David Breeden | September 29, 2008
Why might that be
That the universe
Needs
A local habitation
And a name?
Why might that be
That all that is
Needs
A pet name and
A personality?
Why might that be
That mystery
Needs
Turned to our ends?
To our purposes?
Why might that be
That our
Needs
Demand a personality
And a name?
Why might that be
That we
Need
Gods when all
That is is?
Paul Hostovsky | September 23, 2008
I remember a moment
when I was 5
and peeing under a tree
and thinking about
life
and about bodies–
my body
emptying itself
under the body
of that tree,
the huge
house of it
as I looked up
through the muscular
branches which seemed
as thick around as grown
men,
and I remember
looking down and seeing
directly across from me
another body–
a tiny black
foraging
body–
I was still peeing
as I followed it
with my eyes
traversing the [...]
E. Shaun Russell | September 2, 2008
How clever, he who thought to name a sin
For many things to which we’re so inclined,
Since after all, such things must be defined
As devilish before we can begin
To shed our natures like a serpent’s skin,
And give our souls to God; but we’re designed
To smile and nod and say that we don’t mind,
While countless agonies recoil [...]
Paul Hostovsky | August 29, 2008
It bothers the father more than the father can say,
this sound of the teeth and tongue of the son chewing
the food in the open mouth, this food that was the work
of the mother sitting beside the father and beside
the son, the mother between the father and the son, staring
down at the food on her [...]
Brad Hatfield | August 27, 2008
It is precisely because there is no God,
At least not one that hovers overhead
And looks and sounds like
A giant, semi-transparent Charlton Heston,
That we must not sin.
Sin wouldn’t matter so much
If there was a nicely muscled
Sky-bound Michelangelo figurine,
Even some indignant angels,
A demarcated heaven and hell,
A legible book of days
A risen scapegoat, any old chance
At transcendent [...]
Veronica Romm | July 28, 2008
My Peace
The elusive quest quiet at times, riotous
others, seems ceaseless.
I search for it, I think about it trying to
understand its true meaning.
I shudder when I think I might not get there,
reach it, know it or like it.
It is a word used often, usually in the same breath
as, war, politics and death.
I write and it gets [...]
E.M. Schorb | July 21, 2008
.
.
.
Containing the Night Thoughts of a Sexagenarian
It is this heavenly tale, that the child in one could wish for, that
keeps me awake tonight, on the eve of my sixtieth year,
fearing death and wishing for grace, not knowing what
either is, or even if either is, though the unbreathing
stillness of bodies has me fairly convinced [...]
E. Shaun Russell | July 13, 2008
A Tuesday night it is, and all is still;
The parson, newly hired, reviews the work
Much needed in the church where rodents lurk
And drop their filth with sacrilegious skill;
Disheartened by neglect, he steels his will
Against his knee-jerk instincts with a smirk–
Despite his qualms, he knows he cannot shirk
The charge for which he’s destined to fulfill.
With contemplative [...]
Cliff Saunders | July 11, 2008
True, she is no goddess
with doves circling her tresses,
but I kneel before her anyway,
kissing her sweet nipples
like beads on a rosary.
I probe her with my tongue,
eyes closed, as if feeling for
the edge of a communion wafer,
and I am cleansed, redeemed.
She is my confessional booth,
my room of truth and redemption.
She is the silence between two
Hail Mary’s, [...]
Steven M. Sloan | July 7, 2008
Rejoice with me in little things
Which lend a richness by their sight,
And celebrate the transient
In pleasures sweet, howe’er so slight,
For there is time still left to you
Before the fell eternal night,
So use your senses actively
While sentience lends them its light,
Since beauty in its natal seat
Must pass unvalued in its flight
Where golden stems of summer wheat
Have [...]
