POEM BY SETH JANI

 

 

 

 

Moonstruck

 

 

The body like cedar dust.

The soul mastering oneironautics,

Passing through the slim door
Reflected in the water,

Or disentangling from the flesh

To alight on the small flowers

Of the other world.
Our lives are simultaneous

With that one,

And we dance in the two-footed darkness

Straddling the forgetful banks

Of sleep and small thinking.

To remember, To remember,

The one mantra we must recall.

To name again the logic-shattering death

That rips us, roots upwards, from the earth

Like love or mouldering,

Like the bright reflection

That drew Li Po

Into the moonstruck sky

Beneath the Yangtze River.

 

 

 

 

Seth Jani currently resides in Seattle, WA and is the founder of Seven CirclePress (http://www.sevencirclepress. com/). His own work has been published widely in such places as The Foundling Review, The Devilfish Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, Hawai`i Pacific Review and Gravel. More about him and his work can be found at http://www.sethjani.com/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POEM BY JIM DAVIS

 

 

 

 

CREEK BODY

 

 

Figures shaded by the navy willow

curl in the back of the river’s hand

where roots are veins & under

the crawdad tree, her jaw is swollen

with tobacco leaves. Woodlice curl

in her palm & the ice chest we bought

from the Spoon River Rest Stop

is floating downstream with the lost

baggies of green grapes. The coyote

tonguing honey from her snarls

at the crows nodding on the frames

of dimness. I’m digging a hole for us

with shards of a shattered star to light

another dark path pointed home.

 

I’m hungry, she’s hungry, we’re home

less. Then shadow’s a blessing unknown.

 

 

 

 

JIM DAVIS is a student of Human Development and Psychology at Harvard University and has previously studied at Northwestern University and Knox College. He reads for TriQuarterly and his work has appeared in Seneca Review, Bellevue Literary Review, The Harvard Crimson, Portland Review, Midwest Quarterly, RHINO, and California Journal of Poetics, among others. He has received multiple Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations and won many contests, including the Line Zero Poetry Prize. In addition to writing and painting, Jim is an international semi-professional American football player. @JimDavisArt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POEM BY DANIEL VON DER EMBSE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers on the ground

 

 

Androgynous girl floats past
wind flips her hair up
tiny tattoo on her nape
love me

 

Is that a dare or a request
I wanted to ask – knowing
the answer should be yes

 

Sirens wailing past
stop her like stone
to look down at her boots
where the answer is written

 

As sound trails off some birds ruckus
stirring up dust
covering over the words
lost answers on the ground

 

 

 

 

Daniel von der Embse was born and raised in Mansfield, Ohio,

and graduated from Ashland University with a B.A. degree in

Theatre. He began writing poetry after a career as an awardwinning

copywriter for advertising agencies in New York,

Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and San Francisco. His poems

appear The Missing Slate, Penny Ante Feud, Harpoon Review, Vine

Leaves Literary Journal, and Poetry Quarterly.