I often travelled to Africa and even lived in it twice, but out of that enormous continent I loved best the queen of all these ancient cradles of civilization: the country called Egypt. I was given the opportunity to visit it several times. My first trip, which comes to me in snatches, was the best, the most romantic one, and the last one–before the explosion … Continue reading Egypt by Nina Živančević
is wrapped in steel wire.Cables of the Brooklyn Bridgeare the large, thuggish relativesof their skinny cousins inside my piano. These delicate threads will never seethe gulls circling traffic jamsover white waves in the harbor, never hear the honking hornsof cabbies; they witness onlythe tentative first notes of Bach, the intimate touch of Chopin. The Bridge, who watches Lady Libertydaily, holds hands with a citythat smells of money … Continue reading All My Wonder by Donna Pucciani
1.Emily Dickinson’s forty-second poem Begins “A day! Help! Help! Another day!”Never considered one of her best, So far as I know it has not been anthologized. I love that yelp of hers! Thank you, Lavinia, For having disregarded your sister’s explicitInstructions to upon her death destroy her neatly-tiedOne thousand seven hundred seventy-five Attempts to write a “letter to the World.” 2.Thank you too, Belknap Press of Harvard University,For … Continue reading Two Belated Thank You Notes by Jonathan Bracker
How hard it is to be pure of heartThough I pray for its peace at night And wake each day filled with itOnly to feel it quickly drain from meLike that first desperate piss of the day Continue reading Hard-Hearted by Matthew Peluso
(CNN) A beach that was washed away by storms more than 30 years ago has reappeared off the west coast of Ireland. The sands at Dooagh on County Mayo’s Achill Island vanished in the winter of 1984, leaving nothing but bare rock and rock pools. But over the course of a few days in April 2017, the Atlantic returned what it had stolen, depositing thousands … Continue reading The Prodigal Beach Speaks by Joe McAvoy
Notice the Pope’swhite skin beneath the red velvet robe.Contemplate the thin papery silhouetteof Italian hands touching himself –sometimes lovingly smoothing fingertipsof the right handover his perfect belly. God has called him whilehe drifts toward sleep andthe kingdom of his dreams –a sometimes white world of goodnessmade salient from the footprints leftby tiny angels, the ones who have dancedacross the filigree of his indefectiblebatiste shirtsangels who have … Continue reading Brethren by Hunter Boone
Plasticized card says:you belong Blonde beaches, Irish bars,gray skied smokestacks shivering winters, damp springs,melted sunrises, purring air —People among you walkwith folded lanterns, loud saris, pulsating fiesta sound waves, cloaked in hijab, mangling holy French,reeking of curry and cologne —Drooping Frankish eyes lament – Things are now different Continue reading Status Threat by Peter Crowley
I was too warm my legs were restless I wasn’t tired I was too tired but eventually sleep came and quickly I came to it the engine of the nightmare pistons of fear the lubricating oil of hope keeping the nightmare alive I wanted to wake I tried to wake I couldn’t wake the nightmare twitched I tried to wake I couldn’t wake Continue reading Having A Nightmare At 43 by Steve Denehan
