From Aditi Machado’s “Outside the Aviary,” in the current issue:
There is a history of sparrow-keeping
and of the keepers. There is no community.
Only twos and threes of us, making our spells.
We speak of the diaries that have been kept
on sparrows; their masters and friends;
the letters; the legends.
From the current issue, Beverly Burch’s “A Brief History of Rejection“:
First came jacere, Latin word for throw.
People went over head over heels
and something had to be done. By late
Anglo Saxon jection was firmly merged
with re- since everyone knew you’d do it again.
Previously, angry verbs ran through the body
spewing lava, ash, and the village was destroyed.
In the Renaissance if someone failed
to show due affection a sonnet was written.
Rejection slips emerged in the next century.
From the current issue, Matthew Nienow’s “It’s the Boat that Haunts You”:
[read more]And so it is, the boat has come to own you,
has learned to speak a language you cannot helpbut agree with, its voice the dark lapping
of water against the hull, its song the windin the stays while you sleep, dreaming of a bowsprit
to hold you against the waves
Edward Hopper’s Office in a Small City (left), captures an American moment of mystery and isolation.
In the current issue of NER, poet Victoria Chang meditates on Hopper’s painting.
An excerpt:
[read more]The man could be the boss or could have a boss the man could have a
heart or could not have a heart the man is not working should be workingshould be making profits not in fits but constantly the man looks out over
the yellow building over everything he must be the boss must be someone