THE VOICE OF SMALL PRESS POETRY
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: SENTIMENTAL VIOLENCE — GABRIELLE HOGAN (GHOST CITY PRESS)
As we all know, though, joy does not exist without violence — not for Tonya, and not for any of us.
YELLOW JOURNALISM: THANK YOU FOR THE CONTENT – REGGIE JOHNSON (RAD PRESS BOOKS)
One of my favorite wordplay moments, in this collection, can be seen in the confidence exuded in lines like “Reciprocation at its simplicity, You was the one taking shots, And now you stay missing me” (I Love Me).
REPLAYS: ESCOBAR – Xponentbeatz featuring Kriiispy & Halfofyou
This column will take a look at songs from week of which I can’t get enough, and deep dive into my own thoughts in regards to them.
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
“WHICH REQUIRES ME TO BEND LANGUAGE TO MY WILL” – TALK TO ME: TAYLOR BYAS
I absolutely code switch because there isn’t an aspect of my life that doesn’t request that sort of labor from me. It’s built into my life, and therefore it manifests in my poetry. – Taylor Byas
REVIEW: IF YOU DISCOVER A FIRE — SHAUN ROBINSON (BRICK BOOKS)
You start in one place—a forest on fire, a restaurant where you’re stacking individual creamers into a tower, falling in love wearing colorful pants—and by the end, you realize you’ve run into yourself.
#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.
YELLOW JOURNALISM: QUIET, GRIT & GLORY – RICKY RAY (BROKEN SLEEP BOOKS)
Many of the pieces in this book challenged me, while some baffled me, others stirred tears I frequently wipe while composing this review.
#TPQ5: RILEY DANVERS
What will Riley Danvers include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
REPLAYS: VIBEZ – ZAYN
This column will take a look at songs from week to week that I can’t get enough of and deep dive into my own thoughts in regards to them. The first track comes from Zayn, best known for being in the pop group, One Direction,
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.
“I CAN’T TALK ABOUT HERITAGE WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT RHYTHM” – TALK TO ME: JASON B. CRAWFORD
That’s just it, dance is part of the language. Trying to figure out how to express me loving my friends sometime is about twerking with them. Sometimes it’s just watching them do it
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: IR /RATIONAL – KALEB TUTT (ROARING JUNIOR PRESS)
If you have ever wondered if “that” one in a million situation could happen, Tutt has opened the floor for its discussion. – Bradley Galimore
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.
So am I making closing remarks?
Or is this a follow up discussion?
I just wanna avoid un-alerted spoilers,
And their possible repercussions.
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!
REVIEW: SPECTRUM OF FLIGHT – DAVID HANLON (ANIMAL HEART PRESS)
Utilizing the layout of text on the page, suggestive titles and clever wordplay, he creates an intricate narrative that enhances the reading experience.
I listened to a song that made me think of you.
An album I hadn’t heard later,
I feel like I knew you better than when
I invested time in knowing you.
What happens when you wonder,
If to be with someone
Means just putting up with each other,
Or finding another person
Who thinks about these things too,
As you both say nothing,
And simply exist
In this gray area?
REVIEW: RUSTED BELLS AND DAISY BASKETS – ANDREA PANZECA (FINISHING LINE PRESS)
… she shows the grittiness of her fighter self in her dreams, while simultaneously rejecting the idea of men as saviors.
#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.
Moisturized and slightly,
Smoother than silk…
Oil slick,
Is the spot in which I bask
In my after glow.
Your satisfaction in tow,
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.”
You told me:
“We are each other.
We exist with one another…
In our current and past lives…
We will always be together.”
REVIEW: THE TALES OF FLAXIE CHAR – ELIZABETH HORNER TURNER (DANCING GIRL PRESS)
“…explores the line between the fantastical and insanity in a woman pushed to the brink by tragedy…”
#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!
In front of the sink,
Move your toothbrush
And look up into the mirror.
Let me embarrass my mother in ways
She hopes to never have to discuss…
Or at least never imagined to.
#TPQ5: ROBIN McNAMARA
What will Robin McNamara include in today’s #TPQ5? Find out inside!
WOMEN WRITERS OVER 30: REVIEW: LARARIUM – RAY BALL (VARIANT LIT)
She says “snakes always my company” and just like Medusa she apparently has the power to elicit stoicism in her father. In this way, she is taking some of the power back from her father in their difficult relationship. However, also just like Medusa she is mortal, as seen in the line “cannot shed their skins.”
#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.
We were both falling.
I wonder sometimes who would catch us,
And every time he reminds me,
Each other.
Hopefully for me this act won’t be a repeat,
So I guess I’ll just keep the tempo…
REVIEW: BODEGA NIGHT PIGEON RIOT – AMANDA DEUTCH (ABOVE/GROUND PRESS)
Like riding in the car, riding the subway is a moment where many people wrestle with their thoughts. Sometimes these thoughts are a diagnosis of the self, other times they are external, a commentary on the troubles of the world around us.
I’d like to believe that there’s another story inside of me. One that’s finding the deep and intricate words to move me forward from when I considered that I’d lost my touch. Quiet as it’s kept, I’ve already written what I consider to be the best work of my life. So, what now?
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
WOMEN WRITERS OVER 30: TUNED: SELECTED POEMS – KYLA HOUBOLT (CCCP CHAPBOOKS)
“Ms. Houbolt’s solution to the horror of likely permanent and ever increasing climate change that is necessarily affecting us all, involves the continuing reverence for nature and not throwing away what we all desperately need.”
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 class origins, writes as well…
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!
LENNY sits down with us in an exclusive interview, sharing the experiences of living/loving in his thirties. These are the stories shared between him, his partner, the writer and you.
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.
WOMEN WRITERS OVER 30: SARA LUPITA OLIVARES – NATALIE MARINO
“…adapting to lives of constant movement and living between space and “unspace” has led to centuries of generational trauma.”
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 I was endlessly entertained by…
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!
REVIEW: GRAVITY – LYNNE SCHMIDT (NIGHTINGALE & SPARROW)
In that moment of vulnerability we are often not our best selves ultimately becoming lost. but sometimes we overcome these bad relationships, saving ourselves in the end.
Review by Chris L. Butler
#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
REVIEW: THE BOWER – CONNIE VOISINE (UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS)
The daughter’s eyes are a wonderful vehicle fully exploited by the poet yet never to the point of exhaustion. That childish brio drinks in the wonders of flags and drums and studiously ignores the bottle of urine at a sectarian march.