Poetry

Poetry is where much of my time and energy have been going for the past decade. Lest you think me a mere dilettante, I should add that I began my writing life as a poet at age 16 and never abandoned it when I took up writing humor. I simply stopped sending the stuff out for publication until late in 2016. Following are links to those of my poems that are available online, along with explanatory (hopefully not mansplaining) notes about them. In some instances the publications don’t make their content available online for free, so I have instead posted links to where digital or print copies can be purchased.

11 Mag Berlin

• “One Way to Die”
• “A Treatise on Rain”
• “The First Time”

https://11magstaff.wixsite.com/website/issue-1

I am very excited to have three poems included in the first issue of the new international online literary journal 11 Mag Berlin, started by expatriates from Canada and America, and based in Berlin. Thanks to Michael MacDonald and M.P. Powers for taking a bit of social commentary called “One Way to Die,” a really insane one called “A Treatise on Rain,” and a love poem called “The First Time,” which is about the first time, surprisingly enough.

• “The Charlesworth Policy”

https://11magstaff.wixsite.com/website/issue-2

The second issue of 11 Mag Berlin includes a flash fiction piece of mine called “The Charlesworth Policy,” a comedic riff on noir detective fiction in general and “Double Indemnity” in particular. Just click on the link and scroll down a bit. Many thanks to Editors Michael MacDonald and M.P. Powers.

The American Journal of Poetry

• “December 7, 1948”

http://www.theamericanjournalofpoetry.com/v8-luchs.html

Robert Nazarene, Founder and Editor of this highly esteemed and now sadly defunct publication, had a delightful (and in my experience unique) way of telling authors their work had been accepted: he gave them a personal phone call! No editor had ever done that with me before. The magazine was legendary, publishing many of the best poets in the country, including some of my personal heroes like Peter Everwine and Diane Wakoski. This piece is an odd one, sort of like The Man in the High Castle of prose poems. It depicts a kind of alternative history.

• “Socrates”

https://theamericanjournalofpoetry.com/v11-luchs.html

The American Journal of Poetry, one of the best there was, included my poem “Socrates” in their Volume XI, July 2021. This was my second appearance there. The poem is about how my attitude toward the philosopher has changed over the years.

Antiphon

• “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UtKGv9JvTOK-BlTDd0-Boj7et7ovzXlB/view

The title comes from a painting by Paul Gauguin, which makes this an ekphrastic poem — a work of art in response to another work of art (like “Homunculus” below). This was my second international publication, appearing in the excellent (though now dearly departed) British magazine Antiphon. The following link leads to a page where you can listen to an mp3 audio file of me reading the poem:

https://soundcloud.com/antiphon-poetry/where-do-we-come-from-what-are?in=antiphon-poetry/sets/antiphon-issue-21

• “Suzie”

https://search.proquest.com/openview/f1d9f8962da62b3578a71f0844029614/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=45344&fbclid=IwAR21XNh-Ki4DNnxbuEa32Y-sFb3wapHbONcy6luzU0LrxX_nz3hzl2lgiTw

Atlanta Review’s International Poetry Contest is one of the major competitions around. I was the Grand Prize Winner in 2019 with this dark comic ode to the family dog of my childhood, a vicious animal who took on the characteristics of the household. My thanks to contest judge Dan Vera, who picked my poem out of more than 1300 entries, and to Editor Karen Head and Managing Editor JC Reilly. There will be no online publication, and they don’t let you buy individual issues, so only existing subscribers saw the results of the contest. The poem will be in my first full-length collection due in May 2021 from Sagging Meniscus Press. Until then, an online database called ProQuest has selected the poem as a sample to represent the issue that it was in.

The Big Windows Review

• “First Sight”

https://thebigwindowsreview.com/2019/12/27/kurt-luchs-first-sight/

The excellent literary magazine The Big Windows Review comes out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Writing Center at Washtenaw Community College (WCC). Editor Tom Zimmerman accepted this love poem about a first encounter with the muse.

• “Today I am occupied…”

https://thebigwindowsreview.com/2022/09/20/kurt-luchs-today-i-am-occupied/

The poem, “Today I am occupied…”, was inspired by the war in Ukraine, but could just as easily apply to any war. Many thanks to Editor Tom Zimmerman.

Burningword Literary Journal

• “Entropy”

https://www.burningword.com/2017/07/entropy/

“Entropy” takes Newton’s Second Law of Thermodynamics and applies it — unscientifically but I think justifiably — to human affairs. The end of the poem refers to one of the most famous poems by Robinson Jeffers, called “Shine, Perishing Republic,” a great poem of genuine protest that is still relevant today, not like the mewling and puking we see all around us now. The next-to-last line quotes without attribution from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 53, where the meaning of the evocative phrase “millions of strange shadows” is not entirely clear. I take it as a metaphor for the mysterious complexity of the human mind and spirit, a complexity reduced to mere chaos by entropy. Except that to go from one “departed shade” to “millions of strange shadows” could also imply a reversal of entropy, an increase in ordered complexity and humanness, a scientific impossibility but perhaps a spiritual possibility. So for those who get the reference it’s kind of purposefully ambiguous at the end, as a counterpoint to the overall sadness of the poem.

The Closed Eye Open

• “The Argument”

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WkEXLU06S4SMYDCtcy5wRjSqNvw7Y5xz/view

In their own words, “The Closed Eye Open is an art and literature web site that was started as an exploration of consciousness.” You have to love a literary magazine whose editorial influences include Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of Perception, as well as Abraham Maslow, Carl Jung and Albert “Thanks for Discovering LSD” Hofmann! I also appreciate magazines that accept previously published material, as I have a number of poems that are hidden away in print-only publications and have never been available online. Editor Daniel Morgan accepted my poem “The Argument,” which originally appeared in Crosswinds Poetry Journal. I’m on page 63 of the first issue so you have to scroll down a bit.

Constellate

• “Blizzard”

https://constellatemagazine.com/2020/08/09/blizzard-kurt-luchs/

I love breaking into literary magazines from other countries! Constellate, a journal based in Birmingham, England, published my poem “Blizzard,” which is about a winter storm, not a Dairy Queen milkshake. The poem was previously published in Fjords Review and in my first chapbook, but has never been available online. So many great things come from Birmingham, the second largest city in the country. Both W.H. Auden and J.R.R. Tolkien grew up there. Musically it gave us The Move, The Moody Blues, Traffic / Steve Winwood, the Electric Light Orchestra, and Musical Youth (remember “Pass the Dutchie”?). I visited the city once many years ago to write a story about the Royal Crown Derby porcelain factory. How long ago? The Specials song “Ghost Town” was still a new hit on the radio.

Die Leere Mitte

• “Psalm”
• “Love Fog”
• “Night Inventory”
• “Nocturne”
• “Family Metaphors”

https://ia601509.us.archive.org/19/items/dlm11/Issue%2011.pdf

Issue 11 of Die Leere Mitte (“The Empty Middle”), the Berlin-based digital and print journal published by Federico Federici, is out now with five of my poems included. Four were previously published in print-only magazines: “Psalm,” “Love Fog,” “Night Inventory,” “Nocturne.” The fifth poem, “Family Metaphors,” is brand new. Many thanks to Federico. The issue also contains poetry in German, concrete poetry and hybrid poetry.

Exacting Clam

• “Of ‘Of Mere Being'”

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-1-summer-2021/of-of-mere-being/?fbclid=IwAR0lFBND1ykaybrs5UyU4bDQEHEQYr5qRUlgw2LxBJ5IQfvSIsR5y5bpMgM

My publisher Jacob Smullyan has started an exciting new literary magazine. As he describes it, “Exacting Clam, the Discerning Mollusk’s Guide to Arts and Ideas, is a quarterly publication from Sagging Meniscus  Press.” I’ll be involved in several ways as one of the Senior Editors (all Sagging Meniscus authors). In addition to occasionally contributing poems and reviews, I’m doing a column — as yet untitled — where I write an essay about a favorite poem, and then write a poem inspired by or responding to the poem. Issue 1 features a look at “Of Mere Being” by Wallace Stevens. My poem here, “Of ‘Of Mere Being'”, is my response.

• “For My Daughters”

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-3-winter-2021/for-my-daughters/

In issue 3 of Exacting Clam I wrote an essay about the poem “For My Daughter” by David Ignatow, and also this poem inspired by his poem.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-4-spring-2022/1964/

Issue 4 of Exacting Clam contained an essay I wrote about the poem “Annus Mirabilis” by Philip Larkin, one of the first works of serious literature to mention the Beatles. The poem I wrote in tribute to his is a sonnet called “1964,” after the Fab Four’s own remarkable year.

https://www.exactingclam.com/issues/no-6-autumn-2022/hit-and-run/

For Issue 6 of Exacting Clam I wrote about the Etheridge Knight poem “Feeling Fucked Up,” which is a lament for lost love that is laced with f-bombs. My tribute poem in response to it is called “Hit and Run,” a profanity-filled account of an auto accident that nearly cost me my life.

The Fieldstone Review

• “Do You Know These 10 Common Warning Signs of Depression?”

http://www.thefieldstonereview.ca/issues/issue13-2/do-you-know.html

My poem “Do You Know These 10 Common Warning Signs of Depression?” has been published by The Fieldstone Review, an annual literary journal published digitally by graduate students in the English department at the University of Saskatchewan. My thanks to Poetry Editor Amanda Burrows. The poem is half humor, half despair, a response to the madness of the past two years.

• “Torches of Iniquity”

• “My Personal Doom”
• “Looking into a Face”
• “The Germ of an Idea”
• “Medical Report”
• “Focus Group”

https://formerpeople.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/five-poems-10/

Aside from a few poems I managed to get published as a teenager, Former People Journal was the first publication to publish my work when I finally started sending it out again in late 2016. I will be forever grateful to them for that encouragement at a crucial time. “My Personal Doom” and “Looking into a Face” are part of a set of love poems. Several of these draw inspiration from current ideas in various sciences as, apart from poetry, science is mostly what I read these days. “My Personal Doom” refers to cosmology and quantum physics, “Looking into a Face” to cosmology and symmetry (yes, the universe does seem to have resulted from a broken symmetry). “The Germ of an Idea” might appear to be about current political events but in fact the earliest draft dates from the seventies. Frankly it’s a little scary how relevant it still is. “Medical Report” is mostly meant to be funny, in a slightly nauseated, off-putting way. “Focus Group” was written after overexposure to this favorite device of marketing researchers. This one is meant to convey both humor and horror and, like “The Germ of an Idea,” is a bit of a political comment as well, something I am not otherwise prone to do.

• “Boodina”
• “Edgar Allan Crow”

https://formerpeople.wordpress.com/2019/11/30/two-poems-122/

These two poems are my second publication in Former People Journal, the first place to accept my work when I switched from writing humor to poetry several years ago. “Boodina” is about a childhood pet, a gray tabby cat who tried to impart hunting skills to me when I was six or seven. “Edgar Allan Crow” was another family pet, a crow with an amazing gift for human speech and imitating other animals.

The Furious Gazelle

• “Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056 (Largo)”

http://thefuriousgazelle.com/2018/07/16/kurt-luchs-bach/

This poem first appeared in the print-only journal Clover, a Literary Rag. The Furious Gazelle — “literary as hell” — was kind enough to give it an online home and also to declare it a finalist in their Spring 2018 Poetry Contest.

• “TSA”
• “Flying”
• “The Sound of Water”
• “Two Giant Snapping Turtles Making Love”
• “Primitive Instincts”

https://thefuriousgazelle.com/2018/12/07/kurt-luchs/

“TSA” is about everyone’s favorite government agency and will probably get me on the No Fly List. “Flying” muses on the earth below from up in the air. “The Sound of Water” is just that. “Two Giant Snapping Turtles Making Love” recounts something I once saw with my own eyes. “Primitive Instincts” was inspired by recent readings in evolutionary psychology.

• “3:07 a.m.”

http://thefuriousgazelle.com/2018/07/13/307-am-poem/

The Furious Gazelle reprinted this poem, originally in the print-only journal Fjords Review. The subject is the time of night as experienced by an occasional insomniac who doesn’t like to let any poetic experience go to waste.

• “First Flakes”

https://thefuriousgazelle.com/2019/12/11/first-flakes/

The Furious Gazelle also reprinted this slightly whimsical seasonal poem, which first appeared in the print-only publication Crosswinds Poetry Journal.

• “I long to enter the unholy…”

https://thefuriousgazelle.com/2021/02/10/kurt-luchs-poetry/

The fine folks at The Furious Gazelle (“literary as hell”) have seen fit to reprint my poem “I long to enter the unholy…”, originally published in the Canadian print-only journal Into the Void. The poem is a rapid-fire series of images and metaphors about the desire to merge with nature or the universe. This is the first time it has appeared online, so here’s hoping it breaks the internet. Many thanks to Furious Editors Tess Tabak and e. kirshe, who have been strong supporters of my work from the beginning.

• “Natural History”

https://thefuriousgazelle.com/2021/05/06/natural-history-kurt-luchs/

This poem about a failed love affair was first published in the print-only journal Phantom Drift. Thanks to The Furious Gazelle’s willingness to reprint such things, it now has a permanent home online.

• “Ars Poetica”

https://grand-little-things.com/2020/07/20/ars-poetica-by-kurt-luchs/

Grand Little Things specializes in shorter poems. This one of mine is very short, a couplet consisting of seven words, ten syllables (plus the title), about the literary virtue of concision.

The Green Light Literary Journal

• “A Party”
• “The House of Memory”

https://thegreenlightliteraryjournal.wordpress.com/poetry-kurtluchs/

Two of my poems were selected for the special Halloween edition of The Green Light Literary Journal. “A Party” recounts a largely true story that only becomes a tall tale at the end. “The House of Memory” reflects on a bleak and brutalizing childhood, as seen in dreams of the house where seven feral children grew up. Only my siblings will understand all of the references, but the feel of it should be apparent to anyone. Happy Halloween!

Grey Sparrow Journal/Snow Jewel 7

• “Spider”

https://greysparrowpress.sharepoint.com/Pages/2017WinterLuchs.aspx

One of many poems I have written while staying at the house of my sister Cara and brother-in-law Tom. That there was a spider on the ceiling in the middle of the night is in no way a comment on their housekeeping skills. The most exciting thing about getting into this issue of Grey Sparrow Journal (which bears the subtitle of Snow Jewel 7) is that it also features work by Robert Bly, one of my all-time favorite poets and a large influence throughout my writing life for his poetry, translations and criticism. The magazine refers to him as “our national treasure,” which is right on the money as far as I’m concerned.

• “Sudden Silence”

https://jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/03/poetry-sudden-silence-by-kurt-luchs/?fbclid=IwAR1oAyEcm_JFqt3csuFoUQ8HOd7oMzRTo-PLqDSbJmfsywOBRDCd8phoJHA

Polish poet Adam Zagajewski died this past March 2021. I immediately felt moved to write an elegy for him. Like so many other writers from his country — Czeslaw Milosz, Wislawa Szymborska, Zbigniew Herbert — Zagajewski inspired me through the brilliant English translations of his work. If he had lived a little longer he would surely have won a Nobel Prize. My poem about his death is called “Sudden Silence.” It’s up now at the online journal JMWW, courtesy of Senior Poetry Editor CarlaJean Valluzzi and Founding Editor Jen Michalski.

• “Love Poem to My Love Poems”

• “Homunculus”

https://issuu.com/minetta/docs/f2016_minetta_mag_final_for_issuu

“Homunculus” is an example of ekphrasis, a work of art responding to another work of art, in this case a humanoid figurine observed at a natural history museum. Eat your heart out, W.H. Auden! Minetta Review has since closed down, sad to say.

MockingHeart Review

• “Dehydrated Tree Frog”

https://mockingheartreview.com/volume-6-issue-1/poetry/kurt-luchs/

The Louisiana-based publication MockingHeart Review has published this poem of mine about a frog I encountered in my travels in Red Wing, Minnesota. My thanks to Editor-in-Chief Tyler Robert Sheldon and the rest of the editorial staff. No frogs were harmed in the making of the poem.

MONO.

• “The Eighties”

https://www.monofiction.org/post/the-eighties-by-kurt-luchs

• “Observation Bias”

https://www.paperturn-view.com/mono-2/mono-issue-1-pdf-flipbook?pid=MTg188283

A new UK-based publication called MONO. (yes, the period is intentional) has accepted two of my poems. Their motto is “Exploring the dark side of humour,” so it probably helped that both poems are funny ones. “The Eighties” is on their blog, while “Observation Bias” is in their first print edition, which they’ve decided to make available as a free PDF. Many thanks to Editor Kayleigh Cutforth for understanding that we need more humor now, not less, and for appreciating the work of this poet who was raised by Anglophiles and whose sense of humor is often more English than American.

• “Heaven and Hell”

https://www.monofiction.org/post/heaven-and-hell-by-kurt-luchs

Here’s a prose poem of mine called “Heaven and Hell” that is now online at the spunky English lit mag MONO. Many thanks to Editor Kayleigh Cutforth.

The Moving Force Journal

• “Time”
• “Twilight”

http://themovingforcejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Moving-Force-Journal-Issue-3.pdf

The fine new lit magazine The Moving Force Journal has published two of my poems in their third issue, Fall/Winter 2020. My sincere thanks to Editor Holly Corbett. The poem “Time” came to me after reading a book by Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli called “The Order of Time” (these days I mostly read science and poetry). The poem “Twilight” is about that time of day, not the terrifyingly bad series of books and movies I once subjected myself to so I could understand what my girls were into. I promise it is not rated IQ-13!

The Nervous Breakdown

• “The Mystery of Evil”

https://thenervousbreakdown.com/kluchs/2020/01/the-mystery-of-evil/

I’ve been trying to break into The Nervous Breakdown for years, and finally managed it with this poem about a childhood acquaintance who committed unspeakable acts and died a sordid death. The site founded by Brad Listi is one of the most comprehensive literary destinations around, comparable to McSweeney’s and in some ways going beyond them. They don’t do a little of everything, they do a LOT of everything.

Noctua Literary Review

• “The Sound of Weeping”

https://issuu.com/noctuareview/docs/noctua_2017_webcomplete_4cf7af28b17f97

Noctua Literary Review is a literary journal managed by students in the graduate writing program at Southern Connecticut State University. “The Sound of Weeping” is a sonnet in Elizabethan, not Petrarchan, form (i.e., three quatrains and an end couplet). I think it best to leave the origins of this poem shrouded in mystery. I will merely point out that in addition to the usual end-rhymes there is a lot of internal rhyming and other harmonics going on in these lines.

• “A Mist in the Tree”

https://medium.com/the-nonconformist/a-mist-in-the-tree-cc8ec11c6b89

The Nonconformist Magazine, a fine journal with a lot of engaging writing about books past and present, has published my poem “A Mist in the Tree.” Thanks to Managing Editor Nina Sobczak and Editor-in-Chief F. R. Foksal. The poem is hard to describe, but then if it were easy to describe, I wouldn’t have needed to write it. I can’t help noting that it manages to shoehorn Jesus, Hitler, Homer and W.C. Fields into the same sentence. Surely I get extra points for that?

• “Secret Messages”

https://nonconformist-mag.com/secret-messages/

I am jazzed that my poem “Secret Messages” has been published in The Nonconformist Magazine, thanks to Managing Editor Nina Sobczak and Editor-in-Chief F. R. Foksal. This will mark my second appearance in this fine online and print literary journal.

• “Story”
• “Meditation”
• “What’s-Her-Face”

http://www.otisnebula.com/otisnebula/ON12_Kurt_Luchs.html

This excellent poetry site began as a closed regional writers group, and gradually expanded to include the rest of the universe. Not much to say about “Story” except that it is an attempt to encapsulate the tragic sense of loss in something close to parable form. “Meditation” is both a response to practicing mindfulness, and a flawed example of the same. The “crickets” referred to are actually the continual insect-like background buzz that one hears when one sits quietly (if one happens to be me, anyway). “What’s-Her-Face” is obviously a breakup poem. I hasten to add this is not about any recent events.

pamplemousse

• “This Moment”

http://pamplemoussevt.org/this-moment/

Northern Vermont University is the home of the excellent literary journal pamplemousse (French for “grapefruit”). “This Moment” attempts to describe and mimic the significance of each passing bit of time. One goal in writing it was to do this without the interruptions of punctuation. Instead, all of the heavy lifting of pauses and so on is accomplished using only line breaks.

• “A Typical Weekend in My Young Life”

https://www.pennreview.org/a-typical-weekend-in-my-young-life

Founded in 1951, The Penn Review is the oldest continuously published literary magazine at the University of Pennsylvania. They are also among the best in the country, both with their literary content and their visual content. “A Typical Weekend in My Young Life” records a harrowing occasion when myself and my six siblings were left in the care of a disturbed man in the midst of a cocaine and alcohol binge. How all of us are still alive and most of us are relatively sane, I’ll never know.

• “Morning Likeness”

https://picciolettabarca.com/issues/morning-likeness/

La Piccioletta Barca (“little boat”) is a literary arts journal that takes its name from an Italian phrase used by Ezra Pound in his Canto VII. The publication launched late in 2018 at Trinity College at Cambridge. Not surprisingly, it has an invigorating international flavor. I’m very pleased that they accepted this brief nature lyric, which is certainly influenced on some level by Pound’s imagism, as well as questions about how thinking in similes may affect our ability to directly experience the world.

• “Christmas Nineteen-Sixty-Something”
• “Notes from My Doppelganger”

https://plumepoetry.com/christmas-nineteen-sixty-something-and-notes-from-my-doppelganger/

I have two poems in the January 2021 issue Plume Poetry Journal, courtesy of Editor Danny Lawless. Plume would be on just about anybody’s list of the top 20 poetry outlets in this country. The list of past contributors reads like a Who’s Who of American and world poetry, and includes such heroes of mine as Charles Simic, Jane Hirshfield, Denise Duhamel, Ted Kooser and the late Thomas Lux, and translations of work from Rumi, Antonio Machado and Luis Cernuda, among many others. The poems are “Christmas Nineteen-Sixty-Something,” about a typically surreal holiday scene in the house where I grew up, where Hitler played a bigger part than Santa or Jesus, and “Notes from My Doppelganger,” apparently written by the other me. Both poems are destined for my next poetry collection. Thanks, Danny!

The Poet’s Billow

• “Winter Begins” (winner of the Bermuda Triangle Poetry Prize)

https://thepoetsbillow.org/literary-art-gallary/2017-bermuda-triangle-prize/2017-bermuda-triangle-winners/#Kurt

The Poet’s Billow is a multifaceted resource for poets, and also sponsors several annual competitions. One such contest is the Bermuda Triangle Poetry Prize, so-called not because all submissions to it disappear into thin air, but because there are three equal winners, like the three angles of a triangle. The theme for 2017 was “Revolution,” and my poem “Winter Begins” was a winner. Although it starts as a seasonal reflection, it does end up in a revolution of sorts led by the field mice. And I suppose every change of season is a revolution in its own right.

Poydras Review

• “Northside Park”

https://poydrasreview.com/blog/2020/6/1/northside-park

The notion of writing or reading poetry seems quaint at the moment, but I’ll go ahead and put this out there because I prefer peaceful, nurturing activities to the other kind. Poydras Review, now in its 10th year, is a fine online arts monthly based in Los Angeles. Today Editor-in-Chief Sarah Rae Newman and Poetry & Art Editor Jodi Capaci posted my poem “Northside Park,” which concerns a lovely little place known to everyone who has lived in Wheaton, Illinois. For me it was much more than a park. It was my chief refuge from a violent and unsafe home where some form of abuse was always threatening me and my siblings. Here’s hoping nobody burns it down anytime soon, because it may serve as a safe haven for other children even today.

• “The Sleep Test”

http://www.poydrasreview.com/blog/2017/2/6/the-sleep-test

In fact I wrote this the day before the test, and afterwards was surprised to see how accurate it was (aside from the hallucinations of course). This is a prose poem, meaning it has no rhyme scheme or syllabic scheme typical of formal verse, although the line breaks and the overall dreaminess allow it to straddle the two worlds of poetry and prose.

Quail Bell Magazine

• “Shampoo-Conditioner (A Poem of Protest and Resistance)”

http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal/poem-shampoo-conditioner-by-kurt-luchs/

• “Two Sisters”

http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal/poem-two-sisters-by-kurt-luchs

Quail Bell is a quirky but lovable magazine that goes its own strange way with attitude aplenty, making it a perfect home for these poems. After the election and the hysteria that understandably followed (and never really abated), I struggled with how to respond as a writer. My solution was to take the slippery ambiguous poet’s path and try to have it every which way. Yes, there is genuine protest and resistance of some kind in “Shampoo-Conditioner (A Poem of Protest and Resistance).” Yet the subject is so mundane and ultimately trivial that it also becomes partly a parody of the Resistance. “Two Sisters” is more straightforward, being a tribute to my own sister’s cats. Here’s hoping I am the first poet in all history to think of writing about cats. Fingers crossed! To save you a trip to the dictionary, a demiurge is — to quote Wikipedia — “an artisan like figure responsible for the fashioning and maintenance of the physical universe,” yet something less than a full-fledged god. Maybe a demigod. If you saw one you’d still be tempted to worship it.

• “From My Mountain”

http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal-20/poetry-from-my-mountain-by-kurt-luchs

The poem “From My Mountain” is now live at the delightful Quail Bell Magazine. It’s an attempt to be funny and serious at the same time. I also thought it would be challenging to dive right in with an unreliable narrator and then proceed as if nothing had happened. This may explain why I had to submit it 157 times to find a publisher. No kidding! Note to other writers: believe in what you do. Don’t take no for an answer. I should’ve just started with Quail Bell, they’re all about the weird. You be the judge.

• “You’ve Been Warned”

http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal-20/poetry-youve-been-warned-by-kurt-luchs

• “The Darkened Room”

http://www.quailbellmagazine.com/the-unreal-20/poetry-the-darkened-room-by-kurt-luchs

I was very pleased to have these poems land at this linguistically and visually exciting magazine of the literary arts. “You’ve Been Warned” and “The Darkened Room” are recent love poems, not graphic but pretty hot. You may have to fan yourself after reading.

Rattle Poetry

• “All of My Fathers”

https://www.rattle.com/all-of-my-fathers-by-kurt-luchs/

I am feeling some pardonable excitement at having a poem selected by Rattle Poetry as part of their topical Poets Respond feature. The poem is “All of My Fathers,” about the death of Robert Bly. It’s on their site and also available in an audio reading. I also discuss it and the life of Bly with Editor Timothy Green on Rattlecast 121. For those who are discouraged about the constant rejection that comes with being a writer, please note that this was my 17th submission to Rattle. As Churchill said, we will never surrender!

Right Hand Pointing

• “The Heart Goes Out”

http://www.righthandpointing.net/right-hand-pointing-issue-106

Here is the first micro-poem I have been able to get published. There are more waiting in the wings for some weak-willed editor to fall under their spell. Micro-poetry generally refers to any verse under sonnet length, which is 14 lines. This one is a simple rhyming quatrain that hopefully resonates a bit.

Roanoke Review

• “A Last Villanelle”

https://www.roanokereview.org/kurt-luchs/2017

Despite the title, which alludes to the bittersweet nature of last things, this is actually my first villanelle. It is an oblique elegy for and tribute to my friend and fellow poet Brett Foster, who died way too young in 2015. Roanoke Review is one of America’s more venerable literary journals, having been founded in 1967 at Roanoke College in Virginia.

 

Sheila-Na-Gig

• “Summon the Stones”
• “Still”

https://sheilanagigblog.com/volume-1-2-winter-2016-the-poets/kurt-luchs/

This former print publication, now online only, has been around for quite a while. “Summon the Stones” attempts to interrogate the natural world about our human separation from it. “Still” is another love poem. I’m afraid I took more delight than a grown man should have in opening a love poem with the line, “There is the stillness of rot…”

• “Fog and Fire”

https://sheilanagigblog.com/volume-7-1-fall-2022-the-poets/kurt-luchs/

The Fall 2022 issue of the always sprightly online journal Sheila-Na-Gig is out featuring many fine poets and also me, with a strange piece called “Fog and Fire.” Many thanks to Editor Hayley Mitchell Haugen.

Shot Glass Journal

• “Cruelty”
• “Fall”

http://www.musepiepress.com/shotglass/kurt_luchs1.html

Shot Glass Journal is a publication of Muse-Pie Press focusing on the best short poems of 16 lines or less, in any form or style. Editor Mary-Jane Grandinetti kindly accepted two of mine, with the self-explanatory titles of “Cruelty” and “Fall.” Both are straightforward meditations on their respective subjects.

South Florida Poetry Journal

• “Abduction”

https://www.southfloridapoetryjournal.com/poems-nov-2018.html

All I’m going to say about “Abduction” is that it concerns something that actually happened to me. There are no bookmarks for individual poems, so you just scroll through the issue. Mine is the fifth poem down. South Florida Poetry Journal is one of the best literary magazines around, and one of the few that is independent of any academic affiliation.

• “Listening to Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa“

• “The Dog One Floor Up”

• “Starlings Eating Frozen Pizza”

https://www.southfloridapoetryjournal.com/poetry-25—may-22.html

The May 2022 issue of South Florida Poetry Journal is out and I am very proud to be included with three poems, “The Dog One Floor Up,” “Listening to Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa” and “Starlings Eating Frozen Pizza.” It’s their sixth anniversary issue, and also contains special sections by Ukrainian, Ukrainian-American and Russian poets writing about the war, as well as great stuff by many other poets such as Daniel Edward Moore who seems to end up in a lot of magazines with me, we’ve got to stop meeting like this. Many thanks to Editors Judy Ireland, Meryl Stratford, Michael Mackin O’Mara and Lenny DellaRocca. The link takes you to the whole issue; you’ll have to scroll down to find me in alphabetical order after the special sections.

The Sun Magazine

• “Mindfulness”

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/505/mindfulness/

“Mindfulness” can be thought of as a sort of sister poem to “Meditation” (see the entry for Otis Nebula above), although clearly not as serious. Call it my way of facing the future and refusing to join the nationwide hyperventilation over current events that are out of my or anyone else’s control. Getting something into the highly esteemed Sun Magazine is probably my biggest score to date in the rough and tumble world of poetry.

• “That Was Already True”

https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/535/already-true

Having published a poem in The Sun Magazine previously, I was invited to submit any new work dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. I didn’t have anything on hand, so I wrote one just for them, and they have accepted it. It’s called “That Was Already True” and it appears in their July 2020 issue. The Sun is one of the best places for a poet to be seen. As a general interest publication it has a large readership, including national distribution in most bookstores that carry periodicals, such as Barnes and Noble.

TAB Journal

• “New Town”
• “Burn Marks”

• “Tokyo Rose”

https://www.tellurideinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/LuchsTokyoRose19-Kurt-Luchs.pdf

Every year the Fischer Prize awards one grand prize winner and five finalists. This poem was named First Finalist, so I guess runner-up, second place, something like that? I got to attend the festival and read the poem at the award ceremony, which was a wonderful experience. It’s a narrative poem that tells the true and somewhat heartbreaking story of Tokyo Rose, whose life intersected with that of my family slightly when she relocated to Chicago after her time in prison for treason, and opened an Asian novelties store.

• “The New World”

https://thirdwednesdaymagazine949759920.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/twvolxivno2spring2021a.pdf

The excellent Third Wednesday Magazine has released their Spring 2021 issue, which includes my poem “The New World,” which I’m not going to ruin by trying to describe. Best to just read it. Thanks to Co-Editors David Jibson and Joe Ferrari. The link above will give you a PDF. I’m on page 60.

Thorn Literary Magazine

• “My Dark Lovely”
• “The Fear”
• “Overflowing”

https://www.thornlitmag.com/post/three_poems_kurt_luchs

The online quarterly journal, Thorn Literary Magazine published the poems “My Dark Lovely,” “The Fear” and “Overflowing” in their third issue. The first is an erotic love poem, the second a fear-of-love poem, and the third a lack-of-love poem, basically about having an abundance of inner feeling hidden from one’s fellow humans and projecting it onto the natural world. Sadly, Editor-in-Chief Stewart Ansel has since passed, and the magazine is being discontinued, though they plan to let the online archive continue for a while.

Tiny Seed Literary Journal

• “Cottonwood Seeds”

https://tinyseedjournal.com/2020/12/26/cottonwood-seeds/

Tiny Seed Literary Journal is a very well curated online venture that publishes nature-focused poetry, prose, photos and art. They also donate to The Nature Conservancy and other worthy organizations. They published my poem “Cottonwood Seeds” in their December 2020 issue, which has the theme of “Lessons from the Wild.” The poem originally appeared in Clover, a Literary Rag, which has since become defunct. It has never been available online and it needed a new home. Thank you Tiny Seed!

Triggerfish Critical Review

• “Wrong Cave”

http:/triggerfishcriticalreview.com/wrong-cave-kurt-luchs/

• “The Innocence of Youth”

http:/triggerfishcriticalreview.com/the-innocence-of-youth-kurt-luchs/

• “Pumpernickel”

http:/triggerfishcriticalreview.com/pumpernickel-kurt-luchs/

Triggerfish Critical Review gets its name from the fact that in addition to publishing poetry, it has the poets in each issue comment on each others’ work. I found it to be a unique and fascinating experience. In the case of my own poem “Wrong Cave,” they even let me comment on it myself, for reasons that will become apparent. “Wrong Cave” and “Pumpernickel” share a common character, Roberta, and were written shortly after I met her. “The innocence of Youth” is more of a noir mystery in poetic form. All three are comedic prose poems with a serious undertone. If you say, “Wait, these aren’t prose poems! They aren’t divided into paragraphs and the line breaks don’t look like prose!” I can only reply that this is the way James Tate did it and he is my master when it comes to prose poetry. You can take it up with him. Except he’s dead. The poems that I commented on by other writers are “Jorge Luis Borges in the streets of the French Quarter, 1980” by Richard Weaver, and “Ars Poetica Conference” by Larry Woiwode.

• “Bambino X”

Bambino X, Kurt Luchs

• “Ragneev”

Ragneev, Kurt Luchs

• “Dandelion”

Dandelion, Kurt Luchs

Triggerfish Critical Review published three prose poems of mine called “Bambino X,” “Ragneev” and “Dandelion.” Editor Dave Mehler and his crew made some helpful editorial suggestions. All three pieces will be in the next issue. Most journals don’t make helpful comments (usually just due to lack of time and people). But I am always grateful when they do. Just ask T.S. Eliot if he appreciated Ezra Pound going over his stuff with a blue pencil.

• “I’m Ready”

https://www.english.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.547518.1616420646!/menu/standard/file/TTN21.pdf

The new issue of Two Thirds North is out now, containing my poem “I’m Ready,” about being prepared to die while savoring the joys of life and spending time with the people we love. This fine annual magazine comes out of the English Department at the University of Stockholm in Sweden. Thanks to Senior Editors Paul Schreiber, Adnan Mahmutović, and Maria Freij for including me, and also for featuring my name on the cover. After all, every poet’s middle name is Mimi!

Verdad Magazine

• “My Dinner with Fahey”
• “That Morning”

http://verdadmagazine.org/vol29/poetry/luchs.html

Verdad Magazine is a twice-yearly online literary journal out of Houston, Texas, now in their 16th year. They’ve published many of the best poets around, including Christopher Buckley. I’ve been trying to break in there for years and just succeeded on my lucky seventh attempt. Thanks to Poetry Editor Bill Neumire and Editor-in-Chief Bonnie Bolling for taking two poems, “My Dinner with Fahey” and “That Morning.” The former recounts my riotous one and only meeting with the master of what is called American Primitive Guitar Music, John Fahey, and the latter is a brief love poem consisting of two rhymed quatrains.

Verse-Virtual

• “The Dream”
• “Mementoes”
• “New Year”
• “Self-Interrogation”
• “To Michael Beasley, Who Beat My Turtles to Death”

http://www.verse-virtual.org/archives/2017/July/kurt-luchs-2017-july.html

Verse-Virtual is an online magazine and writing community originally edited by the late Firestone Feinberg. “The Dream” is about my primal fear of being subsumed by community groupthink, something I felt strongly even as a child. “Mementoes” and “New Year” are both breakup poems dating from quite a while ago, only now seeing the light of day. “Self-Interrogation” sets the spiritual practice of self-examination in a comic context. “To Michael Beasley, Who Beat My Turtles to Death” is a true story and needs no further explanation. One nice thing about Verse-Virtual is how they encourage readers to interact with and respond to writers, and vice versa, which is why they include writers’ email addresses.

• “Walking After Dark”

http://www.verse-virtual.org/archives/2017/August/kurt-luchs-2017-august.html

This is a villanelle, a 19-line poem with five stanzas of three lines each and a concluding stanza of four lines. There are two rhymes and two end lines that alternate between stanzas, getting repeated at the end. The most famous example in English is the powerful Dylan Thomas poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” about the death of his father. This one tackles a more mundane subject: why I prefer to walk at night.

• “The White Album”
• “Sgt. Pepper”
• “December 8, 1980”

http://www.verse-virtual.org/archives/2018/December/kurt-luchs-2018-december.html

These three are from a sequence of Beatles-related poems I’ve been working on, called Fab Sonnets. They will probably become a chapbook someday if I can finish enough of them.

• “The Blizzard of 1967 (Chicago)”

http://www.verse-virtual.org/2020/march/kurt-luchs-2020-march.html

“The Blizzard of 1967 (Chicago)” is part of the Feral Grief section that begins my first full-length collection, Falling in the Direction of Up, coming May 2021 from Sagging Meniscus Press. The storm left a snowfall in its wake that has still not been equaled in Chicago. Many thanks to the now late Editor-in-Chief Firestone Feinberg, Managing Editor Jim Lewis and the rest of the crew.

• “Painted Turtle”
• “Sun, Rain and Words That Don’t Help”

https://www.verse-virtual.org/2021/July/luchs-kurt-2021-july.html

Editor Jim Lewis at the Verse-Virtual publication / community has kindly put two of my poems into their July 2021 issue, “Painted Turtle” and “Sun, Rain and Words That Don’t Help.” Yes, another turtle poem! I’ve got a million of them. The latter poem is a querulous response to a line from the Sermon on the Mount.

Viscaria Magazine

• “Two Winter Haiku”

https://viscariamagazine.weebly.com/kurt-luchs.html

A vibrant new literary journal, Viscaria Magazine, has published a couple of short poems of mine called “Two Winter Haiku.” Nice to be in on the ground floor of an exciting beginning. There are countless theories about the rules of haiku. One of the oldest and most traditional is that they should be nature-based, or at least contain some seasonal element. These are about a breakup that occurred in winter, and both refer to the season, at least by implication.

Wilderness House Literary Review

• “Encounter”

http://www.whlreview.com/no-11.4/poetry/KurtLuchs.pdf

Another arachnid poem, this time about a true encounter with an injured wolf spider. Wilderness House Literary Review specializes in nature poetry.

• “To the Tenth Planet”

http://willawawjournal.com/category/journal/winter-2020-issue-11/page/4/

Willawaw Journal is an engaging online magazine for poetry and art, published three times a year. They published my poem “To the Tenth Planet” in their Winter 2020 issue. Many thanks to Editor Rachel Barton. For those astronomy geeks who want to point out that Pluto is no longer a planet, and that technically a new planet would be number nine, just hold your pocket protectors at bay, nerds! I deal with that issue in the poem.

• “Ode to the Poplar”
• “No Reason”

https://willawawjournal.com/category/journal/fall-2022-issue-15/page/5/

Willawaw Journal has accepted two of my poems for publication in their Winter 2022 issue. “Ode to the Poplar” is just what the title says, while “No Reason” is about an unexpected feeling of joy. Many thanks to Editor Rachel Barton.

Yemassee Journal

• “Falling in the Direction of Up”

http://yemasseejournal.com/2019/12/15/falling-in-the-direction-of-up/

Yemassee Journal is “the official journal of the University of South Carolina since 1993.” It’s quite well done. This poem has a winding history. I had already decided that I wanted the title to be the name of my first full-length poetry collection, tentatively scheduled for May 2021. The title is adapted from a catch-phrase from the 1950’s British radio comedy series the Goon Show, where the young Peter Sellers got his start. When the Beatles met their producer George Martin, they didn’t care what other musical acts he had worked with, but they were terribly impressed that he had made records with the Goons. That’s how they knew they’d get on with him. Anyway, one of the characters would sometimes refer to “falling in the direction of down,” a funny phrase that I simply turned around to sound slightly uplifting, perhaps influenced a bit by Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise.” Thing is, I didn’t have a title poem to go with the title! Then some people organized an art exhibit of fascinating drawings by Michael Dunn at the People’s Church in Kalamazoo and asked if I could contribute something (each drawing was accompanied by an ekphrastic poem). One drawing featured a bird, an angel and a woman’s face, and the poem came together very quickly after that.

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The following publications do not make their content available online for free. The links are for buying digital or print copies. “The Argument” won Honorable Mention in Crosswind Poetry Journal’s annual contest. Into the Void and Light are notable for featuring both good poetry and good art, the former in full color and the latter in stunning black-and-white photography. Into the Void was my first foreign publication, being based in Canada.

Bacopa Literary Review

• “The Music of the Words”

https://writersalliance.org/bacopa-literary-review/

My poem “The Music of the Words” is in the 2021 issue of Bacopa Literary Review, the annual print journal of the Writers Alliance of Gainesville. Many thanks to Poetry Editor J.N. Fishhawk. I wrote it around Mother’s Day, remembering my mother’s habit of reciting poetry and singing folk ballads while she went about her day when we were growing up. It’s how I was first exposed to the beauty of words.

The Bitter Oleander

• “Nocturne”

https://www.bitteroleander.com/issues.html#order

I got my first acceptance from The Bitter Oleander after nearly four years of trying to break in. This was my seventh attempt. The poem they took is called “Nocturne,” consisting of 11 brief lines about the hours before dawn. Among other poets who have published in Bitter Oleander are two of my all-time heroes, Robert Bly and W.S. Merwin, as well as Kalamazoo’s own talented Hedy Habra. I am in good company. Thank you Editor Paul B. Roth! You just made my day, my week, my month. The magazine is print-only, and copies can be bought at the above link. Just click, go to the bottom of the page and order a copy of Volume 26, Number 2 (Autumn).

Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review

• “Love Fog”

http://www.borderlands.org/

The simple idea behind this poem is to treat the start of a romance as a severe weather warning. Borderlands, an Austin journal started in 1992, doesn’t put any of its content online, so this poem is only available in the print publication. Follow the link and order Issue 50.

Clover, a Literary Rag

• “Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056 (Largo)”
• “Cottonwood Seeds”

http://independentwritersstudio.com/site/

This sumptuous biannual magazine, now defunct, hailed from the Independent Writers’ Studio in Bellingham, Washington, a group founded by Mary Gillilan. They published poetry, fiction and essays from around the world. I landed two poems in Volume 14. “Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 5 in F Minor, BWV 1056 (Largo)” uses a favorite passage by my favorite composer to discuss the life, work and death of J.S. Bach. I first encountered Glenn Gould’s recording in the film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, and it has haunted me ever since. It is unfortunately true that the same quack eye doctor managed to kill both Bach and Handel. “Cottonwood Seeds” muses on the unique characteristics of the most under-appreciated of trees.

Crannóg Magazine

• “Willow”

https://crannogmagazine.com/product/crannog-55-autumn-2021/

Crannóg Magazine is a top-flight print-only journal publishing three times a year out of Galway, Ireland, since 2002. They have included my poem “Willow” in issue 55, Autumn 2021. Many thanks to editorial board members Sandra Bunting, Ger Burke, Jarlath Fahy and Tony O’Dwyer. The poem is a blast from the past about a long-suffering tree in the backyard of the house where I grew up.

Crosswinds Poetry Journal

• “The Argument”
• “First Flakes”

http://www.crosswindspoetry.com/?page_id=159

“The Argument” constitutes somewhat of an homage (though a very nonspecific one) to Federico Garcia Lorca. To clarify: “First Flakes” is about an early snowfall, not breakfast cereal or the inhabitants of an asylum.

Doubly Mad Journal

• “Apology”
• “Mine”

https://doublymad.org/Doubly-Mad-Journal

Doubly Mad Journal has accepted my poems “Apology” and “Mine,” the first a contemporary riff on the Apology of Socrates, the second about the feeling that everything belongs to me at night, when I seem to be the only person in the world. The poems appear in Volume 7 Issue 9 (Spring 2022). My thanks to Editors William Welch, Colleen Doody and Ruth Ann Dandrea. Doubly Mad is a print journal that comes out of Utica, New York, and has been around since 2003. One of the things I love about them is that they take their name from a ghazal by Robert Bly that ends like this: “The hermit said, ‘Because the world is mad, / The only way through the world is to learn / The arts and double the madness. Are you listening?'”

Emrys Journal

• “The New Sangria”
• “Gray Fox”

http://www.emrys.org/bookstore/2018-emrys-journal-volume-35

“The New Sangria” and “Gray Fox” are both funny, fanciful prose poems approaching reality through unreality. The former relates an encounter with some sort of extraterrestrial, and the latter with a philosophical talking fox. This anniversary issue of Emrys Journal was dedicated to humor.

Exacting Clam

• “To ‘To the Stone-Cutters'”
• “The Canoe of Death”

https://www.exactingclam.com

Exacting Clam, the Discerning Mollusk’s Guide to Arts and Ideas, is a quarterly publication from Sagging Meniscus  Press and Publisher Jacob Smullyan. Issue 2 features an essay by me about the poem “To the Stone-Cutters” by Robinson Jeffers, as well as my poetic response, “To ‘To the Stone-Cutters'”. Issue 5 has my essay about the D. H. Lawrence classic “The Ship of Death,” plus my tribute poem, a parody called “The Canoe of Death.”

Fjords Review

• “Blizzard”
• “3:07 a.m.”

http://www.fjordsreview.com/featured/current_issue.html

“Blizzard” is written in syllabic verse, in this case seven syllables per line. The subject is a snowstorm so heavy that it almost makes the world we think we know disappear. “3:07 a.m.” was composed at exactly that time. I’m often awake in the middle of the night, reading or writing or, as here, just listening. Fjords Review is a fine quarterly journal out of Lynchburg, Virginia.

• “Soup Kitchen”

The Ibis Head Review has since stopped publishing, but were kind enough to accept this poem before they did so. Wherever I live I always volunteer at a local soup kitchen, washing dishes. In Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where I lived at the time this was written, it was the Place of Peace, part of the Evergreen Community Initiative, which also runs a food pantry and a clothing pantry. It’s hard to write truthfully about the people served every week without sounding unintentionally cruel or condescending. In the end this is just one more experience that teaches how the world is not divided into the broken and the unbroken. It is divided into those that know they are broken and those that do not. Those that do not know are usually more dangerous. They often wind up in positions of influence — mothers or fathers, school board members, corporate officers, politicians — unconsciously projecting their brokenness beyond the intimate circle of misery in which their lack of self-knowledge ensures that they will always live.

Into the Void

• “I long to enter the unholy…”

https://www.newpages.com/item/35336-into-the-void-magazine-spring-2017-mag-stand

A rapid-fire series of images and metaphors about the desire to merge with nature or the universe. Into the Void is a Canadian journal.

Light

• “Psalm”

http://www.light-journal.com/subscribe

Light has since gone out of business, but I was very glad to get this poem into their journal before that happened. This poem makes ironical use of the biblical language of praise to convey a less-than-praiseworthy state of mind — feelings of ennui, futility and worthlessness.

• “Dean Natkin”

• “Natural History”

http://www.phantomdrift.org/preorder-pd7

Phantom Drift calls itself “A Journal of New Fabulism,” a description that includes the work of Jorge Luis Borges, Federico Garcia Lorca, and other 20th century authors from around the world. This poem seems to qualify for admittance by virtue of some lines and images that partake of a sense of the dreamlike. Not quite surrealistic, but hovering right on the edge.

• “Fall Colors”

https://sfpoetry.com/sl/issues/starline43.1.html

Since 1978, Star*Line has been the official publication of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association. It remains the premier outlet for that genre. Every once in a while I write a poem in that vein, and now Star*Line’s Editor Vince Gotera has included one of them in issue 43.1, titled “Fall Colors.” It’s not your typical ode to Autumn, seeing as it involves a tree called the vampire maple. The magazine is available in PDF and print only. Subscriptions are part of the annual membership, which costs $15 per year for PDF’s, and $45 per year for print copies. Click on the above link for more info.

• “Morning Mist”

https://thestillwaterreview.submittable.com/submit/194800/order-a-copy-of-sr11-2021

I’m pleased to learn that The Stillwater Review, a fine annual journal dedicated to lyric poetry and produced at Sussex County Community College in New Jersey, has published my sonnet “Morning Mist” in their 11th issue (Spring 2021). Many thanks to D. Scott Humphries and the other editors and readers. I don’t write that much formal verse but I’m glad to find a good outlet for it when that Frost-like mood comes upon me.

• “At the Dentist”

https://www.stonecoastreview.org/issues/

The Stonecoast Review is a fine print-only journal out of the University of Southern Maine. I’ve been trying to break in there for several years. They nearly took one poem last fall but felt it was too narrative, not lyrical enough, and wondered if I would consider recastingt it as prose. I asked if they had ever read any Robinson Jeffers and challenged them to a duel, but apparently they didn’t hold it against me as they have graciously accepted my poem “At the Dentist” for their summer issue. This one is so damned lyrical it will make you weep, though not as much as the dentist will. At least some credit should go to the nitrous oxide.

Third Coast

• “Loneliness”

Third Coast has been one of the country’s premier literary journals, coming out of the Western Michigan University English department in Kalamazoo. Sadly, the school has announced that due to pandemic-related budget cuts, they are discontinuing the publication, at least for now. However my poem “Loneliness” appears in issue 49, one of the final two issues. Thanks to Poetry Editor Nicole Mason and the other editorial people who said yes to this crazy quilt of a poem, which is part humor, part sorrow, and partly deranged!

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More of my poems have been accepted and are forthcoming at the following publications, not yet available in any form. I will post notes about them as they do become available.