Tag: Poetry

“The River Inside and Out”: Dave Karp on Matt Trease’s Poetry Collection The Outside

When I think about what it truly means to be an engaged writer, I think about writers who confront the world from some set of principles: Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, communist, or socialist, through an indigenous belief system or some other source of precepts and strictures. Matt Trease is just such an engaged writer,…
Poetry from the Future: “Makeup Revolution Highlighter in Supercharge Fever” by Georgia Slavec

Today in preparation for the apocalypseI memorize the labelof my favorite cosmetic highlighter.If I leave my room explodingsparkles, do not regard me. We in the darkare species: endless, like jazz, thoughtsthat will be told. Clear black bottlesof ink with the potential to beanything, or simply to definethe eyes, whose dramasrenew. I hear we’ve got twowarm…
Poetry from the Future: “You Will Click Here Now” by Wes Civilz

Click here now. Click this glowing button now And mute the news and pause the videos And watch the calendar expand anew With layered glitchy dummy text imposed. Now kill all calendar events (deleting Events brings all to front). Expand. Repeat. Recurring weekly thing. Click. Oops. Repeating Event goes daily now so go complete Your…
Side A Poetry: “Haint Walk” by Andreas Savvides

Haint Walk I was murdered by a mob when I was just 14.Now I do the Haint Walk. Nobody told me what I had did, even when I asked!They told me animals don’t get an explanationas the sea of cloaked arms and hoods pushed me towards the tree.It’s still hard to shake that sensation of…
Bad Survivalist Poetry: “All My Ducks” by Charlie Brice

I sit across from the sweet Black womanat my doctor’s office. She’s checking me outafter a visit where I, once again, dodged the bulletsof mortality, bobbed and weaved to avoid morbidity’s blows. I love looking at the tchotchkes on her desk, especiallythe little plastic ducks along the front of her computer.I always say, Looks like…
Rodrigo Toscano: Two Poems from the Future

Itinerant Tendon Already tight, the tendon got tighterLosing even more strength, already weak.A sudden demand on its core functionCircular rotation at ten degreesGive or take, exceeded its base limit.A micro tear thus began its journeyWidening its path steadily to the bone.Upon arrival, the tendon snapped off(A simile on the way that went downWas not found,…
New Side A Poetry: “to begin and end in the garden, slapping mosquitoes, reading her book” by Barbara Tomash

to begin and end in the garden, slapping mosquitoes, reading her book White lily, red lily, azalea, camellia, wisteria, salvia, grape arbor, rose. She checks anxiously on each plant, notes who is dead or barely surviving, who is furiously blossoming and shooting up green for reasons she can’t fathom— what if garden is a bed…
James Pate: Three Poems for Haunted Passages

Messiah of Evil (1973) We sit in the sun and wait. We sleep. And we dream. Each of us dying slowly in the prison of our minds. —Arletty, Messiah of Evil I’ve often thought of the human head as a meat radio. And cat heads too. And those of small, quivering birds flying too close…
Poetry for Side A: “Sophie” by Sherice Kong

Sophie We sit and wait fora picture that is taking its time to load. Our whole summershed like blood. The air was silked with cicadas and all the almost adults weretrembling in the hands to become someone important. I thought of how I could take my new licenseand drive straight across my life’s small, shiny…