Rick Campbell: Two Poems
the first bird sings that it’s time
to walk the beach, where gulls don’t sing
and herons stand silent, waiting
for a pilchard to offer itself to God.
Kevin Dann: Why Seashells Resemble Spiraling Galaxies and the Human Heart
From dissecting hearts to designing ornithopters, James Bell Pettigrew saw spirals as the blueprint of nature—but his grand vision was lost to history.
Jan Beatty: My Father’s Houses
My father stands lean and young
in the formica kitchen, drinking a shot of Imperial.
He shoots his head back/swallows it all/
slams down the shot glass/turns around and says:
That’s good stuff.
Mike Vargo: Living in the Republic of Unreality
The practice of living in unreality consists of three sub-practices: Denying real reality. Bingeing on pseudo-reality. And adopting a myth.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Nostalgia
Nostalgias we share with friends
around a good table, nodding yes, yes, to our
glad sadnesses as we bring back a taste, a kiss,
that one song we will never forget.
Video: Mississippi John Hurt | Spike Driver’s Blues
Mississippi John Hurt used a syncopated finger picking style of guitar playing that he taught himself. According to the music critic Robert Christgau, “No one else has talked the blues with such delicacy or restraint.”
Jianqing Zheng: Site Visit
The Valley Store in Avalon, Mississippi, long abandoned, still holds its worn-out sign above the locked double doors. Many years ago, John Hurt lived nearby.
Rebecca Gordon: Trump Harvests Autocratic Powers
Remember that El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele is perfectly willing to receive U.S. citizens, too, as prisoners in his country. It can happen here. It can happen to you.
Mary B. Moore: Ab Ovum
could say anything’s inside me, Gloria, Dad, Mom,
the old Royal typewriter, Xs, Ys, a blue ’58 Hudson . . .
but I Wiki-checked the car and learn they quit making them
in ’57 so then I wonder if I mean the Hudson River
Adam Parsons: A Humble Advocate for Sharing the World’s Resources
Again and again, Pope Francis railed against our collective indifference to widespread suffering and urged humanity, especially world leaders, to do better. It’s not too late to heed his call.
José A. Alcántara: Two Extras
We prefer our violence subtle
managed, predictable.
Not for us the hunter and his rifle
but the factory farm, the feedlot, the killing floor.
Baron Wormser: The Hero
Amid Donald Trump’s hubbub machine, it may be hard to discern that what is happening is not a rogue event but one that is ingrained in the American character…
Donna Hilbert: Three Poems
It’s the walkers I wonder about:
sad faces, our caps pulled down, moving fast,
no place special to go, so fierce to get there.
Video: The Promise of Spring
Sarah Oliphant, one of the art world’s most prolific yet best-kept secrets, has built an extraordinary legacy through her work. Her daughter, Violet Oliphant-O’Neill, now faces the challenge of forging her own artistic identity in the shadow of her mother’s success.
