Archive for July, 2009
Friday, July 31st, 2009
“Please Hold” by Jonathan Wells
Jonathan Wells
PLEASE HOLD
I am a telephone ringing in mid air,
a chair pushed back from the dining room
table after a long conversation.
Speak to me again. Say my name.
The rice, cold not close, still marries
the bride and groom. The holster
fires like a gun.
The reins of the cottonwood trees go slack
and the field lies down on itself.
Bird songs [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
EASY MARKS by Gail White
Review by Mary Meriam
EASY MARKS
by Gail White
David Robert Books
PO Box 541106
Cincinnati, OH 45254-1106
ISBN 978-1934999066
2008, 80 pp., $17.00
www.davidrobertbooks.com
Encountering a poet and her book of poems for the first time, I find myself fascinated by the slow emergence of the book’s persona. In a book of formalist poems, the persona can be seen in stanzas, like the [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
“Guided Tour” by Ed Galing
Ed Galing
GUIDED TOUR
germany looks real
good now,
the hills are quiet
the rivers flow smooth
there is an air of
peace
as our travel bus
and the travel guide
tells us all about
bavaria,
in his german clipped
english,
we all look out the
side windows,
absorb this land
of kings, and wars,
and there are forty
of us,
around my age, or a
bit younger,
and this is their first
trip to germany, but not
mine,
I [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009
“Muscled Loins and Haunches” by Bil Lepp
Bil Lepp
MUSCLED LOINS AND HAUNCHES
Charolais was four when she figured out that
she was named for a breed of cattle—
in a town where everybody
knew everybody’s business
and everybody knew everything about cows.
When she was seven
the older boys at school
told her that
Charolais are a breed of cow known for their
heavily muscled
loins
and
haunches.
Of course that brought laughter from the older [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Monday, July 27th, 2009
“The Calendar” by Amie Whittemore
Amie Whittemore
THE CALENDAR
When my grandmother died she stopped making sense.
She refuses to remember she’s dead.
She crashes family gatherings, pesters the tenants in her old house.
It’s hardest in April when her birthday snags her like a loose seam—
the special day cake, the tally of cards in the mail.
I told her to stop.
One blue eye watered, one [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Awards, Poems by Megan
Sunday, July 26th, 2009
“The Only Thing” by Alan Fox
Alan Fox
THE ONLY THING
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
—Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First
Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
Place a wooden board
one foot wide by twelve feet long,
lay it on the ground
and I will briskly walk from one end to the other.
Place a wooden board
one foot wide by twelve feet long
between [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Saturday, July 25th, 2009
CRAZY LOVE by Pamela Uschuk
Review by Willie James King
CRAZY LOVE
by Pamela Uschuk
Wings Press
627 E Guenther
San Antonio, TX 78210-1134
ISBN 978- 0- 916727- 58- 1
2009, 102 pp., $16.00
www.wingspress.com
When the head and heart are one, nothing is impossible. Pamela Uschuk’s fifth full-length volume of poems does more than allude. Crazy Love skillfully shores up the poet’s keen observation of mankind, as well [...]
No Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Friday, July 24th, 2009
“Wild Bill Hacker” by Mikhail Horowitz
Mikhail Horowitz
WILD BILL HACKER
A Cyberwestern Ballad
Back when the Info Highway was still a dusty trail
Before the cyberstage come through to speed a man’s e-mail
When renegades like Sitting Mouse would skin the hides off hackers
There was a fella ruled the roost of databank bushwhackers
For Wild Bill the big big thrill was access, total access
He’d broken into [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009
“Dream/Time” by Deborah Tobola
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Deborah Tobola
DREAM/TIME
In the dream, I’m showing someone the grave where
my father is buried. There, under the willow tree.
I turn to look at the person I’m talking to. It is my father.
Which father is my father? The live one standing next to me
or the dead one, buried beneath the willow [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Audio, Awards, Poems by Megan
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
“Poem of Four Explanations to Poems at Poetry Readings” by Gary Dop
Gary Dop
POEM OF FOUR EXPLANATIONS TO POEMS AT POETRY READINGS
I
by one of those ladies
with the red hats and purple shirts
I just wanna say
about this piece
you need to know
that I own 30 cats
and that the river
near my house is called Clementine
and so is my Siamese,
who appears in this poem
as one of my hats.
II
by Doug, someone’s roommate
until [...]
