Dawn Potter: Mr. Kowalski
1 In last night’s dream I was preparing myself to travel over the Tappan Zee Bridge on a moped at midnight in the sluicing rain. . I would have to … Continue reading
Sharon Doubiago: Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo Bay
You can’t unring the bell, he admonished, meaning 1948, Israel. So all these bells are ringing, Nazi, Kamakazi waves out into the universe forever and I have seen you, as … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Bad
When I bought the shiny black leather shoes with the flat front toe and zip-up tongue for my high school play at the 4 Dudes shoe store downtown, the salesman … Continue reading
Peter Blair: Dying in the Hospital, My Mother Speaks on My Birthday
The only time I had a police escort was your birth. The pains hit 3 minutes apart. I called Dad home. Why didn’t I take a cab? Mrs. Headley asked … Continue reading
John Samuel Tieman: Tintype
I was young when I shed my history like the skin of something unpleasant only later did I open my bureau drawer and go through the ancestors one at a … Continue reading
Doug Anderson: Imperfect
What if all the great ones were imperfect: the Jesus who spent his last night in terror and crying, “Could you not stay awake with me for one hour” to … Continue reading
Robert Okaji: Self-Portrait with Knife
Originally posted on O at the Edges:
Self-Portrait with Knife Lacking benefit of prayer or belief, it slips through flesh, praising its temerity. Or, parting the onion’s core, reclaims the…
Jose Padua: It Was 1982 or ’83 and Nelson Mandela Wasn’t Free
It was 1982 or 83 and three of the new workers from the ambassador’s residence who were here in the States for the first time had been over to the … Continue reading
Jose Padua: Avenue Banana
Living on Avenue Banana in the 1990s is not a lot like drinking tea. I look up to the sky. You shout at people driving by in limousines. We eat … Continue reading
Dawn Potter: As a Thief in the Night
1891 It was about nine o’clock that the explosion occurred, and soon a black vapor poured out of the top of the shaft. . Horrible Explosion of Mine Gas! The … Continue reading
Jose Padua: What’s Best About True Greatness Is How Fragile It Is
Strings tuned just right, they can break apart. What keeps the notes together, the words opposing, confronting, complementing, informing one another is this. It’s not just scale or grammar, score … Continue reading
Rituals that Reconnect: Why We Must Make Sacred Space Everywhere
Originally posted on gerri ravyn stanfield:
For a week or more in the summer of 2001, fires burn through northern New Mexico, decimating forests in the Pecos Wilderness and Los…
Djelloul Marbrook: Poetry as Lightning
Poetry is by its very nature subversive. Poetry is the lightning of a society. In its flashes the demons of a society glow. The copper-wired job of the critical establishment … Continue reading
