I confess–I’ve known Michael Hettich for 50 years. We were housed in the same freshman dormitory at Hobart College. But it’s more...

For years, I’ve known poet Mike Bove and admired his work. When I taught at Southern Maine Community College, where Mike has taught for...

photo: John Cameron “If I believe in anything, it is in the dark night of the soul. Awe is my religion, and mystery is its church.” -...

Editor's Notes headlines w/Stuart Kestenbaum Stuart Kestenbaum Craig Chen Jaime Speed Laura Schaeffer Cynthia Knorr Eva Rose Goetz Faith...

Chelonia Station In a cramped, dingy foyer of a train station in the countryside, I’m seated opposite a mother and her child, with the...

Baby Teeth There is nothing left to burn so I put my finger tips in the flame. Like a fishhook ...

After Terrance Hayes After Terrance Hayes reads sonnet after sonnet about his past and future assassin, I dream of ducks. The glory of...

Walt Whitman, Ray Bradbury and Me After deep brain stimulation surgery for essential tremor I sing the body electric, for I am the...

Vellichor There was a time bookstores ran for blocks along 4th Avenue—the air outside seasoned with mildew and must. Nowadays, you need a...

Poem I don’t know what sort of beauty to value anymore. Three sparrows on the lilac branches outside my window hop and spark the morning...

Thunderous The sound of a tree growing in fast forward— a hundred years in thirty seconds—is a brief recital of rasp & squeak & groan,...

Delivered I’m traveling and need to travel lighter so I ship a package across the country to myself. I fill out my name twice. Neatly...

Shadow Late afternoon, sun dropping west, the barn’s shadow shifted on green and brown grass—this was August—to a perfect, rectangular...

Miscarriage Story Told with Quotes from the Movie “Mean Girls” (2004) 1. “Is butter a carb?” On our girls’ trip, we check a suitcase of...

Watching TV with a Busted Antenna It’s a lot like when a therapist wearing a peacock- colored shawl, dark azure and sparkling green,...

The Teens The teens are stuck with I inscribed on their tongues. They believe they woke as queens and kings. Sometimes they assume mother...

To the fist at the bottom of every bottle Here’s to the fist at the bottom of every bottle. Every bottle smashed on the side of a...

Good Morning America I am so sorry I nearly left the mind for the body, for the spirit; forgive me. Most days I am really very happy, I...

Yellowstone At breakfast, in the Three Bears Restaurant in West Yellowstone, while eating a huge cinnamon roll, I overhear the man in the...

There Are Days this cage without bars this rut you are wearing into sidewalks how you can’t buy passage anywhere and haven’t packed...