Poetry Commons^™

Amjambo Africa! (January 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Transportation planning ...........p. 2

Celebrating Diversity in Maine .p. 3

Opinion on refugee numbers....p. 4

Jamat Ibrahim dreams big..........p. 9

In Her Kitchen ...........................p. 10

Lewiston author pens children’s book.........................p. 13

Food Co-op and MAIN ............p. 18

World Affairs Council...............p. 19

Youth Get Together..................p. 19

Litmag 2019-20, University Of Missouri-St. Louis, Kathryne Johanna Watt

Litmag

Litmag’s goal is to nurture the creativity of the students, staff, and alumni of UMSL by increasing awareness of diverse literary and artistic talent. We aim to provide an inclusive, professional, and high-quality publication free of charge to UMSL and the local community.

Zephyrus, Western Kentucky University

Student Creative Writing

The fine arts magazine of Western Kentucky University at Bowling Green.

Contributors

Corresponding Voices

No abstract provided.

Indigenas, Herlinda Tereza Hernandez

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Internalized, Liam Lassiter

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Elliot Brown’S Last Dance, Justin Kleczka

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Black Hole, Reda Ansar

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Objection, Metasebia Tessema

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Socks, Reilly Geritz

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

Shovel, Raven Baugh

The Messenger

No abstract provided.

The Clearest Night Sky, Carla Mcgill

Bryant Literary Review

The ending was glass breaking

stones falling from cliffs

The ending was a cat’s purr

the vanishing foam of waves

on all the shores he loved

The Flood, Elizabeth Underwood

Bryant Literary Review

I wake

and I am alive

but the wine in my glass

from the night before

is dead.

Let Go, Jane Flint

Bryant Literary Review

Ten minutes

to pack up all my things

like a pocket

turning inside out

#Dutertestandardtime: Mga Pamamahalang Pamanahon, Christian Jil R. Benitez

Filipino Faculty Publications

This study attempts a preliminary analysis on the present administration with a particular focus on the mechanics of time. From the understanding of “Filipino time” as a possible tactic for insisting power, the study turns to poems that directly associate the President Rodrigo Duterte to the concept of time, to reveal that despite his seeming ordinariness is his extraordinary capacity to “pull” “ordinary time” itself. This power becomes critical, especially in the present pandemic, when “time is of the essence.” However, as hinted from the meandering government reports and “poetic” attempts to criticize the administration, it can be perceived that …

‘To Sing The Haiku The American Way Is A Beautiful Thing’: The Haiku Of Etheridge Knight, Thomas Lewis Morgan

English Faculty Publications

This essay takes up Etheridge Knight’s haiku as a means to trace his “major metaphor” of prison as a form of postcolonial cross-cultural haiku poetics. Knight’s haiku often focus on those that are voiceless along with the systems that work to disenfranchise them, using their experiences and conditions to engage the unequal power dynamics silently perpetuating inequality. In mapping out the explicit and implicit walls that position the hierarchies present in Knight’s haiku, and connecting these to his published comments on the role and function of haiku within his own poetic imagination, we can better understand Knight’s interest in re-imagining …

Skin, Maria Dipaolo

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Skin is an autobiographical book of free verse poetry written from the point of view of a female narrator. The poems in this book artfully depict both the futile struggles and moments of euphoria and self-revelation of a young woman who grew up in a broken home. The narrator uses her passion to form meaningful and deep relationships with other people, her sexuality, and her fascination and curiosity of the world around her as not only a coping mechanism, but also a form of self-expression. Each individual poem serves as a snapshot of a single moment in the narrator’s life; …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

Fantasy, Joseph Murphy

Bryant Literary Review

When I hear the mountain’s voice, words rise from a burnt page and a door in my heart swings open.

The Music Box, Cliff Saunders

Bryant Literary Review

Sing the gap between food and electricity

into a spirit unlike any other.

Bedside Vigil, Catherine Jagoe

Bryant Literary Review

Because each night when I was pregnant

my husband rubbed my aching feet

and still does, when I’m grieving or in such pain

Red Fox On Zaleski Trail, Deborah Fleming

Bryant Literary Review

Vinton County, Ohio

On the trail through hillsides

twice shorn of woodlands

Borders, Mary Makofske

Bryant Literary Review

Drawn in ink or blood,
they unspool from history
to split mountains and valleys,
meander in rivers that twist

Rattlesnake Religion, Sarah Morgan

Bryant Literary Review

We tried to trap rabbits
lit ants on fire with matchsticks

Ode To A Lobster, Joshua Gage

Bryant Literary Review

Here, between thick-cut filets
and a sheet of crushed ice
bearing slabs of cod and salmon,
a tank of frothing water
and a lone lobster.

The Ventriloquist Toasts Her Teddies, Rikki Santer

Bryant Literary Review

Here’s to my set-up like so many before me—
To the vice grip of acne maps & stammering

Chemo, Carolyn Adams

Bryant Literary Review

As you turn to the oncoming magic,
what subsumes?

Because everything can’t stay
at the surface, what is forgotten?

Silent Elegy, Anna Leigh Morrow

Bryant Literary Review

What I want to say is

there are no words.

The Missing You settles beneath my ribs like

After Blake’S Songs Of Innocence And Experience, William Derge

Bryant Literary Review

(on a work of art by Lisa Sheirer entitled Water Stories – Lilypons 2)

I.

Things were pretty clear then,
the pencil thin lines of reeds, curved like the hairs on a stevedore’s arm,
the sculptured reflections of clouds,
scabbing bark of sycamores or
rust scars on seasoned machinery,

Mud Minor Mass, Kevin Walker

Bryant Literary Review

Even Johann Sebastian Bach
had to fake it through the mirk
on merciless days,