Our Winter 2009 Issue of The Café Review continues our mission to bring Maine poetry to the world and poetry from around the world to Maine featuring poetry by Emily Carmen, Melissa Crowe, William Heyen, Joanne Kyger, Steve Luttrell, Michael Macklin, Peter Money, Jack Myers, normal, Ed Sanders, Natasha Sajé, Dan Stryk, Lucien Stryk and Philip A. Waterhouse with artists James Chase, Chuck Feil and Suzanne Stryk. This issue also features reviews by Henry Kearney, IV, Michael Macklin, Peter Manuel and Bruce Spang.
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Poetry Excerpts from this Issue
Friendships
by Natasha Sajé Like dead moths, some dissolve to grey on my palms. New ones jump like crickets — I don’t know where they’ll land, and fear where
Epithalamium with Acrobats
by Melissa Crowe Love, let us be clowns to one another our mouths drawn down, yes, but every frown and tear merely grease paint. Let’s see how
Sit Still
by Michael Macklin Let the world do her work, sky juggling clouds, waves moving away and returning. Let flowers on the shore become doors or
Mallow
by Michael Macklin They must talk, the flowers and the fishes. One overhanging the other, pale pink at the water’s edge. One world bleeds into
Float
by Michael Macklin We swim out to the smaller world where weathered wood holds its place tugging at its mucky tether. Spread our dripping bodies
Cafe L’Absinthe
by Philip A. Waterhouse The automatic voice intoning — You are now flying over the North Pole — you willing to be recrossing the polar bear
Primary Encounters
by Philip A. Waterhouse West of the Mississippi, we were called gandy dancers, slang term for railroad “section hands” the north east, the same
Still Life With Wind
by William Heyen The trainer found him hanging in the locker room early morning before the game. Statics was naked except for jock and socks,
Special Olympics, Brockport, 1979
by William Heyen At the track, I served as hugger. My job — to congratulate the runners, finishers or not, winners or winners, even those who
Trailing Clouds of Glory, 1994
by William Heyen The Hutu leader of a small Rwandan village suffered from his government’s rebuke: he’d been lax in “bush-clearing” — in cutting
Force
by William Heyen Iwo Jima, 1945 — a small boat intercepted a transport evacuating a wounded Marine, asked for the casualty, was granted
Manhole
by Emily Carmen Manholes allow access to underground structures. I fell into one today and hit my head on cement. Now, my DNA twists about
Wet Onions
by Emily Carmen At night, I gather up oblivion, breathing in shadows through fertile earth and the scent of moments gone. I do it for you, and
the consideration of men
by normal “Sing love and life and love All that lives is Holy. The unholiest, most holy all.” — Bob
The Safety of Flight
by normal “I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years. And I still
the last jungle
normal the last jungle “ — bang is the meaning of a gun” — ee cummings some fires never die. there were 2 old ’boes
Desert is the Memory of Water
by Jack Myers After I am gone and the ache begins to cease and the slow erosion I felt, being years ahead of you, starts to invade you too,
Art
by Jack Myers is a quality of attention, the way color says how light feels: yellow for the aerosol of happiness, black for the zero of what
What it Takes
by Jack Myers The smart ones think they can climb with their brains. The talented ones slide halfway up without trying. Those who merely feel
Snapshots of Prague
by Jack Myers Immaculate white swans float in the river’s fishless dishwater like squat question marks. Under the huge stone buildings, looking
The Next Morning
by Joanne Kyger The next morning the Buddha puts on his new robe and walks into town No one notices him but he notices all around him C’s new
Trying On The New Year 2009
by Joanne Kyger You have to give Everything you have ALL THE TIME} not just some of the time Put everything you have into it and then go outside
The Archive
by Ed Sanders Edward Sanders’ archive was buried at the Norton, Illinois landfill in 437 bankers boxes plus two portable safes containing a
Sunflower Moments
by Ed Sanders “I can’t tell you how many visions I’ve had in the last few months” she said I asked a few questions trying to find out why “Mostly
Micrometric Bibles
by Ed Sanders “Much has been made,” Reverend Corrigan continued, “of the search for the Higgs boson, the particle which many physicists claim is
Ode to the Beat Generation
by Ed Sanders Ode to the Beat Generation — for Antonio Bertoli Hail to the Beat Generation in the Time-Mist! Hail to the Generation that rocked
A Parable.
by Peter Money The animals greeted him as if he were one of them. Maybe they can smell the special carbon on his breath, the distaste, refuse,
In Ancient Times
by Peter Money In Ancient Times — for Chris Busa You were standing over the raft (it was low tide and the raft was idle), the one you
Specific —
by Steve Luttrell the man on the bridge (alone) standing. neither here nor there.
(Fragment)
by Steve Luttrell Mind’s necessary movement memory’s dislodged fragments what comes up comes up
Coast Poem
by Steve Luttrell The tides to bring the news of oceans. Where the weather takes the shape of change.
And Now . . . .
by Lucien Stryk Ancient recorder: mind leaps through centuries of pain, beyond war, peace, genocide, even love. Circles like swallows over and
Dawn
by Lucien Stryk Sunup. A noisy rumor simmers in the leaves over dark whispers of an iffy past. The chorus quickens as a fossil hunter unmasks
Winter Song
by Lucien Stryk Snow settles into cubist folds, fleeces wind-shoveled debris over mountain, village, town. Sends creatures snuggling into
Eschatology
by Dan Stryk The reversed flow rumbles, swelling, up the river . . . The north wind pushes south, now, down its banks . . . The fish, bewildered,
The Vanishing of Pain and Love in Winter
by Dan Stryk The sky, on this late afternoon, spreads milky rose, then fades, above low hills, to chalky cloud — pale whisper of hydrangea in
Crow’s Way in Late Fall
by Dan Stryk What need of philosophy, or abstract talk that droops and withers once again, at each year’s end, like the cluster of
What becomes of things we make or do?
by Dan Stryk Strolling through our neighborhood this languid afternoon— after reading essays by a man who’d left his Brooklyn youth, citybred
Artist Biographies
Poet Biographies
Philip A. Waterhouse
Philip A. Waterhouse: lives in Sonoma, California. This is his first appearance in The Café Review.
Lucien Stryk
Lucien Stryk: has been a presence in American letters for sixty-five years. His international reputation is based, not only on his own work,
Dan Stryk
Dan Stryk: originally from the “cornlands” west of Chicago, he now lives among the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwest Virginia, in Bristol. He
Natasha Sajé
Natasha Sajé: is the author of two books of poems, Red Under the Skin (Pittsburgh, 1994) and Bend (Tupelo, 2004), and many essays. She teaches
Ed Sanders
Ed Sanders: achieved fame in the counterculture world of the 60’s as poet, magazine founder, and leading force of The Fugs, a satirical folk
normal
normal: lives in Saugerties, New York.
Jack Myers
Jack Myers: the 2003-04 Texas Poet Laureate, and Professor of English and creative writing at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, is the
Peter Money
Peter Money: his work has been found in The American Poetry Review, Provincetown Arts, The Wallace Stevens Journal, Talisman, The Hawaii Review,
Michael Macklin
Michael Macklin: is a maker of wooden things and word collections. He is also an associate editor for The Café Review. He aspires to be a
Steve Luttrell
Steve Luttrell: founded The Café Review twenty years ago and remains the publishing editor. We, who know him, applaud and congratulate him on
Joanne Kyger
Joanne Kyger: studied at University of California, Santa Barbara. She moved to San Francisco in 1957 and became involved in the beat poetry
William Heyen
William Heyen: was born in Brooklyn New York in 1940. He is professor of English and Poet in Residence Emeritus at SUNY Brockport, his
Melissa Crowe
Melissa Crowe: earned an M.F.A. in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia. Her poems have
Emily Carmen
Emily Carmen: was born in Lexington, Massachusetts. Pursuing an interest in languages and the arts, she attended Bennington College in Vermont,
Reviewer Biographies
Bruce Spang
Bruce Spang: lives in Falmouth, Maine, teaches creative writing at Scarborough High School, and enjoys gardening and yoga. His latest book, To
Peter Manuel
Peter Manuel: graduated from the Stonecoast M.F.A. program in January 2005; the following April his Sheltering Pines Press chapbook, (!!)
Henry Kearney, IV
Henry Kearney, IV: is from Robersonville, North Carolina. He has an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College.
Michael Macklin
Michael Macklin: is a maker of wooden things and word collections. He is also an associate editor for The Café Review. He aspires to be a