Three Poems by Bob Meszaros

Scattering the Ashes Late, late at night, he searches for her birth certificate, for their marriage license, for snapshots of the two of them, together. Morning begins with daylight splayed across the surface of the frozen pond behind their house. It is late February 2022 and still this winter threatens. Oak leaves, brown and sere, hang from limbs like cast-off face masks; spiny pathogens, disguised as burrs, lie in wait to catch and cling. Outside, he knows her garden is mid-winter hard: he hears the pond ice crack and buckle in the cold. But in early April, when the pond…

Five Poems by Jennifer Jordán Schaller

  White Space Tell       me         about            these            white          spaces                 you              write   y o u r   s e l f   i n t o.           They     look     so      clean   on   the   page.   Does                            it                            feel                            free?                 Giving   words             bounteous                   space             around               t  e  x  t—   indention            on            the          left,                  title                 centered,   n e g a t i v e               s  p  a  c  e        on        the      right.   Blank  verse        clean…

Three Poems by Dale Cottingham

Girding Up                                                 The coat still fit. The arms, the chest, all of it in brown corduroy. And his wool stocking hat. Also out of vogue, that he’d thought he lost, he now pulls over his ears.   He rights himself. He feels smaller and smaller. Through morning’s haze, he looks into a thinning line of days. No telling what he’ll say out there or what stance he’ll take. But he tells himself that sure enough, he’ll…

Two Poems by Ellen June Wright 

You Ask Me Where It Comes From   It comes from anywhere and everywhere.                     It’s the irritant that starts the nacre’s flow  within the shell, the thing that captures your                    attention and won’t let go. Somewhere in the back of your brain as you go about common duties:                      washing dishes, folding laundry,  it begins to form until you pry your mind                     open with a sharp knife, move the mantle  of the mollusk and roll the pearl between your fingers.                      Inspiration can come slowly, grow like a jewel  at the sea’s bottom or like a stone flung from across                      the street by some rude boy—drawing blood.  That’s…

Ellen June Wright Poetry

by Ellen June Wright   After My Life by Mary J Blige When I woke this morning I had been standing before the congregation preaching on the love of God, preaching affirmations of love because before I knew myself, I was loved. No matter the circumstance, I was created from His love. The energy that sparked the ovum to divide was love. Not just biology but God’s love— a force set in motion from the beginning. Not flint striking flint or flesh pushing down on flesh, entering without consent. I am more than cells, more than muscle and membrane. I…

Two Poems by Nancy McCabe

Photo by Kevin Jay Photography Pajama Dolls   They weren’t just any dolls, these gifts from our grandparents, but, an aunt said, special ones, with skirts you could unzip to reveal secret compartments for storing pajamas. My cousin Melinda’s was pink, mine blue, vastly unfair, since my room was pink and hers was blue but our aunt said it would be rude to swap and it was just another example of how Melinda, with her tiny feet and sweet voice< got all the girl credit. The perfume my aunts and uncles gave me made me sneeze, and the bracelets I…

Interview: The Heart of Lisbeth Coiman

by Alissa Bird For Lisbeth Coiman, poetry and literature are a lens through which we can better understand one another. Her distinct voice is the product of a life lived across three countries as a poet, educator, and cultural worker. In her latest poetry collection, Uprising/Alzamiento (Finishing Line Press, 2021), Coiman demands that we confront the humanitarian crisis facing her home country of Venezuela, a crisis born out of political and economic turmoil that has left the Venezuelan people without proper access to food, water, and medicine. This collection, written in both English and Spanish, bears witness to this devastating…

Interview: Ajit Dutta and the Art of Urdu Love Poetry

by Sara Grimes Ajit Dutta is a poet and graduate of UC Riverside-Palm Desert’s low-residency MFA program. His book, A Lover’s Sigh, is a translation of Urdu love poetry in a form called the “ghazal,” comprised of five-15 thematically autonomous couplets. It is Dutta’s work of the heart, combining classical and modern influences ranging from Indian and Pakistani songwriters to historical political figures. Dutta’s translation approach included listening to a wide range of singers performing ghazals. He fell in love with the form at sixteen, after purchasing a stack of ghazal poetry at a bookstore before a train ride to…

Voice to Books: Sharing Personal Experience Through Poetry

Poetry speaks to our souls. From songs to spoken word, sonnets to free verse, there’s poetry for any mood or moment. Poetry is a form that can take on many shapes, tackle any subject, and help people express themselves. All of the collections in this column revolve around poets sharing deeply personal experiences. The poems found in these collections move within cities and dreams, time and space, language and culture to release a truth, an emotion, a thought in the hope that others will connect with them. Finna by Nate Marshall Reviewed by Pamela Pete Full of ethnic slang slung…

Interview: Bill Ratner’s Evolution into Poetry

Bill Ratner’s successful career as a voiceover artist—as Flint on the cartoon G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, as characters on Robot Chicken and Family Guy, and as the narrator of countless movie trailers and commercials—coexists with his varied existence as a performer, author, and storyteller. A graduate of the UCRPD MFA program in nonfiction and a published poet, essayist, and fiction writer, Ratner is a nine-time winner of The Moth StorySLAM and has performed for National Public Radio (NPR), Comedy Central Stage, and storytelling festivals around the country. Ratner’s first book of poetry, To Decorate a Casket, is out this May from Finishing Line…