Audio
Nightwoods by Charles Frazier
Recommended by Andrea Siso Nightwoods Review The lean, taut narrative of Nightwoods creates a story in which the setting holds as much spark as the characters, and is the central factor that brings forth the theme of the overwhelming power … Continue reading
The Chameleon Couch (FSG, 2011) by Yusef Komunyakaa
Reviewed by Philip Belcher Komunyakaa Review Erudition as Disguise On occasion, an eager and adept reader happens upon a poetry collection that satisfies immediately. The lyric intensity of individual poems may carry the volume, or the narrative arc may be … Continue reading
“A House upon the Height–”
A House upon the Height recording —Emily Dickinson The fence that runs the road hems the house in, thigh-high grass and clover tight, pushing back through the wire slats. The farmer’s wife next door says teenagers used to trespass and … Continue reading
Passage
John Casteen– Passage Bollard & bulkhead, cormorant & clew, spindrift, scene: the pitchkettle Tropic of Capricorn. The city. The sea in its unsurprising windrows; the glyph of the break- water. Each wintry glimpse, scene briny as a mollusk. Clear-lined and … Continue reading
The Ice River History Museum, Formerly Saint Catherine’s Convent
Hollmeyer_IceRiverHistoryMuseum Dot hobbled along with her walker, making apologies for moving slow since her fall. The docent asked what happened, and she explained about the dark cat in the dark hallway. Then she pointed at his ankle and asked him … Continue reading
Goran Holds His Breath
Althouse: Goran Holds His Breath The birds on the water have not heard him yet. Once they do they will burst upwards in flight and he will press the trigger. A gaggle of nine geese, necks huddled, drifts near the … Continue reading
Buying the Cross at Bible Camp
Buying the Cross at BibleCamp Audio I’m eating rice krispies when my mother asks me whether I’d like to go to church camp. She pours corn flakes for my little sister and douses them with milk. It’s March and … Continue reading
Soothsaying
Soothsaying Audio The clanking of the car’s engine ceases a few miles outside of town and Cliff and I settle into it, the wide quiet. We’re told that here, high up and in fall, aspens turn whole mountains gold. I … Continue reading
Bear Goes Metaphysical
Huddle – Bear Goes Metaphysical If I’m not a bear, thought the bear– and wistfulness rose in him, maybe he was a falcon, a redwood, a slug, a raccoon–but then his bear brain made him look down at his chest … Continue reading
Strangers at Twilight
Huddle – Strangers at Twilight The black mare with the white diamond lets me bump foreheads with her across the fence, Then we’re at a loss. I was lonely the whole afternoon. All day her girl didn’t come to ride. … Continue reading
Hike to the Black Madonna
Hike to the Black Madonna The aching muscles of my calves began to tremble just as the forest broke away. A white river threaded the valley floor far below. I turned to the right and above the tips of pine … Continue reading
In the Pentlands
Allison Funk: In the Pentlands Here, where I am buffeted, barely able to stand, a kestrel hangs impossibly still in the wind. I envy its otherness, its look of being somewhere else— far from where I’ve scrabbled up the slope, … Continue reading
Zebra Finch at Petco
Holmberg Zebra Finch at Petco The male tweezes a bald millet stalk off a sahara of graveled paper. The pert watch movements of his head ignite a ember on each cheek, buff bright the beak’s rose hip hue. His elderberry … Continue reading
Braying
Richie Hofmann – Braying This is the time of day we hear them coming back, when the first sunlight drops to the field like an animal being born, slick and shivering where it falls. Their hooves grind against the earth, … Continue reading