September 14, 2022
ELITES
—from Rattle #76, Summer 2022
__________
Maia Siegel: “I like to tell people that poetry is ‘a quiet way to scream.’ To put it simply, I just can’t stop screaming.”
ELITES
—from Rattle #76, Summer 2022
__________
Maia Siegel: “I like to tell people that poetry is ‘a quiet way to scream.’ To put it simply, I just can’t stop screaming.”
The Summer 2022 issue of Rattle features a Tribute to Prisoner Express, a non-profit program based in Ithaca, New York, which sends books into prisons, allowing prisoners to communicate with each other creatively through a newsletter. Last year, Elizabeth S. Wolf donated her Rattle Chapbook Prize-winning collect, Did You Know?, to the program, and encouraged participants to write chapbooks of their own. The resulting poems were so powerful we had to share. The issue includes an introduction by Elizabeth, and a conversation with the program’s director, Gary Fine, where we discuss the profound role expressive writing can play in rehabilitation.
The open section features the usual wide range of poetry from 24 poets.
Prisoner Express |
||
Elizabeth S. Wolf | Introduction | |
Robert Andrew Bartlett Sr. | Pamela’s Query | |
Shaun Duane Blake | The Walk | |
Escape | ||
Jorge Luis Corella | Nana | |
Matthew Feeney | Phone Sox | |
Cesar Hernandez | from Nobody Cares | |
Cory Lambing | Behind the Wall | |
Scott Madoulet | Burnt | |
Frank Olms | Miss Miranda | |
Is That a Bug in My Drink? | ||
Keith Pertusio | Pratikriyasana | |
Rolf Rathmann | Through New Year’s Eve | |
Doon Saetern | Gaps in Résumé | |
James Stevahn | A Time to Heal | |
Andre D. Underwood | Kalifornia | |
.. | ||
Open Poetry |
||
Nicelle Davis | Honey Pot | |
William Virgil Davis | Overheard | |
Kristina Erny | Bad Friday | |
Mark Fitzpatrick | Under the Bo Tree | |
David Galloway | Thought, on Viewing Zinaida Serebriakova’s … | |
Lola Haskins | The Very Fortunate Girl | |
Emily Ruth Hazel | Out There | |
Alexis V. Jackson | What We Carry off the Sea … | |
Shawn Jones | Soprano from the Junior Choir at the Protest | |
Laura Judge | Speculation at 50 | |
Lynne Knight | The Warm Bed | |
Milica Mijatovič | Pedestrian Bridge over the Train Tracks … | |
Abby E. Murray | A Note from Your Friendly Poetry Instructor | |
Valerie Nies | He Asks About My Kinks | |
Eri Okoye | My Mother’s Son | |
Kathryn Paulson | Coal Smoke | |
Erin Redfern | Crosswalk | |
Mather Schneider | Uncle Neto | |
George J. Searles | The First Annual AHS Wipeout 5K Run | |
Maia Siegel | Elites | |
Elizabeth Spenst | Poem for Myself | |
Susan Vespoli | Orange | |
Wendy Videlock | On the Practice of Opine | |
Arhm Choi Wild | One Good Memory | |
.. | ||
Conversation |
||
Gary Fine | ||
.. | ||
Cover Art |
||
Neena Sethia |
WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS
—from Poets Respond
August 24, 2021
__________
Dave Bonta: “I’ve been appalled but not surprised by the slanted coverage of the U.S. and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan. War hawks are invited to opine on cable news and in elite media without revealing their ties to the ‘defense’ industry. My response is heavily influenced by renku and Black Sabbath’s classic song ‘War Pigs.’” (web)
THE ENTERTAINERS
—from Poets Respond
May 22, 2022
__________
Gordon Taylor: “This is in response to the news story out of Florida, in which a gay youth was appointed valedictorian, but due to the ‘don’t say gay’ laws, cannot refer to his activism or gayness in his speech. For me it harkened back to the eighties when I was a closeted teenager trying to come out in the onset of the AIDS epidemic, when it seemed being quiet was the only way to ‘stay safe.’ Are we moving backward? Has anything changed?”
FALL
—from Rattle #60, Summer 2018
Tribute to Athlete Poets
__________
Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley: “I am an elite level powerlifter (meaning top 1% of all competitors in the United States). Powerlifting consists of the bench press, squat, and deadlift. I love this sport because it’s you against yourself. Your opponent is an inanimate piece of metal, just as the poet’s opponent is perhaps—forgive the cliché—either the blank page or themselves, and certainly not other poets: both forge a strong community of fellowship around their craft.” (web)
POEM FOR JOHN MCCAIN
—from Poets Respond
__________
Seth Simons: “This week we were subjected to the spectacle of our political class celebrating John McCain, a corrupt, war-mongering imperialist who made the world measurably worse for all but an elite few. This poem is about the world he left behind.” (web)
AFTER MOZART’S LE NOZZE DI FIGARO AT THE KRAVIS IN WEST PALM BEACH
Saturday, March 24, 2018
—from Poets Respond
__________
Stephen Gibson: “The poem is self-explanatory. March Madness. March for Our Lives. Opera.”
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