Angelenos

Conversation with
Brendan Constantine

Rattle #52 features a tribute to 21 Los Angeles poets, and a lively conversation with one of L.A.’s most vibrant voices in Brendan Constantine. Los Angeles is our home city, but we’re an international magazine and not especially sociable, so we wanted to peek in and see what’s happening in the local scene. Greater Los Angeles is home to almost 20 million people, including a very eclectic but widely dispersed poetry community: Take your pick of the many poetry readings and open mics happening daily—but good luck driving there! It’s also a city full of complicated history and cinematic beauty. As always, we put out an open call for submissions, and were impressed with what Angeleno poets had to offer, including a love poem for Los Angeles by L.A. Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez.

The open section brings together sixteen poets from other regions of the world, with all the passion and compassion and honesty Rattle issues are known for.

 

	Angelenos
	Resa Alboher	A Few More Notes on My Fall …
	Allan Aquino	For Yumi Sakugawa
	Chanel Brenner	To the Frustrated Mother in Starbucks …
	Brendan Constantine	Red Sugar Blue Smoke
		From the Big Book of Games for Girls
	Jack Cooper	L.A. River
	Alejandro Escudé	Green Felt Pants
	Alexis Rhone Fancher	The Dracaena Plant in My Apartment …
	Alan Fox	Today
	Jack Grapes	Any Style
	Ron Koertge	A Surprise Visit
		Dear Citizen,
	Deborah P. Kolodji	Four Haiku
	Lester Graves Lennon	Crossing Over
	Ruth Madievsky	Paragard
	Risa Potters	In My Mother’s Things
	Raquel Reyes-Lopez	The Draft of a Messiah
	Luis J. Rodriguez	Love Poem to Los Angeles
	Lynne Thompson	The Curious Adoptee
	Amy Uyematsu	I Wish I’d Seen My Nisei Father Dance
	Charles Harper Webb	The New Humility
		Ice
	Mari Werner	Oscar
	Cecelia Woloch	Self-Pity
	Open Poetry
	Stephen Bett	For Love of You
	Christopher Citro	The Mutual Building
	Tiana Clark	Exorcism
	Peter J. Curry	The Poet Abandons His Craft
	Jennifer Givhan	The Cheerleaders
	Nancy Gomez	Supernova
		Deadbeat
	Chris Green	Inventing the Dolphin
	Nora Iuga	Istovitu Works the Nightshift
	Felicia Krol	Between Funerals
	S.H. Lohmann	Survival English
	Susan H. Maurer	Ant Logic
	Sarah McKinstry-Brown	Letter to Myself, 15 Years After the Affair
	Robert Nazarene	Reflection #6,189
	Pedro Poitevin	I Feel the Memory of Writing You
	Bill Rector	Autumn
	Bro. Yao	Putting the Niggers to Rest
	Conversation
	Brendan Constantine
	Cover Art
	Mark Hillringhouse