Issue

Lines For Turner Cassity

Librarian with military bearing,
You’ve left us poems critics call unsparing,

A wit not merely clever but hard-bitten.
Sometimes I hear you utter, “overwritten,”

And even at this distance, there’s no choice
But hear the word in that distinctive voice,

Not circumflexing drawl, dipthonged legato,
But southern, brisk particular staccato—

Inimitable voice—for never cruel—
Impatient only of the pompous fool

Night without attribute,
To which you bring all elements in turn:
Air intermittent in your throat;
Earth errant in your heart.
Bright water where your wet lips part
For fire I bring you, even as you burn.

Christophe Fricker

Christophe Fricker is the German translator of Edgar Bowers, Dick Davis, Timothy Steele, Joshua Mehigan, and other formalist poets. He is the author of one book of poetry, Das schöne Auge des Betrachters (The Beautiful Eye of the Beholder) which appeared with Johannes Frank in Berlin in 2008 and was awarded the Hermann Hesse Förderpreis 2009. His collection of travel writing, Larkin Terminal, appeared in 2009. Both books deal with linkages between friendship, travel, and language. Included in Larkin Terminal are essays on three formalist poets.

Kin

Michael R. Burch

Michael R. Burch is the editor of The HyperTexts. He has three Pushcart nominations and his poetry has been translated into Italian, Farsi, Russian and Gjuha Shqipe. His work has appeared over 700 times in publications which include Light Quarterly, The Lyric, Poet Lore, The Chariton Review, The Chimaera, Writer’s Digest—The Year’s Best Writing, The Neovictorian/Cochlea, The Best of the Eclectic Muse and Iambs & Trochees.

Stalking Nicole

Stalking Nicole

§

They don’t come together, but arrive outside at the same time, surprised to see each other. Inside, they sit together at a table and a waitress brings them both a beer.

“I didn’t know you were back in the area,” the man says.

“I’m not. I’m just…around for a few days,” she says.

Tom Earles

Tom Earles is a student in the MFA program at the University of Maryland, where he has been awarded fellowships and a teaching assistantship. While earning an MA in English from Rutgers-Camden his short fiction was nominated for the AWP Intro Journals Prize. He is prose editor of Sakura Review.