“Laughter in the Charnel House” by Jeff Holt
Jeff Holt is the author of The Harvest (White Violet Press, 2012). Jeff's poem, "A Madwoman," was featured in the most recent issue of Measure, and he has previously published poems in… Read More
“Dream of Dying” by Thomas Lovell Beddoes
"Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849) is a latter-day Jacobean, the author of blank verse plays and poems which are as bold, wild and fresh as they are archaic in manner. We read his… Read More
“Black Fire” by Christopher Bernard
Christopher Bernard is author of the novels A Spy in theRuins and Voyage to a Phantom City, the short-story collections Dangerous Stories for Boys and In the American Night, and two poetry… Read More
“The Pardon” by Richard Wilbur
"He should be read in the company of Robert Frost and Wallace Stevens" - Harold Bloom… Read More
“Directions to the Church” by G.M. Palmer
G.M. Palmer lives with his wife and daughters on a poodle farm in North Florida. Find him online @gm_palmer.… Read More
“Dwelling” by Catherine Staples
Catherine Staples is the author of two collections of poems: The Rattling Window (The Ashland Poetry Press) and Never a Note Forfeit (Seven Kitchens Press). Her poems and reviews have appeared in… Read More
“Love is Merely a Madness” by Terese Coe
Terese Coe's poems and translations have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cincinnati Review, The Hopkins Review, Metamorphoses, New American Writing, Poetry, Threepenny Review, Agenda, Crannog, Cyphers, The Moth, Poetry Review, the TLS,… Read More
“Late Echo” by John Ashbery
"There is a meditative Ashbery, a formalist Ashbery, a comic Ashbery, a late-Romantic Ashbery, a Language poet Ashbery, and so on- even a love poet. No poet since Whitman has tapped into… Read More
“An English Teacher” by Reed Whittemore
"Whittemore has the saving face of humor. . . . Being middle-aged and academic, Whittemore fights both labels as best he can, and then succumbs. When he is at least experimental and… Read More
“Vacationists” by P.K. Page
Patricia Kathleen "P.K." Page was born in England but raised in Canada. She is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, including The Metal and the… Read More
“Mushroom Hunters, 1957” by Al Basile (with Audio)
Al Basile is a poet, singer/songwriter, and cornetist. He has fourteen solo CDs under his own name, which regularly reach the top 15 on the Living Blues airplay charts following their… Read More
“Savior Machine” by Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith is the author of three books of poetry: The Body's Question (2003); Duende (2007); Life on Mars (2011), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and Wade in the… Read More
“Watching My Mother Take Her Last Breath” by Leon Stokesbury
"Leon Stokesbury writes with a pure and beautiful clarity, and that clarity is exacting. Whether he is elegiac or irate, magnanimous or biting, amused or exasperated, Stokesbury is always clear about what… Read More
“On The Avenue” by Rhina P. Espaillat
“To Rhina Espaillat the quotidian is no malady . . . it is the source of inspiration. Hers is a voice of experience, but it is neither jaded nor pedantic. She speaks… Read More
“Goths” by Ryan Wilson
Ryan Wilson is the editor of Literary Matters. He has published widely in periodicals such as First Things, Five Points, The Hopkins Review, The New Criterion, The Sewanee Review, and The Yale… Read More
“From ‘The Building of the Ship’ ” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“On the threshold of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln quoted the lines beginning: ‘Sail on, O Ship of State!’ His secretary, Nicolay, declared: ‘These lines seemed to stir something deep in Lincoln.… Read More
“Excerpt from ‘The Rise of the COVFEFE'” by James Feichthaler
James Feichthaler’s poetry has appeared in numerous print and online journals in both the US and UK. His poems are truthful odes to his Imagination, which he calls, “the lunatic disciple of… Read More
“Follower” by Seamus Heaney
"Perhaps the best descriptions of Seamus Heaney's extraordinarily rich and varied oeuvre come from the poet's own work. Mr. Heaney has created a remarkable series of poems that stay 'true to the… Read More
“Henry Pina” by Dorina Pena
Dorina Pena earned her B.A. in English Writing in 2008, from the University of Pittsburgh and her M.F.A in Creative Writing in 2011, from Carlow University. Her first chapbook, Leaving the Tree,… Read More
“Exercise in Defining by Negative Example” by Virginia Beards
Virginia Beards draws from an archive of urban (New York, Philadelphia), suburban (Seattle), rural (Lancaster County, PA), and international experience (Denmark, France, North Africa), plus a considerable literary backlog acquired as a… Read More
“Resurrection” by F.R. Scott
"One of the most important catalysts of modern Canadian poetry," - Sandra Djwa… Read More
“Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” by Anton Yakovlev
Anton Yakovlev’s latest poetry collection is Ordinary Impalers (Kelsay Books, 2017). His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Hopkins Review, Prelude, Measure, and elsewhere. The Last Poet of the Village,… Read More
“Island” by Rick Mullin
Rick Mullin’s poetry has appeared in various journals, including American Arts Quarterly, Epiphay, Measure, The Raintown Review, The New Criterion, and Rabbit Ears: Poems About TV. His new collection, Transom, was published… Read More
“Map Song” by Kat Hayes
Kat Hayes is an English instructor at Eastern University. Her poem "Map Song" originally appeared in Cimarron Review. Her poetry has also appeared in Nimrod and Off the Coast. … Read More
“Sea Canes” by Derek Walcott
“As a member of the great Nobel-winning poetic generation that included Brodsky and Heaney, he did as much or more than anyone to win the global respect for Caribbean writing that it… Read More
“Epic” by Patrick Kavanagh
"Kavanagh defined his approach as 'parochial' and he contrasted it favourably with 'provincialism.' For him a provincial was someone who defers in matters of taste to a higher, and distant, authority— most… Read More
“Sunday Morning at the Caffe Mediterraneum” by Wendy Sloan
Wendy Sloan practiced labor law with the firm of Hall & Sloan before returning to poetry. Sunday Mornings at the Caffe Mediterraneum (Kelsay Books, 2016) is her first collection. Sloan’s poems and… Read More
“At a Bistro” by J.D. Smith
J.D. Smith is the author of three previous collections, most recently Labor Day at Venice Beach (2012), and his books in other genres include the essay collection Dowsing and Science (2011) and… Read More
“Eye of the Beholder” by Danielle Livingston
Danielle Livingston recently self-published a book of poems titled Word Salad. She also works with the irregular literary magazine SEEMS as an assistant editor. Livingston will graduate with her bachelor’s degree from… Read More
“The Devil in Grand Saline” by Michael Shewmaker
Michael Shewmaker is the recent winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and author of Penumbra (Ohio UP, 2017).… Read More