Belinda Subraman is an American poet, editor, and publisher whose work is known for its raw honesty, personal intensity, and often experimental style. Her poetry frequently explores themes of mortality, survival, spirituality, and the human body, drawing on both deeply personal experiences and broader social observations.
She has published widely in small press magazines and is the author of several poetry collections. Subraman is also notable for founding Gypsy Literary Magazine in the 1980s, which became an important platform for independent and experimental writers. Beyond her own writing, she has been influential as an editor and publisher, supporting many voices in the alternative and underground literary scene.
Her poems often balance confessional elements—touching on illness, grief, love, and transformation—with a universal search for meaning. At times stark and unflinching, her work carries an undercurrent of resilience and a refusal to romanticize suffering, instead facing it with clarity and compassion.
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| Belinda Subraman |
When Winter Sings
The normally calming wind
agitates my aura.
The grooming breath
of a winter’s dragon
scatters seeds and debris
washes away dead things
clears the path for me.
The old psyche
disorients
disconnects.
Strands break off and wave.
The Eye of All
dispassionately sees
the mover of my muscles
sees the actor in my play
and she isn’t me.
The wind squalls a challenge.
The ego thinks the props are real
as the ombre essence
of desert pueblos
blend with dust
into the sunset
Into the dark
where stars
are pinholes
to the infinite.
It’s More About Awareness Than Belief
White noise machinery
In a hotel room anywhere
fuels our journey.
A download and expansion begins
after decades of initiations
to earn a peek into another realm
or several simultaneously.
We’ve broken boundaries
that scare the mundane
and clutching.
Rules are made to stop us
as if death was not transition
to our next form.
Air filled fists of fear
punish us for exceeding.
It’s not what we thought it was.
It’s all a school
and we always continue
where no one uses paper
and everything is shown.
How It’s Done
Brain waves tether to clouds
pull comfort from the sky.
Imaginary coils unwind
piercing membranes.
Words flow and disappear without anchor.
Their star echoes vibrate meaning.
A cosmic message prepares us.
Unspeakable wisdom enters.
We push letters into a lit screen.
A mystery swirl begins.
We type our filtered essence
in spite of pain or because of it
and the web tingles through connection
bound in a net beyond this realm.
Rain on Roofs I Have Known
Magnified liquid assertions
on the tin roof of an antique house
command attention, drown out speech.
Each drop, a drumbeat of survival
fierce and unyielding
like the spirit of those listening.
Thatched roof lullaby on a shanty shore
murmurs softly of nature’s embrace.
Each drop absorbed like a whisper into straw.
Tonight I bow with words
to classical modulations
of a shower on a clay tile roof
in a desert wide open.
Tangles
Thoughts jam neural pathways
where distractions divert
push back but cannot erase.
Expressing tangles artistically
with wild organic growth
Interwoven green with briars and flowers
thickets that bite and sting
hum with multi-layered life:
Queen Anne’s lace and goldenrod
blackberries, gooseberries and bees
frogs and grasshoppers
butterflies by day
fireflies by night.
II
Disapproval hung in the air like smoke.
Our world contained full ashtrays.
Ashes smelled like home.
Beltings were normal and frequent.
Inferior status re-enforcement
anger for existing, it seems
creating tangles for life.
I loved lightning storms
thunder like a battlefield
lines down, off the grid.
We were one unit then
connected by an “act of God.”
It was church.
Weather can silence the ego
of human domination, momentarily.
It also waters the thickets and tangles
that sing of life untamed
unharmed by man.
Bio: While living close to Nuremberg, Germany, Belinda Subraman developed many international literary and musical connections and one day decided to start a magazine. Other editors were generous in sending her literary contacts. Bukowski was in the first three issues and an interview with Burroughs was in the second issue of Gypsy Literary Magazine (1984-1994). During this same time period she edited books by Vergin’ Press, among them: Henry Miller and My Big Sur Days by Judson Crews. She also published Sanctuary Tape Series (1983-90) which was a mastered
compilation of audio poetry and original music from around the world. Earlier In the 2000s she had a podcast interview show that was broadcast on several internet stations. Through all these venues she’s published and interviewed many notable poets, artists and musicians.
In 2020 Belinda began an online show called GAS: Poetry, Art and Music which features interviews, readings, performances and art show in a video format as well as online journal and group by the same name. A few of her many poetry publications include Maintenant 17, New Generation Beats, Setu, Keeping the Flame Alive, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Voices: Mysticism, Prophecies & Marigolds and Nerve Cowboy. Books include Blue Rooms, Black Holes, White Lights, Left Hand Dharma and Full Moon Midnight.
Belinda is also a mixed media artist. Her art has been featured in Beyond Words, Epoch, Flora Fiction, Unlikely Stories, Eclectica, North of Oxford, Raw Art Review, El Paso News, Litterateur RW, Setu, Texlandia, The Bayou Review, Red Fez, Chrysalis, Ghost City, Maintenant 16, 18 & 19, The Storms and many others. In November 2022 she won 2nd Place in the Sun Bowl Exhibit, the longest running art show in the Southwest(since 1949). Recently she won Best in Show at the precious objects exhibit at Crossland Gallery in El Paso.
