Our Spring 2014 Issue is now available featuring poetry by Grace Andreacchi, Michael Boughn, Anselm Berrigan, George Bowering, Matthew Caley, George Chopping, Jim Daniels, Xue Di, Stephen Ellis, Natasha Georgievska, Gerald Locklin, Adrian C. Louis, Anne Elezabeth Pluto, Vanessa Vie, and an interview with poet Xue Di.
It also features artwork from Andrew Abbott, Mirle Freel, Hafid Lalaoui, and Jean Meyer, as well as reviews by Sharon Olinka, Kristen Stake, and Kevin Sweeney.
In Memoriam
Juan Gelman
1930 – 2014
Poetry Excerpts from this Issue
Pigeon’s Comeuppance
by George Chopping Eventually back on board the boat to an angry cat and a cold dead fire. But better that, than an angry fire and vice versa.
Do Not Feed the Pigeons
by George Chopping Do Not Feed the Pigeons Based on a true story from 1997, when studying at Catering College in Torquay, Devon Back
Bright Landscape
by Xue Di Bright Landscape translated by Waverly and Keith Waldrop In the extension of family he’s called Xue mature child remembered
Celia
by Xue Di Celia translated by Hil Anderson and Sue Ellen Thompson I see you, with your panther eyes and the body of a lamb among the cut
First Love
by Xue Di First Love translated by Wang Ping and Keith Waldrop Calling ceaselessly your name in order to feel how I was caught and plunged
Seven Years
by Xue Di Seven Years translated by Waverly and Keith Waldrop Walking on broken glass, living in a city whose dialect I don’t speak Feet
New Year
by Xue Di New Year translated by Hil Anderson and Keith Waldrop Snow covers former days Children hide in the snow while three squirrels
Oz
by Anne Elezabeth Pluto From across the window the wind rises dust, birds, debris cyclone forward away as shadow from me to you this separation
II .1 . iii — Empires of vapour
by Michael Boughn Among Dupont’s tattered wounds, commerce’s ragged edge, sudden curve of attention shaped to cocked hip draped in thought.
Erotic Haiku
by Vanessa Vie Whilst autumnal night Interlocks our drowsing flesh Know we want more night.
Frigidity as an Act of Love
by Vanessa Vie Because of my blood Take me from behind and pray From my fours I glimpse.
Song of Mayakovsky’s Dogs
by Vanessa Vie Seasons seasons poet-seasons Sea daughters sea sons People roaming the streets in a cold February wind I miss the Revolution bare
Song of the Firebird
by Vanessa Vie Song of the Firebird to M.H. I fell in Love with a bird I am in Love with a Firebird “Put your colours against the sky
Coma in a boyfriend
by Anselm Berrigan I’ve an invigorated withdrawal In nurture posing as signatory To certain accounts — can they And do they. Canned they &
Throw-away toughness
by Anselm Berrigan I no longer wish To contribute to The communal anxiety The practitioners of no Two-something and six Let me see your scrapes
Hollocene
by Anselm Berrigan How are we doing notationally speaking? We are feeling conspicuous No amount of crypto-hasho forear / blackbear fiddling will
Alia, the Beautiful
by Grace Andreacchi Alia, the Beautiful a poem in three parts 1. Torn Apart the sky is torn apart the stars lie scattered upon the dead
Valentine to a Four Corners Girl
by Adrian C. Louis Moth-shaped leaves bang again & again against the basement window. Snow-filled winds curse against my rented house at
My Fine, Feathered Corpse
by Adrian C. Louis I flapped my wings, hoping to rise & not take a nosedive. I was old & grieving but still driven by the need for nooky.
Adam’s Complaint
by Adrian C. Louis I did not need the cooter of Eve. I only wanted His magical love & His dribbling, dark gifts. Oh my God, were you not the
Independence
by Stephen Ellis Spontaneous beauty like ancient folk songs drift down from the far north, like the light rain that cools the genius living in
Joy
by Stephen Ellis There’s a red glow, moving west from China, and now the last moments at the luminous horizon, as dusk settles in, with its gold
The Hammock
by Matthew Caley “What wind so blew that a hammock netted a man?” Anon. Two silver birches bear the burden, which after all is only some
Buffalo Skinners
by Matthew Caley Having left M’Lady half-naked and panting, as her husband mounted the stairs, I vaulted the balustrade — preferred exit of
The Confluence of the Elbe and The Upa
by Matthew Caley Supposedly, the cool silver birch bole barely two hips width shudders like a woman on the brink of believing in her man They are
For All the Good It Did Us
by Jim Daniels I smiled at the gate of Lord Larry, the Boy with the Swimming Pool. The small plastic / rubber / aluminum circle stand-in for Ye
The Emeriti
by Gerald Locklin When Toad goes for his morning coffee and Raisin-bran cookies at the Donut Shoppe, His wife asks, “Off to hang out With your
Close-knit Family
by Gerald Locklin Toad is bragging How his thirteenth grandchild Is due in less than a week, and His eighty-year-old new buddy At the donut
Stars like sentinels stand by
by Oz Hardwick The moon is heavy tonight, plump and livid, barely clearing the black ground. Blind and bloodshot, it eyes nothing.
For Practice
by Anselm Berrigan temporary ruins to collaborate with stream of food trucks & foot traffic around a corner twenty million rats send their
No consolation!
by Natasha Georgievska We are too young to die like that Quiet and peaceful We rather bleed on the tavern floor With wine on lips and knives
His Wife and Girlfriend . . .
by Gerald Locklin Are the confidantes he would most like To take conversational refuge From each other with, But he’s learned each wants to hear
Big Glimmer
by George Bowering The ocean is always evaporating, he says, as if he were Friedrich Nietzsche, human kind is no better, I’ve reached a great age
A Late Smile
by George Bowering I was born in December, and now I’m in the December of my life. Has anyone seen what next year will be like or whether I’ll
Interview
Xue Di Interview
Interview with Xue Di on the poetry of revolution, life in the United States, and the precise word The following phone and email interview with
Reviews
I See Hunger’s Children
Selected Poems 1962–2012, by normal, LUMMOX Press, 2013, 111 pages, paper, $15, ISBN: 978-1-929878-80-2 Buy the Book My favorite poem in this
In a Kingdom of Birds
by Ken Fontenot, Pinyon Publishing, 2012, 73 pages, paper, $15.00, ISBN: 978-1-936671-07-6 Buy the Book Can ordinary lives be written simply?
Calendars of Fire
by Lee Sharkey, Tupelo Press, 2013, 60 pages, paper, $16.95, ISBN: 978-1-936797-26-4 Buy the Book “Why do we war on each other? This is an
Poet Biographies
Vanessa Vie
is a visual artist, singer-songsmith, guitarist, harmonica player, and lyricist-poet. Born in Asturias, North Spain, she moved to London in
Anne Elezabeth Pluto
earned a doctorate in English Literature, and an M.A. in Humanities from the State University of New York at Buffalo, where she studied poetry
Adrian C. Louis
a half-breed Indian, he was born and raised in northern Nevada and is an enrolled member of the Lovelock Paiute Tribe. He is a graduate of Brown
Gerald Locklin
is an American poet who is a Professor Emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach and the poetry editor of Chiron Review. He
Natasha Georgievska
a sensualist writer of martial literature emerging under the alias Lolita Enchanté, she is an eccentric Macedonian bohemian who loves to write
Stephen Ellis
born in 1948. He edited, with Stephen Dignazio, 26 issues of the little magazine :that: (1992–1996), and was the editor and publisher of over
Xue Di
was born in Beijing. He is the author of three volumes of collected works and one book of criticism on contemporary Chinese poetry in Chinese.
Jim Daniels
has been teaching creative writing at Carnegie Mellon University since 1981. Recent books include Having a Little Talk with Capital P Poetry;
George Chopping
is a poet from Torquay, England. A few years ago he left a glittering career as a shelf filler for a major supermarket and began to perform his
Matthew Caley
his poetry book, Thirst (Slow Dancer, 1999) was Nominated for The Forward Prize for Best First Poetry Collection. This was followed by The Scene
George Bowering
taught English at Simon Fraser University from 1972 until his retirement in 2001. Canada’s first Poet Laureate, he is an Officer of both the
Anselm Berrigan
was born in 1972 in Chicago, Illinois. He received a B.A. from SUNY Buffalo and an M.F.A. from Brooklyn College. He is the son of poets Alice
Michael Boughn
a writer, scholar, and sometime teacher, he was born and raised in Riverside, California. He moved to Canada in 1966 and was introduced to the
Grace Andreacchi
is a novelist, poet, and playwright. Her works include the novels, Scarabocchio and Poetry and Fear, Music for Glass Orchestra ( Serpent’s Tail
Artist Biographies
Reviewers Biographies
Kevin Sweeney
has degrees from California (Pa) State College and the University of Massachusetts. He is chair of the English Department at Southern Maine
Kristen Stake
writes poetry, teaches Contact Improvisation dance, and practices massage therapy. She earned an MFA in Poetry Writing from Vermont College in
Sharon Olinka
has completed a series of poems delving into San Antonio’s folkloric traditions and ghost stories. She received a Barbara Deming Memorial Award,