Creative Writing Commons^™

Poem No. 113, May 2015, Huntsville Literary Association (Huntsvile, Ala.)

POEM

The Huntsville Literary Association was founded in 1967 to provide a community for writers, readers, and artists through workshops, readings, and educational programs. One of their key contributions is the literary magazine titled POEM which showcases original writings from both established and emerging writers. This issue features poems from various writers.

Lavender Bride, Robert Kostuck

Bryant Literary Review

Svetlana and Valery at the late edge of a summer weekend, aligned vacations, rented bicycles, wool sweaters, damp air spilled inland from the half-empty beaches.

Hitler Stamp, Paul Hostovsky

Bryant Literary Review

I traded ten triangular
Mongolian stamps for Hitler,

This And That (For Coleman Barks, October, 2008), Lisa Starr

Bryant Literary Review

A while back you said, You know, one of these days
you're gonna have to write that poem about that deer,

Ginger, Charles Butterfield

Bryant Literary Review

After Sam's truck clears the hill, all Lucius hears is the cooing of wild pigeons in the cavernous haymow.

A Bad Sandstorm, Sheryl L. Nelms

Bryant Literary Review

"We all
saw it coming

In Praise Of Cowards, William Jolliff

Bryant Literary Review

No brave man could ever imagine
how much a coward can tolerate

Bayou Mirror, Iris Litt

Bryant Literary Review

At first on the island
I gushed my amazement

Lethal Injection, David Dragone

Bryant Literary Review

It didn't matter where you stood--
It was the way they botched his killing

Gerstler's Triumphant Return (1972), Julie Zuckerman

Bryant Literary Review

Sitting among the malodorous teenagers--boys ripe with day-old sweat, girls thick on jasmine scents--Jeremiah Gerstler tried to check his mounting vexation.

Nothing At All, Ali Morreale

Bryant Literary Review

You sit and you look at all the strange faces,
on the bus that drives you not far.

Making History, Charles Webb

Bryant Literary Review

Columbus didn't think, "I've discovered
America!" He was happy just to find dry land.

Gift-Wrapped, Daniel M. Jaffe

Bryant Literary Review

Will there come a point during your El Al flight home from Israel when you can politely question the elderly man in the middle seat beside you as to why, during taxi yet before take-off, he ensconced himself toe-to-head within a 30-gallon, heavy-duty, clear plastic trash bag?

Poem For Humphrey Bogart, Herman Bush

Bryant Literary Review

You always said the world
was three drinks behind,

At The Post Office, Martha Christina

Bryant Literary Review

A blue tooth device
glows behind the ear

Heist, Rachael Colasanto

Bryant Literary Review

Your scent lingers on my pillow.
You've entered my space,
The place for my thoughts.

Lost Memory, Jane Stuart

Bryant Literary Review

You were--
you are--
a dream

The Strap, Ruth Latta

Bryant Literary Review

"Carmen? Carmen Lawrence? Where are you, girl?"

I peeked through the planks of the porch stairs

She Feeds Me Now, Susan Johnson

Bryant Literary Review

I read cookbooks as if they were ancient texts,
the life of grandmother's grandmother translated

Phantom, Adam Matson

Bryant Literary Review

The pinky finger betrayed her. It sent a signal to Martin, who reached out from beneath the frilly cuff of his costume and grasped it.

Cul-De-Sac, Dennis Saleh

Bryant Literary Review

The night at
the door is
torn and frayed

The Accident, Victoria Melekian

Bryant Literary Review

I pass the stone walls
of the bridge. Bouquets

Clown School In France, Lee Kisling

Bryant Literary Review

How do these two things fit together--
the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and yet

Prescribed Fire, Moira J. Mcavoy

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

As the culmination of my nonfiction seminar (ENGL 470C) with Professor Colin Rafferty, I chose to explore three disparate, but interwoven, narratives: the death of and delayed grief over my high school mentor; my struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; and, the 2011 wildfire that destroyed much of the Great Dismal Swamp. Through a use of segmentation, lyric language, and a manipulation of tense, I explore the tensions underlying these narratives, namely the idea of futility of preparation and the insistence on destructive cycles which sustain themselves. Ultimately, the essay serves on a rumination not on mortality, but on our cultural …

The Escape Artists, Daniel Gene Hernandez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

My thesis, “The Escape Artists”, is a collection of short fiction that represents most of the work I did as a creative writing master’s student. The title is taken from my longest story, a narrative about a young man’s struggle to avoid violence in a federal prison. As a title, “The Escape Artists” also captures major themes in my other stories; characters often pursue emotional escapism or literally seek to evade predators in my fiction. As a writer, I often explore breakdowns in social order, so my stories tend to be set in turbulent, oppressive political climates or else inside …

Moving On, Joyce S. Brown

Bryant Literary Review

Twenty minutes into death
and whatever happens there,

Seashells Never Say Much Anyway, Joshua R. Mora Pagkalinawan

Bryant Literary Review

Envelope me in your existence
until the mailman gets tired

Former Things Are Passed Away, Rebecca Melnyk

Bryant Literary Review

I.

On Saturdays, Daddy likes to take the Coupe Deville through the

center of town,

Elvis At The Dunkin Donuts, Gregg Moglia

Bryant Literary Review

Coffee at hand I sit alone and begin
To read some Walt Whitman

Modern Peasantry, Mark Smith

Bryant Literary Review

Are you not yet cognizant,
my people, of how your television