerous color photos, the author invites you to relax and settle in as she tempts your palate by weaving a kaleidoscope of color into her poetry.

Copies of Poetic Images can be ordered through Kenvad Books (www.kendavies.net/judyswriting).

As a means of expressing our gratitude to our featured poets, Four and Twenty happily announces the release of their new books. The above content was provided by the authors. It is neither a review or an endorsement of their work.

This issue features artowk and poetry by Maggie Allen, Taylor Anderson, Mackenzie Barnes, Sarah Beebe, Courtney Bladen, Kayla Bolin, Jessica Cabello, Elizabeth Calvo, Elizabeth Casey, Wyatt Croxton, Emily Derby, Brooke Ensley, Paige Ferry, Laney Fonken, Braven Fritz, Terrence Gotz, Sheldon Hilton, Sarah Horgen, Kyle Jenkins, Alan Johnston, Brent Koekkoek, Dalton Krajewski, Mallory Ovist, Justin Phan, Nina Phan, Kevin Phuong, Peter Pommer, Mariah Scholes, Cassidy Scott, Sarah Stephens, Tanner Sundwall, and Gloria Zaytsev.

This special edition is part of our Four and Twenty in the Classroom project inspired by the Classroom Publishing project at Ooligan Press. As part of the program, our staff teaches students about the process of publishing a literary journal. These students put what they learn into practice by partnering with us to create student-written, student-edited issues of Four and Twenty. We are happy to share with you the result of all their hard work.