O:JA&L Poetry: All forms & styles
Ekphrasis
Tushar Sen
THE FALL OF LUCIFER BY PETER PAUL RUBENS (1620)
Click on the title to explore or download Tushar Sen’s new poetry pamphlet THE LABYRINTH: Poems,
available now from O:JA&L’s Buttonhook Press.
The fall begins
before the body descends.
A shift in direction—
small enough
that the heavens
still appear willing
to contain him.
Above,
the air remains ordered.
Wings hold their structure.
Light continues
across the surface of armor
without interruption.
Only the movement changes.
Around him,
the others begin collapsing
through the opened height,
their bodies turning
within a gravity
that has already decided them.
No fire follows.
No abyss announces itself.
The distance alone
becomes irreversible.
He does not reach upward.
That is already finished.
Instead,
the body holds
its former shape
while passing completely
out of the order
that gave it meaning.
Feathers scatter
through the descending air
like fragments
of a structure
unable to survive separation
from its own source.
Below,
darkness does not rise to meet him.
It waits—
vast enough
that even now,
while light still touches him,
the fall appears endless.
And in that suspension,
between radiance
and disappearance,
the face remains turned
not toward the abyss,
but back
toward the height
that continues existing
without him.
About the writer:
TUSHAR SEN is a finance professional who also engages in sustained creative and scholarly writing. He is the author of Pandora’s Box, a collection of short stories available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Audible. In 2020, he wrote and produced the short film Zulfi, which screened internationally and received 22 laurels across film festivals. He recently got selected for LADAKH – closer to the moon Residency Program for writers. His poetry has appeared in The Mathematical Intelligencer (Springer-Nature), The Deronda Review, Sortes, Lekh, Indian Review, Writers Resist, SpecPo Verse, Flora Fiction, New Verse Review, The Gilded Weathervane, Ecological Citizen, Military Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal and Afrocritik.
Image: Saint Michael Casting Out the Rebellious Angels by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). Oil on canvas. 18.5 X 20.4 inches. Circa 1620. Public domain.
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.
The O:JA&L Free Presses Masters Series
The O:JA&L Free Presses Masters Series (from OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters) gathers acclaimed writers for concise, downloadable chapbooks that pair fresh work with candid reflections on craft. Each installment—often framed by an interview with an associate editor—opens a window onto how masters of poetry, prose poetry, flash fiction, and related hybrid forms build voice, compression, and surprise. Designed as a reader’s invitation and a writer’s toolbox, the series celebrates literary art that moves fast, cuts deep, and lingers long after the last line.
Click on the titles below to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks.
Prose Poetry and Flash Discourse
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Brian Clements on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Mark Budman on Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Ray Gonzalez on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series:
Michael Martone on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series:
Roberta Allen on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series:
Peter Conners on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Maxine Chernoff on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Pedro Ponce on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Kent Dixon on Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Tom Hazuka on Flash Fiction
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
MIixed Forms: Haibun, Haiga, & Tanka Prose
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Roberta Beary on Haibun
With an interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
Experimental Discourse
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Jim Meirose on Experimental Discourse
With an interview by Associate Editor Warwick Newnham
Poetry: All forms & styles
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Poetry from Bruce McRae
With an Interview by Associate Editor Jeff Streeby
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series:
Poetry from Richard Widerkehr
With an Interview by Associate Editor Jeff Streeby
The Dally Post Press Masters Series:
Rod Miller on Cowboy Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Jeff Streeby
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