It’s February 12, Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, but somehow it seems cheesy to say “Happy Lincoln’s Birthday” so I’ll begin by saying I hope this is a fine day for you. Here in Chicago, which is a cold white world, the days have been blending together, especially since I have spent so many days inside, doing a lot of nothing. I get lost on the Internet, which is where I read Dana Garling’s post “How to Survive Mercury in Retrograde.” I am not a big believer in astrology but … [Read more...]
All in a row
Printers Row Lit Fest was hot and fun. Weighed Words had record sales for a bookfair, and we got to talk with lots of cool people. Stopping by on Saturday was Chicago writer Sharon Solwitz. She's the author of Blood Mary and Blood and Milk (Sarabande) and teaches at Purdue Univeristy and was on hand for the "Neither Fish nor Fowl" reading put on by Northwestern MA/MFA faculty. Sharon Fiffer (friend to Solace in So Many Words) stopped by after her panel on the cozy … [Read more...]
Constance Vogel Adamkiewicz
Talking To My Heart Cool, isn't it? says the technician smiling as if she had painted your image on the monitor. Who can account for her taste, dear heart? You are a tangled package bound with rivers of string, your tricuspid valve a slit in torn wrapping, your thump-thump a secret trying to escape from its chamber. How shallow the breaths that fluttered against your rib cage. I thought you would collapse like a … [Read more...]
Contributors have been busy — Smith, Somlo, Hilbert, Meno, Kirk, Kerlikowske, Miller, Bass and Swist
J. Scott Smith ("Heartbeat") has a new story "Silence" in Luna Station Quarterly, which is a magazine focused on speculative fiction by up and coming women authors. Patty Somlo ("Starting to Breathe") has a new story "Where He Took His First Breath" in The Write Room. Donna Hilbert ("Flowers" and "In Quintana Roo") has a new guest blog on NEXTV's ALL LIT Up blogpost by James Goertel. I also wrote a guest essay ("In Service of Poetry") for ALL LIT UP. Many thanks to … [Read more...]
Transported
Since the previous post is about After Hours, I thought it appropriate to post a poem of mine that was published by Al DeGenova and P. Hertel in After Hours in 2002. Transported Riding home from the orthodontist on the crowded Lawrence Avenue bus, my body swaying to its stops and lurches, holding the sweaty metal pole, I stood before an old man, his gray cement eyes set on me so I smiled, imagining I was brightening his … [Read more...]