Search

BURNING HOUSE PRESS

Not For Profit/For Prophecy

Open Search
Tag

Poems

FEBRUARY 2026 Guest Editor Is Ingrid M. Calderón!!! Theme: LOVE & HATE

Burning House Press are excited to welcome Ingrid M. Calderón as the seventh BHP guest editor of our return series of special editions! As of today Ingrid will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the month of February.

Submissions are open from today 1st February – and will remain open until 25th February.

Ingrid’s theme for the month is as follows

___

LOVE & HATE

___

Where does love end and hate begin? As an advocate of love in all its manifestations, I‘ve often found myself pondering and teetering on the soft umbilical cord of disillusionment when it comes to these emotions. I am not alone. Love & hate are siblings, —often share a room and define themselves by the company they keep. If needs remain unmet, what changes and how fast before combustion? If disappointment isn’t addressed, love and hate begin their resentful coexistence of two high volume breeds of circuitry.

All feelings at once please!

Ache. Want. Lust. Desire. Hate. Hostile. Loathe. Thirst. Hunger. Disgust. Violence.

I invite you to send poetries, hallucinations, uncomfortable journal entries and artworks pulled from the depths of where love & hate live inside you.

Ingrid is a poet, seer, collagist and the solitary editor of Resurrection magazine. She resides in Los Angeles, CA

___

  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
    • All submissions should be sent as .doc or .docx attachments to guesteditorbhp@gmail.com. No cover letter is necessary but please include a short third-person bio and (optional) photo of yourself for potential print with your submission. You may also consider including social media usernames, especially if you’re on Bluesky/Instagram– I want to promote your work!
    • Please state the theme and form of your submission in the subject of the email. For example: LOVE&HATE/FICTION
    • Submissions are open until 25th February and will reopen again on 1st March 2026 for a new theme/new editor/s.

    • Poetry and Fiction
      For poetry submissions, submit no more than three of your best poems. Short stories should be limited to 1,500 words or (preferably) less. We encourage flash fiction submissions, no more than three at a time. Send these in as a .doc or .docx file, along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.

    • Art
      Submit hi-res images of your works (drawings, paintings, illustrations, collages, photography, etc) with descriptions of the work (Title, Year, Medium, etc) in the body of the email. Files should be in .JPEG unless they are GIFs or videos, and should not exceed 2MB in size for each work. File names should correspond with the work titles. Video submissions can be uploaded onto Youtube or Vimeo for feature on our website. Send these submissions along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.

    • Virtual Reality/ 3D Artworks
      For VR Submissions, please submit no more than three (3) individual artworks. For Tilt Brush works, please upload your artwork to Google Poly (https://poly.google.com/), and mark it as ‘public’ (‘remixable’ is at your own preference). A VR/3D artwork can also be submitted as a video export navigating through the artwork. If you prefer this method, please upload your finished video file to YouTube or Vimeo and provide a URL. With either format, please provide a 150 word artist’s statement.

    • Non-fiction
      Non-fiction submissions (essays, reviews, commentary, interviews, etc) should be no more than 1, 500 words and sent as a .doc or .docx file along with your third-person bio/and optional photograph.

_______

BHP online is now in the capable hands of the amazing Ingrid M. Calderón – friends, arsonistas, send our February 2026 guest editor your magic!

JANUARY 2026 Guest Editor Is KAWAI SHEN!!! Theme: ULTRAVIOLET

Burning House Press are excited to welcome Kawai Shen as the sixth BHP guest editor of our return series of special editions! As of today Kawai will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the month of January.

Submissions are open from today 3rd January – and will remain open until 25th January.

Kawai’s theme for the month is as follows

___

ULTRAVIOLET

  • Fresh bruises, wine stains, amethyst talismans, wilted lilacs, metallic fougeres, overripe mulberries, indigo children, laser burns, grape candy, supernova dust
  • Inspiration: Sei Shonagon, William S. Burroughs, Angela Carter, Mervyn Peake, Réjean Ducharme, Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, Aurora Mattia

Kawai Shen is based in Canada. Her fiction was shortlisted for the 6th edition of The Metatron Prize for Rising Authors and was selected for the Best Canadian Stories 2025 anthology. She has published work in khōréō, ergot, Extra Extra, The Whitney Review, A Fucking Magazine, and more. Her book, Wavering Futures, is forthcoming with Metatron Press in 2026.

AUTHOR PIC: photographer, Paul Hillier.

______

  • SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
    • All submissions should be sent as .doc or .docx attachments to guesteditorbhp@gmail.com. No cover letter is necessary but please include a short third-person bio and (optional) photo of yourself for potential print with your submission. You may also consider including social media usernames, especially if you’re on Bluesky/Instagram– I want to promote your work!
    • Please state the theme and form of your submission in the subject of the email. For example: ULTRAVIOLET/FICTION
    • Submissions are open until 25th January and will reopen again on 1st February 2026 for a new theme/new editor/s.
      • Fiction: Fiction should be limited to 1,500 words or (preferably) less. Up to two micros (maximum 500 words) may be sent.
      • Poetry: You can try your luck with poetry, but this issue will focus on purple prose. Submit no more than three poems.
      • Art: Submit a maximum of six hi-res images of your work in JPEG format (maximum size 2MB) with descriptions of each work (Title, Year, Medium) in the body of the email. File names should correspond with the work titles.

_______

BHP online is now in the capable hands of the amazing Kawai Shen – friends, arsonistas, send our January 2026 guest editor your magic!

My Heart Is Empty: Responses to The Life and Work of Nico – December 2025 edition Guest Edited/Curated by Matthew Kinlin

Always Leave Them Wanting Less by Matthew Kinlin
Continue reading “My Heart Is Empty: Responses to The Life and Work of Nico – December 2025 edition Guest Edited/Curated by Matthew Kinlin” →

3 Poems by Sean G. Meggeson 

Nico in department store, New York, November 9, 1966. Photo by Fred W. McDarrah.

Sean G. Meggeson is a poet and video artist, living in Toronto, Canada where he works in as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist with his dog, Tao. He has been published in Antiphony, bethh, Die Leere Mitte, Ice Floe, Version9Magazine and others. He won the League of Canadian Poet’s Spoken Word Award in 2024. Meggeson has published three chapbooks, Cosmic Crasher (Buttonhook, 2024), ta o/j , and soma synthesis (both from lippykookpoetry, 2025). Forthcoming: a full-length poetry collection, j: poems (primitive press, Toronto, 2026). Video poems forthcoming in IceFloe, and Infocalypse Press.

3 Poems by Damon Hubbs 

Nico & Lou Reed , 1975.

Damon Hubbs is a poet and editor from New England. His collections and chapbooks include: Venus at the Arms Fair (Alien Buddha Press, 2024), Charm of Difference (Back Room Poetry, 2024) and Coin Doors & Empires (Alien Buddha Press, 2023). Recent publications include Expat Press, Apocalypse Confidential, BRUISER, Horror Sleaze Trash, The Literary Underground, & others. His latest collection, Bullet Pudding, is forthcoming from Roadside Press in 2026. His poems have been nominated for the Pushcart and Best of the Net. 

These Winter Days by Jessie Lynn McMains 

Nico, Beggars Banquet Records.

Jessie Lynn McMains (they/she) is a cross-genre writer, visual artist, and longtime zine-maker currently living in the woods in northeast Wisconsin. They were the 2015-17 Poet Laureate of Racine, WI, and one of their poems received an Editor’s Choice commendation in the 2023 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. They are the author of numerous books and chapbooks, most recently There Will Be Singing About the Dark Times, a hybrid audio/print chapbook, which you can find more about on their website recklesschants.net.

Welcome to the Under_World of Nico_ by Alistair McCartney 

Photo collage of Nico, by Billy Name, 1967.

Alistair McCartney is the author of The Disintegrations and The End of the World Book, two experimental novels published with University of Wisconsin Press. The Disintegrations is the recipient of The Publishing Triangle’s Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction. TEOTWB was a finalist for the PEN USA Fiction Award and the Publishing Triangle’s Edmund White debut fiction award. His poetry and cross-genre writing has appeared in journals such as Hotel, Deleuzine, Fence, Light/Air, LIT, Stand, 3:AM, Vestiges, Nat.Brut, Animal Shelter (Semiotexte), ExPat Press and Pilot Press’s Paul Thek and Forbidden Colours Anthologies. He is currently working on a book of poetics and a novel. Originally from Australia, he lives in Los Angeles, where he is Teaching Faculty in Antioch University’s MFA program.

Hollow Copy by Yvonne Salmon

Nico in Exploding Plastic Inevitable (1967).

Yvonne Salmon is a writer, artist and filmmaker. Recent work has featured in the Ver Poetry Prize Anthology, Martello Journal and Frogmore Papers. Her study on queer sixties literature ‘Certain Circles’ appears in The 1960s: A Decade of Modern British Fiction (Tew et al eds).

Death Is Not the End (On the Last Bench Before Oblivion) by Mark Jay

Mark Jay is a film-maker, writer and visual artist who has been causing cultural disruptions for almost half a century.  His documentary and fiction films have gained awards at international festivals and are in worldwide distribution.

Mark started SKuM ‘zine  in 1976 aged 14 after bumping into members of the Sex Pistols in Rock On record shop in Camden.  Issue #1 featured Sid Vicious’ first interview with his band The Flowers of Romance.  Mark became an early face on the UK Punk scene— getting arrested on the Pistols’ Jubilee Boat Party, designing the cartoon poster for their debut LP, and stowing- away on the Clash’s Out of Control tour.

In 1979 Mark co-produced the post-Punk poetry ‘zine All the Poets, in London and San Francisco.

Mark has recently published two Punk Poemtry volumes on the Spinners imprint available

GESHMACK X GESHEFT (Tasty X Biznez), chronicling his extra curricular escapades from 1972-78 from Skinhead Moonstomps to Dead End Career Opportunities (that never knock).

FIVE YEARS (Between the Gutter and the Galaxies), which rips into the collision of Bowie and Primal Punk—where Rebel Rebels tore through 1972–76 Britain, spawning the Hot Tramps and theYoung Dudes who would carry Bowie’s spark forward into the chaos.   

Both volumes are companions-in-spit to Mark’s forthcoming novel / Midrashic memoir of misbehaviour—THE NUDNIKS OF 1977  — to be published in 2026 by Spinners, which delves further into his back catalogue of sedition and religious disobedience.

Mark’s poemtry and prose employs an unreliable lexicon of Yinglish – a language of coughing and cursing brought over from Eastern European Shtetls in the 1880’s and stirred into the melting-pot of Cockney East London’s pie & mash emporiums.

Follow Mark’s instagram  @mark.jay6262  or schlep through his website www.markjay.tv

EVENING OF LIGHT by Jesse Hilson

Evening of Light music video (1969).

Jesse Hilson is a writer and artist living in the Catskills in New York State. His work has been published in venues like Hobart, X-R-A-Y, Maudlin House, Apocalypse Confidential, Expat Press, and others. He has published two novels, Blood Trip and The Tattletales; a short story collection, The Calendar Factory; and a poetry collection, Handcuffing the Venus De Milo. He can be found on Instagram at @platelet60 and he runs a free Substack newsletter called Chlorophyll & Hemoglobin.

OMENS OR DELIRIUM by Logan Berry

Nico in Tokyo album cover.

Logan Berry is the author of several books, including Doom is the House Without a Door and Ultratheatre: Volume 1.

Nico Restored by Nicholas Rombes

A young Nico in Berlin, photographed by Herbert Tobias.

Nico Restored

I.
Because Nico could not foresee the danger ahead.
She was not careful, she was a child.
Above her Hell’s Sun
moved blackly—How far away? Shall I touch it?–
Like some shiny wet ink spot, or a stuck wet leaf.

II.
Before her journey back Nico slept and slept and
dreams: back then it was all right.
Back then it was a wall of black crickets and her baby
sitter’s ventriloquil voice.
As she slept It watched over her, and
loved her in Its brief, iron-lung heart.
It did not want to let her go, but knew, but knew.
It did not think of itself as lost, it did not think of itself at all.
It just was. It just wanted.

III.
Nico did not think of herself as lost
she did not think of herself at all.
She just was. She just wanted.
Christa wanted.
It has changed, she thinks.
Nico’s Nico. Come for Nico. She just
wanted the image of her lost face.
Herself. For a moment Nico could not imagine Nico, nor recall
the green of green, the hum of wires,
the flash of fires, the sound of sound
had come apart

IV.
It has changed.
She was nowhere.
Her heart. Inside her.
Christa wanted gravity. The thing that was not flat
watched her from behind a red cliff.
When she laid her white hand across her red heart Its mouth opened.
Her ears could not catch her own dripping sound.
She said her name to hear it, the sound
When It moved Its knotted head It pushed Itself out of gravity.

V.
Nico says: When I stand on the roof of the opera it’s amazing I don’t fly off.
Nico sits atop a red cliff, atop an expanse of red sand.
As red as far as the eye can see.
She is red, too, from the sand, mixing with her sweat.
She takes off her sweater, and
tosses it aside.
She takes off her shoes, and lies back.
She touches her body. It has changed. Her body is red.
Afterwards she leans forward to shake her hair
until grains of sand fall out like thunder.

VI.
Nico marvels that although she has not eaten she is not hungry.
It has fed her food while she slept, careful to remove each and every
crumb from her face with tweezers. It has spent an eternity
using its tweezers to move
mountains, grain by grain.
It does not want Nico to escape, but It does not know how to stop her.
The thing it does best is observe. It does not know how to stop things.
Back then it was all right.

VII.
Back then, Nico, thinks, it was all right.
It finally comes for Nico while she sleeps, curled in the sand.
It cleans her face, grain by grain, not even touching her skin.
It spread its wings over her to measure her size.
It considers its sack full of potions.
It worries she is dead and leans close in to her face.
It loves her so gently.
Take me back to back then.

VIII.
The marble index of a mind forever.
Christa wanted.
To free her mind, because it was caught.
I wouldn’t want a different variety, thinks Nico.

Nico thinks in shapes
more and more.
Round and Square.
Truth or Dare

are not shapes.

Not sound.
Not gravity.
The Absolute Zero.

Nico’s mind is a shape that comes
to free her mind, because it was caught
with Its claws
and retraces her footprints
she just wanted to free her mind, because it was caught
with Its claws
retraces her footprints
squares and triangles, circles and cones.

Her own shape, the pattern of sunlight
just wanted to free her mind, because it was caught
with Its red mountain claws and triangular imagination,
circles and cones.

Fright and dread, fear and bones, Wehrmacht dreams.
Her own
but a King.

Come for Nico.
But a King.
Come for Nico.

Her very own body in the night,
beneath the Ibiza sheets, the shape her hands make.
The real Nico, more real than real, her old self

a Sleeping Beauty for some fierce Prince
but It is not a Prince.
Shape, the pattern of moonlight upon
more and more, the hospital floor.

Her very own body in the night
beneath the light, the shape the world makes.

The real Nico, more Nico than Nico, her old self
a Sleeping Beauty for some fierce Prince.

But It is not a Prince.
Come for Nico, no fangy King
beneath the sheets
the shape her hands make.

The real Nico, more real than real, her old self
a Sleeping Beauty for some fierce Prince.

She just wanted to free her mind to be
the hunting thing with claws of shade.
Where It went, Nico wonders, and retraces her footprints.
Sleeping and murder.
Squares and triangles.

Fright and dread, fear and bones.
Her own melodic shape, the pattern of moonlight upon
the institutional floor. Her very own body in the night
beneath the white cold sheets, the red triangulated claws
of Greek thought.

The real Nico, more real than real, her old self
but this thing–this It–is not a Prince.
Rather a King.
Come for Nico.

Sleeping Beauty for some fierce Prince.
But this thing—this It—is not a Prince
rather a Devil.
come for Nico.

She just wanted to free her mind, because it was
a trick and retraces her footprints
squares and triangles, circles and cones.
She just was. She just wanted.
Christa wanted.

Her own shape, the pattern of moonlight upon
the hospital floor. Her very own Nico in the night,
beneath the sheets
she just wanted to free her mind, because It was caught
with Its Trick
and retraces her footprints, Squares and Triangles
circles and cones
fright and dread fear and bones.
Her own shape
Red-sanded body and mountain side
her cold linoleum floor.
Her very own body in the night
come for Nico.

IX
Back then it was all right.
Take me back.

Come for Nico.

Nicholas Rombes is author of the novels The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing (Two Dollar Radio), The Rachel Condition (CLASH Books), and Lisa 2, v 2.0 (Calamari Archives). He co-edits TIMECODES (Bloomsbury), a film book series dedicated to slow criticism and is author of 10/40/70 (Zer0 Books). He’s an English prof. in Detroit, Michigan.

consecrated to the gods by Misha Honcharenko

Misha Honcharenko is a Ukrainian writer based in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Their debut novel, Trap Unfolds Me Greedily, was published by Sissy Anarchy in 2024, following their first poetry collection, Skin of Nocturnal Apple (Pilot Press, 2023). Their work has been featured in Vogue Ukraine, Erotic Review, i-D, AnOther, Tank, Worms, Manchester Review, and minor literature[s].

DECEMBER 2025 Guest Editor Is MATTHEW KINLIN!!! Theme: My Heart Is Empty: Responses to The Life and Work of Nico

Burning House Press are excited to welcome Matthew Kinlin as the fifth BHP guest editor of our return series of special editions! As of today Matt will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the month of December.

Submissions are open from today 1st December – and will remain open until 21st DECEMBER.

Matt’s theme for the month is as follows

My Heart Is Empty: Responses to The Life and Work of Nico

Matthew Kinlin lives and writes in Glasgow. His published workst include Teenage Hallucination (Orbis Tertius Press, 2021); Curse Red, Curse Blue, Curse Green (Sweat Drenched Press, 2021); The Glass Abattoir (D.F.L. Lit, 2023); Songs of Xanthina (Broken Sleep Books, 2023); Psycho Viridian (Broken Sleep Books, 2024) and So Tender a Killer (Filthy Loot, 2025). Instagram: @obscene_mirror.

——

Submission Guidelines

All submissions should be sent as attachments to guesteditorbhp@gmail.com

Please state the theme and form of your submission in the subject of the email. For example: NICO/POETRY

Poetry and Fiction

For poetry submissions, submit no more than three of your best poems. Short stories should be limited to 1,500 words or (preferably) less. We encourage flash fiction submissions, no more than three at a time. Send these in as a .doc or .docx file, along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.

Art
Submit hi-res images of your works (drawings, paintings, illustrations, collages, photography, etc) with descriptions of the work (Title, Year, Medium, etc) in the body of the email. Files should be in .JPEG unless they are GIFs or videos, and should not exceed 2MB in size for each work. File names should correspond with the work titles. Video submissions can be uploaded onto Youtube or Vimeo for feature on our website. Send these submissions along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.

Virtual Reality/ 3D Artworks

For VR Submissions, please submit no more than three (3) individual artworks. For Tilt Brush works, please upload your artwork to Google Poly (https://poly.google.com/), and mark it as ‘public’ (‘remixable’ is at your own preference). A VR/3D artwork can also be submitted as a video export navigating through the artwork. If you prefer this method, please upload your finished video file to YouTube or Vimeo and provide a URL. With either format, please provide a 150 word artist’s statement.

Non-fiction
Non-fiction submissions (essays, reviews, commentary, interviews, etc) should be no more than 1, 500 words and sent as a .doc or .docx file along with your third-person bio/and optional photograph.

Submissions are open until 21st December – and will reopen again on 1st January 2026/for new theme/new editor/s.

BHP online is now in the capable hands of the amazing Matthew Kinlin – friends, arsonistas, send our December 2025 guest editor your magic!

Late September 1978 by Kelly Rebar

Photo by Kelly Rebar

Every year I’m taken there
the air the light the sight
of leaves
drifting past
without a care I’m driving
in the Rockies
in my old Plymouth Valiant
a shade of bronze
you don’t much see
anymore
colour of stubble
fields
at sundown
I’m barely 23, endless Christmas trees
line the highway
now it’s the mountain peaks
the sun is tinging
pink I think I even sing
(I wouldn’t put it past me)
Neil Young’s Comes a time
when you’re driftin’
Comes a time when you settle down –
Okay, what’s this
side of the road
a herd of elk
just standing there
watching
five in total
the reason I recall is
I write it down
when I get there
the cabin I’ve secured

for winter
and right on cue
like a movie
I pull up just when
it’s not dark yet but getting’ there
now that song also takes me there
to that door
the smell of firewood
stacked by the door
I watch the kettle while it boils
I open my notebook
on the kitchen table
by a window
with green curtains
and lo and behold I find a candle
meant for emergency
but at 23 who waits for that
you see a candle
you light it
I write September 1978 on the first page

No, hold on, it’s not a notebook
it’s a school scribbler
dime store type, Hilroy, map of Canada on the cover
timetable on the back
and bottom left:
30 days hath September
April June and November
I write what comes to me
how people in the past wrote it snowed all day
baked so many loaves of bread
as if it needs to be said
“Saw five elk on the way here”
and leave the unpacking
for tomorrow

but when tomorrow comes
I don’t unpack
too busy
sitting
in the sounds of silence
a woodpecker tapping
in a nearby tree
maybe I imagined that
but I know this much is true: I set my Smith Corona
on that kitchen table
by the window, the green curtains
and I tap too
all day long
tap tap
tap tap
into the next night
and all the days
and nights
after that
Who knows where those words are now
they’re long gone
but not the sound they made
landing on the page
not the smell of firewood
by the cabin door
the leaves gathering on the window ledge
the candle going out
I probably slowed
the Valiant down
when I saw the elk
I’m willing to bet I did
you never know if they are going to stay
or if they will wander

. . .

Working from the small mountain town of Nelson, BC, Canada, Kelly Rebar has written for theatre, film, and television. After a long hiatus, she recently returned to playwriting and created two one-woman shows, both written in verse and scored with music. She also works with photographic images, old and new, and writes short poems.

Three Poems by Alexis Karlsen

Ferdaminni [XI/24 – X/25]

The dust on the road
Rotting leaves on a cold autumn morning
The faint scent of hasty intimacy hours earlier
The dogs are nervous tonight
There’s blood on the wind

Floodstained thaumaturge
Pyrolatrous and atavistic
Smudging our faces with ash from bridges burnt

I’m following a blood trail
My ego has been freebleeding
All over the place again

Shamanic nights under a bright full moon
Snow in the deep forest
Moose tracks in the frozen bog
Hematite rocks the colour of red ochre
Spells of protection in the night
I met a strange god
One that no man has ever named

. . .

Myrmalmens ballade [IV/24]

I found God at a gas station in Nissedal
Now I’m siphoning gas here in Niflheim
There’s a radio tower on the heath
Amongst the cows with their GPS trackers

My mind is a swamp
Where the air is thick with things
That are out to drink my blood

I’ve got a new best friend
The red forest ant, Formica rufa
Is it all in my mind or are they all
Moving with strange synchronicity

. . .

Purple Prozac [VIII-X/24]

Chafing on my chakras
Inflammations in my legs
Stains on my soul
And I’m standing over here
Trying to laugh it off
Saying pretty please, Pleiades

With your New Moon Theory
And my dharmatology
Trying to figure out
Where all these gulls go to die
I’ve got a bad back
From looking over my shoulder

The smell of rotten petunias
In autumn grey streets
I love your geometry
Even when you taste like dead dreams

If love is solitude gone bad
Then I’m sitting here fermenting
With your pyrolatrous autumn colours
Alight in the early evening sun

The man I’ve become has no reason
To be ashamed of the boy I once was
You laid me down among the lupines
Placed a cigarette in my hand

Landscapes of IKEAs
And your crepuscular smell
I’m standing in the middle
Of the wrong side of the road
Trying to snap a picture
For our interdimensional trophy room

Wake me if you wanna smash
You said, fell asleep
And ran a fever all night

. . .

Born and raised in northern Germany and emigrated to southern Norway in his late 20s to take care of his child, Alexis Karlsen‘s work spans three languages and reflects the life experience of a disillusioned underdog drifter. Alienation, death, restlessness, substance abuse, sexuality, and the unquenchable thirst for love are recurring motives in his writing. Karlsen’s background is in social ecology, and his German-language novel Am Ende des Fadens, which touches on themes of magical realism, is nearing completion after 13 years of work. He can be found on Mastodon: @brisling@merveilles.town.

Boreal by Autumn Richardson

i.

carnelian willows 

flint veins of the river

hoof-worn rock and a drifting 
scent of ungulates

	       	          (scars in stone
		                   fossil trails)

magnetic north 

	          pilgrimage

I bow to the illuminations 
within wounds

the work of days: 

	          a re-membering of 
	          that which is now torn

in pockets of moss I rest my eyes 

throats of earth open
	
	            a hive of tongues sings

as blue-antlered dawn falls 
vertiginous over mountains


ii.

deadfall, muskeg

	            flakes of mica

the cryptic living 
tinted with winter 

	           (each nivean heart 
	            an individuated star)

high bright tooth 
of winter moon

hill-spines arc – 
every 
vertebra 
a birch


iii.

the lake rim glows
but its eye is dark

clouds and rain 
dissolve there

	            (and shores 
	             and rock)

within catacombs
of willow

a bobcat
	             ruby-throated
attends to its altar 
of rabbit

	              and the forest, 
	              dimming

snaps shut its 
anthracite 
wings


iv.

the river is
coal-blue sap

	             deadfall
	             tamarack

there are flickerings at the edge 
of my vision – 

	             movements 
	             through 
	             the long-bodied 
	             pines

(wolves are stirring, elk are stirring
in the cold embers of this forest)

and water 
is a dark bloom, is never still 

	              hylae swell

bones blacken


v. 

between blue-skinned spruce
and a fire calving light and heat

at an altar of water where all
are subsumed or broken

darkness is drawing 
everything
open – 

	            a long-stemmed
	            and leaning dark

within which I may
be scented or seen

and so I try to be silent

to intuit each movement within
this catacomb of branches

to not give myself away


vi.

in a place wholly inaccessible 
I arrive to sticks and cold rain

beside white birch
at the edge 
of a silent lake I rest 
and wait

for the one voice of night 
to share with me its oldest name

. . .

Autumn Richardson is a poet, editor and translator. She has authored 5 collections including Heart of Winter, An Almost-Gone Radiance and Ajar To The Night. Since 2009 she has been co-director of the multi-media publishing house Corbel Stone Press alongside British artist Richard Skelton. Between 2013 and 2022 she co-edited the influential journal of ecopoetics and esoteric literature, Reliquiae. Originally from Canada, she now lives on the west coast of Ireland.

www.corbelstonepress.com

NOVEMBER 2025 Guest Editor Is C.C. O’HANLON!!! THEME/S: JOURNEYS

Burning House Press are excited to welcome C.C. O’HANLON as the fifth BHP guest editor of our return series of special editions! As of today C.C. will take over editorship of Burning House Press online for the month of November.

Submissions are open from today 1st November – and will remain open until 25TH November.

C.C.’s theme for the month is as follows

—JOURNEYS

~~~

JOURNEYS: Physical, Psychological, and Imaginary, embracing words and images, in all forms, as well as complexity, resisting the superficial, algorithmic narratives of social media.

~~~

Photo by Given Rozell.

~~~

A self-described ‘vagabond, diarist, and wreck’, C.C. O’Hanlon’s fragmentary memoirs have been published in various anthologies, including Best Australian Essays 2005 and Best Australian Stories 2004 (both published by Black Inc, Australia), A Revealed Life: Australian Writers And Their Journeys In Memoir (ABC Books, Australia), The Odysseum: Strange Journeys That Obliterated Convention (John Murray, U.K.), Zahir: Desire & Eclipse (Zeno Press, U.K.), and Dark Ocean (Dark Mountain Project, U.K.). A founding features editor of Harper’ Bazaar Australia in the late ’80s, his mainstream journalism and images have appeared in The New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald, Variety, Travel & Leisure, the Australian editions of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and scores of other newspapers and magazines.

He now lives a nomadic life with his American wife of 38 years aboard a small, sea-worn old sailboat named Wrack in the southern Mediterranean. They have three adult children.

_______

Submission Guidelines

All submissions should be sent as attachments to guesteditorbhp@gmail.com

Please state the theme and form of your submission in the subject of the email. For example: JOURNEYS/POETRY

Poetry and Fiction

For poetry submissions, submit no more than three of your best poems. Short stories should be limited to 1,500 words or (preferably) less. We encourage flash fiction submissions, no more than three at a time. Send these in as a .doc or .docx file, along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.

Art
Submit hi-res images of your works (drawings, paintings, illustrations, collages, photography, etc) with descriptions of the work (Title, Year, Medium, etc) in the body of the email. Files should be in .JPEG unless they are GIFs or videos, and should not exceed 2MB in size for each work. File names should correspond with the work titles. Video submissions can be uploaded onto Youtube or Vimeo for feature on our website. Send these submissions along with a short third-person bio, and (optional) photograph of yourself.

Virtual Reality/ 3D Artworks

For VR Submissions, please submit no more than three (3) individual artworks. For Tilt Brush works, please upload your artwork to Google Poly (https://poly.google.com/), and mark it as ‘public’ (‘remixable’ is at your own preference). A VR/3D artwork can also be submitted as a video export navigating through the artwork. If you prefer this method, please upload your finished video file to YouTube or Vimeo and provide a URL. With either format, please provide a 150 word artist’s statement.

Non-fiction
Non-fiction submissions (essays, reviews, commentary, interviews, etc) should be no more than 1, 500 words and sent as a .doc or .docx file along with your third-person bio/and optional photograph.

Submissions are open until 25th November – and will reopen again on 1st DECEMBER 2025/for new theme/new editor/s.

BHP online is now in the capable hands of the amazing C.C. – friends, arsonistas, send our NOVEMBER 2025 guest editor your magic!

Labyrinth / Erasure by Teresa Mestizo

With subtleties broken, / discourses returned / much heavier / A fresh train of disquietudes / sighed often /Sparks of temper; / the puzzle and the plague / But, in full view, / all things in the world / answer consequently: / fallen, rescued / The deepest impression, / a fine truth to any purpose — / that odd legacy / of occasion

Teresa Mestizo is a Chicagoan Xicana currently based in a small
mountainous town in Mexico where she writes, teaches, translates
& makes art. These poems are part of her recent erasure series using
Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-1767).
More of her work can be found at teresamestizo.com

Ambiguous Dirt by Austin Miles



one much quieter
one much more talkative,

interpreting daylight as if it were a room

			depleted sidewalk wants
		2 tell u (me) some
				thing

	something só imp. It

had to wa
	  it

	a pile of dirt remains ambiguous

laying on the stone like that
	
	can it tell the future?

can the most mundane
	can it (not) shine in my eye?

a rock gets lost but ppl forget

then nothing much done today

sometimes sleep
	but sometimes not.	
washed away
							
an interesting turn of phrase

someone walks into a bar
	but someone
				someone tries to convince me of something
but i’m conversing with a 
			desk lamp

the problem w the world today:
				   
				    the problem w the world today



Austin Miles is from southeast Ohio. He is the author of
the chapbook Perfect Garbage Forever (Bottlecap Press)
and has poems published in Touch the Donkey, Reap Thrill,
Don’t Submit!, and elsewhere.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑