Poet Pick – Sunny Hemphill

She Was a Set of Silver Lock-picksYou could never have known her — she had 2 many names or 3. After the end, I learned it was 4.1 for the way an elegant stitch can //fly//across open fields of cheat grass or silk.2 for the girl she left behind, motherless.(No one can be motherless, I […]

Poet Pick – Simona Carini

Paradise Loop Bicycle Ride in Marin County, CaliforniaMornings are a sustained hymn / without the precision of faith. (Oliver de la Paz)Days on the bay start overcast, the sun must fight its way out of the fog,like thoughts when first waking up. On the Mill Valley path, along the marsh, ribbons of fog mirrored on […]

Poet Pick – Shutta Crum

Norma Jeane ~after Milton Greene’s Marilyn Monroe—Ballerina Sittingpoor Milton—I’ve kept him waitinghe wants me to pose againthey’ve gathered meinto a see-through poof of netting—a kind of tutu—all flounces and fussthe bodice, too small (of course)can’t be zippedI hold it against my breastshe wants Marilyn—and I bring herlips parted—he says, needierand I do that—lifting my browsa […]

Poet Pick – Sean Whalen

Crow at Dawncocks a black pearlto the impending lightfolds his wings over a holein the canopy of treesbinds the fabric of his cloaktighter to the earthcollects the glitter of starsthe barking of dogsthe crawling of grubsthe screams of doomedfowl in his throatwhets his beakalong the scaled branchuntil it is sharpas the wind on the edgeof […]