To Drink
By Tomas Nieto
The raft of my two hands/
slide together, knuckle to knuckle,/
buckling. The cool water collects/
in the center. I lift this small sea…
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Poetry Issue #51
Tag: Poetry
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Poetry Issue #50
Ennui for Scenes Garnered While In Bed
By Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto
Are all of us birds enough?/
There is a glowing kindness in my eyes if you look well./
I don’t want to be that boy imprisoned by conscience…
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Molasses and then Fracture
Grier Martin interviews
Karthik Sethuraman
Poetry associate editor Grier Martin recently had this exchange with Issue #48 featured poet Karthik Sethuraman. Here’s what Karthik had to say about translating literature, the creation of his chapbook, his approach to editing, and more…
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Poetry Issue #48
After Waking
By Karthik Sethuraman
Flame, hushed to embers, exhaled into a final/syllable of smoke. Can I call this a prayer? A wet/wick, sesame oil, matches under straw, and/when I lock the door to the house, I remind myself…
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Poetry Issue #47
Language
By Nadia Alexis
The ocean swallowed a father./My father’s father whole. His father ate/ too many hearts of chicken & women. He ate/his children. My father, one of them./By the time my mother & father walked…
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Solace and Self-Expression
Erin Post interviews
Lisa Beech Hartz
Managing editor Erin Post recently had this exchange with Issue #46 featured poet Lisa Beech Hartz. Here’s what Lisa had to say about editing a manuscript, her dual focus on art and writing, her mission to bring poetry to underserved communities, and more…
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Poetry Issue #46
Nude Study from Life, Lee Krasner, 1938
By Lisa Beech Hartz
Crossing 8th Street in the rain Igor laughed, /
dropped your hand. I like being with an ugly woman. / Angle of the streetlight, silvering everything, even / his careless mouth. It makes me feel more handsome.…
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Natural Juxtapositions
Aurora Nowak interviews
Kelly Weber
Poetry co-editor Aurora Nowak recently had this exchange with Issue #45 featured poet Kelly Weber. Here’s what Kelly had to say about finding inspiration in the natural world, how substructure informs subject, the important of mentors, and more…
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POETRY ISSUE #45
Where it Hunts
By Kelly Weber
On a day still half-winter, I hike a trail through the short grass prairie on the edge of town named for / a woman who willed that it be preserved. Meadowlarks whistle yellow holes in the air from the posts / rising out of the ground. Ripples circle outward from the mallards floating in the shallow pools…
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Be Kind, Be Understanding
Candelin Wahl interviews
John Leonard
Poetry co-editor Candelin Wahl recently had this exchange with Issue #44 featured poet John Leonard. Here’s what John had to say about crafting opening and ending lines, experimentation with form in poetry, the role of a mentor, and more…
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POETRY ISSUE #44
It Makes You Wait for It
By John Leonard
I feel like I’m stuck in a rural Texas town
with no gas money to get myself home,
and if I kept walking until I found a new town,
it would probably be the same town…
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A Slightly Different Truth
Candelin Wahl interviews
Joshua Sassoon Orol
Poetry co-editor Candelin Wahl recently had this exchange with Issue #43 featured poet Joshua Sassoon Orol. Here’s what Joshua had to say about their Jewish identity, writing as a trans person, their approach to drafting a poem, and more…
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POETRY ISSUE #43
Shoshana’s Mother
By Joshua Sassoon Orol
אמא של שושנה
How does a mother teach a son
about the body of a woman?
A teen in need of a shave
I pop open
the microwave…
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Rip Apart & Reassemble the World
Candelin Wahl interviews
Alexa Doran
Poetry co-editor Candelin Wahl recently had this exchange with Issue #42 featured poet Alexa Doran. Here’s what Alexa had to say about being a feminist, the art of Leah Dockrill, women Dada artists, and more…
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POETRY ISSUE #42
Mother Darling Visits the States
By Alexa Doran
It’s not that the sky here isn’t blue
but that something has to asphyxiate to turn that hue.
I was so sure New England would fit like a skin… Read more
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Writing to Let Go
Aurora Nowak interviews
Arjun Parikh
Poetry co-editor Aurora Nowak recently had this exchange with Issue #41 featured poet Arjun Parikh. Here’s what Arjun had to say about his writing process, the importance of tone, the value of writing workshops, and more..
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POETRY ISSUE #41
Obituary for Gerald
By Arjun Parikh
Gerald went by Gerald even when he was young. As a boy he set out to read the entire encyclopedia. He was adamant about doing only one thing at a time. In his twenties he played Russian roulette on Sundays…
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Leaving, Hoping, Mourning
Aurora Nowak interviews
Naomie Jean-Pierre
Poetry co-editor Aurora Nowak recently had this exchange with Issue #40 featured poet Naomie Jean-Pierre. Here’s what Naomie had to say about the inspiration for her poetry, how she approaches form, and how painful experiences manifest in her art…
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POETRY ISSUE #40
The Apologetics of Leaving
By Naomie Jean-Pierre
a leaving
begins in the
calluses on my feet
calcium, hardened on my teeth
laughter ghosts
a smile in disguise beneath my nose…
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POETRY ISSUE #39
Weathervane
By Kristin Macintyre
I am so far away I write you
a postcard from the next room,
say there is a whole
grove of plum trees
on the rooftop – neat little rows of stones
fruit above the washroom…
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Creativity Driven by Constraint
Aurora Nowak interviews
E. Kristin Anderson
Poetry co-editor Aurora Nowak recently had this exchange with Issue #38 featured poet E. Kristin Anderson. Here’s what she had to say about why she was drawn to the centos form, how she approaches rough drafts and revisions, what she’s working on next, and more….
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POETRY ISSUE #38
Drape the Mirrors.
By E. Kristin Anderson
Two months had passed –
the bed was all made;
the doctor on the phone
made an art of simple speech.
Back from the dead
a tiny voice reached…
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“The Crooked Timber of Humanity”
Aurora Nowak interviews
Urvashi Bahuguna
Poetry coeditor Aurora Nowak interviews poet Urvashi Bahuguna about her literary influences, her writing practices, her career as a journalist, her new book of essays about mental illness, and more…
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POETRY ISSUE #37
THE YEARS COME A-TUMBLING
By Urvashi Bahuguna
It took long hours to fashion a set of wings
out of cardboard and silver foil, to pour glue
out of a blue bottle, paint with a flat brush
to the very edge. My mother punched holes,
slipped drawstrings borrowed from petticoats
and tied them on my back…
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Grier Martin interviews
Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad
Our poetry reader Grier Martin recently had this exchange with Mehrnoosh Torbatnejad, featured poet for Issue #35. Here’s what she had to say about her writing process, her feelings on spoken word poetry, and how writing helps her work through painful experiences…Read more