Archive for October, 2009
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
“The Death of Old Women” by Elizabeth Smither
Elizabeth Smither
THE DEATH OF OLD WOMEN
—for Diana Bridge
Our mothers: we’ve described
symptoms you rarely share
outside the family home
and not often there: a scalp
affliction, the body’s efforts
without conscious consent, it seems
to breathe. What kills us:
lack of air. And how death comes
like someone climbing weary stairs
for the last time, forbearing
to ever look back again
on the view below. I [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Friday, October 30th, 2009
WITH THE LIGHT OF APRICOTS by Larry D. Thomas
Review by Jeffrey C. Alfier
WITH THE LIGHT OF APRICOTS
by Larry D. Thomas
Lily Press
2007, 20 pp.
Free download
http://larrydthomas.com/Apricot.pdf
(1.7 MB pdf)
There is a quietly relentless power running through the lyrics of With the Light of Apricots, Larry D. Thomas’s sixth book of poems, and his first published by an online publisher, Lily Press. Thomas has won [...]
No Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
“Painful Birds” by Elisha Porat
Elisha Porat
—Translated from the Hebrew by Ward Kelley and the author.
PAINFUL BIRDS
The helicopters, skillful, painful birds,
Again bombard targets above my head:
I sit shaking at my writing desk,
I bend down to my notebook, clench
My shaking pen. As if they know…
As if they sense an inner tracer, a red laser
Signal: they make another bomb run,
This time circling [...]
3 Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
“Small Reflection” by Louis Faber
Louis Faber
SMALL REFLECTION
It is that moment when the moon
is a glaring crescent,
slowly engulfed by
the impending night—
when the few clouds give out
their fading glow
in the jaundiced light
of the sodium arc street lamp.
It nestles the curb—at first a small bird—
when touched, a twisted piece of root.
I want to walk into the weed-strewn
aging cemetery, stand in the shadow
of [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems, Tributes by Megan
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
“Western Motel” by J.J. Blickstein
J. J. Blickstein
WESTERN MOTEL
—for Edward Hopper
Red chair. The human sacrifice, a perfect desert, outside the window
(window the leash on the decay of the dream) is the entire world.
Woman in a red dress on the edge of the bed ready to go or to stay forever—
suitcase on the floor, same color as the undamaged road, green [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Tim
Monday, October 26th, 2009
“First Pig” by Douglas Woody Woodsum
Douglas Woody Woodsum
FIRST PIG
You ever tried to get a pig in a truck?
I did last winter in the snow and frozen mud.
I made a ramp from scrap-wood
and leaned it against the back of the Chevy.
I remembered someone telling me,
“It takes two very strong but not very smart
men to get a pig in a truck.”
So I [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Tim
Sunday, October 25th, 2009
THE SPIDER SERMONS by Robert Krut
Review by Haley Larson
THE SPIDER SERMONS
by Robert Krut
BlazeVOX [books]
14 Tremaine Ave.
Kenmore, NY 14217
ISBN 9781935402121
2009, 72 pp., $16.00
http://blazevox.org
Robert Krut’s newest collection of poems, The Spider Sermons, crawls with surprising grace through disheartened gloom. What could easily have evolved into a “world is dark” mentality instead crafts a magical underlying hopefulness, a set of eyes which grope [...]
No Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
“Floaters” by Allen C. Fischer
Allen C. Fischer
FLOATERS
Black snow…one flake, then
another. They don’t go anywhere,
don’t come down but drift,
float within my eyes like microfeathers
caught in delay,
suspended in a trance of space.
Space, the once and future window
that relays my life across its lens,
shore to shore across expectation
and everything I fear.
Space of my slowing and eventual
bedside. Arithmetic so simple, a clock
so regimental, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
“Cradle” by Anis Mojgani
Anis Mojgani
CRADLE
Set the warriors to sea in a ship stacked with shields, layers of swords, mountains of gold. Lay them out with their wife. With their child. Lay them out with their livestock, with the whole farm. The rain is not coming here. Not today. For today the gods welcome one of their own back [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
“Chewing Gum Upskirt” by Vince Gotera
Vince Gotera
CHEWING GUM UPSKIRT
On the Avenue of the Americas,
at noon two weeks ago Tuesday, a nun
paced the grimy concrete, robed in black,
a starched, white veil framing her stunning face,
one-in-a-million supermodel cheekbones.
Fifth grade, St. Agnes School, we boys bet on
whether Sister Helen had hair beneath
her wimple. Blonde? Redhead? A pageboy cut?
Fishnets under her floor-length skirt? She [...]
