Archive for May, 2009
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
“The Beginning of a Long Night” by Gabrielle Mittelbach
Gabrielle Mittelbach
THE BEGINNING OF A LONG NIGHT
Someday I will miss this, I know.
I will miss the dog hairs on my bed
and the bed clothes rumpled into a tent
when I get home from work at six o’clock.
I’ll miss the yellow crayon scribbled
on the TV screen that’s been there
since Kids-Eat-Free night at Denny’s.
I will miss the odor [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Saturday, May 30th, 2009
IT WAS A TERRIBLE CLOUD AT TWILIGHT by Alessandra Lynch
Review by Kristina Marie Darling
IT WAS A TERRIBLE CLOUD AT TWILIGHT
by Alessandra Lynch
LSU Press
Building 3005
8000 GSRI Road
Baton Rouge, LA 70820
ISBN 978-0-8071-3346-0
2008, 73pp., $16.95
www.lsu.edu/lsupress
In her second book of poems, It was a terrible cloud at twilight, Alessandra Lynch offers readers a complex understanding of childhood, in which misfortune and loss often prompt a premature transition [...]
No Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Friday, May 29th, 2009
“Corporal Russell” by Michael Miller
Michael Miller
CORPORAL RUSSELL
There are no mirrors in his room.
Five surgeries have begun
To restore his shrapnelled face,
This map of grafted skin.
Once this face was handsome,
Was kissed by women, looked upon.
On Sunday you will find him here.
Let him say you are his friend.
He will close the blinds,
Turn off the light, and you
Can speak, you can listen to
His [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
“Rhode Island” by Amy Miller
Amy Miller
RHODE ISLAND
for my mother
That summer in Misquamicut, when boys
as ripe as roadside corn shot pool in darkened
eighteen-over bars, I found the joy
they buried deep in denim straight-front pockets—
pipe screens, joints, and all the damp and salty
wounded want my navigating hands
could plunder. Home and sunburned, bedroom walls
my [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
“In the Gynecologist’s Waiting Room” by Joy Maulitz
Joy Maulitz
IN THE GYNECOLOGIST’S WAITING ROOM
Good Housekeeping? No.
Parenting? Not me.
Women’s Sexual Health?
Now we’re talking.
Flipping through,
arrested by a close-up of an old woman,
way up close and personal,
right between her legs.
Two fingers pulled [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
“At the Spring” by David T. Manning
David T. Manning
AT THE SPRING
Before she could drink from the garden hose
a cardinal landed on her wrist
and plunged its beak into the clear bubbling.
She froze in scarlet presence
but managed to gentle the nozzle’s flow.
Never so close to a wild thing,
she was soaked but held rock-still
as the redbird clung to her wrist
tilting its head up and [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Monday, May 25th, 2009
ELEGY by Larry Levis
Review by Rick Marlatt
ELEGY
by Larry Levis
University of Pittsburgh Press
Eureka Building, Fifth Floor
3400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
IBSN 9780822956488
1997, 96 pp., $14.00
www.upress.pitt.edu
Larry Levis’ postmortem collection demonstrates a scope of excellence which far exceeds that of many of his contemporaries. Edited and preceded with an illuminating foreword by Philip Levine, Elegy manages to tell a multitude of thematically [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Sunday, May 24th, 2009
“Escapees from the Zoo” by Joanne Lowery
Joanne Lowery
ESCAPEES FROM THE ZOO
How did they climb over the natural barricades
of woven branches, thorned with rebuke?
The emu’s legs were not long enough.
Not even the giraffe could step over and out.
He was yellow and brown, like most of us,
though recently a white one was caught on film.
Is it good to be rare? Is that what [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Saturday, May 23rd, 2009
“Hot Night Too Loud for Words” by Joanne Lowery
Joanne Lowery
HOT NIGHT TOO LOUD FOR WORDS
If after a July dinner party
the noise outside the back door
drowns out your thank-you’s and good-bye’s
and your host doesn’t know what kind of bugs
fill the darkness with their rhythmic clacking,
fear not: though you know they are not crickets
hiding in the grass or cicadas clinging to trees,
nevertheless they are of [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Awards, Poems by Megan
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
“End Game” by Gary Lemons
Gary Lemons
END GAME
1
In the beginning the earth was alone.
It had no language. Did not speak. Nothing
Disturbed the blue work of its dreaming.
It dreamed blood. Not just water.
Not just a salt filled basin of rain. Something
Momentary. Unable to feel anything
But the desperate ripple of its own stone.
Blood demanded blood. Killed to get it.
Dripped from the ceiling [...]
