Two Songs for Samson (an invective poem) for Carl Solomon Where goes your nose, Old Sam? How mighty a germ that nestled there Could cause so mighty a blow? Does a note so dissonant … [Read more...]
Poetry Archive
Once As a Child and Long Ago: seven poems by Sam Silva
Once As a Child and Long Ago Once as a child and long ago I was in love with the idea of junk with Peter Pan and Cheerios and the sacred high of the great TV and blue songs which Bob Dylan … [Read more...]
6 Poems by Gloria Avner
End of the Sixties this sea this sky not the winding bumpy road past Ararat, down Khyber pass by folding bicycle fear survived Swat valley snowstorm rescue on the way to India to … [Read more...]
I Kissed You with Sparrows
We are kissing each other on the lips while hitting Love and wobbling around only the walls are barricade to our lust. Your mouth is beginning with a damp alphabet a red butterfly settled on your … [Read more...]
Two Poems by Alessandra Bava
Apres Nous, Le Chaos (to Lawrence Ferlinghetti) In the bookstore the voice slowly uncurls some pages of life, revealing Allen's loss: "There is a HUGE … [Read more...]
Two poems by Lorne Daniel
Island Fall “to redefine is not always to lose” - Stephen Dunn I am buoyed by the slowness of change on this island, this autumn, the Garry Oak leaves crinkling, painted with heavy dew but … [Read more...]
I Am San Francisco
I have witnessed the waterfront decay the ships disappear the piers given over to tourists and sunbathing sea lions Gone the Haight Theater in the old Haight Ashbury where as a kid I … [Read more...]
On Being Corso’s Lover
In the Cadillac of my imagination unraveling in Corso's kitchen we eat verses of Homer for lunch. He becomes my Odysseus. My fingers are burnt and veins tapped. Our highs grow weary as we … [Read more...]
Two poems by Benjamin Smith
Pink Shots. The needle drops, wails Gin and trombones While Erikson plays dice In the mirror and Lucy downs Pink shots of poetry. By 5am we are beasts, Animals on hands and Knees, lapping … [Read more...]
For David Moe
Like a crow caws into the night, like an owl with its questioning eyes, like a Shaman lights the night with magic words, like a hawk circles the sky, like a farmer plants seeds, like a … [Read more...]
Two poems by Amy Soricelli
Country Song on the Radio About How He Left Her Again He got painted onto her walls a solid brush of black and white - no heart on his sleeve - a snicker just resting on the brim of his … [Read more...]
When a Black Boy Walks Home Alone At Night
who would have thought skittles and ice tea was a death sentence not even Dr. Oz when a black boy with a dream walks home alone at night hard rain falling lady death whisper in the air a … [Read more...]
When there is nothing, there’s the cup of coffee
When there is nothing, there's the cup of coffee Early morning, i step out; in a heap, in the rubbish pile, my paintings. They look 'belonged'. Few more displaced to the storage-room. New … [Read more...]
Two poems by Benjamin Smith
On the Rocks. That antique gramophone Next to the suffragette lampshade, Marble time measured in Vinyl. Look at the dust-jackets: Mint condition memories. Warped voices warble in … [Read more...]
Ginsberg’s Refrigerator
In Allen’s tenement flat at 170 East 2nd Street, even the refrigerator is an outlet of poetry. The picture in black and white shows a handle pointing north. On the off-white surface a picture of … [Read more...]
2 Poems by Craig Kocij
Alaska Sun (for Timothy Treadwell & Amie Huguenard) Through thirteen seasons your trails ran down to coasts that fell to ocean hues of rain and dull precipitous sleet. To this airy solitude of … [Read more...]
3 Poems by Ryan Ritchie
FOR JACK nothing any wordsmith can do with a keyboard matches the beauty that leaps from the subconscious mind of the jazz musician. we sit and think, type, sit and think some more, never … [Read more...]
Ginsberg at the Grey
How belly they aged, your friends, how hard the young years, every look, an eye for an eye, rapscallions when this country had corners rounded to secret, sweet places unfound by blab and tweet. In … [Read more...]
Illuminescence by John O’Kane
I think of how Allen Ginsberg could see society when gizmos glistened salvation, freeways traced our future, freeon cooled our passions, primeval blackooze birthed plastic, the prophylactic … [Read more...]
3 Poems by Amy Soricelli
He Forgot Again: (Sunday, November 11, 1962) If i could dance around the light like a bug - I would see all that I was through the sparkling beauty of wings. The fluttering movements wandering … [Read more...]