Archive for February, 2010
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
“Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem” by Matthew Olzmann
Matthew Olzmann MOUNTAIN DEW COMMERCIAL DISGUISED AS A LOVE POEM Here’s what I’ve got, the reasons why our marriage might work: Because you wear pink but write poems about bullets and gravestones. Because you yell at your keys when you lose them, and laugh, loudly, at your own jokes. Because you can hold a pistol, [...]
4 Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Saturday, February 27th, 2010
“Thaw” by David O’Connell
David O’Connell THAW Mid-March, noon, the sunlight presses warm against the city like a hand. The T.V. says it’s record-breaking, says it’s toppled ’47, and this streak may last the week. Ties loosed, blouses cut low and blooming color, the lunch hour crowds rejoice. Music blasts in snippets. Skaters rocket from the steps of the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Friday, February 26th, 2010
“Miserable” by Dave Newman
Dave Newman MISERABLE Inside the Pipe Room, which is the hometown dive where all the locals play pool and guzzle beer, a cute short blonde woman, seven years my senior, who used to be a sergeant in the US Army, says, “He doesn’t respect me.” She’s talking about her fiancé, a philosophy professor at Saint [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
DUST AND BREAD by Stephen Haven
Review by Mary Sayler DUST AND BREAD by Stephen Haven Turning Point P.O. Box 541106 Cincinnati, Ohio 45254-1106 ISBN 978-1932339024 2008, 100 pp., $17.00 www.turningpointbooks.com Conventional wisdom in reading and writing contemporary poetry consistently encourages us to enter into the experience of a poem, so that’s what I aimed to do in reading Dust and [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
“Crossing the Gap” by Travis Mossotti
Travis Mossotti CROSSING THE GAP Try asking Ernie Watts, a local bricklayer, to explain how after a long day of work and league night at the Lucky Strike he can glide across the kitchen floor, Old Style hovering like a ghost on his breath, bowling shoes slung over one shoulder singing fly me to the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Audio,Poems by Megan
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
“To the High School Thug that Broke Into His English Teacher’s Car” by Scott Woods
Scott Woods TO THE HIGH SCHOOL THUG THAT BROKE INTO HIS ENGLISH TEACHER’S CAR What you know about Nina Simone could do laps on a pencil tip, so I’m struggling to understand why you would steal that CD. That you skipped the vodka in the glove compartment but took my reading glasses is equally perplexing. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems,Tributes by Megan
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
“Dreaming of Emily Dickinson” by E.K. Mortenson
E.K. Mortenson DREAMING OF EMILY DICKINSON I did again last night and when I told my wife she said, “Are you, like, in love with her or something?” And I remembered a letter that Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote to his wife—he was a writer for the Atlantic Monthly to whom Emily would send her poems [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Poems by Megan
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
“52″ by Patricia Smith
Patricia Smith 52 Baffled by stark ache and symptom, I get in my bed beside the bearded charmer who is yet in my bed. As graying denies and dims me, I vaguely recall the line of whimpering whiners I’ve let in my bed— every one of them goofy with love, dazzled by curve and color, [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Poems,Tributes by Megan
Saturday, February 20th, 2010
RUIN AND BEAUTY by Deena Metzger
Review by Lori A. May RUIN AND BEAUTY By Deena Metzger Red Hen Press P.O. Box 3537 Granada Hills CA 91394 ISBN 978-1-59709-425-2 2009, 312 pp., $23.95 http://www.redhen.org/ For more than forty years, Deena Metzger has been demonstrating her dedication not only to penning wonderful poems, but also to living a life as a Literary [...]
No Comments » - Posted in E-Reviews by Megan
Friday, February 19th, 2010
“Conversation” by Joe Mills
Joe Mills CONVERSATION Daddy, what are these? my three year old daughter asks, pointing to the car grill and the dozens of insects we have smashed while driving around. I want to say “spots” or “nothing” or “I don’t know.” I want to put off discussions like this until she’s older or at least with [...]
