Newton’s laws of existentialism
Malo Gledhill has the “how in God’s name is this working?” charm of Robert Hass, and with an exorbitant amount of tact, composes this surreal magnum opus of nonsense, physics, dry hilarity and self-loathing.
The Prophecy Unswaddled
Tara Campbell’s verse turns every reader into her vessel, and instantly glues the reviewer to the page.
The Hospital Room
Maia Zelkha wants more Dilaudid, and I concur that she should be given more Dilauded, if only to write another poem about needing more Dilaudid, because I want more poems about wanting more Dilauded, because Zelkha’s poem about Dilauded deserves to be lauded, and reading it is becoming an addiction.
Ballad, In Sestets
Diane Seuss opens this poem with a yearning for better ideas, but I must say, I don’t know how her poetry could get any better. Seuss is a gargantuan talent, and this poem is yet another testament to that fact.
Montana
This is a revelatory meditation, and is far better read than summarized, but let it be known that the road to Montana is paved with crosses, and Ian Powell-Palm has written this tremendous elegy for a mass grave.
Bozza Imperfetta of Sight
Helena Mesa has turned the critic into a tourist, dumbfoundedly genuflecting at the foot of her verse. This poem is a holy place, let no one enter without first paying their respects.
eratio
Superlatives to Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Joseph F. Keppler, Jacqueline Winter Thomas, Coleman Stevenson and Andreea Iulia Scridon, and plaudits to the poets Mariam Shergelashvili (Digital Wind Mantra), Irene Koronas (NHC II, 5; XIII, 2; Brit. Lib. Or. 4926(1)) and Calvin Olsen (translating João Luís Barreto Guimarães’ “Petals Overhead”) just to name a few. A fantastic publication with no shortage of fantastic poets, eratio has earned two more dedicated readers.
eratio | Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino, Joseph F. Keppler, Jacqueline Winter Thomas, Coleman Stevenson and Andreea Iulia Scridon
The Maple has Returned to its Winter
Babo Kamel masterfully unites nature and personal strife, pitying the trees as she weaves these “provocative threads” into quite an exhilarating read.
Heads
There will be only sighs of contentment after reading the brisk and buoyant verse of Chloe Martinez. This poem should not be left unlauded, but should be turned over for all the world to see.
The Song of Love, Giorgio de Chirico, 1914
Nothing is lost in translation in this medium bending masterwork of prose poetry. Chirico is done proud as John Bradley weaves from his painting a magnificent canvas of words.
Bertilax Trax, or Xperience of a Day
Liam McLean orchestrates chaos with unbelievable, intoxicating precision. Bertilax Trax must be read, absorbed, subsumed. Waste no more time. Go, embark on the journey.
Breathless
The title is an accurate description of this poem’s effect. John Amen leaves the reader breathless with this immortal elegy.
Unhorsed
Cleo Muller has written the youngest, blondest, and prettiest poem I’ve read all week. Come, step into the ring and ride the bull.
Slash Slash Slash
Nicole Liu kisses her knuckles and punches straight through the page in this punk rock masterpiece.
harvest prayer in Homer, AK
Jealousy leapt from my lips when I first read this poem. The rabid eroticism, suppurating love! Laura Post has taken a pile of dirt and constructed Sodom, a torrid city, intoxicating in all its decay.
Ars Poetica
Natalie Homer did not hold back when crafting this tour de force, and while she may skip ahead, the reader is left clinging to every word.
If a Tamarin Could Drop a Marshmallow into Your World
Janet Bowdan has surely dropped a gem into the world of internet e-mags, and her verse has not passed me by without leaving quite an unforgettable impression.
The Unspeakable
Robert Fanning’s Unspeakable has left me utterly speechless. With the chaotic finesse of e.e. Cummings, the imagination of Breton, the imagery of a sprawling Dali, this poem indeed has it all.
The Correspondence of Objects
Berryman would not be ashamed of having his face on this project. Kelvin Corcoran’s impeccable orchestra of images is worthy of a legendary name to match, and one can’t help but feel they’re playing spoons beside Corcoran’s virtuosic banjo solo.
The Sweet Science
Though David Atkinson writes of the language of fists, he does so with the elegance of Ali’s butterfly. And while I must refuse his offer to take up a glove, I tip my hat to the poet’s talents, which have left me punch drunk with praise and tipsy with hat-tipping.
Teahouse No. 1
Mikhail Kalinin’s song of songs immerses the reader in a rustic Moscow autumn. Masterfully translated by Konstantin Kulakov and Anton Relin, one can almost bite the apples and taste the wines.
Pocket Samovar | Mikhail Kalinin translated by Konstantin Kulakov and Anton Relin
The End of the Affair
D. Parker (or by the end of her poem, perhaps merely Parker) has made exemplary music from this gruesome mutilation.
Mademoiselle de Mérode
Frederick Pollack brings an aging Cléo de Mérode to life in this masterful rending of the fallen belle. The death of a beautiful woman is perhaps literature’s most predictable platitude, but a renowned beauty reduced to an affluent, neurotic raisin? That is virgin soil, ladies and gentleman, and Pollack does not disappoint.
Three Dreams
Dave Richards’ Three Dreams is a spiritual awakening. Indeed like a dream, the reader traverses an eternity of images in what is less than a minutes read.
Forgetting Sonnets
Anon Baisch’s Forgetting Sonnets invokes a spirit akin to the notes of Ernest Fenollosa; controlled chaos and abstractions rubbed raw. “Crippled white crippled forgetting.” : : “Raise cup quench sorrow sorrow again sorry.”
Violent Child
With his apologies making for such fantastic verse, I must forgive David Flynn his trespasses, and encourage any further threats of pedicide.
Objects live on
Farley Egan Green has weaved a perfect prose poem from the skeins of loss, and his words are more than worthy of immortality.
Miles and More
Matthew Moore’s translation of the late Slovenian poet Tomaž Šalamun is a testament to the talents of both. Moore has brought an exceptional tact to his translation, and has demonstrated both himself and Šalamun as brilliant poets.
Asphalte Magazine | Tomaž Šalamun translated by Matthew Moore
Belinda
Christina Buckton’s syntax twisting folk tale is an addictive read, a horrifying act of hilarity with imagery to make her contemporaries blush. Buckton is in a league of her own, and poems like this one deserve to be exhumed from the unmarked graves of obscurity.
Lemon Tree
Martha Webster’s Lemon Tree is a wonderful lesson in mixology. With an intoxicating rhythm, a fine pinch of grit, and a just a flicker of angst, the poet has created something truly masterful.
Meditations on Insect Life
Natalie Wang recounts her childhood with a visceral uncanniness, and manages to be vulnerable while avoiding histrionics, navigating the confessional with a notable restraint. Her descriptions of insects leave the reviewer reaching for his can of Raid while simultaneously reveling in this poem’s merits.
My Grandfather, the Reincarnated Sword Swallower, Explains:
Julia Shipley is whimsical, puckish, hilarious, and bizarre. Whatever she’s trying to say, it keeps the reader reeling at every turn of phrase, unsure of whether to cackle or dial 911.
The Importance of Small Suffering
Writing a villanelle is hard enough, but writing a good villanelle is a rare feat, especially when anything written in the scheme must stand alongside some of the most iconic poems in the English canon. Cheyenne Taylor’s The Importance of Small Suffering is a fresh and poignant take on the classic form, and her images conjure a horrid past, one glowing with wisdom and twisted at the whims of her eloquence.
Return to Sender
Ruth Towne’s Return to Sender is a harrowing portrait of unrequited love, or loneliness, or neglect, or death, or stamp prices. Whatever the theme may be, Towne has written one of my favorite poem’s of 2022, and should be on the radar of every serious reader.
Migraine Without Aura
Deborah Bogen is surreal, gruesome, and oozing with angst in this impeccable glimpse into personal struggle.
Prague Baroque
Patrick Deely’s meticulous description of Prague, the capital of Bohemia, as it casts its Babylonian—as he has it in Prague Baroque—“Gross statues of saints spear demons which look reptilian” with the grotesque and scenes of European decay seeking repentance.
“They Tell Me Nothing’s Gone”: On Robert Lowell, Life Studies, and Recovery
Jonathan Farmer details Robert Lowell’s chaotic relationship with his art in this fantastic study on the poet’s mental health and late metamorphosis of style.
Faux-jour
Ann Power’s magical cascade into the psychology of desire is undoubtedly worth a read. This poem punches home with the razzle-dazzle, and keeps the reader guessing the whole way through. Power is Glück after a line of pixie dust, and that is a steep compliment, though one I administer whole heartedly.
Notes from the Last to Leave
Frederick Pollack’s subdued verse ambles through the corridors of his memory, questioning and recounting with a voice that stiffens against its cracks and confesses with a soldierly poise. His work rejects all melodrama, and is a fantastically refreshing read.
Six Weeks into Chemotherapy
Laura Paul Watson’s Six Weeks into Chemotherapy peers into the cruel reality the poet wishes to recover. Tired of the false pity, she laments the loss of her lesser human struggles, and the faux compassion so often paired with sickness. This poem subverts expectations, and speaks for itself far better than any praise.
The Case for Punctuation
Murray Silverstein’s Ars Punctuationa offers far more than a grammar lesson. If syntax were a religion, this would be its gospel.
Home
Samantha Padgett’s portrait of paternal neglect is as heart-rending as it is inventive. The suburban pastoral contrasted with domestic distress has always made for great verse, but Padgett builds upon the tradition with her horrific eloquence. A poem’s greatest compliment shall always be another poet’s envy, and one cannot help coveting Padgett’s talents.
If It Comes to the Relevant Glyphs in the Papyrus
Amy Beeder’s secret recipe makes for fantastic poetry. She manages to address a subject that has been so wrongly politicized, and does so in a manner that completely avoids politicization. Such tact is rare among modern poets, but as Beeder demonstrates, there is still hope.
a poorly dressed pantomime
Frankie bb’s surrealist scene recalls the prose poetry of Charles Simic, except the former does not neglect the “poetry” in “prose poetry”. With his intoxicating rhythm, and his whimsical and sometimes frightening imagery, he is definitely a poet to keep your eye on.
My Plenty Mouth
Amanda Rachel Robins My Plenty Mouth leaves no reader going hungry. The poem sees her vast imagination captured in succinct verse, and in each of her candid confessions lurks an uneasy restraint.
Abyss After Tea
Lana Hechtman Ayers writes with an edge that is as sharp as her imagery. Abyss After Tea contains what is perhaps my favorite metaphor of the year, though this poem is no one line wonder. It enthralls throughout its entirety, and leaves the reader reeling in the destructive wake of history.