Archive for September, 2009
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
DIVINE COMEDY: JOURNEYS THROUGH A REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY by John Kinsella
Review by Julia Istomina
DIVINE COMEDY: JOURNEYS THROUGH A REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY
by John Kinsella
W.W. Norton
500 Fifth Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10110
ISBN 978-0-393-06655-5
2008, 400 pp., $34.95
www.wwnorton.com
Human beings are caught in a harrowing conflict. Air, trees, sky, antelopes, the earth beneath us, placed into our hands for use–as we have the power of logic, reason, and long-term memory, we are [...]
No Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009
“Hunting” by Joan Dy
Joan Dy
HUNTING
For a year, my father killed turtles.
During the summer, he and his friends
waited for them to bank on the beach
at night like small, shipwrecked vessels.
Dressed in damp linen and old sandals,
they smoked cigarettes under the cliffs
until a turtle emerged from the white surf
—see how the carapace flickers
in the moonlight, a blazing iron shell.
They do [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Monday, September 28th, 2009
“Cnidaria” by Lisa L. Siedlarz
Lisa L. Siedlarz
CNIDARIA
He is brain dead. His tongue moves,
touches lips as if to moisten them.
Grandpa’s tongue—heaving of the soul
pushing, pushing at the portal.
Tongue to eat. Tongue to speak.
Tongue to kiss. Tongue—a jellyfish
whose tentacles stray to sting us.
This hospital room is hazy. Yet I know
it like I know which dog walks in
my room by the sound [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Sunday, September 27th, 2009
“Baghdad, Mon Amour” by Salah al Hamdani
Salah al Hamdani
—translated by Molly Deschenes*
BAGHDAD, MON AMOUR
You cannot be crucified
On the side of a page
Of a story that is not your own,
Nor to the rhythm of the deaths that brood your plagues
Because there will be no cry to relieve your grief.
You cannot be crucified on the banks of the streams
Your body bleeds,
When the Euphrates [...]
2 Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Saturday, September 26th, 2009
“Doing Lineups on my Birthday” by Richard S. Bank
Richard S. Bank
DOING LINEUPS ON MY BIRTHDAY
First you flew over the jungle canopy,
your chopper throbbing like a heart.
I was in the movement, striving against it all.
We crossed swords in the frenetic courtroom,
you in high boots and fifty-mission crush
describing how blood glistens on the dull
3:00 AM streets as if it were alive and I,
asking the time [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Friday, September 25th, 2009
SHE DANCES LIKE MUSSOLINI by David James
Review by James Benton
SHE DANCES LIKE MUSSOLINI
by David James
March Street Press
3413 Wilshire
Greensboro, NC 27408
ISBN 1-59661-105-7
2009, 60 pp., $15.00
marchstreetpress.com
Imagine those famous paintings of dogs playing poker. Now imagine the kind of person who hangs those paintings on the wall of his man-cave, not because he thinks of them as art, but because they are so insipid [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
“Love of Distance” by Prartho Sereno
Prartho Sereno
LOVE OF DISTANCE
He’s enchanted with the idea
of reaching through space,
wants me to wait by the window
while he climbs the far-off mountain,
sets up the light, flashes something back
in Morse code. He says we should begin
studying our dots and dashes, along with
smoke signals, the extravagantly long rolled r’s
of Spanish. Hand gestures of the deaf.
Or we could [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
“So You Said What You Had to Say” by Susan Abraham
Susan Abraham
SO YOU SAID WHAT YOU HAD TO SAY
So you said what you had to say, so what
if your words are like a road
that finally got paved;
so what if the wheels
that were always spinning
now have a place to roll,
their own lane beside
the bicycles, and the cars
forever spilling smog.
So now you can say
that the road is [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
“Why Women’s Knees are So Pretty” by Nick Carbo
Nick Carbo
WHY WOMEN’S KNEES ARE SO PRETTY
In the old days the Blaans believed
that a man could not be told apart
from a woman. The word for man
and woman was not yet known
and there was no father or mother
either, there was just one parent.
Each individual had a penis
and a vagina and these were placed
on each knee. The [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Monday, September 21st, 2009
“Poet and Audience” by Erik Campbell
Erik Campbell
POET AND AUDIENCE
I
The Argument:
You Wondered Why You Weren‘t Published
It’s because the postman has opened
All your submissions and kept them
Tucked your words, as it were, under
His proverbial, federal wing.
And just so you know,
Your love poems work.
He reads them to his wife in bed
Before what has recently become
Most lyrical sex; he even adds
A few verbs here [...]
