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Fall/Winter 2009-10
tom oristaglio
scott summers
cindy childress
tom rechtin
james b nicola
debra rymer
doug draime
corey mesler
rebecca schumejda
chris crittendon
arlene ang
joey nicoletti
brad johnson
lorie allred
elizabeth kay
alexander russo
nissa lee
kenneth gurney
jessi lee gaylord
keith brighouse
ajay vishwanathan
ethel rohan
william "cully" bryant
julie steiner
Steiner Interview
by Alex Nodopaka
Jennifer VanBuren
Jai Britton
Alex Nodopaka
Patrick Carrington
Mannequin Envy in memory of poet and artist Douglas Gamrath
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Chris Crittenden
fall-winter 09-10
Definitive
streams of moments
eddy into a long-sought face.
his fingers spiral
to follow the half-seen contours.
his breath makes the sound
of memory's water.
the past is clear and obvious
and glistening,
slipping through his fingers
like her hair.
minutes, years and seconds
form a shape. he can run his palms
over the seamless body,
the pure details.
he can dance with the beautiful girl
that time has become.
her presence drenches.
the ensemble of her silks, warmths,
softnesses and scents.
there is no morning
and night meanders
between awe and dream.
nothing is more real,
the rest of his life an afterthought,
a weakening ripple
from that far-off immortal
touch.
Accountant
the aching lack of quiet
in his fidgety eyes,
which dust spreadsheets for hours,
striving to cleanse the last contrary motes-
this is what replaced
spirited battles with mastodons,
and he feels castrated by the change,
sterlized beneath the shaved jawline
of his mathematical analysis of nothing.
for that is what
penny and dollar signs are:
squiggles and scintilla.
and the numbers after them
are just teeth in keys of ink,
a way to open illusory gates.
everyone must walk through those gates,
forgo unsmeared stars
to inhale the equations of muffler puke.
there's magic in the little numbers,
and his bittersweet fingers
cater to serve them fast.
to please them is to bed
one half of god, to decrypt any question
except the one which suggests
that the numbers themselves
lie.
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Bio Chris Crittenden lives in a rugged coastal area and does much of his writing in a hut in the woods. Backed by a Ph.D. in philosophy, he fearlessly teaches environmental ethics for the University of Maine. He has been interviewed twice on Poets Café, a radio show of KPFK Los Angeles, and was recently nominated for the Best New Poets anthology by the editor of Raving Dove. Gordian Butterflies, his latest chapbook, is reviewed in the current issue of Arsenic Lobster (20). Some recent acceptances are from: Chaffey Review, Merge Poetry Journal, Bolts of Silk and Quicksilver. He blogs as Owl Who Laughs. Blog Link: owlwholaughs.blogspot.com |
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