On Arthur Sze’s “The Silk Dragon II” Johnny Payne Criticism - “Whatever one may say about the People’s Republic of China today, it once offered the model of the poet-emperor, as well as poets employed in political life, wedding governance to lyric spirit.” 3/17/2024
The Indian and Draw Near, White Man Rafael Aguilar Páez Poetry - “And working together, what might we become?/citizens of a single kingdom./you could find it all in the palm of your hand/alongside Indian, yellow and black.” 3/15/2024
Walking the Butter Mill Trail Samuel Schaefer Poetry - “I sometimes think I don’t belong here/in this wood–that the tree’s knots/are frowns grown for me, or the leaf crunch/is a worm cracking a crass joke at my expense.” 3/8/2024
Turkey Buzzard Johnny Payne Poetry - “Here on a narrow one-lane/overgrown with cattails and ivy/the circle of turkey buzzards draws closer.” 3/1/2024
Bianca Stone, What Is Otherwise Infinite Johnny Payne Criticism - “By that token, perhaps Bianca Stone is just the poet for our times. Her verses wrestle with a dirty angel, one that bites and kicks. There is no snow-white falcon in her pages. But she does not quit.” 2/25/2024
Show and Tell Harold Jones Poetry - “In the actual, from which another life/Is straining to burst, to set out in navigation,/Or be swallowed by demons in the leaves.” 2/19/2024
Smart Fish Don’t Bite W. D. Ehrhart Poetry - “One of these days,/the guy with the rod won’t be so kind./This is why we hear about the liars,/hypocrites and crooks like Spiro Agnew,/Richard Nixon, Jimmy Swaggart,/Bernie Madoff, Sam Bankman-Fried…” 2/16/2024
Journey Through Mountains David Gosselin Poetry - “So many stars and mountains, crests and sky,/Are we not fools to think that we can know/What underlies such intricate designs?” 2/9/2024
Lisa Olstein’s Dream Apartment Johnny Payne Criticism - “The Dream Apartment is no Barbie’s Dream House. It is rather an abode of opaque and backlit, sometimes hard-edged reverie.” 2/7/2024
Burma Gabriel Gbadamosi Poetry - “My mad uncle had the Burma jungle/In his head—burnt-out tracts of history/He’d stalk in ambush of his sanity” 2/2/2024
Olive Tree Treaty Youlika Masry Poetry - “Don’t know how long it will take to bloom,/but I want to make a start/tomorrow.” 1/27/2024
Death of the Polar Explorers Gabriel Gbadamosi Poetry - “Doubt/Never stunned the marrow in their bones/Who rose above the merely physical,/And if they faltered, it was only once—” 1/21/2024
Cycling at Vésinet W. D. Ehrhart Poetry - “Her long hair, the color of her pants,/falls down her back. She has what appears to be a flower tucked behind her left ear.” 1/12/2024
A Taste of Poetry from the Late Tang Dynasty Tom Ehrman Poetry - “Insects fall silent amid the sedge and cranes grow restive in the treetops,/Sensing this busy world no longer cares for the sentiments of old.” 1/7/2024
Sarcasm Youlika Masry Poetry - “You returned to Rome Augustus triumphant./King of defeated nation I trailed behind./To this day the senators can’t tell/which of the two wore the wreath.” 1/1/2024
How KFC Gives Prisoners a Taste of Normal Life Antoine E. Davis Personal Essay - “I said a silent prayer, asking for the strength to get through another day of being incarcerated, and climbed down from my steel bunk, ready to navigate the gossip, fighting, and ordinary drama that come with prison life.” 12/20/2023