Friday, January 31, 2014

New Poetry by William G. Davies Jr.









At The Cemetery
 
January is such
a conducive month
to die in.
Its cold, dark.
The trees are blank
and that uncle
who's cheating
on his wife
invariably arrives late
to a chorus
of vapory exhalations.


- William G. Davies Jr. 2014
 
 
The New Year
 
Snow endows
January's torpid light
with a CFL aura
as if the incandescence
of Christmas
had been so long ago
and those four packs
of GE colored bulbs
never looked better
than strung on the tree.


- William G. Davies Jr. 2014

Saturday, January 04, 2014

New Poetry by Michael Brownstein










Entertainment

I am not at war now,
I was not at war then.

The music of air and fire
warmed us, the cascade

of flames, the river
light and glitter

and the balconies where we stood
looked over the black clouds

of gunpowder and beauty,
of harmony within screams.

Along the road, along the high rises,
glass and concrete melted

and everywhere around us,
symphonies ebbed and fell,

changed cadence, changed notation,
and cannon fire added confirmation

and just the right amount
of counterpoint to the composition.


- Michael Brownstein 2014


Michael H. Brownstein has been widely published throughout the small and literary presses. His work has appeared in The CafĂ© Review, American Letters and Commentary, Skidrow Penthouse, Xavier Review, Hotel Amerika, Free Lunch, Meridian Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, The Pacific Review, Poetrysuperhighway.com and others. In addition, he has nine poetry chapbooks including The Shooting Gallery (Samidat Press, 1987), Poems from the Body Bag (Ommation Press, 1988), A Period of Trees (Snark Press, 2004), What Stone Is (Fractal Edge Press, 2005), I Was a Teacher Once (Ten Page Press, 2011) and Firestorm: A Rendering of Torah (Camel Saloon Press, 2012). He is the editor of First Poems from Viet Nam (2011). Brownstein taught elementary school in Chicago’s inner city (he is now retired), but he continues to study authentic African instruments, conducts grant-writing workshops for educators, designs websites and records performance and music pieces with grants from the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs, the Oppenheimer Foundation, BP Leadership Grants, and others.