Al Maginnes
Against Relapse

Al Maginnes - Against Relapse

Poetry
Al Maginnes's most recent books are Ghost Alphabet (White Pine Press, 2008), winner of the 2007 White Pine Poetry Prize, and two chapbooks published in 2010, Between States (Main Street Rag) and… Read more »
Paul Hostovsky
Clutch Steal

Paul Hostovsky - Clutch Steal

Poetry
Paul Hostovsky is the author of 3 books of poetry, Bending the Notes, Dear Truth, and A Little in Love a Lot. He has won a Pushcart Prize and been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer’s… Read more »
Ned Balbo
Dark Horse

Ned Balbo - Dark Horse

Poetry
Ned Balbo received the 2010 Donald Justice Prize, selected by A.E. Stallings, for The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems (Story Line Press/WCU Poetry Center). His previous books include Lives of the… Read more »
Dorianne Laux
Letters in a Box

Dorianne Laux - Letters in a Box

Poetry
Dorianne Laux’s most recent collections are The Book of Men and Facts about the Moon. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and winner of the Oregon Book Award and The… Read more »
John Walser
Names for the Skies

John Walser - Names for the Skies

Poetry
John Walser, a founding member of the Foot of the Lake Poetry Collective, is currently working on a full-length manuscript, Edgewood Orchard Galleries, as well as two chapbooks of poetry, 19 Skies and… Read more »
Todd Kaneko
Reading Comprehension 12: The Crane Wife

Todd Kaneko - Reading Comprehension 12: The Crane Wife

Poetry
W. Todd Kaneko lives and writes in Grand Rapids, Michigan. His stories and poems can be seen in Puerto Del Sol, Crab Creek Review, Fairy Tale Review, Los Angeles Review, Southeast Review, Blackbird,… Read more »
David Dodd Lee
Replacement Parts and the Soul

David Dodd Lee - Replacement Parts and the Soul

Poetry
David Dodd Lee has published six previous full-length books of poems, including Orphan, Indiana (Akron, 2010), The Nervous Filaments (Four Way Books, 2010), Abrupt Rural (New Issues, 2004) and Arrow… Read more »
Tim Kahl
Um Real

Tim Kahl - Um Real

Poetry
Tim Kahl [http://www.timkahl.com] is the author of Possessing Yourself (Word Tech, 2009) and The Century of Travel (Word Tech, 2012). His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Indiana Review,… Read more »
Edgar Silex
Vision

Edgar Silex - Vision

Poetry
Edgar Gabriel Silex is the author of two poetry collections from Curbstone. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the… Read more »
Angela Narciso Torres
Waiting for My Father at the University Hospital Lab

Angela Narciso Torres - Waiting for My Father at the University Hospital Lab

Poetry
Angela Narciso Torres was born in Brooklyn and raised in Manila. Her poems are available or forthcoming in Cimarron Review, Crab Orchard Review, Cream City Review, North American Review, Rattle, and… Read more »

Vision

Edgar Silex

I once helped build the eyes that watch the world
eyes that see through heaven’s clouds
eyes that see you wandering in the dark
that watch you sleeping behind your walls
or wherever you may try to hide
I wrote the telemetric language of their sight
that gives them their intelligence
and I calculated all the costs of harnessing those eyes
to keep them focused on their tasks
through cold and dark their lives dependent on the sun
that shines upon the universe like an unblinking gaze
and though they mostly see the evil
and the tragedy befalling man and Earth
they also search the galaxies for distant promises
the earth for the riches to be found by mining deep within
for treasures that enrich the few
those eyes lock upon the eyes of storms
that sweep away those who cannot stand
against indifferent force and in the offices of life
in windowless and soundproof rooms
I tested those eyes against my own suspicious pair
sine-ing and cosine-ing equating and equivocating
and what I witnessed through those eyes
turned me against the god man envisions in himself
that gives him his belief that he can see through dark
see under the clouds under the earth
see into the distant origin of man and Earth
with eyes that really do not see that far at all
that turns the viewer into a savage god
who grows suffering into agony
who makes an industry of desperation
and sees only unclaimed dominions
and not the blue monastery the mother or the cradle
nor the emptiness abounding
and the only promise that I saw through those eyes
I once helped build to watch the world
was the promise of man’s blindness
Read more »