REVIEW: I’LL FLY AWAY – RUDY FRANCISCO (BUTTON POETRY)
What Rudy Francisco has done in I’ll Fly Away (Button Poetry) is to build a language where one did not exist. Place letters in front of letters to create new emotions, new meanings. It’s guterall. These are new words needed in these new times to help somehow coalesce these ancient feelings.
REVIEW: GHOST FACE – GREG SANTOS (DC BOOKS)
But if who we are is a combination of our past and present, environmental and biological, how can we really know ourselves if we don’t look?
#TPQ5: SAMUEL ADEYEMI
What will Samuel Adeyemi include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
POETRY IN CINEMA: YOU WERE LOST AND GONE FOREVER, OH MY DARLING
Their flaws are immediate; “I’m a vindictive little bitch truth be told” she tells him. While he ruminates that he falls in love with anyone who gives him attention. – Jessica Mookherjee
#TPQ5: GAIA RAJAN
What will Gaia Rajan include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@gaia_writes @Nic_Sealey @fannychoir @carmenmmachado @mfernandespoet
REVIEW: MOTH FUNERALS – GAIA RAJAN (GLASS POETRY PRESS)
It’s innocence in a sense because while we all have to grow up, but it’s still okay and sad and happy and other adjectives. But to be Blackbird, or a lonely doll in a fancy dollhouse, or be “ball-gowned, butcher knifed” would be a story to be told.
#TPQ5: RILEY DANVERS
What will Riley Danvers include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: LATE SUMMER FLOWERS – JULIAN DAY (ANSTRUTHER PRESS)
Yes, it really is just a ravine, but Day shares the significance of the place, the things that happened there. Place of sport and suicide. Place of celebration.
REVIEW: FOEVERHAUS – KAILEY TEDESCO (WHITE STAG PUBLISHING) – review by Kristin Garth
There is a candy-coated communion of saints inside these poems that encapsulates the terror of treats of childhood. A “peppermint Jesus” and “cinnamon virgin” cohabitate in these pages with the Bloody Mary.
#TPQ5: DAVID HANLON
What will David Hanlon include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
POETRY IN CINEMA: A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH – JESSICA MOOKHERJEE
The long drawn out arguments over life and death, over decisions of who to love – are almost meaningless in the ‘heat of the moment’ and when faced with imminent destruction.
REVIEW: WOUND FROM THE MOUTH OF A WOUND – TORRIN A. GREATHOUSE (MILKWEED EDITIONS)
it is of value, why try to fix the other parts, “…make them/more normal”? Would it be better to embrace the body in its natural state? – Martha Warren
#TPQ5: STEVEN ALEXANDER COUSLER
What will Steven Alexander Cousler include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: IMPERMANENCE – COLIN BANCROFT (MAYTREE PRESS)
When relationships end, or flowers wither, or family passes away, we hold onto whatever we feel will give us some type of permanence, but in the end, no matter how hard we try, everything dies. Everything ends. But if we accept the beauty of the process, we can carry each moment with us until we ourselves are no more.
POWER OF POETRY #127: ANNE FRICKE
Sometimes the moments are tense, and the uncomfortable stretching and growing of the audience are palpable. Other times, the open-hearted connections embrace the poet with unshakable support.
POETRY IN CINEMA: THESE HUMANS ARE EXTRAS, EXTRA HUMANS
However, there may well be a responsibility in the storyteller to carry the world’s stories. As Wings of Desire shows who bares witness makes all the difference to the end of the story. – Jessica Mookherjee
#TPQ5: KATE (8) VAN PETTEN
What will Kate (8) Van Petten include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: WAYS WE VANISH – TODD DILLARD (OKAY DONKEY PRESS)
We are the hopes and dreams of those who would not live to see us get there – because death, and not for any other reason; however, those times where new life beckons as old life waves goodbye can bring light enough to brighten the sky to an otherwise desolate moment.
REVIEW: ELECTRIC SARCASM – DIMITRA IOANNOU (UGLY DUCKLING PRESSE)
Electric Sarcasm is an elegy faithful to the Greek root of the word; a lament for Greece, a country so important for its ancient ruins, facing financial ruin.
#TPQ5: COLLIN JONES
What will Collin Jones include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: NEW DISEASE STREETS – DAVID O’NAN (SELF-PUBLISHED)
New Disease Streets isn’t going to calm your senses or negate your fears about the current state of the world, but it will remind you that even when all the stars are punched from the sky, there will continue to be a guiding light – even if it’s only peeking through holes in your quilt.
REVIEW: WOUND FROM THE MOUTH OF A WOUND – TORRIN A. GREATHOUSE (MILKWEED EDITIONS)
Her poems don’t just show the reader these issues, they pull the reader into them, making them wear them like a skin.
#TPQ5: TYLER PENNOCK
What will Tyler Pennock include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
#TPQ5: JORY MICKELSON
What will Jory Mickelson include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: AT FIRST & THEN – DANIELLE ROSE (BLACK LAWRENCE PRESS)
if Rose decided to give a craft talk on titles alone, I would slam my fist, fanning with twenties, on the table and scream, “Here, take my money!” – Lannie Stabile
POETRY IN CINEMA: IT’S NOT AN EASY THING TO MEET YOUR MAKER – JESSICA MOOKHERJEE
This week I tackle the poetry in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and specifically the use of William Blake’s poem, America: A Prophecy.
REVIEW: LIFE IN SPACE – GALINA RYMBU ( TR. JOAN BROOKS) (UGLY DUCKLING PRESSE/AFTER HOURS EDITIONS)
Sex is set against a backdrop of war and politics, so devoid of emotion and joy you can “count the bites and hickeys from dead lovers.”
#TPQ5: ALLISON BIRD TREACY
What will Allison Bird Treacy include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: THE TALE OF TURKISH CARPET – JACQUELINE SAPHRA (BAD BETTY PRESS)
The poem is a great tale of how we ‘interpret’ other people’s lives when we go to other’s cultures and yet might forget the constraints on our own, thinking them normal. Until – it all gets too much.
POETRY IN CINEMA: IT DOESN’T REALLY RHYME THOUGH
Maybe because Paterson stands for more then the poet, he stands for the poetry of a place, the breath, a name, a location inspiring the life that poetry can give a person’s mind. – Jessica Mookherjee
#TPQ5: LINDSEY HEATHERLY
What will Lindsey Heatherly include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
#TPQ5: ROBIN McNAMARA
What will Robin McNamara include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
#TPQ5: SHAWN BERMAN
What will Shawn Berman include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
POETRY & CINEMA: MISTAH KURTZ – HE DEAD – JESSICA MOOKHERJEE
Elliot and Coppola, both modernist poets, do the age old job of the poet, to tell tales of war and the heroes of war. They do it, like Kurtz, with awareness of poetry, with images of beauty.
REVIEW: TO FALL FABLE – ALICE WICKENDEN (VARIANT LIT)
It’s all the obstacles in the way of self-discovery. It’s the fantasy of the moment. It’s the newness of everything. It’s doing something that might change your life, and should. Just not sure how.
**PRE-ORDER SCRAP BY VAN G. GARRETT**
Each page hits with another jab that both takes the wind out of you and inspires you to persevere, and in this way mirrors everyday life itself. These words are needed by all of us fighting to survive day-to-day.” – Jason Crawford
Half-light Collected Poems of Frank Bidart Because it contains all the work to date of one of the most important current American poets. Bidart is a genius and his difficult, dark work of existential struggle rewarding to any serious reader of poetry. Paul Farley He is true to his working
POWER OF POETRY #125: THE POWER & RISE OF UNDERGROUND VOICES – Mbizo CHIRASHA
“From the time of our birthing to these days of maturation, we are all shaped, serenaded and entertained by sweet ancient lullabies, drum beat throbs and early morning birdsongs.”
#TPQ5: TOMMYE BLOUNT
What will Tommye Blount include in today’s #TPQ5? Find it inside!
REVIEW: F LETTER – GALINA RYMBU, EUGENE OSTASHEVSKY, AINSLEY MORSE, EDS. (Isolarii)
Am I a poet or a poetess? Do I need to embrace a male style of writing, of interest, of canon, or someone else’s definition of radical feminist poetry?
#TPQ5: KARI FLICKINGER
What will Kari Flickinger include in today’s #TPQ5? Find it inside?
POETRY & CINEMA #2: ANYWAY… TEENAGE STUFF FOREVER – JESSICA MOOKHERJEE
This week it’s Charlie Kaufman’s (writer of Being John Malkovitch) difficult, angsty, psychological horror film “I’m Thinking of Ending Things” and a cool, young, and defiant Canadian poet, Eva HD’s poem “Bonedog”.
REVIEW: THE CANDLELIGHT MASTER – MICHAEL LONGLEY (WAKE FOREST PRESS)
“This is a collection about the power of aging. He shows us how the lives of old poets companion us on our journey….” – Jessica Mookherjee
REVIEW: THE CARTOON DIARIES – DAVID O’NAN (SELF-PUBLISHED)
This collection acts as a roadmap through the never ending cacophony – the voices, the fears, the Gods, and the everlasting sense that if you were to slow down for one moment you may never start again.
#TPQ5: LINDSAY ILLICH
What will Lindsay Illich include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: THE GULL AND THE BELL TOWER – KARI FLICKINGER (FEMME SALVÈ BOOKS/ANIMAL HEART PRESS)
We never really escape our own disasters. In fact, “owning them is an irredeemable trait”. It’s unsettling, it’s frightening, but it does turn glass to stone. It does, however, create beauty.
REVIEW: STORAGE UNIT FOR THE SPIRIT HOUSE – MAW SHEIN WIN (OMNIDAWN)
A storage unit is inevitably a reduction of life’s expansive possibilities. It is by nature a place of pause, a place of restrictions on the field of associations.
POETRY IN CINEMA – JESSICA MOOKHERJEE
How does Poetry fit into the world of Cinema? Each week, Jessica Mookherjee will dive into a new poem and movie to let us know.
#TPQ5: ISSAM ZINEH
What will Issan Zineh include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
#TPQ5: KATHY DAVIS
What will Kathy Davis include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: TRAVELOGUE – PAIGE MELIN (GHOST CITY PRESS)
“….she recognizes that she no longer has complete agency, having surrendered to her travels: “nothing will pull me / from this trajectory”, she writes, “not even its own / destruction”.
#TPQ5: JESUS GARAY
What will Jesus Garay include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: SEEDLING – ALANA SALTZ (MAVERICK DUCK PRESS)
So if our memories are selective, and somewhat inaccurate, how do we keep those we loved with us after they’re gone?
#TPQ5: AIM HALLE GATELY
What will Aim Halle Gately include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
#TPQ5: JESS COSTELLO
What will Jess Costello include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: AMNESIA – HAL Y. ZHANG (Newfound)
The pressures of assimilation run deep. To what extent do we forget our mother tongues when we immigrate to a new country? How much of ourselves, our culture, our language, can we retain?
#TPQ5: ROY VORAGEN
What will Roy Voragen include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
#TPQ5: AMANDA HOLIDAY
What will Amanda Holiday include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: LA BELLE AJAR – ERNESTO CEPEDA (CLASH BOOKS)
A revitalized love story for an upended generation. Cepeda brings beauty to the parts of us we fear the most: desires, sex, love, guilt, self.
The Synonym Tables – Jennifer Roche
Roche takes a linguistic approach to poetry by looking at the history of words and comparing their synonyms. The reader can not help but be an active participant when trying to make sense of the often found disparity between words and their interpretations from the past to the present. You might find yourself making an argument for such a dramatic shift in the tables or determine that there is inherent prejudice in the diction itself. This ambiguity of the comparison is the strength of The Synonym Tables; it truly proffers thought.
—Tyler Pufpaff, Author of A Quarter Life
Ursula K. LeGuin I grew up immersed in sci-fi and fantasy, and I’ve seen all kinds of worlds; LeGuin’s have always been the most imaginative and engaging. Octavia Butler Butler makes *character* the central part of her characters. They are intensely personal, believable, and relatable. Piers Anthony As a youngster
REVIEW: VENUS IN PINK MARBLE – GAYNOR KANE (HEDGEHOG PRESS)
This is a collection that moves around the themes of love, lust, futility and desire and the search for a self through these conflicts of empire and colonialism.
#TPQ5: FRANCESCA GARDNER
What will Francesca Gardener include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
#TPQ5: JUNPEI TARASHI
What will Junpei Tarashi include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: ALCHEMY OF LOVE – SOPHIE FOUCHER (SELF-PUBLISHED):
In simple lines of pure feeling these ‘30 poems and dreams about love’ challenge us to leave our troubles behind and enter Foucher’s vision of equanimity.
Review by Jane Berg
REVIEW: PITH – TRACY FUAD (NEWFOUND PRESS)
Day-after-day, emails – I get it. And for the rest of the day, I wondered where God fit into all this technologyand war of scorched earth?
Review by Martha Warren
REVIEW: NO SAINTS – KEANA AGUILA LABRA (LAZY ADVENTURER PUBLISHING):
Maybe the hard, unyielding material is not mankind’s intolerance of what is other, as we have always thought.
Review by Lannie Stabile.
#TPQ5: I.S. JONES
What will I.S. Jones include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
TPQ5: RACHEL SMALL
What will Rachel Small include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: LOST LAGOON/LOST IN THOUGHT – BETSY WARLAND
Thoughtful and contemplative, the writing captures the seasons of nature, the sounds and rhythms of the lagoon, and I wonder whether especially now, in times of uncertainty and fear, more of us should make time to be quiet
Review by Martha Warren
#TPQ5: ARIEL N. BANAYAN
What will Ariel N. Banayan include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@tiesto_eliot
REVIEW: LET’S PHOTOGRAPH GIRLS ENJOYING LIFE – JASMINE GRAY (BROKEN SLEEP BOOKS)
This small poetry collection hits hard, it makes us voyeur and complicit in the diminishment of what gender and sex are.
Rev by @jessmkrjy
#TPQ5: DAVID HARRISON HORTON
What will David Harrison Horton include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@unionherald
#TPQ5: GODEFROY DRONSART
What will Goddfroy Dronsart include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@chozotull
REVIEW: CAPABLE MONSTERS – MARLIN M. JENKINS (BULL CITY PRESS)
What I’ve learned is that sometimes you need to crawl within your shell to gain the power to face the rest of the world, and sometimes you need a Mewtwo to get you there.
TPQ5: CANDICE WUEHLE
What will Candice Wuehle include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@glittertrash__
#TPQ5: TAYLOR GIANFRANCISCO
What will Taylor Gianfrancisco include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@tayleurmarie
#TPQ5: LEAH MUELLER
What will Leah Mueller include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@leahsnapdragon
#TPQ5: C.T. SALAZAR
WhAt will C.T. Salazar include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REVIEW: FORTY STITCHES SEWING A BODY AGAINST A RAMSHACKLE NIGHT – C.T. SALAZAR (ANIMAL HEART PRESS)
And when we catch up to ourselves, we find we are tingling toes, prayer birds, wolf cubs, and gravity collapsing around you. C.T. Salazar gives us both a story of love, but also of finding oneself amidst the distractions of, well, everything else.
#TPQ5 BRIONY HUGHES
What will Briony Hughes include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@brihughespoet
#TPQ5: BEAU WILLIAMS
What will Beau Williams include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@bwilliamspoet
@awhitetrashpoet @andreagibson @SandraBeasley @FaylitaHicks
#TPQ5: BRANDI HOMAN
What will Brandi Homan include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@bhomanwriter
POWER OF POETRY #124: GOODNESS OLANREWAJU AYOOLA
You see poetry in everything: in nuances, in branches swaying in the gentle breeze, in the laughter of children, in the mirror, in the rustling of leaves, in the taxi, in the news, in the sermon….
@GoodnessLanre
#TPQ5: KARA KNICKERBOCKER
What will Kara Knickerbocker include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@writer_kara
#TPQ5: LEEANNE QUINN
What will Leeanne Quinn include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@Leeanne_Quinn_
#TPQ5: ANNA G WINHAM
What will Anna G Winham include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@1winsomewinham
#TPQ5: ASTRA PAPACHRISTODOULOU
What will Astra Papachristodoulou include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@heyastranaut
#TPQ5: LUCY FURLONG
What will Lucy Furlong include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@lucyfurleapz
#TPQ5: JAMES DUNNIGAN
What will James Dunnigan include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@JamesDunnigan19
REVIEW: RECKLESS PAPER BIRDS – JOHN McCULLOUGH (PENNED IN THE MARGINS)
The tone of communication is exuberant and rife with polysemic connotations, producing a psychedelic effect. A sad Lady Gaga prompts us to reflect on how “terrible” it is “to be a god and listen”….
Review by Rodanthi Tzanelli
REVIEW: ALMS BASKET FOR YOUR HEART – MACKENZIE MOORE (VARIANT LIT)
It is a tender little book and a reminder that, yes, not all dreams come true, but that doesn’t mean we should stop dreaming.
@mxkmoore @whatisaletter @VariantLit
#TPQ5: BRENDON BOOTH-JONES
What will Brendon Booth-Jones include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@BrendonBoothJo1
#TPQ5: CHRISTOPHER P.P. WHITE
What will Christopher P.P. White include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@firstavenger83
#TPQ5: CHRIS L. BUTLER
What will C.L. Butler include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@CLBpoetry
#TPQ5: SARRA CULLENO
What will Sarra Culleno in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@Sarra1978
#TPQ5: WALTER RUHLMANN
What will Walter RUHLMANN include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@SapiensSucks
#TPQ5: HANA SHAPIRO
What will Hana Shapiro include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@HanaShapiro
#TPQ5: RHIAN ELIZABETH
What will Rhian Elizabeth include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@rhianelizabeth7
#TPQ5: SIÂN GRIFFITHS
What will Siân Griffiths include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
@borrowedhorses
