Year: 2026

  • Poet Pick – Susannah Sheffer

    Poet Pick – Susannah Sheffer

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    What I Might Do I’ll visit the spot without wondering about anything. I won’t ask what could have been different, what the witnesses witnessed or didn’t. I’ll say gone is just a way of talking about ourselvesstill being here. I’ll hope this tastepasses swiftly from my mouth and I’ll refuserequests to describe it. If anyone…

  • Poet Pick – Sunny Hemphill

    Poet Pick – Sunny Hemphill

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    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

    Poet Pick – Simona Carini

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    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

    Poet Pick – Shutta Crum

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    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

    Poet Pick – Sean Whalen

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    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…

  • Poet Pick – Sarah Banks

    Poet Pick – Sarah Banks

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    by

    Constance Brewer
    in

    Elegy for a Pine TreeThe pine stressed by droughtdied last summer. Beetles attacked,bored holes through the bark.Here, in chilly air, its branches shedtheir copper needles. Pointy pompomsdrop from scaly limbs. No spearmint spikesflicker through the winter,but pitch tubes dot the trunk—sticky clusters of popcorn sapthe tree expelled, an attempt to blockthe beetles from the inner…