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The Mill Stones of History

Lazar Trubman

The Millstones of History

My wife always thought that someday I’d be a big success. She talked about it since we got married, enthusiastically in the beginning, particularly when she became pregnant with our first daughter, … [Read more...]

Five Past Noon: Reading Darkness at Noon in Trump’s America

Michael Huguenor

Five Past Noon: Reading Darkness at Noon in Trump’s America

“What a mess we have made of our golden age.” -- Nicholas Rubashov This August, a now-famous photograph began circulating online. In the original, Donald Trump is seated in the oval office with a … [Read more...]

White Jesus – A reflection on summer camp and Charlottesville

Todd Clouser

White Jesus -- Todd Clouser

Growing up in Kansas, from about 9 to 12 years old, I went to Christian summer camp down the highway in rural Missouri. I loved it there. We swam in creeks and caught crawfish. I played soccer and … [Read more...]

Panic Drapes the Look of the World: Literary Treatment for Anxiety in an Uncertain Age

Emily Sinclair

1. June, 2016: I was having a panic attack while I walked the dog after dinner. Children rode skateboards and scooters in that last yellowed hour before bedtime. I felt unreal to myself, and the … [Read more...]

Dan Wilcox’s “Inauguration Raga” poem now available from A.P.D.

Empty Mirror News

Inauguration Raga poem by Dan Wilcox

A.P.D. (a presidential disaster) announces the publication of Inauguration Raga, by Dan Wilcox, a 16-page chapbook of a poem improvised on January 20, 2017. The poem was written from 10:00am to … [Read more...]

For Shelley on the 4th August, His Birthday – Heathcote Williams

Heathcote Williams

Joseph Severn - Percy Bysshe Shelley

“Poetry sees the starlight smile of children” Shelley said, seeing this as life’s truest wealth. In Shelley’s world the “natural order Has no place for tyrants” – Neutering the beauty of the … [Read more...]

All the Notes of the World Symphony by Serkan Engin

Serkan Engin

Mt. Baker, Washington

I am a red Laz boat cruising on the mountains of Kurdistan where my Kurd and Turk brothers are burning by falling on the ground syllable by syllable None of the requiems is able to express … [Read more...]

Review – Let’s Start a Pussy Riot

Richard Marcus

Let's Start a Pussy Riot - Book Review

Let's Start a Pussy Riot, edited by Emely Neu and Jade French / Rough Trade / June 2013 / 978-0957626201 On February 21, 2012 members of the Russian feminist performance art group/collective Pussy … [Read more...]

One Man, One Vote

Steven D. Stark

One Man, One Vote

It was Election Day and the lines were as long as anyone could remember. Even longer. To be sure this was the age of advanced technology so in many places people could vote on their computers and … [Read more...]

Looking Back: A Poem by A.D. Winans

A.D. Winans

Looking back by A.D. Winans - photo by D. Enck

When I was 18 I was on a troop train heading for basic training when we stopped to take on water or whatever it is trains stop for and after relieving myself I came out of the men's room … [Read more...]

Patriotism – a poem by Edwin Romond

Edwin Romond

Arlington National Cemetery / credit: Patrick Kelley, U.S. Coast Guard. Public domain.

"The Pentagon has acknowledged that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not sign condolence letters to the families of soldiers killed in Iraq but instead used a signature machine." --The … [Read more...]

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

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