Two Owls
by Josiah CoxTwo owls with awls for eyes look through the leather dark.Wise, we say. And so they are, shrewd masters of their barn, great misers of the moon, . . . . Continue Reading »
Gather Ye
by Ryan WilsonLadew Gardens Hand-in-hand, through the famous garden’s roses,We stroll while gangs of children run amokUnwatched. You don’t want kids, you tell me. StruckBy the remontants, we pause, and our posesBriefly fail. Late light cut through by green shadesIn patterns like a roulette wheel. Dark . . . . Continue Reading »
Incline Your Ear
by Sarah RossiterImagine the shell you findon the beach, a large conch,half-buried, glistening inmorning light, waiting to belifted, rinsed, held cupped to your ear: This is your body,listen and hear; blood flows,pulse ticks, the ocean hums,waves curl, crest, hushed, foamlicks wet sand, thoughts rise, dissolve, wind . . . . Continue Reading »
Introducing the First Things Poetry Prize
by Micah MattixPerhaps you have heard: First Things has started a poetry prize. Continue Reading »
Our Daughter Beside the Sea: Blue Hill, Maine
by Ben MyersThe seaside rock she sits on shines a blaze of purple shell and matte-glazed films of moss.She perches there, bent knees to chest, to gaze the gray and frosty feathered sea across.There, balanced on the edge of both the sea and sixteen, she can take some stock and . . . . Continue Reading »
At Blackmere
by Ernest HilbertMy trachea’s a well that draws up pailsOf cloudy rainwater, my bronchiolesRivulets in a fen, my lungs dark balesOf sodden straw. My eyes are bowls Of dirty sleet. My limbs are sedge and mossIn mist meandering like mercury.The fever fills and falls in me. I tossThe blankets off then drag them back . . . . Continue Reading »
Today the Weather
by Wendy VidelockToday the weather brings to mindthe nature of the curved line,the many ways we measure time,the drawing of a deep breath,the shape of the sail just beforeanother holy exhale.And there, an aperture begins, the signaturereminder the body is at homeand beginnings and endings are the sameas a nonce . . . . Continue Reading »
Costa Maya
by Catharine Savage BrosmanAt Costa Maya, in the Yucatan,we walked the yellow jetty from the ship,with throngs of other visitors, to seea tacky shoppers’ mecca, with a mall,a plaza, palm trees, piles of souvenirs, sweet alcoholic drinks, and, for the ill,a pharmacy with drugs at cut-rate price.We wandered in the crowd, just . . . . Continue Reading »
In Search of a Psalm to Sing in Dark Times
by Paul MarianiWhat shall I say, Lord, now that the wordskeep stumbling, tumbling like loose marblesacross the table then down onto the floor,bouncing and scattering this way and that? What shall I say as one after oneeach sound, each syllable, each sibilantcalls out before fading away? Two sisterslost now to . . . . Continue Reading »
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