Our Spring 2013 Issue is available now featuring poetry by Donald Crane, Trina Gaynon, Suzannah Gillman, Elton Glaser, Robert Herschbach, Rich Ives, John Macker, Susan H. Maurer, Peter F. Murphy, Robert Roley, Lee Sharkey, Nicholas Spengler, Nick Squadere, David Stankiewicz, Richard Taylor, Celina Villagarcia and David Wagoner. It also features artwork from Loren Kantor, Ed King, Brian O’Malley and Steven D. Stark, and reviews by Jefferson Navicky and Christopher Robley.
In Memoriam
Anselm Hollo
April 12, 1934 – January 29, 2013
Walter Butts
September 12, 1944 – March 31, 2013
Poems
Unwritten
by Suzannah Gilman I am willing to let you be my undoing, to undo all I learned before you came to me. I will forget just as each labor’s pains
Haphazards
by Elton Glaser 1 Tendrils of rain Catch on the dry leaves and drag them Down to green again. I don’t need sharp light in the grass, Quills and
Devotional Smoke
by Elton Glaser I’m praying again To a God I don’t believe in. I’m lighting candles like little spaceships That will carry my pleas and
Cafe Talk with the Late Robert Desnos
by Elton Glaser Nobody tells you how boring the dead are. They never buy me booze or listen to my talk. Ah, how I loved talking from the black
Dirty Face, Cripple & Wild for Bob Creeley *
by Peter F. Murphy The first used to chew & never wipe his chin. The second shot his leg about off going over a fence. The third drank a lot
The Levee
by Peter F. Murphy At eleven meters, the river lingers. Waves laugh to Liszt. On the pavement, children play tag. Lovers long for sofas hugged in
Voyage VII
by Peter F. Murphy Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood yet was hurried . . .
Plum Island Suite
by David Stankiewicz I At twenty–two all you need’s an old car music and books enough job to pay the rent a broken heart (optional)
North of Us
by Nicholas Spengler When everything has left us but the long bone of birch against the blackest sky When all has gone but the blood heat of you
Other People’s Dreams
by Nicholas Spengler In a town named for sleep, cradled in high rock, there’s an ancient church whose bells toss and turn at hazy intervals; a
Your Voice in Half-Light
by Nicholas Spengler At the interior window you can hear two kinds of birds: those within cages and those without. The former sing all day over
Deposition
by Lee Sharkey What I know is that there is a mural. Was a mural. What I heard was that there was a fax. Or a letter. What I read was that the
Art Thief
by Lee Sharkey Who can explain this ? We know who the agent is, but who is his agent ? What path did he walk to the vanishing point ? What
Mid-Century Ranch, Orange County
by Trina Gaynon I cannot tell you what a bargain this is. . . . — “$7,500” Josephine Miles
Cash
by Robert Herschbach It can stink like old shoes, curl at the edges, be a face gone ragged and creased. It’s still tender. A machine may not take
Lisa, Dancing
by Robert Herschbach Taller than the men who chased the crescent moons that fell from the strobe, you made the dim club worth its cover charge,
A Romance
by Rich Ives I shall chase flies across the room which shall be known as forever and I shall place forever in a box and close it and hide the box
Lumen
by Susan H. Maurer She had to kiss the floor they were so strict. She once wore coif, grey wool, whalebone corset stays cheap cotton slips,
Riddle Poem
by Susan H. Maurer The small black angels light on the telephone wire. Disappointingly, as they neither glitter nor shine, though the starlings
Face to Face
by David Wagoner At the outer corners of the eyes, the skin has come to points like directional indicators, and at the inner curves of the nose,
if this is all there is it better be enough
by Robert Roley there’s the war it seems it’s endless dreams crouching before the fire withered gray in
stranded fast upon these shores as twilight deepens
by Robert Roley stymied before icons of the virtual the news all apocalypse colorado burning words
the glove box poet
by Robert Roley gone downtown heard some old geezer gassin’ they can’t take nothin’ from you once you’re skint
Architecture
by Robbie Sugg I live in a concrete monolith cells divided by sheetrock plaster plateglass plastic
Observing Glen Park
by Robbie Sugg Clouds diffuse over the canyon, plank houses rise on stilts to meet the rice paper sky. The age old
Passing Through the Heart from: San José Song
by Robbie Sugg Passing through the heart of town, the swollen Guadalupe River Simply breathing this wet air, I am stoned beyond description
thank you for this
by Celina Villagarcia pressed against the backs of eyes, tears offer the slightest fire on room–warm arms warmth
Eternal Water
by Celina Villagarcia I want to birth one hundred children a river full of bearing — arms waving in welcome eyes closed
For Paul
by Celina Villagarcia In a hundred years your fingers too frail to braid with mine legs too burdened by time’s hand to walk
Random Afternoon / Late November
by Nick Squadere There is a strange / quiet — l o n e l i n e s s : not a single person home at my cousin’s house
The Paintress for Sam
by Nick Squadere But what could be more brilliant than the index finger behind your
Microcosm
by Nick Squadere SHINKICHI TAKAHASHI said that rivers & mountains exist within a single tuberous
Suburbia
by Donald Crane As I was trimming around my rose bushes, I glanced over the hedge And saw my neighbor’s wife on her chaise longue
Coming to Mr. Kirk
by Richard Taylor Before the crowd arrives I’ll find shelter among the thick trees and stand very still. The noise of them, the noise bends the
Cold Knowing
by Richard Taylor Water from the well in its corner of our barn and house can straighten a person up pink and suddenly with cold astringent
Artaud in Mexico
by John Macker He tells the dubious Tarahumara Rimbaud never met a French poet he didn’t disdain. Eats peyote by the handful from a painted
For Ted Berrigan
by John Macker Your “code of the west” is not the same as mine. You are all Manhattan via Oklahoma party Pepsi cowboy true rumbling gut on the
Reviews
Our Andromeda
by Brenda Shaughnessy. Copper Canyon Press, 2012, $16, paper, ISBN: 978-1-55659-410-6. Buy the Book We do artists few favors when we say, as a
Then Go On
by Mary Burger. Litmus Press, 2012, 93 pages, paper, ISBN: 978-1-933959-14-6. Buy the Book When I read the poems in Mary Burger’s Then Go On, I
Poet Biographies
David Wagoner
has published 19 books of poems, most recently After the Point of No Return, (Copper Canyon Press, 2112). He has also published ten novels, one
Celina Villagarcia
her roots are in the Rio Grande Valley, San Benito, Texas. She earned a B.A. in Sociology at Metropolitan State University of Denver and a Master
Richard Taylor
75, has been a teacher of German in colleges and Latin and English in private secondary schools. He was a member of the 1964 Olympic Nordic Team
Robbie Sugg
is a native Californian artist, musician, and poet living in San José, California. His work is informed by the diverse and interconnected
David Stankiewicz
lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine with his wife and dog. He has taught at Southern Maine Community College since 2004. He earned an M.F.A. from the
Nick Squadere
is a twenty–two year old artist /poet living and working in Glens Falls, NY; a small town in the foothills of the southern Adirondack
Nicholas Spengler
is a poet from Burlington, Vermont. He has written freelance pieces for the arts section of the Burlington Free Press, as well as a biography of
Lee Sharkey
is a long–time contributor to The Café Review. Maine readers will recognize the source of her poems in this issue in Gov. Paul
Robert Roley
is a mangy old poet with bad teeth living in Ashland, Oregon. A graduate of the Kerouac School, his work has appeared — mysteriously — in various
Peter F. Murphy
teaches at Murray State University. He grew up in Alexandria Bay, NY, the Heart of the Thousand Islands, where he learned how to shoot pool and
Susan H. Maurer
has had six little books published and her full length Perfect Dark, Ungovernable Press, was published by Sweden’s Lars Palm. She has had three
John Macker
lives in Northern New Mexico in an old roadhouse on the Santa Fe Trail. A widely published short story writer and poet for over 20 years, he has
Rich Ives
is the 2009 winner of the Francis Locke Memorial Poetry Award from Bitter Oleander and the 2012 winner of the Creative Nonfiction Prize from Thin
Robert Herschbach
is an editor and writer currently based in the metro Washington D.C. area. He completed an English degree at the University of New Hampshire.
Elton Glaser
has published eight full–length collections of poetry, including two new books in 2013: Translations from the Flesh (University of
Suzannah Gilman
her poetry has appeared in such publications as The Florida Review, Calyx, Pearl, Green Hills Literary Lantern, Family Matters: Poems of our
Trina Gaynon
volunteers with WriteGirl, an organization in Los Angeles providing workshops and mentors for high school girls interested in writing. She also
Donald Crane
is seventy–seven years old and lives in Milbridge, Maine. Since retirement he has been able to pursue a life–long interest in poetry
Artist Biographies
Reviewers Biographies
Christopher Robley
splits his time between the Portlands — Oregon and Maine, always longing for the other. His music has been praised by NPR, the LA Times, the
Jefferson Navicky
his work has recently appeared in The First Line, The Belfast Poetry Festival, Horse Less Review and Interrobang. His plays have been in The