by John Goggin I: Lore Somewhere, out there, there is a box Of gopher wood and cedar Inlaid with royal porphyry. It’s sealed with seven golden locks; inside are golden keys.

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A history lesson Editor’s note: This piece was run in it’s entirety in this month’s Harper’s Magazine. It is such a poignant statement, however, that we wanted it to be available to our readers in it’s entirety. This and other documents on the Soviet’s slow recognition of a reality outside its mythology and ideology are [...]

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A poem by John Goggin When they came, they came as friends Blessed by the king, with new learning to impart. We all prospered, it is true; grew fat, built new houses, Mortgaged our futures, became blind. Wondrous, wasn’t it? When the wind shifted and a storm blew up, In just a big city moment [...]

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by John Goggin Memory is shards, just broken pots and bones hidden under the ashes, middens littering the shore of the common sea; memoir is mostly archeology. From 30 some years ago… One early March  afternoon, a raft of co-recreants is horsing around the big dining room table. Outside, it’s bitter cold, there’s rime on [...]

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A poem by Gene Novogrodsky Within a minute … The yellow-orange sun Above the red-green-red-green Traffic lights, With the golden-haired transvestite Waiting on a bench, chin in hand, Last customer a hope, And the chubby whore leaning Against a cab, man next to her, Him a hope, And the plasma-for-money line, long around the Trashy [...]

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A note from Virginia Gause Edinburg – The Edinburg Chamber of Commerce in lieu of The Edinburg Centennial will host “A Story of A Town”, an art exhibit featuring local, national and international artists. The exhibit will be on display from October 5th-10th for public viewing at the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce Depot, located on [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Munseetown (for Warren Vanderhill) The girls who lived in old Lucina Just west of where dear brazen Benny stands Were majors all and cognate in their minors, All lovely-limbed and loyal to sundry lands. All blonde and browned from days of endless summer, They laughed and chaffed their carefree [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Munseetown (for Garnet Drown Bertram) In Lindley Park Cemetery The tourists are attracted there, Treading softly, carefully, Reading what the stones declare: Beneath this stone are my son’s bones Drowned in the Yellowstone. The Twee, the Doon, the Yellowstone, These deeps that fill the cemetery Age upon age of [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Munseetown making the Huey noises again James is jacking with Harry’s brain which is already fried because Harry died in Da Nang but James is in pain James who carries a sack of pills uppers downers buffalobills is making the Huey noises again jumps off his stool into the [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Munseetown (for Tammy Meyer) I did not come this south to north for growth, No north roots pulled me, no, nor northern home, No tinseled dreams seduced me from the sun. The truth is plainly albumed here, for both Were happy where we were and where from. We were [...]

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A poem by Stan Raines Did he say to me before he called “Do you want to come?” There was peace I had sought Away from the ruck and fervor OF loving sisters Always the service and fetching The ointments in my distress, So soothing at the touch, The meals and pampering But also The [...]

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A note from Stan Daniel García Ordáz, aka The Poet Mariachi, appeared on Channel 23 News to promote his reading series this weekend in McAllen. Take a look.

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KÚZA-NÁMA LIX Listen again. One Evening at the Close Of Ramazán, ere the better Moon arose, In that old Potter’s Shop I stood alone With the clay Population round in Rows. LX And, strange to tell, among that Earthen Lot Some could articulate, while others not: And suddenly one more impatient cried- ‘Who is the [...]

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A thought from Stan Raines I was standing in line at HEB yesterday and the man in front of me, someplace in his fifties, mustachioed and trim asked me how I was and I gave him my usual non-commital “Doin’ fine” and returned a “How you doin’?” “Ah, you know,” he said, “another beautiful day [...]

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From Gene’s Notebook …smoky, smoky enough for choking, the grills, the barbecue grills, some with charcoal, some with wood, some with gas … …always men, little boys to old men, circling the smoke, women away, unless one comes by to ask an unwelcomed question … …the smoke, so thick, the men, shadows in the smoke, [...]

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- Y – It may be all movements through time are like dance steps, but sometimes the tempi, The patterns seem random, seem to us frantic, confuse us and lose us In rhythms that stutter and stumble, carry us off of our footing. Fitting that you, then, pentultimate letter, occasion reflection. Slow down the score [...]

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A poem by Michael Stewart Fling me around if you like. You’ll find that I’m able To land on two feet, like a bipedal cat. I’m steadier than you are, more stable, But you can count on little more than that. For I am not a cat, at least I’m often not. I’m like the [...]

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A poem by Michael Stewart – T – I for one do not appreciate the joke Of those who say that Tau is just a bull. Note how the horizontal stroke Runs parallel to earth, arrests the upward pull. Of aspiration, drags us down. What son of man Among us dares to cast this frightful [...]

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A poem by Michael Stewart — S — S is more or less what C would be When c is not in Church Or not being k. Ever since its sinuosity Slithered through the garden, Man has leaned to speak In conspiratorial whispers.

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Wherein the Poet Relates a Visitation and Elucidates His Theme XL You know, my Friends, how long since in my House For a new Marriage I did make Carouse: Divorced old barren Reason from my Bed, And took the Daughter of the Vine to Spouse. XLI For ‘Is’ and ‘Is-not’ though with Rule and Line, [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters BUBBLES THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, led to believe her concrete block demesne surrounded by barker and cagéd cat was of her natural habitat unchanging and forever green, is dead.  Beloved, she fell asleep, o.d.’ed like a teen-ager in the park she slipped into the surrounding darkness deaf to the [...]

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A Poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters (for Joseph Satterwhite) I If at the whole year’s nooning and the noon Of days, at the still daylight hour I am begot Of fleshéd bones, death, darknesses, of doom The which I pray Thou sparest me, what-not: If at the whole day’s nooning and the year’s [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters (For Carol and Jerry Kasparek) Amasis was in Egypt king (Whose dwelling ran a measured mile) The upper and the lower Nile Long ago Whose women when he bade them sang: The desert boogied, heaven rang, The painted women and their men Congoed kickshaws then and ran [...]

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A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters A winter thaw opens the children’s coats And bursts the locks on schoolyard fences, Disturbs the sluggish chucks; the stoats Pursuing the nights on their private fancies Are vicious with laggards, fond of a chance, Like our children in their baffle, kiting In dives, the wind-hovered swallows [...]

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A poem by Rudy H. García I listen to the River, Because my body is molded with its fertile clay My blood mingles with its rejuvenating water, Cleansing my spirit free. I listen to the river Because I hear over and over from the Eagle and the Jaguar That the name is El Rio Bravo…The [...]

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