The summer 2010 issue features poetry by Franz Wright, Douglas Woody Woodsum, Andrea L. Watson, Jonathan Skinner, Annie Seikonia, Russ Sargent, Michael Palma, Michael David Madonick, Steve Luttrell, Daniel Lusk, Victoria Livingstone, Elizabeth Hoover, Daniel Hales, E. Michael Desilets, Matthew M. Cariello, Karina Borowicz, Elly Bookman and Benjamin Aleshire. Artwork by Lisa Pixley, Spencer Selby and Douglas Leichter. Reviews by Bruce Spang, Mark Rice, Todd Perry and Thom Dawkins.
Poems
Landscape with Machines
by Steve Luttrell Machines are our companions where we’re going machines are our companions all stainless in their steely skin cold, and so
Trakl
by Steve Luttrell Is sadness then the sound of a sonata the blue chill of loneliness, in the black nightfall sleep? The soft sound of the
No More Either/Or
by Steve Luttrell Let’s leave it here that whole thing come like a shy intruder (a souvenir of waiting) in the unending night two days of rain
Pèlerinage
by Russ Sargent Dreaming of Petrarch’s world with its mountain laurels and green water in those streams running through the Vaucluse where Acteon
Deya—In memory of Robert Graves
by Russ Sargent I found a road through the olive grove. An empty chair at the stone table. The sea a long way down. I didn’t know what else to
Almería
by Russ Sargent Calle Lorca will always be the scent of fresh bread clinging to me all the way to the tenth century ruin where al – Mutasim
Light and Sweet
by Michael Palma How Whitman would have loved it here, This diner on this Sunday morning. Bright with the chrism of the rain, He’d track pure mud
Like Any Clown
by Michael Palma The one who thinks he’s in despair Or nearly there Crawlstrokes down the morning Flapping translucent wings. Beauty’s withdrawn,
Fog
by Michael Palma Sometimes, like an old clipping I carry around with me, I unfold the time we went, For no particular reason, For a weekend on
Two Warblers
by Jonathan Skinner Cape May Dendroica tigrina your sharp, slightly decurved chestnut and gold horns striped at the throat black streaks speak
For The Gulf
by Jonathan Skinner Some wings lift skyward testing the airs, circle round and wait — feeling for pressure shifts, advancing fronts spiraling in
Lanesville
by Elizabeth Hoover Photography is an oath to silence, so I gave up on faces one summer in Lanesville. The light wrapping her body like a sweet
The Window
by Matthew M. Cariello Then I knew one word, birthright’s rudiment uttered in hunger’s warm room. The sense of me without sense. I would have
Foundation
by Matthew M. Cariello Clutter in the vestibule where steps buckled and mortar cracked, I watched my father crawl into the dark beneath the stoop
Néfer
by Victoria Livingstone The first time I didn’t know you. The second time, I did — Federico Garcia Lorca I fell for you,
The Salar de Uyuni Bolivia’s salt desert
by Victoria Livingstone The December sky fills the salt flats with water and the Earth becomes a mirror. Flooding blue erases the horizon — even
The Lamp
by Franz Wright Dark blue evening street with here and there a lighted window of the at home, or the possibly not. Lamp, yellow circles
One
by Franz Wright Bodies are endless, but sentience gazing from endlessly various eyes is one, and I can prove it. Music’s an idealized and
Reflection
by Franz Wright I wear this small fish hook of crucifix Look how it helps keep the head weighted down down with shame, with the glory and shame
You Can’t Miss It
by Franz Wright Most I loved the secret sense of being a we; of living in two places at once (or everywhere). How I learned to bear euphoria in
Alone on the Deschutes
by Elly Bookman There is a morning, and there are brown eyes rising somewhere against a dense piano bass line meant to begin things. This river
Organ Music
by Elly Bookman In a living room that couldn’t have been ours or even anyone’s we knew because it was decorated entirely with stainless steel and
Cool Spring
by Douglas Woody Woodsum Light spring rain on a metal roof: hi–hat and snare at the start of a song, measure after measure till the rest
Coat Hangers in an Empty Closet
by Douglas Woody Woodsum Someone hammered something so thin It could not help but bend and hang And did it again and again until A keyboard made
Seeing the Bottom Off Thompson’s Point
by Daniel Lusk These zebra mussels are mistakes we made in our youth. How clear the water now and how clearly we can see them. They seem to have
Souls by Water
by Daniel Lusk — after a painting by Sally Coppersmith Out of our view overhead, clouds like spinnakers. Stippled lake giving way to
Mock Heaven
by Daniel Lusk “Why am I soft in the middle when life is so hard?” Paul Simon, “You Can Call Me Al” A young woman bursts from the
Salvia
by Annie Seikonia in the aftermath of twin mourning doves next the rows of sleeping buds Persephone’s bouquet smolders deep purple flowers
Cygnus
by Annie Seikonia mere skin mere bones part of this deepening day warbled conversations: thunder and hush later when the light has seeped away,
Words for Z
by Benjamin Aleshire I study my grandmother dying once a week for a few years. I am young and getting bigger every day She is shrinking steadily
Bloom
by Michael David Madonick Puffed – up, as if weight might give body to song, the cardinal’s staccato rakes the morning air. Beneath him,
stop
by Michael David Madonick it’s hard to keep a rhythm with the wind in your face birds tacking like loose newspaper clouds a kind of wind sock the
Muskrat
by Michael David Madonick We cannot reconcile ourselves, the incongruities of our bodies and of our natures, that which is cast in the purposeful
The Water
by Daniel Hales See how the wind folds and pleats the water? Hear how each wave says, repeats: the water? After two years marooned on pine
Closer
by Karina Borowicz If I cry when I tell you the dream don’t console me simply believe me it’s hard to put my darkness into words to describe the
Window Watching at Midnight
by Karina Borowicz Again the circle of green light. My neighbor is sewing. With the two natures of a moth, his hands hover there, one futility
Busy Man of Affairs
by E. Michael Desilets The Birdman of Burbank tinkered with his antique tin toys in the garage, nudging a bit of orange crud off the beak of a
Train
by E. Michael Desilets There were weekends at the Happy Swallow when gap – toothed women took nothing from him but his pay envelope and a
Inventing the Land
by Andrea L. Watson Now this is what you shall do — Take the land each way you dream a lover earth skin seamless against his found beauty No
Reviews
Snow Chairs, With A W/hole In One, How The Crimes Happened
Snow Chairs, by George V. Van Deventer, Snow Draft Press, 2009, 27 pages, paper, $6.00 With A W/hole In One: Collected Poems 1970-2010, by Ted
The Stranger Manual
by Catie Rosemurgy, Graywolf Press, 2010, 94 pages, paper, $15.00, ISBN: 978-1-55597-547-0 Buy the Book In The Stranger Manual, Catie Rosemurgy
The Lilac Thief
by Young Dawkins, Sargent Press, 2009, 48 pages, paper, $10.00, ISBN: 9780615322018 Buy the Book Reading Young Dawkins’, The Lilac Thief, feels
I Was the Jukebox
by Sandra Beasley, W.W. Norton & Company, 2010, 90 pages, hardcover, $24.95 ISBN: 978-0-393-07651-6 Buy the Book In a poem from Sandra
Poet Biographies
Annie Seikonia
Franz Wright
the son of poet James Wright, was born in Vienna, Austria in 1953. During his youth, his family moved to the Northwest United States, the
Douglas Woody Woodsum
is a high school teacher in rural Maine. His poetry, prose, and cartoons have appeared in many publications, including the New England Review,
Andrea L. Watson
her poetry has appeared in Runes, The Comstock Review, Room of One’s Own, Earth’s Daughters, and Georgetown Review, among others. Her show,
Jonathan Skinner
his poetry collections include With Naked Foot (Little Scratch Pad, 2008) and Political Cactus Poems (Palm Press, 2005). He founded and edits
Russ Sargent
is the owner of Yes Books in Portland, Maine. These poems were written while traveling Europe in 1991 –1992. Other poems, including
Michael Palma
was born in the Bronx, New York, in 1945. He has published one full–length collection of poems, A Fortune in Gold (Gradiva, 2000), and two
Michael David Madonick
is an associate professor at the University of Illinois. His poems have most recently appeared in Iron Horse, Redivider, New Ohio Review /
Steve Luttrell
was born and continues to live in Portland, Maine. He is a graduate of Franklin Pierce College and is the author of ten books of poetry. His
Daniel Lusk
his books include Kissing the Ground: New & Selected Poems and Onion River: Six Vermont Poets. His poems have appeared in Poetry, New
Victoria Livingstone
lives in Boston, Massachusetts, where she spends her time writing and translating poetry, teaching Spanish, and working towards her Ph.D. in
Elizabeth Hoover
her poetry has appeared in The Hoyden’s Ferry Review, The Atlanta Review, New Letters, and is forthcoming in Natural Bridge. She is the associate
Daniel Hales
his ghazal “Dear Shahid” was published in The Massachusetts Review and his ghazal “The Red Dress Of Poetry” was published in Ravishing
E. Michael Desilets
was born and raised in Framingham, Massachusetts. He earned his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Columbia University in New York under the
Matthew M. Cariello
is a writer and teacher originally from New Jersey, currently living in Columbus and teaching in the English Department at the Ohio State
Karina Borowicz
has recent work in AGNI Online, New Ohio Review, and Rattle. Her translations have appeared on Poetry Daily. She lives in Western Massachusetts.
Elly Bookman
is a recent graduate of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. She lives and writes in Eugene, Oregon, but will be attending the M.F.A. program at
Benjamin Aleshire
his poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Green Mountains Review, Connecticut River Review, Seven Days, and Vermont Literary Review. His play,
Artist Biographies
Reviewer Biographies
Bruce Spang
a teacher and writer, he works at Scarborough High School. He has published several books of poems, including To the Promised Land Grocery
Mark Rice
is originally from northern New England. He received his M.F.A. from New York University and now teaches exceptional learners at a high school
Todd Perry
is excited. He recently received his B.A. in Media Writing from the University of Southern Maine, with a Creative Writing minor, and there’s no
Thom Dawkins
is an M.F.A candidate at Chatham University, where he also serves as a poetry editor for The Fourth River literary journal. His poetry has been