POETRY LIT PICKS _ VOL. 9

~ highlights and recommendations from recent issues of literary journals ~

by Mark Danowsky, Managing Editor for the Schuylkill Valley Journal

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Typishly

https://typishly.com/2018/08/30/a-man-drops-by-to-pay-his-rent/

Cathryn Shea – A Man Drops by to Pay His Rent

[excerpt]

            That’s Hayden in Johnny Guitar.

            I would offer coffee, preferably laced with aquavit or rum.

*

Rogue Agent

http://www.rogueagentjournal.com/ebowers

E. Bowers – I’m Trying Not to Get Caught

[excerpt]

I want to line the

walls of my room with glass,

so I can live a fragile

and dangerous life.

*

Dodging The Rain

https://dodgingtherain.wordpress.com/2019/12/29/tim-staley-a-gentle-white-depression/

Tim Staley – A Gentle, White Depression

[excerpt]

I wonder if worrying

about living

a long time

wicks away the fun

from actually

living.

*

Mobius: The Journal of Social Change

Spring 2020, Volume 31, Number 1

http://mobiusmagazine.com/poetry/riotact.html

Ian Wiley – The Riot Act

[excerpt]

Friends who are whiter than I am say

that when I don’t shave for a few days

I look like a terrorist.

*

Guernica

https://www.guernicamag.com/practice/

Jane Hirshfield – Practice

[excerpt]

Women’s push-ups,

from the knees.

They resemble certain forms of religious bowing.    

*

Hobart

https://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/joe-rogan

Elizabeth Ellen – Joe Rogan

[excerpt]

I wasn’t ever going to be on Joe Rogan or NPR

I was always going to be lonely because I didn’t know how not to be

An asshole.

It was the one thing I was really good at

                        So maybe I could be a comedian, after all.

*

The Rumpus

https://therumpus.net/2020/05/rumpus-original-poetry-three-poems-by-ugonna-ora-owoh/

Ugonna-Ora Owoh – Complexity

[excerpt]

I mean too much things can’t exist one place at once.

It must be my body making all this space for itself and yet accommodating.

*

The Offing

https://theoffingmag.com/poetry/the-strangers-guide-to-brothels-of-philadelphia-1849/

Rita Mookerjee – The Stranger’s Guide to Brothels of Philadelphia, 1849

all pearls and lips: little delicacies

ready to win you with the flute or piano

but when you are not visiting they amuse

one another even more

*

Puerto del Sol

https://www.puertodelsol.org/single-post/2020/05/08/Three-Poems

James Kelly Quigley – Getting Over It

[excerpt]

You call it a process of becoming

more fully human. How we’re sustained

when these corridors of grief & the wax

museum at the end of them collapse

into something hot & dense. You say

you can’t recontextualize a landmine.

*

River Heron

Issue 3.1

https://www.riverheronreview.com/chad-frame

Chad Frame – Harmonica Man

[excerpt]

                                    She tells me

            the body can still hear for ten minutes

            after a person dies. I’m terrified

            of this, though I have no idea why.

*

semicolon lit

Issue 3, Winter 2020

https://www.semicolonlit.org/daniyel-wiggins-poetry

Daniyel Wiggins – Late Afternoon One Sunday

[excerpt]

she only knows Dad wants you inside now.

trapped between the plastic and cold metal.

*

The Broiler

Issue 31

https://theboilerjournal.com/2020/01/04/elizabeth-leo/

Elizabeth Leo – Lichen

[excerpt]

Trillium will bloom and the march brown mayfly too.

This is maybe as close to quiet as I can get

*

The Baltimore Review

Spring 2020

https://baltimorereview.org/index.php/spring_2020/contributor/andrew-kozma#Transplant

Andrew Kozma – Transplant

[excerpt]

I blamed distance, the body I never saw, but the earth

of his ashes follows wherever I go. A coffin I can’t escape.

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Poetry Lit Picks _ Vol. 3

~ highlights and recommendations from recent issues of literary journals ~

by Mark Danowsky, Managing Editor for the Schuylkill Valley Journal

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Waxwing (Fall 2018)

Kelli Russell Agodon – String Theory Relationships

http://waxwingmag.org/items/issue16/1_Agodon-String-Theory-Relationships.php

[excerpt]

The essential idea is this — all objects are composed of vibrating anxieties

— everyone wants a window or aisle seat and no one wants to sit 

            in the middle. Call it deniability.

Kelli Russell Agodon – American Snapshot

http://waxwingmag.org/items/issue16/2_Agodon-American-Snapshot.php

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The Baltimore Review (Fall 2018)

Emily Paige Wilson – What I’ll Tell My Great-Great-Granddaughters

http://baltimorereview.org/index.php/fall_2018/contributor/emily-paige-wilson#What%20I%E2%80%99ll%20Tell%20My%20Great-Great-Granddaughters

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Copper Nickel (Fall 2018, Issue 27)

Tony Hoagland – Achilles

http://copper-nickel.org/achilles/

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diode (vol. 11, no. 3)

J.P. Dancing Bear – The Oracle of Liar, Liar

 http://diodepoetry.com/dancing-bear_jp_2/

[excerpt]

I know you'll do your best
to misquote everything I've said, even
if I said it, it'll be out of context.

*

Boulevard (no. 100)

https://boulevardmagazine.org/

Cynthia X. Hua – Copy Machine

            Suddenly you can see the man inside

            for example how a three-minute song

            can blur together the past ten years

*

The Georgia Review (Summer 2018)

https://thegeorgiareview.com/product/summer-2018/

Stephen Dunn – A Postmortem Guide

(reprint from The Georgia Review, 1999)

            The truth is

            I learned to live without hope

            as well as I could, almost happily,

            in the despoiled and radiant now.

Stephen Dunn – A Postmortem Guide (2)

(18 years later)

            Tell them it was true, I did think I’d die at sixty,

            in my prime, in love with mystery and its words,

            someone who tried to listen to his inner voice.

*

The Iowa Review (Fall 2018 – 48/2)

https://iowareview.org/issue/volume-48-issue-2-%E2%80%94-fall-2018

Shane McCrae – The Brown Horse Ariel

Shane McCrae – The President Visits the Storm

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Sixth Finch (Summer 2018)

Hanif Abdurraqib – How Can Black People Write About Flowers At A Time Like This

http://sixthfinch.com/abdurraqib1.html

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Up The Staircase Quarterly (Issue #43)

Kai River Blevins – All Animals are Trans

https://www.upthestaircase.org/kai-river-blevins.html

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Powder Keg Magazine (Issue 12)

Hillary Kobernick – In the End

https://www.powderkegmagazine.com/hillary-kobernick

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BOAAT Journal (November 2018 issue)

Derrick Austin – The Witching Hour

http://www.boaatpress.com/boaat/#october-november-2018-issue-boaat

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Nightjar Review (Issue 3)

Mary Kovaleski Byrnes – January

http://nightjarreview.com/issue3-594622-367940-511922-599318.html

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Coal Hill Review (Issue 20, Fall 2018)

Gerry LaFemina – Wingtips

https://coalhillreview.com/wingtips/

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Interim (Vol. 35, Issue 4)

Timothy Liu – No Man’s Land

https://www.interimpoetics.org/35-4/timothy-liu

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32 Poems (Summer 2018)

Mark Wagenaar – The Book of Vigils

http://32poems.com/poem/mark-wagenaar/

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Southern Poetry Review (Issue 72, 55:1)

Leatha Kendrick – Boundary Dispute

Kendrick’s short poem opens:

  They say the line is somewhere else, / further in.

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Shot Glass Journal (Issue #23, September 2017)

Le Hinton – Uses of Cotton (Grief)

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/le_hinton1.html

Anton Yakovlev – Adorable

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/anton_yakovlev1.html

Bob Lucky – The After-church Crowd Swarms the Free Cheese Samples

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/issue23/bob_lucky1.html

Linda Conroy – Good Times

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/linda_conroy1.html