Special Edition: Collaborative Poetry

Christina Chin

Shane Coppage

Jerome Berglund

Bronze

 Christina Chin &

Jerome Berglund

 

apple encased in caramel

refrigerate 

once you take a bite

an explosion 

of tooth sensitivity 

 

strawberries 

in the box

tiny hands 

opening 

the flue

 

blistering contacts

the steep price

of ivy’s attentions 

prudent shopping

in small thrifty stores 

 

pillow sweat

the slow passage 

of sleepless night

crow on the roof 

walking perimeter 

 

all the places you can’t go 

and have a mind to crash

eurasian milfoil 

long whorls catch

the heels

***

Cuneiform

Jerome Berglund

 

scarred earth

the indent of hair 

in a bar of soap

 

leather flower

a water tower 

arises crudely 

 

black sands lull

Atlantic reaches out…

fishing village

 

there you are 

poppet...

tomato pin cushion 

 

that nice smell

while blowing it out 

spiced

*** 

 

 

Altostratus

 Shane Coppage &

Jerome Berglund

 

corpse fauna 

we don’t need

the blow-by-blow




beached whale

 

bronc ride

it was

a moth




candle snuffer

 

pus 

on the sheet 

marks we leave




unlock pattern

 

                                                                        co

                                                                        loSQUID

                                                                        sal




the empirical method

 

cartography

one day

my mind 




state park

 

Jerome Berglund has worked as everything from dishwasher to paralegal, night watchman to assembler of heart valves. Many haiku, haiga and haibun he’s written have been exhibited or are forthcoming online and in print, most recently in bottle rockets, Frogpond, Kingfisher, and Presence. His first full-length collections of poetry were released by Setu, Meat For Tea, Mōtus Audāx press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.

Shane Coppage is a poet and artist. His poetry has been published in Prune Juice, Whiptail, Humana Obscura, dadakuku, Trash Panda, The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Wales Haiku Journal, The Wee Sparrow Press, and Cold Moon Journal, among others. Coppage lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his growing family.

Christina Chin is a painter and haiku poet from Malaysia. She is a four-time recipient of the top 100 in the mDAC Summit Contests, exhibited at the Palo Alto Art Center, California. 1st prize winner of the 34th Annual Cherry Blossom Sakura Festival 2020 Haiku Contest. 1st prize winner in the 8th Setouchi Matsuyama 2019 Photo-haiku Contest. She has been published in numerous journals, multilingual journals, and anthologies, including Japan’s prestigious monthly Haikukai Magazine.

 

---

Setu, June 2025

Collaborative Poetry

the Hot Box

 

I can’t remember who either party was, but there was this one guy who always commented on another gentleman’s photos of abstract deranged maniacal artworks captured in their native environment amidst chaotic, extravagant, conspicuous squalor, and the interrogator always asked him, ‘hey man how are you doing?’ or something to that effect, ‘are you okay?’ and every time I read it somehow was struck like a closed fist backhand, by how inappropriate that continued to be, made me deeply uncomfortable and him surely much more so, because what’s the possible answer, I’m not, he even more assuredly, nor clearly the inquisitor is compassionate or sane, and certainly such querying could without difficulty be conducted discretely and non-confrontationally if removed from public exhibition or forum, confined to the appropriate privacy of their dm’s.

 

running gag order

 

 

 

 

Collaborations

 

trust issues

resetting passwords

logging out other sign-ins

password doesn’t match

please try again

Jerome Berglund

         & Christina Chin

 

service revolver 

purple heart 

pinhole 

leak

Jerome Berglund

         & Shane Coppage

 

urban sidewalk 

first orioles compete 

for warm trees

eavesdropping on smarter

people at the museum

Christina Chin

         & Jerome Berglund

 

The Old Pond

 

To align yourself with a golden idol of Conotocarious rather than the descendants of persons whose teeth he ordered yanked to make his dentures with?

 

in my book st. peter’s warts

 

 

* NOTE: A nickname given to George Washington by the Iroquois people in 1753. It translates to “Town Destroyer” in English. The name can also be translated as “Town Taker”, “Burner of Towns”, “Devourer of Villages”, or “he destroys the town”.

William Keith absent-minded

 

Dreamt we traveled back to revisit our old neighborhood together, caught up. Even in my wildest fantasies I had not before been able to imagine conversing with you again unabashed – with straight back and head held high, finally unsullied by those stains of stagnation, inferiority, shame and doubt – even platonically, without any expectations, until this morning.  Such rare visits during slumber might be enough, sustain me.  What were the decisive factors precipitating this anomaly, could I recreate conditions, replicate results? 

 

first day weather

is accommodating –

smoke two cigarettes

 

Jerome Berglund has worked as everything from dishwasher to paralegal, night watchman to assembler of heart valves. Many haiku, haiga and haibun he’s written have been exhibited or are forthcoming online and in print, most recently in bottle rockets, Frogpond, Kingfisher, and Presence. His first full-length collections of poetry were released by Setu, Meat For Tea, Mōtus Audāx press, and a mixed media chapbook showcasing his fine art photography is available now from Fevers of the Mind.

Shane Coppage is a poet and artist. His poetry has been published in Prune Juice, Whiptail, Humana Obscura, dadakuku, Trash Panda, The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Wales Haiku Journal, The Wee Sparrow Press, and Cold Moon Journal, among others. Coppage lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, with his growing family.

Christina Chin is a painter and haiku poet from Malaysia. She is a four-time recipient of the top 100 in the mDAC Summit Contests, exhibited at the Palo Alto Art Center, California. 1st prize winner of the 34th Annual Cherry Blossom Sakura Festival 2020 Haiku Contest. 1st prize winner in the 8th Setouchi Matsuyama 2019 Photo-haiku Contest. She has been published in numerous journals, multilingual journals, and anthologies, including Japan’s prestigious monthly Haikukai Magazine.

---

Setu, May 2025

Shane Coppage - Masters of Form

Shane Coppage is an emerging writer with a fine arts degree. His words have been published in Humana Obscura, Cold Moon Journal, The Japan Society London, Shadow Pond Journal, and The Winged Moon Magazine. Connect with him on Instagram @shane_coppage.

---

Setu, February 2024 :: Concrete and Politiku