Poems

Hawks

Hawks Hawks

Hawks kettling on the thermals high above the Appalachians on their way south—it looks like thought, the mind floating by way of association, veering and floating, circling back to…

Jan 21, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Elizabeth Arnold

To Tell of Bodies Changed

To Tell of Bodies Changed To Tell of Bodies Changed

Having desired little more than the arrival of the little more that arrives, outside our window a cypress of model proportions. Its patience seems to widen the nights we sleep in R…

Dec 3, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Jana Prikryl

Through the Slaughter

Through the Slaughter Through the Slaughter

and Bialik
 Sky—have mercy. When flechettes fly forth from a shell,
 shot by a tank
 taking Ezekiel’s
 chariot’s name—
 When their thin fins invisibly whiz, whiflling the air…

Nov 25, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Peter Cole

The Idea of Houses

The Idea of Houses The Idea of Houses

I sold my earrings at the gold store to buy a silver ring in the market. I swapped that for old ink and a black notebook. This was before I forgot my pages on the seat of a train t…

Nov 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Iman Mersal

Raising a Glass With an Arab Nationalist

Raising a Glass With an Arab Nationalist Raising a Glass With an Arab Nationalist

The pianist was still droopy-eyed, her face as dark as the keys they left her to press for half a century, though she must have been white as an angel when they first strung her up…

Nov 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Iman Mersal

The Window

The Window The Window

You can identify the one who broke apart, the one whose spine they managed to straighten, whose neck they stuck back on his shoulders. From where you stand, drinking coffeee and wa…

Nov 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Iman Mersal

Who Talks Like That?

Who Talks Like That? Who Talks Like That?

The Narrows is strips of yellow and jade, Verrazano Bridge silver, horizontal lines, here; and here, someone alone, afraid, crying, sad, sunken eyes, emaciated body; and, here, the…

Oct 8, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Lawrence Joseph

Memphis

Memphis Memphis

1 To set all four paws on an upturned tub and not topple over was as much as I could manage even when I still strode into battle with my lord Ramses. Mite-ridden then, raw with man…

Oct 1, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Paul Muldoon

Diagnosis Inc.

Diagnosis Inc. Diagnosis Inc.

You are two oranges shy of sangria You chumpchange in a clackdish You the flensed soldier, egg-runny on the inside You frogging deadline after deadline You caught in a Swiss chokeh…

Sep 10, 2015 / Books & the Arts / James Byrne

Bicyclist Bicyclist

He wobbles on his bicycle, steadies, threads an s through traffic, clank of gears, a chain around his person, a person around its breath.

Aug 13, 2015 / Poems / Patrick Morrissey

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