
Foreword – Matt Mason
When we set out to create an issue with the theme of The New: Poetry we readied our horses and prepared to set off in search of giants to destroy, despite the sneaking suspicion that some of them ...

Sam Stecher
She Claims to Like My Face in Dim Light She claims to like my face in dim light She says it looks lived in She likes the rough edges of my palms and finger tips She says my lack of symmetry ...

Anis Mojgani
The Crow My grandfather did not speak much English. I didn’t speak much Farsi. He drank Coca-Cola in glasses with ice. At lunch I joined him. We watched a lot of television. The Price is ...

Anis Mojgani
At the Humphrey Bogart movie There is the sound of a car off camera pulling up to the stone mansion to pick Bogie up. Bogie goes to leave but before he does he turns back to say somethingto the ...

Anis Mojgani
The airplane police or How I met my wife I’m sitting on the plane when two men in long grey overcoats and dark fedoras come up to the man sitting across the aisle from me. They look like ...

Katie Wheeler-Dubin
Dear Cooper Union February 8, 2012 Dear Cooper Union, My name is Katie Wheeler-Dubin and I am in love with Raphael Villet. I don't want Raphael to go to Cooper Union. I don't want him ...

Bart Schaneman
Lafayette Avenue For Frank O’Hara The light now is yellow, and there are birds. Brooklyn at 6 a.m. and I am expecting my body to collapse from my incessant working. The clock tower is ...

Bart Schaneman
Seagulls I know now why the poets stayed. It’s been months since I left and still – I was riding a bike through Carroll Gardens at dawn, trying to make a decision not to hurt ...

Zedeka Poindexter
Peach Cobbler Some families have parables about their history They can spin loving tales about where they came from We, we make peach cobbler The best story we can tell you will fill your ...

Zedeka Poindexter
Poor Relations Today is the funeral for one of the Strong daughters Years ago one moved south and labored though packing houses and inner cities The other stayed near family and provided ...

Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz
33 & 1/3 This morning, I wrote LET IT GO on my hand in thick black ink. I am 33, and I can’t believe I still have do this. Driving to coffee, the sky rips itself open, cries all ...

Twyla Hansen
Moon Song When the poet says I have grown tired of the moon, tired of its look of astonishment, I suddenly am weary of self-pity. And of my own naïveté, that predisposition to take the ...

Michael Mlekoday
Self-Portrait from the Other Side The woods behind my elementary school held ghosts and gang members. We studied the carvings in the trees: GD, Gangster Disciples or some spirit ...

Ross Hickerson
My Grandfather Explains A Killing it ain't so much that it's murder. sometimes you just have to take care of your own. this was away back in '55 maybe '57. i wasn't more than your age, ...

Jason Bayani
Pulling Threads Everything in my head is the sound, word without shape. I’m waiting for this to become a thing, or for it to make me interesting. I practice getting my handshake right ...

Todd Robinson
A McDonald’s in Nebraska What thoughts I have of you tonight, Jim Daniels, for I slapped the burgers down on the griddle with a headache Sixteen and looking at the full future. In my ...

Heidi Hermanson
After Larry Levi’s Motel Room Shiny on the outside is more than just a metaphor for some things. You only need a few things— a tv with cable, a swimming pool, a liquor store you can ...

Marcella Remund
How to Practice Poetry Take a long walk. Breathe deep. Taste the air. Keep your eyes open. Try not to think. Wet your lips with your tongue. Tilt your head slightly into the ...

Dawn Gabriel
Poem Built of Eleven Poems Unwritten 1. The first — all pathetic fallacy — is self-loathing by nature, lazily angry, in love with O!, covets the unfraught gaze of buttons, the ...

Khary Jackson
Dear Lyrics #1 Dear Lyrics to Eric B. and Rakim's I Know You Got Soul, My wife just told me she had an affair. With my brother. He and I were never close but it still seemsall kinds of wrong. ...

Steve Langan
Song of Myself (Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Nebraska City) April 9 Sunrise I don’t want to go, don’t make me do it, I wanna stay home with the azaleas and the dogs ...

Shawnte Orion
Sincerest Form of Rejection Dear Anyjournal Review: Thank you for the recent subscription offer. I appreciated the opportunity to order at a discounted rate. Be ...