Archive for October, 2009
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
CLOISTERS by Kristin Bock
Review by Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum CLOISTERS by Kristin Bock Tupelo Press The Eclipse Mill, Loft 305 PO Box 1767 North Adams, MA 01247 ISBN 978-1-932195-55-2 2008, 69 pp., $16.95 www.tupelopress.org Kristin Bock’s debut collection of poetry, Cloisters, winner of the Tupelo Press First Book Award for 2008, is a book that keeps its secrets. Eschewing what [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Friday, October 9th, 2009
“Always Hungry” by Patricia Smith
Patricia Smith ALWAYS HUNGRY Obscene enticement, the entire head of a hog in the window of the meat market is fly-speckled testament to what man will gobble if it can be bought one quarter at a time. Mama and I will make sandwiches from this pig’s jellied noggin, slicing the cheese of it thin, drenching [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
“Landscaping” by Michele Battiste
Michele Battiste LANDSCAPING Ex-boyfriends appear like daffodils after a slow and stuttering melt. Last autumn squirrels dug up bulbs, ran off and buried them in places you’d never expect to find a fragile boast of spring. I’ve forgiven myself for not being much of a gardener, resenting the maintenance of dirt, but when I spot [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
“Sisyphus” by Judy Barisonzi
Judy Barisonzi SISYPHUS After awhile, I no longer remembered why I was being punished, and after that I was not sure it was punishment at all. There was enough to do with checking the weather each morning, selecting the right clothing—waterproof for rain, my slatted sun hat for bright afternoons, a heavy shawl pinned round [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
“Meanwhile, Down at the Fish Market” by Anthony Fedanzo
Anthony Fedanzo MEANWHILE, DOWN AT THE FISH MARKET Three naked men wrestle a fish spine and ribs annunciate like floor clacking nails on a splay-hip dog, an accident not meant to draw attention. Below the now empty net their captive flops in a tub dull-brained, but not dull enough to have stayed behind. Filleted, its [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Monday, October 5th, 2009
MODERN LIFE by Matthea Harvey
Review by Greg Weiss MODERN LIFE by Matthea Harvey Graywolf Press 2402 University Avenue, Suite 203 Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114 ISBN 978-1-55597-480-0 2007, 80pp., $14.00 www.graywolfpress.org Modern Life is distinctive, intelligent, and well-written, but something is missing from it. In his back-jacket blurb, George Saunders writes: “Matthea Harvey’s vision of America is spooky, apocalyptic, and [...]
No Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
“What Is Your Idle Job?” by Ace Boggess
Ace Boggess “WHAT IS YOUR IDLE JOB?” —question (with typo) in a mass email’s subject line I wait for lunchtime at my desk, spinning like a boy in a barber’s chair. Come noon, a walk past pretty girls in flowered clothing, faces blooming from sunlight’s brownish blush. I sit awhile, [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems,Tributes by Megan
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009
“Creation” by Lenore Langs
Lenore Langs CREATION Again this spring The lilacs form tight-furled cones And promise to send their piercing fragrance Throughout the neighbourhood Though dinosaurs are gone And passenger pigeons, And warring humans May be just a blip On the vertebrate chart Flowers will likely bloom Till the sun burns out And who can tell what other [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems,Tributes by Megan
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
“Mitosis” by Amanda Blue Gotera
Amanda Blue Gotera MITOSIS When things have bloomed, my mother teaches me to hunt out the dead blossoms that are no longer veined and furled open but coiled dryly over floret and anther, delicate threads in withered prayer. Daughters learn the ritual twist of neck on stem, how easily a pattern can be broken. They [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems,Tributes by Megan
Thursday, October 1st, 2009
“The Day it Rained a Whale” by J. Arron Small
J. Arron Small THE DAY IT RAINED A WHALE For the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds. —Paul Linnman, eye-witness Rolling heavily in on the tide, it came to us and waited. A limp submarine. An eight-ton gift the sea deposited on the public beach. Dead upon arrival, its skin rent by fissures, [...]
