Nest Hands
by Renea McKenzie
i fetal myself
into your
nest-hands
the fleshy Continue reading . . . “Renea McKenzie: Nest Hands”
Conrad Martin: By Long Division, Thoughts
By Long Division, Thoughts
by Conrad Martin
By long division, thoughts
must have impressed themselves,
self-cluttering, onto something pure which came before.
If only retracing the mind amounted Continue reading . . . “Conrad Martin: By Long Division, Thoughts”
This week we are publishing a video of a poem we originally published in October of last year. Recorded in Romania in Kyle and Claudia Lehman’s orchard.
To Sleep
by Lynn Michael Martin
O Sleep, dark baptism to the land of sight,
your floods rise over me; I sink beneath
where nameless tendrils turn a silent wreath
under the clouds of shadow-tinctured night. Continue reading . . . “Lynn Michael Martin: To Sleep”
Kyle Lehman: Where Are the Poems I Want to Write?
Untitled 47—Poetry Video
Where Are the Poems I Want to Write?
by Kyle Lehman
Where are the poems I want to write?
Where are the songs I’ve yet to learn? Continue reading . . . “Kyle Lehman: Where Are the Poems I Want to Write?”
Renea McKenzie: God Is a Storm
God is a storm. We live in the eye.
by Renea McKenzie
The roof over your head you did not
build. Extend an awning that another
might remove his coat-and-hat selves
in the warmth of your womb-like mouth, Continue reading . . . “Renea McKenzie: God Is a Storm”
Rowena Zuercher: Birth of Yellow
Birth of Yellow
by Rowena Zuercher
Yellow is the first to bleed into the clusters of green
that canopy the sidewalks, tidy lawns, and porch stoops
and the edges of golden harvest fields are ribboned with
mullein, yarrow, and dandelion that feed shy rabbits and curious deer. Continue reading . . . “Rowena Zuercher: Birth of Yellow”
Daniel Hess: Necessary Pleasure
Necessary Pleasure
by Daniel Hess
What were the senses sans smell?
Transient terrors they.
Taste gone, sight short, feeling fell,
hearing hard, for who could weigh Continue reading . . . “Daniel Hess: Necessary Pleasure”
Advent XXIV
by Claudia Lehman
Because our long impoverished race
has nothing more than straw to bring;
because we’ve lost the keys and maps
to doors away from suffering, Continue reading . . . “Advent XXIV”
Advent XXIII
by Claudia Lehman
Silly, silly, grown-up soul,
You take yourself so seriously
Eleven months out of the year.
Now that Christmastime is here, Continue reading . . . “Advent XXIII”
Advent XXII
by Kyle Lehman
We wake to sleep, we breathe to cry.
Our mothers dreamed and brought us forth to die;
For every cradle opens up a grave,
And every child is one we cannot save. Continue reading . . . “Advent XXII”
Advent XXI
Simon’s Waiting
by Conrad Martin
He fumbles at your Soul
As Players at the Keys
Before they drop full Music on—
He stuns you by degrees—
Emily Dickinson
The beautiful St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina has a superb organ.
In this church, the Choir of Clare College once sang three ancient hymn texts to contemporary chorale music (complex, dissonance-rich, odd) composed by Jonathan Harvey. Continue reading . . . “Advent XXI”
Advent XX
by Kyle Lehman
One nation under God, our country stands.
The blood of a billion babies stain these hands
that push poor huddles of humanity
from golden shores where tired men breathe free Continue reading . . . “Advent XX”
Advent XIX
by Obi Martin
Mottled heart my own
these many years
like a piebald lamb
a memento of all things Continue reading . . . “Advent XIX”
Advent XVIII
by Daniel Hess
The daylight that I wished so long
has come at last, after
the upstairs indoor silence
of my Grandma’s house, Continue reading . . . “Advent XVIII”
Advent XVII
by Lynn Michael Martin
an excerpt from a longer poem that I wrote in the character of Anglo-Saxon verse
Now hear me hail the heavens above,
where in fires fermented, a foam of the sky
distills in stars to be stirred by comets.
It fills the cosmos, and floats the planets, Continue reading . . . “Advent XVII”
Advent XVI
by Kenneth Godoy
Life is worth but little,
we live and die, our skin becomes
the crumbs of earth, or dissipate into the sky
forming clouds of rain. Continue reading . . . “Advent XVI”
Advent XV
by Karen Yoder
Oh shame, to raise your face and
say “Yes, Lord” to will so wild, for one
would never dream of such
unwanted fate, be found with child, unwed, Continue reading . . . “Advent XV”
Advent XIV
by Conrad Martin
The fire of heaven fell upon
a dew-globe drooped
to a world-wet branch.
Light Continue reading . . . “Advent XIV”
Advent XIII
by Phoebe Anthus
I dreamt of the mountain air
the night that heaven centered
all earth’s anchor in this worried womb.
The wind was new, and ever in its arms Continue reading . . . “Advent XIII”
Advent XII
by James Troyer
That Life was manifest, the Life divine
That soars in nature’s heights, and fills her deeps;
The Life that weaves the infinite design
That makes all lives and natures intertwine; Continue reading . . . “Advent XII”