Raven, by John Smelcer/Poetry book review
Using Raven as the standing metaphor for Human, we receive lessons in love, ethics and morality. The poems in this collection reflect upon the enduring hardships and unanswerables facing mankind that influence both the choices we make, and the effects those decisions have on others.
Rustin Larson/Poetry
Me, Being Rude A woman knocks, asks what I think the purpose of life is. Possible answers: 1) No. No, thank you. 2) The purpose of life is to not be asked such questions. 3) There is no purpose. Life just is. If the rose-petal goddess likes me, that’s a good thing....
The Music of the Aztecs/Book Review
“A Sibyl of Fortune,” Jan Claire Starkey’s segment, touches on the mythic — both legendary and personal — from “God” to “The Sphinx,” and she recalls her childhood in “Magic Castles.” However, she really shines when undertaking one of the most irresistible topics for poets — that of Icarus — in “Above the Labyrinth.” However, this rendition takes after the stance of a mother as onlooker to her progeny’s downfall.
Bruce McRae/Poetry
In The Beginning Was Their End The prophecy suggests the same old sun in the same old story. That the sky will brighten come morning. The prophecy tells us, without a doubt, an infant shall be led by death. It’s written in your book of the stars. It’s written in...
Lisa Dougherty/Poetry
A Raggity-Anne Her hair was short. A kind of long Bob. She was day-cared for the night time working Mom. So she found my lap familiar. First it was story time. Sat her there. Moved her arms as if they were an extension of we can be ridiculous sometimes. She’d...
We Became Summer/Book Review
We Became Summer by Amy Barone NYQ Books https://books.nyq.org/catalog.php 2018 (ISBN: 978-1-63045-053-3) (5” x 7”, paperback, 92 pages, $15.95) Review by Tsaurah Litzky Memorable Encounters Start With A Tongue1 [dropcap style="font-size: 46px;...
Eric Fulgione/Poetry
Rye Sunburnt meadows stretch their golden tendrils and wrap me in their mystery. Cattails whisper soft secrets, beckoning me into their infectious oblivion. I keep walking. Sepia filters discard harsh hues and grey thoughts. Monochrome memories trapped in a tinted...
Andrew Higgins/Poetry
The Joy of Shopping We've all made that mistake, waiting by the bar for happiness to stumble in and open his wallet. But it never happens. So we learn to buy it, nursing those seconds when options hang like garments arranged on a black wire rack. On Losing Out...
The Dead Kid Poems/Review
The Dead Kid Poems Alexis Rhone Fancher The Dead Kid Poems (April 2019) Press: KYSO Flas http://www.kysoflash.com/Books.aspx#DeadKid (available on Amazon) ISBN: 978-09980375-2-3 6” x 9”, paperback, 51 pages ($15.00) Reviewed by Alexandra Umlas [dropcap...
Kelly Wise/Poetry
Monopoly In front of our Victorian mansion, Alongside other houses of its’ kind Between the pearly white curb and the jagged sidewalk, Rolls a stripe of green. In the middle is a dusty stone brick, The remains of something much taller. That’s where the horses were...
Icarus Rising/Book Review
Icarus Rising By Don Beukes Alien Buddha Press https://alienbuddhapress.wordpress.com/blog/ ISBN-13:978-1979636162 106 pages/paperback ($9.99) Reviewed by Heath Brougher on Beukes’ second book Icarus...
The Out of Body Shop/Book Review
The Arc and the Mirror: A review of The Out of Body Shop By Nancy Mitchell MadHat Press https://madhat-press.com/products/the-out-of-body-shop-by-nancy-mitchell Reviewed by Miriam O’Neal t begins with the...
Hungry Words/Book Review
HUNGRY WORDS By R. Bremner Alien Buddha Press Erie, PA 2018 $9.89 Paperback: 62 pages. 6”x9” ISBN # 9781724991140 Review by Richard Paul Bremner’s Hungry Words takes us on a trip through city streets, suburban sidewalks, and several minds in varying degrees of health...
Luxembourg/Book Review
LUXEMBOURG by Stephen Oliver Greywacke Press, Canberra 2018 112pp., $24.95 Reviewed by Nicholas Reid hough I’ve never met Stephen Oliver in person, I’ve been reviewing his poetry for nearly twenty...
Poet Drew Pisarra, with Clarinda Harriss
INFINITY STANDING UP Capturing Fire Press, Washington, DC ISBN: 978-1-7328759-1-3, 58 pages, $10.00 Review by Clarinda Harriss t was a lucky day for me a review copy of Drew Pisarra’s stunning sonnet...
Poena Damni/Poetry Review
Poena Damni Review/essay by Toti O’Brien Dimitris Lyacos Poena Damni (2018) (Translated by Shorsha Sullivan) Shoestring Press http://www.shoestring-press.com/ ISBN: 978-1-912524-01-3 (3 book box set, $19.95) 1. Who is the man in Z213? The...
Thomas Merton’s Pulitzer Nod/John Smelcer & Paul Pearson
Thomas Merton was a man of singular faith, conviction, and humility. He was a vociferous advocate of social justice, racial equality, and peace and a staunch critic of America’s war in Vietnam. Despite the unnerving fact that people wanted to harm him (Merton once wrote how men who planned to waylay him would stake out the dirt road to his hermitage), he remained resolute, like his friend Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the “The APNEA Poems”, by Bill Yarrow
I was strapped for cache so I called my friend Paolowho wears Ecuadorian gray and prefers Celine to Celanand asked him how to juggle all the crap life was throwing my way,and he said, …