Matthew Graham

Matthew Graham

Our poetry consultant, Edgar Gabriel Silex, says: “Walt Whitman was a racist who called African Americans ‘baboons.’ White scholars attempt to dismiss his racism by claiming ‘everyone back then was racist.’ Here’s a note to all...
Mark Irwin

Mark Irwin

The Invention of the Snowman Somewhere beyond the bounds of sleepmy bones undressed, rising from their fleshto become this selfless, falling dust. It was then I wanted earswith which to hear the familiar criesof those children building me. And of course I had no...
Gary Soto

Gary Soto

Occasionally Making Sense When I was twenty, in college and living on a street that was a row of broken apartment buildings, my brother and I returned to our apartment from a game of racquetball to sit in the living room and argue whether we should buy a quart of...
Susan Ludvigson

Susan Ludvigson

Departures   The dreams accumulate. In one, I see you rowing across a wide river, the current taking you farther downstream than you choose. I wave, my hand is a dove that would lead you to shore, but you are angry, fighting the water, and do not see me. Another...

William Matthews

Make It New   There it stands, unmade, like a bed or an apology, or a long unspoken sentence   with an apple in its throat. What could be simpler? Grammar urges each sentence   to its close so that grammar may close its files, though each sentence holds...