Thank you to WHUS for letting us use their space, and of course to Anna for reading! Filming: Elizabeth Sankey Editing: Daniela Doncel Interviewer: Amanda McCarthy Spring Cleaning The cherry tree bursts open pink the scarred, twisted trunk gives way to a firework display. Blush petals surrender to the breeze,…
Category: Poetry
Online Video Series: Christine Byrne with “After Angela”
Thank you to WHUS for letting us use their space, and of course to Christine for reading! Filming: Elizabeth Sankey Editing: Daniela Doncel Interviewer: Amanda McCarthy After Angela Let’s be literal, a moment, talk about how no one disturbed her bedroom or how your father won’t say she’s dead the…
Online Video Series: Theresa Persico with “The Nature of A River is to Run”
Thank you to WHUS for letting us use their space, and of course to Theresa for reading! Filming: Elizabeth Sankey Editing: Daniela Doncel Interviewer: Amanda McCarthy The Nature of A River is to Run It’s not that I don’t love you, It’s the fact that doors have slammed So hard…
Online Video Series: Veronica Schorr with “Killer”
Thank you to WHUS for letting us use their space, and of course to Veronica for reading! Filming: Elizabeth Sankey Editing: Daniela Doncel Interviewer: Amanda McCarthy Killer You’re all smoke and jazz deep kiss and dark hair whiskey-burned bright hazel eyes You’re all sex and sass rainy street and reckless…
“Fears After the Indonesian Forest Fires” By Anna Ziering (2017)
Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize, Winner (2017) Death, of course. Having no God. Sunday afternoons, New England falls. Sleet storms like the one that dented the new car and traumatized the dog, who never liked loud noise; who, like me when I was young, couldn’t stomach fireworks. They made us cry—that…
“New Year on Pleasure Island” By Brian Sneeden (2017)
Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize, Second Place (2017) What I did not know to make made itself in vestigial hours between two o’clock and dawn, when the shapes of birds stitch together in my mind, and a single cicada peels the air. Each letter I write returns to water. I start…
“La Fusión” By Gabriela García Sánchez (2017)
It was reverence I felt then, and I did not cower as it vibrated through me. El ritmo bonded us by our pies, our caderas, ventilating the air with scales speeding by. The beats amplified between our pechos, whistling for our cuerpos to collide. So I took a breath that…
Slam at the Benton: “Food Stamps” by Jacob Lowell (2017)
Food Stamps by Jacob Lowell When I was 5 years old I would sit with my mother and cut out the coupons in the newspaper, all spread out on the dining room table. They tell me I couldn’t remember being on food stamps; I was only a kid. But I…
Slam at the Benton: “Hardwood Laxatives” by Jacob Nelson (2017)
Hardwood Laxatives by Jacob Nelson I think HGTV is trying to redefine what a home is After realizing that at 3000 Sq ft two bedrooms And a home office No one under 35 has a home Open floorplans and hardwood are timeless So they switched greatrooms to microhomes and studios….
Slam at the Benton: “tops of trees” by Jillian Cundari (2017)
tops of trees by Jillian Cundari today for the first time in a long time I saw the tops of trees. I rolled to a near stop in drive at the top of the hill to see the trees and farms rising in heaps and the bubbling people, pushing through…