Poetry Commons^™

Elmer's Evolution, Maryann Mclaughlin

Manuscripts

Spring is here! Can't you hear the rumble of skates as the children zip by the house in their youthful glee? Can't you hear the mingled chatter of the spring birds? Can't you smell the sweetness of the pure, clean air - such a relief from that choking smog of the long winter? Can't you see the first buds as they peep through the small gray tips of the dismal twigs? And can't you see Elmer - his beautiful red hair and his bright eyes gleaming as they catch the ray of the warm, mellow sun? Can't you see him? …

There's A Soldier, Donna Hoffman

Manuscripts

As the peircing north wind blew his icy gusts around the corners and swept the streets with his broomlike blasts, the people stamped their feet and drew their coats more closely about them. It seemed as though Wind and Sun were having a terrific argument and Wind was doing his utmost to win this battle. The crowd was beginning to lose a little of the feverish excitement that a military parade always seems to cause. Suddenly the strains of the national hymn were carried to their ears; and, forgetting the cold, the crowd cheered and sang as the band marched …

Americanism, Herbert Eaton

Manuscripts

Americanism. This is not a new word to me; in fact, it is one with which I have been familiar for several years. Yet it has not been long since I have come really to understand and appreciate it.

The Cathedral Of Our Lady, Betty Alice Hodson

Manuscripts

Just one block from the central plaza of a small Mexican town, on La Calle de Las Rosas, stands a small Cathedral, built in 1830 by the hands and the sweat of peones who labored on nearby haciendas. It is built of limestone and marble, and is one of the finest Cathedrals in Northeastern Mexico, even though it is small, and seen by few but the townspeople. I shall try to show how it is seen through the eyes of three different people.

Team Fights Team, Robert L. Zinkan

Manuscripts

On a cool brisk Saturday afternoon in the late fall of the year, thousands sit watching two teams warming up to engage in a fierce battle scheduled to be raged long before by the coaches of the opposing teams. They have been practicing, putting themselves into condition for months, maybe years, in order to be prepared to defeat any team which they come up against. Later in the dressing room the coaches try to rouse their tempers by speaking strongly against their opponents. After making their blood boil with hate, he reminds them not to lose their heads because strategy, …

Tribute To "Bessie, The Jalopy", Bill Freeland

Manuscripts

"Bessie" was a good old Ford, even if she was of the 1924 vintage, with old-fashioned clincker tires and all the out-of-date accessories that made her comfortable like an old, old shoe.

In Fond Remembrance, Arthur Graham

Manuscripts

The late Rupert St. James, whose violent, tragic death created. heartfelt repercussions throughout the literary world, was born May 1, 1915. Rupert; although he early showed signs of poetic genius, did not come into his own until after the still unsolved disappearance of his father, himself a versifier of ability, in 1929. Graduating from Harvard in '34, Rupert had already written two volumes of poetry, On scholarship funds he did post-graduate work at Oxford, the University of Paris, and the University of Prague, all the while producing in an ever increasing flow the verse that was to characterize him as …

The Second Gull, Mary Margrette Schortemeier, Lucy Kaufman

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

The Legend Of Laughing Jack, Jack Kilgore

Manuscripts

Long before the starched, clean stiffness was gone from their striped denim work aprons, the greenest boys at Herr Grosskopf's wholesale house were familiar with the Legend of Laughing Jack. They heard it from the wrinkled and gnomelike Isenhorst; they heard it from the wrinkled and deaf Shmidt; they heard it from Schneider, Fischer, and Schultz; but the most terrifying accounts were those given by Sam, the colored janitor. Only Jones of the shipping department never talked of it, but then Jones was different.

The Gates Of Jerusalem, Arthur Hollander

Manuscripts

Far away, in the eastern part of the land, by the banks of the Jordan, the Lebanon mountains raise themselves up. On the slopes of the mountains a valley streeches out. There are fields and vineyards, orange groves and forests. In this valley a small village is built. In this small village live simple farmers. Among the farmers lives an old man, ninety years old, and his old wife, eighty-two years old. The old farmer and his wife live in their small, simple tent. The stable in which their white ass stands is built by the tent. By the stable …

Not One Of Them, David Craig

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

The Shadowed Vale, Joan Fuller

Manuscripts

The setting sun was reddening with its last fiery glow the walls of the great castle at Blois where it stood on a rising slope above the skirts of the town. It tipped the carved and traceried windows of the roof and gleamed vermillion on hilts of swords and pour-points and slashed trunk-hose as officers and men-at-arms bustled to and fro in the yard.

But though their faces were long and they bustled nervously, often they stopped in excited knots to whisper and cast curious glances at the windows of the royal suite. For the Dowager Queen lay dying in …

Front Matter

Manuscripts

No abstract provided.

Pearl And The Walking Path: Two Poems, Lorraine Stanchich

Quadrivium: A Journal of Multidisciplinary Scholarship

No abstract provided.

[Astrophilia: When We Cosmologize Seedlings In Root] // Instructions For Reconstructing A Phoenix Skeleton, Chrissy Montelli

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Disassembly, Joshua Kent

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Movement Of The Myth, Lore Mcspadden

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

An Efficient Remedy Is To Be Alone, Christina Mortellaro

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Wake Up Call // Alarms At Noon // Infinity's Kiss (Sunflowers), Nate Pritts

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Our Farm House, Simeon Youngmann

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Allein, Bianca Döring

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Black Heart, Brandon Rashod Hodges

Theses and Dissertations

Identity is something that I believe we all struggle with at some point in our lives. Whether it is trying to find one's identity via place, culture, or response to power structure, the struggle to identify one's self seems to take precedence over anything else. Thus, identity is the main concern of this thesis. Moreover, while writing my thesis I have attempted to describe my journey towards discovering my identity, which includes being an agnostic born into a very religious family and society, identifying as a lover who struggles to define and understand love, defining my masculinity, especially my black …

If Miley Cyrus Were A Country // Un-Objected, Ashley Olin

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

[In The Cross-Countertop Silence], Devin Stabley-Conde

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

More Than Receipts & Hollow Pockets // The Charadriiform On Matters Of State // Boats Anchored By Mycelium, Erin Koehler

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Alone, Amy Elizabeth Bishop

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

On The Barber Pole, Joseph O'Connor

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

On The Ovarian Nature Of The Mouth // On The Places We Have Lived, With Children Not Quite Born, Savannah Skinner

Gandy Dancer Archives

No abstract provided.

Life On The Back Roads: Poems, Jessica R. Dennis

Theses & Honors Papers

Country life does not always feature the idyllic beautiful landscapes and the closeness of family as depicted in Elizabethan pastoral and Romantic nature poetry. While these elements indeed exist, much of country life is grittily realistic - a condition that derives from the hardships and "the dailiness of experience," as Virginia Woolf put it, consonant with living in "a state of nature." Drawing on my own rural experiences, first in my home state of Pennsylvania and later in North Carolina and Virginia, I will explore in my poems the complex relationship structures that form in rural America, focusing on the …

“Phone Calls,” “Evolved People”, Gary Soto

Ontario Review

Gary Soto's most recent books are Jesse, a novel from Harcourt Brace & Co., and New and Selected Poems from Chronicle Books. He lives in Berkeley, California.