May 8, 2023

Bill Garvey

BURGER KING

The first man in line can’t find his money. 
He slaps at the pockets of his jeans and his jacket. 
 
He looks behind and beside himself, then directly at me 
As if I could solve his dilemma, or that I picked his pocket. 
 
I shrug as the aroma of grease sneaks into my olfactory. 
The girl in the ketchup-colored vest and bonnet 
 
Has been waiting rather patiently. 
Finally, he finds it, pulls a bill from his wallet, 
 
Shakes his head, hands her the twenty, 
And we all move a notch on this sprocket.
 

from Rattle #79, Spring 2023

__________

Bill Garvey: “James Tate’s book, Absences, influenced me to write poetry more than any other thing I can remember. It was 1972. I was 17. He was no less a rock star to me than Mick Jagger. Thirty-five years later, I confronted Tate at an event in Brattleboro, Vermont, at the urging of my wife. He sat on stage before his reading. As I approached, he grimaced. I regretted my decision, but it was too late. Sheepishly, I made my request to interview him for a paper. His wife, Dara Wier, sensing his reluctance, said, ‘What have you got to lose?’ I gave Tate my phone number. I’ll never hear from him, I thought, leaving the stage. Less than a week later the phone rang at our home. My daughter answered. I had blocked out the event in Brattleboro until she said, ‘Dad, it’s for you. Some guy named James Tate.’”

Rattle Logo

February 23, 2023

Tribute to Irish Poets

Conversation with
Frank Dullaghan

The Spring 2023 issue of Rattle features a Tribute to Irish Poets. From Yeats to Boland and Heaney, Ireland has a long tradition of producing great poets. We thought we’d take a look at what’s going on there now. The theme includes 17 poems by Irish poets and their always-interesting contributor notes, and a conversation with Frank Dullaghan, a poet who has lived an interesting live in both Ireland and abroad. The open section features 21 poets exploring their perspectives on life.
 

Irish Poets

Audio Available David Butler Love! His Affections Do Not That Way Tend …
Audio Available Anne Casey Portrait of Kevin Barry in the Irish Times
Audio Available Jane Clarke After
Audio Available Éanlaí P. Cronin Gonzo
Audio Available Martina Dalton Motorway Man
Audio Available Frank Dullaghan Oíche na Gaoithe Móire
Audio Available Jim Feeney Irish History
Audio Available S.C. Flynn Their Share of the Dark
Audio Available Denise Garvey Constancy
Audio Available Kerry Greer I’d Drive Anywhere with You
Audio Available Joanne McCarthy Today My Father Should Be at the Score
Audio Available Neil McCarthy Lessons in Survival
Audio Available Maeve McKenna Fykiaphobia
Audio Available Lauren O’Donovan Binge
Audio Available Eugene O’Hare Brother
Audio Available Niamh Twomey Hounslow 1997
Audio Available Landa wo Migrants
..

Open Poetry

Audio Available Azia Armstead To Hannah Lyons
Audio Available Madelyn Chen Never Asking
R.G. Evans Poetic Closure
Audio Available Bill Garvey Burger King
Audio Available Benjamin S. Grossberg It Kept Always Being Sunday
Audio Available Kim Hansen Frank
Audio Available William Harry Harding Papa’s Shotgun
Audio Available Michael Hettich A Certain Childhood
Deborah Ketai In Her Name
Veronica Kornberg Improvident
Audio Available Y.S. Lee Rebuke the Ghosts
Audio Available Kat Lehmann Ocean Ancient and Evolving
Audio Available Howard Nelson Little Richard
Alicia Ostriker Ode to the Automobile and Human Happiness
Audio Available Josh Parish Needle-Nose Pliers
Audio Available Aleyna Rentz Idiots
Audio Available Tanvi Roberts Poem in Which the Word Is Not Spoken
Amy Rose Your Lie in April
Mark Rubin Ohio Dove
Tano Rubio Feed: Auténtica
Audio Available Dan “Sully” Sullivan The Best Stories
..

Conversation

Frank Dullaghan
..

Cover Art

Joseph Lynch (web)

March 29, 2023

Endorsed by … (updated periodically)

Timothy Green, Rattle
Katie Dozier (KHD), The NFT Poetry Gallery
RG Evans, Imagine Sisyphus Happy
Gordon Kippola
Joshua Eric Williams, The Strangest Conversation
Ana María Caballero
Michael T. Young, The Infinite Doctrine of Water
Abby Steiner, abbysteinerwrites.com
Jess Britton
Frank Beltrano
Kimberly Williams
Dick Westheimer
Christine Potter
Gwendolyn Soper
Alexandra Umlas, At the Table of the Unknown
David motame
Hannah Levy, The Rebis
J. O’Nym
Neall Calvert, editor of 72 books
Julian Matthews, Trinetizen
Mohammed Yusuf
Monica Flegg, Somewhere in the Cycle
Melissa Coffey, Scrittura
Jean Berry
Margaret Kiernan
Kari Gunter-Seymour, Women Speak Anthologies
Rachel Custer, Flatback Sally Country
Lisa Venes
Sophia Bischoff, wordstobepoetry
Jamison Dove
Debra Harmon
Sylvie Bax
Tom Barlow
Pamela Ross
Ankit Raj Ojha, The Hooghly Review; Pinpricks
CR Green
Cindy Patrick
Mark Danowsky, ONE ART: a journal of poetry
Wayne Benson, American Writers Review
Richard Gilbert, Heliosparrow Poetry Journal
Rumaisa Maryam Samir
Biswajit Mishra, 365-Ramblings of an Insomniac
Joe Barca
John Atkinson
Dotty LeMieux, Henceforth I Ask Not Good Fortune; Viruses, Guns and War
Karen Mooney, Missing Pieces & co-author of Penned In
Paul Corbeil
Susan DiPronio
Rowan Ferrie
Hongwei
Kagen Aurencz Zethmayr
Keith Gorman
Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose, Imago, Dei; Wild Things
Virginia Parfitt
Kathryn
Daniel Dicks
Mary Moreno
Ann van Wijgerden
Olga Klekner
X. P. Callahan
Lory Widmer Hess
David Eadington
Pris Campbell, Truth and Other Lies
Lauren O’Donovan, HOWL New Irish Writing
Wess Mongo Jolley, The Last Handful of Clover
Cindy Guentherman
Denise Garvey
Clare MacQueen, MacQueen’s Quinterly
Matt Mason, I Have a Poem the Size of the Moon
Raka Chaki
Jeffry L Littlejohn
Kathy Figueroa, Paudash Poems; Flowertopia; The Cathedral of the Eternal Blue Sky
Lisa
Charlotte Innes
Carla Schwartz, Signs of Marriage
B. J. Buckley, In January, the Geese
Barbara Schweitzer, 33 1/3: Soap Opera Sonnets
Sarah Zacharias
Sean Kelbley
Stephen DiLauro
Heather Hubler, Vocal; Medium
Erica Reid
Bill Garvey
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, All the Honey; Hush; Naked for Tea
elizabeth beck
Jack Powers, Everybody’s Vaguely Familiar; Still Love
Jody Stewart, This Momentary World: Selected Poems 1975-2014
Rebecca Graves
Dana Reddick
Lesley-Anne Evans, Mute Swan; Poems for Maria Queen of the World
Stephen Grant, 149 Paintings You Really Need to See in North America (co-author)
Susan L Lipson
Clayton Clark
Cathy Hailey, I’d Rather Be a Hyacinth
Robbi Nester
Susan L Lipson
Judy Kronenfeld, Groaning and Singing; Bird Flying through the Banquet
Jendi Reiter, Winning Writers
Jennifer Phillips, A Song of Ascents
Carol Coven Grannick, Reeni’s Turn
Christine Pennylegion
Carol Shamon, A Different More
Jeanne Chinard
Katherine Matiko
Deborah J.Ranz-Smith
Miranda Barfuss
Maxima Kahn, Fierce Aria
Chris Arvidson, The House Inside My Head
Seif-Eldeine Och, Voices from a Forgotten Letter: Poems on the Syrian Civil War
Lois Baer Barr, Tracks: Poems on the “L”
Perie Longo, Baggage Claim: Poems
Scott Waters, Arks, a poetry chapbook curated by Selcouth Station press
John Maney
Scott Smith
Brandyce Ingram
Hadley Grace
Freya Rohn, The Ariadne Archive
Paula Lepp
Elizabeth McCarthy
Todd Heldt
Gillian Mellor
Laura Turnbull
Robert Bensen, Woodland Arts Editions
Kirk Swearingen
Kim Goldberg, Devolution
Nadia Ibrashi
Nathalie C.M. Sabbagh
William Butler, Pure Slush
Randall McNair, The #Barpoems Series
Margret Lockwood
Margaret Rosenau
Sharon Lopez Mooney
Colleen Bak, Breadcrumbs
David Q Hutcheson-Tipton
Julie Daniels
Ellen Austin-Li, Firefly; Lockdown: Scenes from Early in the Pandemic
Autumn Newman
Andrea Ferrari Kristeller
Andrew Glen
Beatriz F. Fernandez, The Ocean Between Us
Patricia
Francis Hicks, The Long Ride: Learning About Life From An Outlaw Biker
Sabne Raznik, AvantAppal(achia)
Sue Reynolds, Piquant Press
Diane Haynes, Jane Ray’s Wildlife Rescue Series
Jim Stewart, Ochoco Reach; White Ravens: and More Stories
Roger Desy
Rachel Kellum, Wordweeds.com
Martha Klein Henrickson
Wesley Houp
Dig Wayne, Hip Pockets
Michael dupuy
Candace Kubinec
Louise Moises
Aurore Sibley, All These Little Remonstrations
Joe Wilcox
Marian O’Shea Wernicke, Toward That Which is Beautiful; Out of Ireland
Dave Cavanagh, The Somnambulist; The Good Life
Art Curtis
Claudia Putnam, The Land of Stone and River
Joannah Whitney
Mike Brubaker
Bruce Niedt, The Bungalow of Colorful Aging
Jimmy Pappas, Falling off the Empire state Building
Dawn DeVoe
Debra Bennett
Irena
Marcia Morley
Cynthia Pratt
Jay J Pennington
Lily Prigioniero
Cindy Gore
Colin Hopkirk, Natured
Catharine Bramkamp
Lisa Lopresti, Bird Song; Nectar in the Silences
Carl Heap
Lara Phelps
Diana Fusting
Christa fairbrother
David Colodney, Mimeograph
Stephanie Johnson, Novel Slices
Esther Ottaway, Blood Universe; Intimate, Low-voiced, Delicate Things; She Doesn’t Seem Autistic
William Welch, Doubly Mad
Ceci Webb
Kelly Sargent, Seeing Voices: Poetry in Motion
Elizabeth Boquet, Galoshes
Walter Crump
April Manteris
Sabrina (Brie) Manno, A Momma & Her Pen
Mari Maxwell
Michael Blumenthal, Poems, Selected & New, 1980-2023
Janet Pollock Millar
Chibuike
Mary Magee
April Ridge
Stanford M. Forrester/sekiro, Bottle Rockets Press
hannah brooks
Jack Byrom, Stories from the Road
Liza Moore
Joshua Johnson, @Haiku10k
Meg Weston, ThePoetsCorner.org; Magma Intrusions
Lynne Bronstein, Nasty Girls
Ann Lilly Jose
Mark Cassidy
Holly G Jahangiri
Susy Kamber
Jeff Siggins, The Tranquility Calendar
Carolyn Martin, Kosmos Quarterly
Nolcha M Fox, Open Arts Forum; Cow Candy
Kim
Carol Levin
Thomas Allbaugh, The View from January
TA Dugan
Laurel Hedges, The Evil Lurker
Patricia Smith Ranzoni
Barb McCullough
Iris Arenson-Fuller
Ron Perovich
Peter A. Witt
Richard Simonds
Aaron Wulf, Dragonband Tales series
Sravanireddy
Dale Going, The View They Arrange
Lauren Sylvia Foster
Prartho Sereno, Indian Rope Trick; Elephant Raga
Mary Meriam, Lavender Review
St. Leger “Monty” Joynes
Deborah Tobola, Hummingbird in Underworld: Teaching in a Men’s Prison
Troy Johnson
Michael New
Martyn Crucefix
Nancy Foley
Michelle Ballou
Lollie Butler
Susan Dines
Mrs Sylvia Mary Clare, Mindfully Speaking
Carl “Papa” Palmer
Sarah Goettsch
Lucy Griffith
Irfan Afzal
Kaisa Miller
Les Brown, Cold Forge
Sujata Lakhe
Effy Wild
Kelly Davis, kellydavis.co.uk
Emma Wasserman
Dean Robbins, Dean Robbins’ Poetry
Donna Henderson, The Eddy Fence
Nancy R. Yang
Janice Mathis, Broken Bits for the Mosaic; Clouds in the Looking Glass
Chad Norman, A Matter of Inclusion
Cristy Watson
Paul-Newell Reaves, Defenestrationism.net
Alexey Deyneko
Ray Liversidge
Ursula Vaira, And See What Happens
Anurima Shivade
Maurice Corlett
Mark, Approaching Poetry
Eugene Datta
Martha Klein Henrickson
Aaron Sandberg
Thomas Terceira
Mary Dean Carter
Deborah Kennedy, Nature Speaks: Art and Poetry for the Earth
Malvika Vazalwar
Michael Salcman, The Clock Made of Confetti; The Enemy of Good is Better
Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca, Family Sunday; Light of the Sabbath
Byung A. Fallgren
Brian O’Sullivan
James Higgins
Irene Fick, The Stories We Tell; The Wild Side of the Window
Karen Stone
Pamela Leavey
Faye Turner Johnson
Jim Feeney
Nupur, Insta Gita, Insta Women
Maureen Hurley
Emilio Carrero, Southeast Review
Susan Polizzotto, Tree Frogs or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
Glen Hunting
Lindsey Harrington
Gale Sprinkle Tousignant
Brenda Martin
Danilo Art-Merbitz
Martina Robles Gallegos, Grab the Bull by the Horns: Escaped Death to Face Hell
Caitlin M.S. Buxbaum, Red Sweater Press
Gerry Stefanson
JoyAnne O’Donnell, Heaven’s Medal
Stewart Florsheim, Amusing the Angels
Katharine Weinmann, awabisabilife.ca
Susan Niemi
Joseph Chaney, Wolfson Press
Earl Keener
Tajender Singh Luthra
Laura Johnson, The Color of Truth; Not Yet
Kelly O’Brien-Yetto, Impressions
Amy Coulombe
Kari martindale, Pen in Hand (co-editor)
LennArrrt, LennArrrt.se
Mary Chris Bailey, 805 Art and Lit (guest editor)
Lolo 2inj, Honey & Gravel
Jefferson Carter, Yesternow
Danielle Alexich
Doug Jacquier, sixcrookedhighways.com
Suzanne Biro, processpeace.com
Stephanie Gail Eagleson
Glenn Pape
H. Ní Aódagaín
Lyndsay Wheble
Rachel Pollock, Exit Wound; Journey to Long Nose
Debbie Walker-Lass
Ana Neculicioiu
Margot Suydam
Barry Casey, Wandering, Not Lost
Laura Esther Sciortino
Celia Sorhaindo, Radical Normalisation; Guabancex
Stacia O’Connell
Rose Lennard
Jason Conway, Steel Jackdaw
Vincent Brincat
B.A. Van Sise
Zakia R Khwaja
Olivia Spring, SICK magazine
Paul Lawrence Andino, Here, A collection of Poems & Art
Trevor Cunnington, The Invisible Truth
Marc Wheeler
Thomas E. Strunk, Transfigurations
Erica Freiburger
Adyasha Priyadarshini
Wendy Babiak, Conspiracy of Leaves
Elena Falcon
Elaine Sorrentino
Allen Blair, The Uncommon GRACkle
Carolyn Breedlove
Robin Gabbert
Jason Z Guest, Wild Words: A Poetry Newsletter
Linda McQuarrie-Bowerman
Julie Steiner
Sourajit roy
Sandra Inskeep-Fox
Petros Isaakidis
Joji Mathew
Hannele Luhtasela
Karin Evans, The Lost Daughters of China
Susie Whelehan, The Sky Laughs at Borders
Scott Hammond
Anjali Pandey
Jason Conway, Steel Jackdaw
BERN
Floyd Brigdon
Amber Shockley
JoyAnne O’Donnell, Heaven’s Medal
Kath Abela Wilson, Poets Salon, ColoradoBlvd.com
Elena de Roo, The Rain Train
Sage Cohen, Writing the Life Poetic
Garrett J Brown
Laurie Flanigan
Nikita Parik, My City is a Murder of Crows
Sara Costantino
David Cooke, Poetry Boxes
Adam Summers, My garden is a girl

April 10, 2023

Denise Garvey

CONSTANCY

My grandfather knew how to share
iron and leather with a horse
sweat turning the earth, the fertile smell
the plodding, the slow prayer.
Knew the seed he planted
back bending the long field.
A man that would listen to the Clare match
swathed in sweet pipe smoke
the fob watch checked by the Angelus.
 
Granny had a coat made for herself
from the fine worsted bolt that made his suit.
Carefully pinned a pearl in her soft green hat
as he pinned a rose on his lapel and
clasped the silver head of his walking cane.
The one before was shot to just silver in his hand:
Bloody Sunday, Croke Park, the Black and Tans.
 
He saw Wild Bill Cody in London 
with his stagecoach, saddled a Model T himself,
drove tillage laneways of sugar beet for 
The Great Southern and Western Railways.
In the war, he parked the car on blocks
saved the tyres, like seeds.
He was stern to his sons
who smoked Woodbines in goods carriages,
fell asleep, woke in the darkness of wild Kerry,
trudged to a mountainside nugget of light
traced relatives, hospitality
and a safe train home.
 
I saw my grandfather, old,
to a very young girl
pull my granny closer,
kiss her on the lips
and I knew constancy.
I saw granny smile remembering 
his intention to give up courtship for Lent
abandoned, with his bicycle, in the bursting spring.
The home they built is beautiful, substantial to this day,
nestled at the Crossroads in Clonlara,
paid for, by both, working to the bone.
 
She had six living children, and like me, lost one.
I didn’t know then how the loneliness would be
the crying, bereft mysteriously, of the unknown.
Granny, in the dying pain, 
took the cross from the kitchen wall
wrapped it in tissue, stuffed it in an envelope
wrote on it my name, closed the drawer.
 
My grandfather fished trout
cleared the Glen for a playground of sky blue,
taught me the habits of the trees, showed me foxgloves 
guarding rabbit burrows. Talked of ferrets.
Put glory from his garden in vases
and in the end, climbed up the valley
into the meadow of the evening sun.
 
This is the constancy on which I stood naked
in the bath, faced the tirade of my husband’s torment
claimed, for the first married time, my own space.
Waited for the fist to smash through my face.
 

from Rattle #79, Spring 2023
Tribute to Irish Poets

__________

Denise Garvey: “I live in the West of Ireland and run a study centre for students of all ages and abilities. Severely hearing impaired since birth, my childhood world was mainly lived in books and poetry has become an important means of self-reflection and self-expression. Born in Ireland and Irish back to the Norman invasion at least, I am interested in how the traditions of our country, previously so rooted in the extended family, support us, or sometimes undermine us, in our commitment to living full and powerful lives.”

Rattle Logo