The Blue Angels / The Spirituals App

by David Roderick

The Blue AngelsHave you heard the sound of themduring Fleet Week the threat of our bruteaerial power flaying whole afternoonsin formation and turgid fumes over the Baymy friend at the Chron says they fly700 mph and 18 inches apartskimming the filigree of a sound barrieruntil they bang through foglike a truncheon hitting a skull I

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The Köln Concert

by D.S. Waldman

We showed up with a U-Haul and a Prius and could not see the ocean. They lay it on thick there, a friend had said of Pacifica, two, three weeks at a time. We pulled off at the bluffs before taking our things to the cottage on Winona. Five hours it took for the cat

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The Voices of the Whales

by Isabel Zapata

Translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers 1. I’m interested in the language of animals. 2. Whales, especially the humpback whale and the various subspecies of blue whale, are known to make repetitive sounds with different frequencies we consider to be songs. 3. When we look at animals, we hope to find virtues we lack. 4. Although sexual selection is thought to be their primary purpose, whale songs remain a mystery to scientists. 5. The human body is a symphony. (Charles Ives) 6. The universe is a symphony. (John Cage) 7. Nothing suggests that whales are trying to communicate with […]

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Coup de Vieux

by David L. Ulin

For Tom Mageethrice in three nightsthe dead have come my waytwice it is youtwin cities accentrough and lowlike a globusin your throatI can hear the timbreyet I cannot carryback a word you saythen last night my grandfatheran ancient apparitionif younger than hewould be aliveeighth of a millenniumsince his shtetl birth and allthat’s left is this

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Giant Dipper Chronic / To See It

by Cate Lycurgus

“Giant Dipper Chronic” I’ve been on this coaster for decades. Car for two—but just one bar to lower—one, or none. Where I lock my heart in for the slow climb, waiting for what great heights. It trundles up the wooden scaffold, building the long pitch toward platinum surf, alternately to fog. In one, I hold my own hand. Teeth rattle out of my control; it’s crest to trough, each time. Yet I scream without sound all the way down. A flash at the top takes a photo of your dread   to get you to buy it back, but—you’re too […]

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Poetry Takes Bloom

by Tess Taylor

In the late spring of 2020, when everything seemed a bit bleak, I received a phone call from my old friend Hannah Fries, a poet who’d known me when I was writing poems and working on a farm in the Berkshires. Hannah is now an editor at Storey Press, and she had a fascinating proposal for me: Would

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‘Gardeners’ World,’ or What I Did During the Plague

by Cynthia White

“Gardeners’ World, or What I Did During the Plague”For that hour, only the earthof his garden. Dark and friableas chocolate cake, throngingwith nematodes and fungi,more microbes in a spoon than humanson the planet. A fear-free hour.An hour without my trip-wired heart.Were you aware the peony,like the potato, is a tuber?I was in love with his

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Soul of the City: ‘Deal: New and Selected Poems,’ by Randall Mann

by Gus Berg

With an illustrious career spanning over several acclaimed poetry collections, Randall Mann is a luminary in contemporary poetry. His impressive body of work includes Complaint in the Garden (2004), which garnered him the prestigious Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry, and Breakfast with Thom Gunn (2009), a finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the California Book Award. The depth of Mann’s talent is further showcased in Straight Razor (2013), a Lambda Literary Award finalist, and Proprietary (2017), a finalist for both the Northern California Book Award and Lambda Literary Award. Now, with Deal: New and Selected […]

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Boxing

by John Freeman

In the waning daysof those years in LondonI took up boxing. I didn’twant to unload on someunsuspecting soul so Ifound a sparring partner.She turned up, necktatted, face pierced, dred-locked and strong as hell.A Turkish woman withEast London stenciledon her left forearm. Beforeboxing she trained horsesin dressage and beforethat was trying not todrown herself in drink.After

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Worries

by Edward Derby

Hungers, germs, personal emailgone to SPAM,lost postcards that explained everything,what to do about the weeds in the gravel,catalytic converter theft,a blood stain in a library book (page 17),sock holes, black holes, global warming,automatic subscription renewals,bankruptcy, asteroids,air quality,a helicopter circling the neighborhood,eviction,sagging underwear elastic,the panel van parkedon the street, not knowing neighbors,drinking toomuch, being spellbound,fate vs.

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National Poetry Month: Invitation

by Al Young

In memory of Papa Jo Jones & Philly Joe Jones There’ll be all the requisites & O how exquisite the presence of night blooming jazzmen & women, flowering in aurora borealis like all the rounded midnights & Moscow nights and New Delhi dawns you ever wanted to drop in on or sit in with or pencil into your calendar of unscheduled delights. There’ll be love in all its liquid power, rhythmic & brassy; mellifluous forms, flashing flesh & the slippery glittering skin of your teeth; enchantment, male & female; the orchid chords of hothouse scat as pop song, as darkness […]

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Thanks

by Paul Wilner

for nothing, and the memories, or some. It would appear that we are trying too hard, to fill the silence of those terrifying infinite spaces with even more talk than before. It seemed like a good time to take a break, take five, take a knee, take a chance rather than fill the air with more of our lessness. But thanks anyway – I know you meant well, whatever that might mean. The planet spins, the moon shines and Ruby and the Romantics had it right – If we live, our day will come. […]

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