Poem by James D. Casey IV

X Marks the Spot

little paper airplanes
fly from my ears
some get lost
some get found
some crash and burn

           others soar
into alternate dimensions
           leaving a paper trail
of X marks the spot
           pirate treasure maps

most of the time
           the chests are empty
though now and then
           there’s a gold plated turd
not worth much
           but at least
it’s something

James D. Casey IV is a Gonzo Outlaw Poet, Publisher, Editor, Madman Philosopher, Artist, Dreamer, and Pirate. He is also the Founder & Editor-in-Chief of Cajun Mutt Press, has six published collections of poetry, and is extensively published throughout the small press venue and literary magazine world both online and in print. James is a Louisiana/Mississippi native currently living in Illinois.

Judson Evans is a full-time Instructor in the Liberal Arts department at The Boston Conservatory at Berklee where he has taught a range of courses, from a Poetry Workshop on haiku, prose poetry and haibun, to a course on theories of cave art and the role of the cave in ritual and philosophy. In 2007 he was chosen by John Yau as an Emerging Poet for The Academy of American Poets. He was one of the founding members of Off the Park Press, and published work in each of its three anthologies responding to provocative contemporary painters. His most recent work has been published in (print journals) Laurel Review, Folio, Volt; 1913: a journal of forms; and Green Mountains Review, and (online journals) White Whale Review and Amethyst Arsenic. He won The Phillip Booth Poetry Award from Salt Hill Review in 2013. He has collaborated with composers, such Mohammed Fairouz, Mart Epstein, and Rudolf Rojhan, who set several of his poems to music, as well as with choreographers, dancers, musicians and other poets, including Gale Batchelder, and videographers Nate Tucker and Ray Klimek.