Catherine Krause
Poetry Used to Walk Six Miles in the Snow
poetry is obsessed with the apocalypse
poetry is notorious for its brief attention span
chinese poetry more digitally savvy than americans'
will this be the year that poetry finally starts buying houses?
the plaza's etiquette school will turn poetry into charming adults
the world is now slowly dominated by poetry
poetry, here's how to feel satisfied with your life decisions
don't act your age, act like poetry
53 percent of white poetry said that trump is a legitimate leader
rising number of colon, rectal cancers in poetry raising concern
tom wolfe claims poetry is wasting time on social media
poetry unaware that it can enter the housing market
poetry is surprisingly getting news from cable tv
poetry losing faith
Source Text: Various headlines about Millennials from Google News.
Chet Corey
You have to let go of so much.
You are like that Balloon Man
on the corner.
All of that helium!
And then you open both hands.
Growing Old
Chris Sparks
Order
I gathered all the sticks on the ground
And ordered them from thickest to thin
But this order failed to satisfy
So I ordered them by length
But this offended my eye, and my mind’s eye
and the God lovely blue hazy sky
So I ordered them by volume
It took some time but I think I got it right
Now it is night, and I am crying
Because I don’t know why I started
And they still all look ugly to me
Korey Wallace
Sunlight and grey wash.
Her knit hat and black boots.
I smell of grease and sweat, cigarettes and coffee.
She doesn’t work but is an artist. Paint stains.
Purses re-worked. Conversations swimming with fashion terms.
I wear cowboy boots and drive a forklift. I drive an old truck and get aroused around tools.
She says commitment is difficult. 9 to 5 petrifies her.
At a table in a café, I listen to her lips caress a moon I’d forgotten.
Gabriel Cleveland
Carrying the Storm
You didn’t ask to be born
with your melted-fusebox brain
and halogen nerve endings
that fry when you make contact.
When you must speak out, whisper
like the wind so the world knows
there’s a hurricane inside.
Nick LB Mack
There is a small woman who operates me
from the inside. Lately
she has been slack. I stand
with my glass next to,
not under,
a streaming faucet. I fall
coming up the stairs. I fall
coming down the stairs.
I pat a stepping stool
instead of the dog. I hope
she might get replaced some day
but she tells me
it's very political.
I'll probably miss her
all the same.
Nick LB Mack
A mob gathered in the basement.
They could not decide why they gathered and so dispersed.
Later they all wound up at a walk-in closet uptown. Again
there seemed no reason for meeting and
after a few hours went on their way. This continued to occur
in attics, storm drains, and other places too.
One of them fell in love and now they never meet.
It was you, by the way. They
fell in love with you.
Nick LB Mack
When you look at me
I want you to see a long tree or
a small school of fish. Or
a passing cloud
at least. I want
to be extinguished by everything else
that is.
Terence McCaffrey
After the Funeral
The night comes heavy.
You are in dreaming,
shedding your summer skin
as the room’s curtains billow
then collapse in their own
pattern of unwakefulness.
Far off, sirens steal
another one away.
This is our world now—
without death’s silence
but forever keeping time.
110
2017 represents Peter Bakowski's 34th year of writing poems. His poems continue to appear in literary magazines worldwide.
Sudha Balagopal's recent flash fiction appears in Peacock Journal, Foliate Oak and Flash Fiction Magazine. She is the author of a novel, A New Dawn, and two short story collections, There are Seven Notes and Missing and Other Stories. More at www.sudhabalagopal.com.
Amee Nassrene Broumand's poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Word Riot, Rivet, The Ghazal Page, Duende, Modern Haiku, and elsewhere. The daughter of an Iranian immigrant, she was born near Los Angeles and raised in Vancouver, Washington. She has a B.A. in Philosophy and English from Boise State University.
Gabriel Cleveland has lived mostly in places that start with the letter A. When he’s constructive with his depression, it takes the form of poems, stories, and collages. He has work forthcoming at Twelve Point Collective and in the 56 Days of August Postcard Poetry anthology. Other writing here: http://facebook.com/GabrielTHEPOET
Chet Corey’s poems have appeared in publications since the mid-1960s, initially in mimeograph journals, such as Quixote (Madison, WI) and poet Will Inman’s Kauri. Most recently his poems have appeared in Boomer Lit. Mag., Coe Review, Evening Street Review, The Matador Review, and Boston Literary Magazine.
Tom Harding lives in Northampton, UK, where, when not working, he writes poetry and draws. He has been published in Drunk Monkeys, Shot Glass Journal, Lighthouse Journal, Sentinel Literary Quarterly and Nthposition. Tom also maintains a website of his work at tomharding.net.
Bob Heman lives on the west end of Long Island. He has poems upcoming in New American Writing and REAEDR.
Alexander James lives in West London with his wife. His work has been featured in Rattle, Verse-Virtual, and others, with more forthcoming in Riddled With Arrows and After The Pause.
Michael Jones has taught since 1990 in Oakland (CA) public schools. His work has appeared widely in journals, and in a chapbook, Moved (Kattywompus, 2016).
Catherine Krause lives in Niagara Falls, NY, with her girlfriend, three cats, and PTSD.
Nick LB Mack is a carpenter and poet living in the United States. His work has been published online and in print.
Jonathan May grew up in Zimbabwe as the child of missionaries. He lives and teaches in Memphis, TN, where he does poetry therapy for people with eating disorders. He recently served as the inaugural Artist in Residence at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Read more at https://memphisjon.wordpress.com/
Terence McCaffrey’s has work appearing or forthcoming in Connecticut River Review, Freshwater, and Autumn Sky Poetry among others. He received a MALS degree in Humanities from Wesleyan University and a B.A. from the University of Hartford. He lives in Middletown, CT, with his wife and two children.
“I’m Chris Sparks and I’m English but have lived overseas for quite a while and I am loving writing just now and the sun is out and the holiday is here and you’ve just got to enjoy the moments.”
A member of the Texas Institute of Letters and the 2008 Texas Poet Laureate, Larry D. Thomas has been fortunate to have a number of poems published at RHP. He lives in the high Chihuahuan Desert of Far West Texas with his wife and two long-haired Chihuahuas.
John J. Trause is a librarian, scholar, and author of five books of poetry and one of parody. He is the subject of a 30-on-30-in-30 essay on The Operating System and an author of an essay on Baroness Elsa at the same site.
Korey Wallace has been published in the Briar Cliff Review and was featured on the flash fiction podcast Noextrawords. He is currently working on a collection of flash fiction stories.
Mark Young's most recent books are Mineral Terpsichore and Ley Lines, both from gradient books of Finland, and The Chorus of the Sphinxes, from Moria Books in Chicago. A new collection, some more strange meteorites, came out from Meritage & i.e. Press, California / New York, in early 2017.
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