Editors' Notes

Maria Damon and Michelle Greenblatt
Jim Leftwich and Michelle Greenblatt
Sheila E. Murphy and Michelle Greenblatt

A Visual Conversation on Michelle Greenblatt's ASHES AND SEEDS with Stephen Harrison, Monika Mori | MOO, Jonathan Penton and Michelle Greenblatt

Letters for Michelle: with work by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, Jeffrey Side, Larry Goodell, mark hartenbach, Charles J. Butler, Alexandria Bryan and Brian Kovich

Visual Poetry by Reed Altemus
Poetry by Glen Armstrong
Poetry by Lana Bella
A Eulogic Poem by John M. Bennett
Elegic Poetry by John M. Bennett
Poetry by Wendy Taylor Carlisle
A Eulogy by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Vincent A. Cellucci
Poetry by Joel Chace
A Spoken Word Poem and Visual Art by K.R. Copeland
A Eulogy by Alan Fyfe
Poetry by Win Harms
Poetry by Carolyn Hembree
Poetry by Cindy Hochman
A Eulogy by Steffen Horstmann
A Eulogic Poem by Dylan Krieger
An Elegic Poem by Dylan Krieger
Visual Art by Donna Kuhn
Poetry by Louise Landes Levi
Poetry by Jim Lineberger
Poetry by Dennis Mahagin
Poetry by Peter Marra
A Eulogy by Frankie Metro
A Song by Alexis Moon and Jonathan Penton
Poetry by Jay Passer
A Eulogy by Jonathan Penton
Visual Poetry by Anne Elezabeth Pluto and Bryson Dean-Gauthier
Visual Art by Marthe Reed
A Eulogy by Gabriel Ricard
Poetry by Alison Ross
A Short Movie by Bernd Sauermann
Poetry by Christopher Shipman
A Spoken Word Poem by Larissa Shmailo
A Eulogic Poem by Jay Sizemore
Elegic Poetry by Jay Sizemore
Poetry by Felino A. Soriano
Visual Art by Jamie Stoneman
Poetry by Ray Succre
Poetry by Yuriy Tarnawsky
A Song by Marc Vincenz


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Three Poems by Clare L. Martin

The Word Does Not Come

I am bare; always yearning.
No path leads from this want.

I've spread myself open,
made a nest of my heart.

I have torn out pages
wishing to forget.

I have gone into the poem
and taken

poetry inside me,
but the word does not come.

What is it of me that kills?

I am dropping deeper,
             deeper into the hush—




Poem to the Madonna

Old mother of sadness,
lie by lie, we feed your sorrow.
Heap hours upon you—each minute a malignancy.

Our insensible prayers:
             one laid upon the other,

             upon the other,
             upon the other,

                          with no meaningful
                          geometry.

What can we say to you
without poisonous effect?

We know only
that what is was not
until it became.
The bruising garments have fallen away
             to reveal parchment flesh
             hung upon obvious bones,
                          a display of wizened genitalia.

             And nearly extinguished now,

                          the burning heart.




Distortion

Blue flames flicker under a black iron skillet.
My face is wet. I see through a prism. I wipe
the back of my neck with a dishtowel
and toss it in the sink.
I position pots
under the drips from the ceiling.
This old house needs a new roof.
This old woman needs a new everything.
Heavy throbs in my jugular catch my attention.
I wonder if this is it. I don't fear
growing old because it has already happened to me.
I am isolated in the kitchen. I am isolated
in a house falling apart around me.
Between cane fields and alligator-infested canals,
between feebleness and death.

The food I make today will take a long time to cook.
The food will take days to eat. I make enough
for my family to share a meal with me but they never arrive.
These days, I go for whiskey
because I just don't have the time to get drunk slowly.
Half a glass and the bottle speaks to me:

             Why do you hate what you reflect?
             Drink up!


There is something I need to remember, but have forgotten.
I say to no one:
             Do you remember when I clambered against you?
             Ran my fingers along your rises and ridges;
             wandered the abandoned garden of your dream?


Clare L. MartinClare L. Martin's forthcoming debut poetry collection, Eating the Heart First, is a 2012 Tom Lombardo Selection from Press 53. Clare's poetry has appeared in journals such as Blue Fifth Review, Louisiana Literature and Poets and Artists, among others; and in the anthologies The Red Room: Writings from Press 1, Beyond Katrina, and the 2011 Press 53 Spotlight. She is a graduate of University of Louisiana at Lafayette.



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