Articles

A position opened at a new nursery in town, so I applied, eager to apply my burgeoning succulent and mulching knowledge, knowing my retail experience was limited to a few months behind a dry cleaner’s counter, counting on this opportunity to rescue me from a life working maintenance at a chemical plant. The interview went …

Because the road will press a body into the pavement until it is washedin summer storms, I dragged the woodchuck’s rigid body to the shoulder with mullein leaves.We called them lamb’s-ear when we were young. Mammals,milk bred, the blackest soilmeans growth. These were dry and yellowed in the gravel ditch; not the scoop of remnantvalley …

Twenty-five years ago, I found out my friend, Luis “Louie” Rodriguez, came home to Rhode Island to die. Louie had AIDS. He knew the day was dawning. He didn’t want any of his friends to see him die. I didn’t get the chance to see him, to say goodbye, tell him how much I love him, …

is what you hear the ranger say.Your sneakers trace the snapped-grasshalos of his, a single braid laid like wet bread in the soft dough of his shoulders: They are actually one large system beneath the soil. Hidden but not. What a beautiful way of saying he knows. Or alsoIs. Bundled in the soft safety of …

how often will the same poets write about the leaves change? how many times will we turn on the news to hear of a groundhogs head turning in february?it is groundhog day after allhow often will we hear of cherry blossoms birthing in spring? how many times will we hear of the first snowfall in …

We Contain Landscapes by Patrycja Humienik (Tin House, 2025) To ask questions not to receive answers, but simply for the pleasure and perversity of asking them—this is the endearing stubbornness of We Contain Landscapes, Patrycja Humienik’s debut collection of poems. This book is propelled by an endless curiosity, shimmering throughout its pages like clear springwater …

Marginal Verse by Jamie Silvonek (Game Over Books, 2025) Marginal Verse is Jamie Silvonek’s debut poetry collection, which I had the honor of reading as a galley. I was stunned by Silvonek’s poems — which are vulnerable, evocative, viscerally felt, and demanding. I could feel each image pulsate, each line break shatter. Marginal Verse is …

When Kyle turns off the vacuum cleaner, silence rushes down the second floor hallway of her home and closes around her like an angry mob. She stands there in a pair of Mom-cutoff denim shorts, loose blue tank-top, and crocs, with her black hair spilling free from the back and edges of a blue bandanna. …

The naked snow slouched serenely through the crystal-cold canvas of my well-weathered window. The Artist’s sky today was painted battleship gray though brightly lit without shadowing. Frozen in temperature. Frozen in time Frozen in place Handprints on the glass forensic evidence of years spent viewing the outside from within trying to revisit my old world …

The heart is the soul and power – Motivation each artery is connected to nouns – Life each vein is a goal or task – Purpose Every book read evolves new streaks – Darwin  every friend made strength is grown – Strife every love skips a beat – Diagnose Time stops for no one – …