a journal of beautiful literature
Anchovy Gospel Often the distance between salvation & damnation is merely a few rows of unweeded & unhoed green beans +++ AFTERLIFE I was conceived my mother lay in a cemetery in some forbidden – fragile moment in time I was born my father working graveyard in some forgotten – forsaken nondescript town Perhaps that […]
Read More Four Poems by Terrence SykesHe’s wearing lite camos walking toward town in a rain slowly turning to snow. He could be me, I hear myself think and answer, Maybe he is. At 77, you’re already near invisible. I pull up, lower the window, and call, “Hey, would you like a ride?” He looks over, reads me and walks on. […]
Read More GUY WALKING BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, poetry by Larry SmithThere are many Creations. One, the opposite of ours, involved no initial outburst. Through a time longer than all of ours, there were wisps and tremors in darkness. These joined by chance; a sigh preceded breath. Consciousness, when it comes, is of a sweetness not yet arrived; wonder applies to memories. The next universe over […]
Read More IN THIS CORNER, poetry by Frederick PollackI saw him, and I humbly asked him, What name did he prefer? Dionysus, or Bacchus, it was fine, I just had to understand He was originally a Thracian god, If I knew that, I knew him He only wanted my worship And that I knew he had an origin BEN NARDOLILLI currently […]
Read More ASTRIDE MY ATLAS, poetry by Ben NardolilliThe Beatles once sought to buy an island, a place to be just Beatles. They shopped. In the end it came to nothing and they went home and recorded Revolver. I still like to think about that island: its colorful hotdog stand, its church full of dancers, its electronic wonderwall, and its resplendent army of […]
Read More The Beatles once, poetry by Corey Mesler—Peter Cooley, “A Premature Afterlife” The heaven of silence & heaven of this- equipment-helps-me-breathe—I need all the help I can get, suffering daily Earth- like gravity, fog, political discourse. The heaven of no-more-presidents. The heaven of we-can-argue-or-survive— O2 canisters work in mysterious ways. The heaven of see-my-house-from-here & lovely-spot-for-a funeral. […]
Read More WHAT KIND OF HEAVEN WILL YOU FIND ON MARS, poetry by Ace BoggesTelevision Light In the autumn forest I could not find the screech- owl that night, rotating neck in the moonlight, the fool’s gold pupils hunting in the crypt of darkness. So I headed back at the usual time, ready for a cup of tea and the warmth of furry blankets. My sister was up, […]
Read More TWO POEMS by Timothy DoddThere are many Creations. One, the opposite of ours, involved no initial outburst. Through a time longer than all of ours, there were wisps and tremors in darkness. These joined by chance; a sigh preceded breath. Consciousness, when it comes, is of a sweetness not yet arrived; wonder applies to memories. The next universe over […]
Read More In This Corner, poetry by Frederick Pollack思: thought takes place In the field of heart 闷: depressed when your heart is Shut behind a door 忍：tolerate with a knife Right above your heart *** Yuan Changming published monographs on translation before leaving his native country. Currently, Yuan edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Qing Yuan in Vancouver. Credits include ten Pushcart nominations, […]
Read More CHINESE CHARACTERS: LESSON 1 by Yuan Changminggive this man crawling blind through the upstate desert a glass of fire give him the gift of barbed-wire, of crows, of merciful crucifixions and let us all be victims let us all be true patriots a pair of broken hands tied behind every back and a noose around every neck and let us all […]
Read More ashes: ashes, poetry by John Sweet