Poetry | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
Poetry | Tarpaulin Sky Magazine
PUBLISHING NOTHING BY BILLY COLLINS SINCE 2003 | IMAGE: NOAH SATERSTROM
Jeff T. Johnson, excerpts from “The Book / Or / The Woods”
"Y the monster has a deck of cards. The back of each a / forest. The monster lays a cross along discarded leaves. The / cards are invisible, but the monster knows they are there...." -- from Jeff T. Johnson's The Book / Or / The Woods, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Marty Cain, Two Poems
"I dream of my manifest body / and coexisting with toxic waste, I dream of cops / who murder babies, I dream of teachers who murder babies, / I dream of a doctor who says You want a boy / and pulls a cock from his drawer and glues it on / and it dangles flaccid and huge from our infant’s body ..." -- From Marty Cain's The Wound Is (Not) Real: A Memoir, semifinalist for the 2017 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prizes.
Geoffrey Babbitt, Five Poems
“the temporal unfolding / an expression of eternality / -- sun thrashing -- / Office of the Dead reminds medieval believers // to prepare -- the here / and now should be put to good / use -- the plot is / acknowledging the way -- nature folded // into grace, the grace / of something unnamable” -- from "On Time and the Office of the Dead," by Geoffrey Babbitt
Kiki Petrosino, Two Villanelles
"When I dream of the future, I’m always alone. / But something drags me with fear teeth. / I don’t know what I want. I only love / what I’m Lord of. Teach me, or else." -- from "Purgatorio," by Kiki Petrosino.
Laynie Browne, Two Poems
"She closed her eyes and remained very still, until she began to feel the language inside her soften, until the gormless dissolved, until gothic overtones rose to the surface, fell and expired into the theatrics supporting her, until her breathing became a succession of cures. What is literature for?"
Poem by Jennifer S. Cheng: “Inside Our Killing”
Post-election poem by Jennifer S. Cheng. "In the end: our dead animal. Mottled fur, and I have sucked you dry. Marrow the bone with which I cleanse my teeth."
Emily Carr, excerpts from “The Emergency of Feeling Manual”
"you gotta lean over the wastepaper basket, you gotta wipe your mouth, you gotta swallow." -- excerpts from Emily Carr's The Emergency of Feeling Manual, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Laura Goldstein, excerpt from “Golden Infection”
“i can see myself standing at the front of the room / this play is about relationships between bodies, / i tell them. they infect one another with their mouths,” — from Laura Goldstein's Golden Infection, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Zeeshan Pathan, “The Minister of Disturbances”
"This is my prayer. The doors of the night / Have been eaten by termites. I am just beginning." -- from Zeeshan Pathan's The Minister of Disturbances, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.
Julianne Neely, poems from “I’m Like the Language Boys”
"Yes / my insides / look like bar graphs / don’t act like / you’re unsure what that / means Yes I am invested in your well-being / but / I must reinvent the opus I am" -- from Julianne Neely's I’m Like the Language Boys, shortlisted for the 2019 Tarpaulin Sky Book Awards.