Bird Ornaments

Angel T. Dionne

Broken Tribe Press, 2025

reviewed by Bethany Reid

Angel Dionne is a poet and an artist, and the poems in Bird Ornaments struck me as ekphrastic poems in search of surrealist art. Splintered …

A Streetcar Named Desire

By Tennessee Williams

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Reviewed by Scott Klavan, March 25, 2025

By now, it’s well-known theater history that after Tennessee Williams’s play A Streetcar Named Desire premiered on Broadway in late …

I like to write short, pithy letters to the editor for our local newspaper. I know, I know, nobody reads the paper except old people like me. But there are lots of old people, and I’d like to think I …

O Lucky Day
by Patricia Clark

Madville Publishing, 2025

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

“We can’t give up joy,” is a phrase that struck me as I read, sighing, Patricia Clark’s new book of poems, O Lucky Day…

Mary Said What She Said
Text by Darryl Pinckney
Directed by Robert Wilson
NYU Skirball Center
Reviewed March 1, 2025

By Scott Klavan

At the start, one of the world’s most revered actors, Isabelle Huppert, stands frozen in a black …

We are all shaped and sculpted by our past, and trauma plays a major part in our personal and collective history. Whether it’s caused by an abusive parent or a vicious authoritarian leader it causes lasting damage, and treatment is …

Art by Cleonique Hilsaca

Joy

my neighbor pushes
a naked raw chicken
into my mail slot
every morning
and I wrestle
with the world
and with the cryptic meaning
of this sanctified act

uncooked chicken
makes a pitiful deity

A …

Art by Anna Magruder

Shanon Series

I. Shanon in the Intensive Care Unit

Shanon is hooked up to 
seventeen machines 

but the best machine,
for some procedures, 
is the nurse’s hand.

At one point the nurse presses
her fist into …

Art by Zoe Pawlak

So Simple, So Difficult

Slow. Steadfast. Sustainable. These three words may seem simple, but they hold immense power in any area of life. Whether you’re navigating personal growth, business, or health, they can help guide you …

Passport
by Richard Jones
Green Linden Press, 2025

Reviewed by Matthew Murrey

In Passport, his 20^th book of poems, Richard Jones has done something sly. To readers familiar with his work, he offers some of his signature moves: …

SWEPT AWAY
Book by John Logan
Music & Lyrics by The Avett Brothers
Directed by Michael Mayer
The Longacre Theater
Broadway Review by Scott Klavan (12/21/24)

By the time you read this review, Swept Away will be closed. It didn’t …

Art by Hua Nian

‘Tis the season for over consumption more than anything else, but, before we go deeper, a couple of definitions courtesy of Merriam-Webster:     

Consumption – act of using up in great quantity, destroying or squandering material …

Isabelle Lewis: Greetings

By Dan Ursini
©2024

There is the mundane eeriness of sour horror movie soundtracks. In deep contrast is the musical expression of a bedrock eeriness in the nature of life, which can be the sound of a …

Wintering by Marguerite Gignoux

A Manifesto for the coming months and years

I will stop

discussing,

convincing,

rationalizing,

arguing, 

expecting,

agonizing,

ruminating,

worrying,

about IT.

I will

sit still,

quiet down,

breathe slowly,

act kindly,

speak truthfully,

write …

A Day to Remember by Frantisek Strouhal

Before I even put a single thought on paper or computer, I want you to know this was written in its entirety a week ago when all the pundits were predicting a very …

The Braille Encyclopedia: Brief Essays on Altered Sight

by Naomi Cohn

Rose Metal Press, 2024

reviewed by Seana Graham

Another gem of a book from Rose Metal Press. If the author hadn’t described how the book came about in …

FABULOSA

poems by Karen Rigby

Jackleg Press 2024

reviewed by Bethany Reid

Oh my, put on your spangled tux for this one.   

Some poetry books are balm. They soothe a reader’s jangled nerves. Fabulosa isn’t one of those …

Art by Morgan Tyree with “toy camera”

Playing games with my 7-year-old granddaughter Sophie is a favorite pastime of mine, and teaching her Backgammon, an ancient game going back thousands of years, one that  I learned from my own grandfather …

The Shakespeare Requirement

by Julie Schumacher

Doubleday, 2018

reviewed by Seana Graham

The Shakespeare Requirement is the sequel to Schumacher’s earlier novel on academic life, Dear Committee Members, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor, so you …

Art by Rowene Weems

I wrote about Grief and Gifts in July, Hope and Joy in August. As I try to figure out where I am right now, a sense of evenness, of balanced reality stands out to me …

The Book of Failures

by Neil Shepard

Madville Publishing, 2024

reviewed by Carmen Germain                                        

No easy reconciliation appears in Neil Shepard’s ninth poetry collection, The Book of Failures. The poet explores how we fail ourselves, each other, and the …

Alta Vista: Exhilaration

By Dan Ursini ©2024

I try to write about cutting-edge music, often culled from surprising sources.  Yet even I was amazed to find out that that the primary source material for a new album of experimental country …

August 21, 2024

You don’t see many women on U.S. coins. I pawed through my collection of change recently and found a few females. Helen Keller is etched into an Alabama coin. Lady “Commonwealth” is pictured holding a ribboned staff …

Katherine Ross, Cut from the Same Cloth (detail)

I fluctuate and have my seasons just like the calendar, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Well, not quite in that order and regularity but still there is a rhythm to it. My …

Yours, oil, 31 x 39in

Ache, etching, 5 x 6 1/2in

Martha’s Morning, oil, 31 x 39in

Cursing through the lines, watercolor, 23 x 15in (framed)

Mind Shadows, oil, 39 x 55i

 …

Murder Yet to Come

by Isabel Briggs Myers

Frederick A. Stokes, 1930, Chosho Publishing, 2024

reviewed by Seana Graham

I love reading mysteries, but don’t review them often because I find it hard to talk about the story without giving …

Art by Karen Waller

In general it is considered fortunate to live a long life and to have a large family. I have been given both, closing in on eight decades of living and surrounded by a large extended family …

At the Edge of a Thousand Years

by Matt Hohner

Jacar Press, 2024

reviewed by Bethany Reid

winner of the 2023 Jacar Press Full-Length Poetry Book Contest, selected by Carolyn Forché

Books of poetry often begin with a …

Art by Gianluca Giarrizzo

An Unremitting Epiphany:

Shoulders and knees unyieldingly mature!
Mine slide bone over offending bone and
puff like tough balloons, fueling refusal
to move. Once, my shoulders were boulders. Once,
my knees weren’t tricky. I’d sic ‘em …

Mt. Sentinel Burn Scar, 2020, from the series Treading Cheatgrass

Summer Fire, 2023, from the series Treading Cheatgrass

Trophy, 2021, from the series Treading Cheatgrass

Dimorphous Bunny, 2023, from the series Treading Cheatgrass

Untitled (Montana Landscape), 2021, from the …

Pink Moon
by Tina Barr
Jacar Press, 2024

reviewed by Bethany Reid

Pink Moon was the inaugural winner of the Jacar Press Editor’s Choice Award.

In a craft essay for The Great Smokies Review, Tina Barr describes juxtaposition in …

June, 2024

When you hear the name Maria Tallchief, and find out that an image of her is enshrined on a U.S. quarter, what does your inner eye imagine? A woman with long black braids, sitting in a fire circle, …

Art by Mike Worrall

A Father, a Grandfather, a Man

These three words can be defined in several ways, biologically and genetically, culturally, socially, and even symbolically. There is a common theme of maleness, which has some defined attributes, XY …

Art by Charles Ritchie

Ode To My Wedding Ring

We married at lunchtime
without a ring to circle our love,
then years later, when marriage wanes,
you bought me a silver band
with puckered crystals
that a Cambodian woman, …

May 25, 2024

George Bernard Shaw once wrote that he wanted to work for a greater purpose, and not be “a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making [me] …

The Vulnerables

by Sigrid Nunez

Riverhead Books, 2023

reviewed by Seana Graham

Only when I was young did I believe that it was important to remember what happened in every novel I read. Now I know the truth: what …

Could you fly an airplane if you had to? I’m not sure I could, but maybe with modern automation and good instruction I might imagine saving the day if the pilot needed help. Oh, sure, dream on!

Back in the …

I like the various images they put on U.S. quarters these days. I have a few that are favorites, of trees and parks mostly. But an image of a woman caught my attention, mainly because there were no words …

PIETÁ

by Frank Paino

Jacar Press, 2023

reviewed by Bethany Reid

Winner of the Jacar Press Chapbook Prize, 2023, chosen by Saddiq Dzukogi, author of Your Crib, My Qibla

Pietá is Frank Paino’s fourth book, and it is easy …

Samuel Andreyev: Thorough

by Dan Ursini

©2024

Samuel Andreyev is a serious composer with a dual presence on the Internet—for his music, especially his recently released album, In Glow of Like Seclusion. He also comments and does interviews on …

GOOD MORNING, UNSEEN

by Catherine Carter

Jacar Press, 2023

reviewed by Bethany Reid

Reading Catherine Carter’s chapbook, Good Morning, Unseen, I felt as though I were seated at the kitchen table of a new friend. She pours coffee and …

Ice Hours
by Marion Starling Boyer

Wheelbarrow Books, 2023

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk,
EIL Poetry Editor

Spring suddenly paused, temperatures dropping, so it’s perfect to have returned to Ice Hours, by Marion Starling Boyer, in my …

Greg Ward: Noble Quest

By Dan Ursini

©2024

Dion’s Quest by Greg Ward’s Rogue Parade contains nearly an hour of brilliantly layered music by a quintet that has developed into a magnificent jazz ensemble. Leader Ward wrote every song. He …

Aisle 228
by Sandra Marchetti

Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2023

Reivewed by Kathleen Kirk
EIL Poetry Editor

It’s baseball season, and I’m enjoying the baseball poems in Aisle 228, by Sandra Marchetti. It’s about baseball in general, …

All the Time You Want
Selected Poems 1977-2017
by Keith Taylor

Dzanc Books, 2024

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk,
Poetry Editor, Escape Into Life

No matter the delay, I always manage to read the right book at the right time. …

Avoiding the Rapture
by Karen J. Weyant

Riot in Your Throat, 2023

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk,
Poetry Editor, Escape Into Life

I suppose I’ve been avoiding the rapture for some time now, accidentally careful not to get swept up …

My Most Inspirational Book (so far), or The Monk and the Surgeon

On this day, 3/12/2024, I finished reading Notebooks of a Wandering Monk by Matthieu Ricard, all 700 pages of it. Overwhelmed, I feel I’m not able to fully …

“Johnny Get Angry, Johnny Get Mad… I want a brave man; I want a cave man…” I have been listening to 50s music this month, and some of the lyrics just kill me. The cave man lyric is sung with …

(For clarity’s sake, this was this year, not in 2004. Typo.)

When I got a call last month from author and editor Susie Bright inviting me to a Burns Supper right here in Santa Cruz, I eagerly accepted. While in …

Art by Jim Holyoak, Ghost Whale in a Ghost Forest

The Human or the Environment–An Ethical Dilemma?

I have been privileged to befriend a few well known teachers and scholars, mostly in Medicine and Mindfulness. Martin Marty, however, is …

Naomi Ashley: Love Bug

By Dan Ursini ©2024

The lyrics of country/roots music artist Naomi Ashley are poetic, instantly memorable—and they express wisdom of many different kinds. Ashley sings them in a voice that is pure lyrical honey. She …

Corona Girl: Fancy Bird Friend, acrylic/collage, 12 x 16 in, 2020

Corona Girl: Friendship is Golden, acrylic/collage, 12 x 12 in, 2020

Corona Girl: Undercover, acrylic/collage, 12 x 12 in, 2020

Corona Girl —Meditation, acrylic/collage, 12 x 12 …

Maysey Craddock, the light that traveled the shore

Via Basel: Insights from 50 Years of Orthopedic Practice

Recently I was approached by a young family member in his final year of college to give an informal lecture to a club …

The Pear Tree: elegy for a farm

by Bethany Reid 

MoonPath Press, 2024

reviewed by Carmen Germain

Tempted Away 

Bethany Reid’s award-winning new collection, The Pear Tree: elegy for a farm, contains plain-spoken elegies and lyrics. These are …

THE FAMILIAR: POEMS

by Sarah Kain Gutowski

TRP,  February 1, 2024

reviewed by Bethany Reid

To put it as simply as I am able, The Familiar is a book-length narrative in poems. It is also fabulist, absurdist, an existential …

We’re living in a turbulent and critical time. Change has always been around but in the modern era, especially the last few decades, the rate of change has accelerated to dizzying proportions. Anxiety and stress related to our inherent resistance …

FERN AT FIFTY-SEVEN

by Jessy Randall

            “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” I said to my mother as we were setting the table for breakfast. I really did say that, just like in my brother’s book. And when I found …

Maria Elena Silva: Dulce

By Dan Ursini  ©2023

The inventiveness, energy, and ambition of composer/singer Maria Elena Silva’s new album, Dulce, on the Big Ego label, is incredible. She creates music that reconfigures how songs are structured: how polyrhythms …

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

by Sherman Alexie, illustrations by Ellen Forney

Little, Brown 2007, paperback 2009

reviewed by Seana Graham

“Excellent in every way, poignant and really funny and heartwarming and honest and wise and …

Shift in Fate, Callous Hands Stitch Up A Calloused Hand; To Alter and Shift What Might Have Been, Now Scratched Out, acrylic and pastel on paper, 18” x 24”, 2023

 A Kind Hello: Passing Through- In Stampede of Chatter, …

On Wednesday, November 8th, an important anniversary was celebrated in ways both large and small in many parts of the world. Here in Santa Cruz, California, the 400^th anniversary of what has come to be known as the …

I suppose that,strictly speaking, a tour should have more than two stops, but Santa Cruz Noir had a mini revival this month, when some of the local writers and Susie Bright, the editor of this 2018 anthology, were invited …

Nina Platiša: Connectivity

By Dan Ursini
©2023

Composer/pianist Nina Platiša provides an assertive introduction to her music on her debut album, Za Klavir: For the Piano. No less than 26 original compositions for solo piano are included. Even more, …

Sabbath’s Theater

adapted from the novel by Philip Roth

by Ariel Levy & John Turturro

The New Group

Off-Broadway review—October 21, 2023

By Scott Klavan

Mickey Sabbath is a dirty man in the stage adaptation of Philip Roth’s 1995 …

Pichia, mixed media on wood panel, 12″ x 15″, 2021

Ethereal, mixed media on canvas, 16″ x 20″, 2017

Childhood, mixed media on canvas, 8″ x 10″, 2018

Dearest, mixed media on canvas, …

Art by Dena Shuckit

I try to avoid writing about current tragic events, but I fail most of the time. I write to relieve my angst. As a writer it makes me feels better to put my thoughts to print, …

To Kill a Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

Lippincott, 1960, Harper, 2015

Pulitzer Prize winner, 1961

reviewed by Janet Slagle

(Editor’s note: Much to my surprise and delight, my longtime friend Janet Slagle has taken up my challenge to write a …

Fair Duckies, Camera: Kodak Brownie Hawkeye

Tea Party Cowboy   Camera: Kodak Brownie Hawkeye

Powell Leaning Shed, Camera: Diana

Dead Cow & Girl, Camera: KMZ Yunkor

Trojan Helmets, Camera: KMZ Yunkor

Muley Point Pool, Camera: Kodak …

The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison

HRW 1970, Knopf 1993, Vintage 2007

reviewed by Seana Graham

Nuns go by as quiet as lust and drunken men and sober eyes sing in the lobby …

Art by Page Tsou

By now dear readers you surely have noticed my affinity for memories, story telling, and anniversaries. I ask your indulgence again.

In my May column I did mention an upcoming anniversary around this time commemorating 50 …

Photo by Mitch Dobrowner

I don’t subscribe to a very structured life at this stage in my life. Still out of necessity or habit I continue to plan to fill some voids here and there. Recently, in the last few …

Nostalgia

July-August, 2023

Theatre Reviews by Scott Klavan

Days of Wine and Roses, Off-Broadway

Goodnight, Oscar, Broadway

After attending two New York theater shows this summer, your reviewer was beset by nostalgia. Usually, I look at nostalgia, a yearning …

Grey Eyes, mixed media, 25″ x 16″

Grey Eyes, detail

Cut From the Same Cloth, mixed media, 22″ x 17″

Cut From the Same Cloth, detail

Mighty Oak, mixed media, 18″ x 23″

 …

Sculpture by Antony Gormley

A Type of Wisdom

We all flounder and fumble—
how could we not? It’s our first
and only time through this life.
 
Failure and doubt carry us
from one morning to the next
when we hope …

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah

Spiegel and Grau (div. of Random House) 2016, paperback 2019

reviewed by Seana Graham

A couple of nights ago, I watched an older YouTube video of Senator …

Ramzi N, May 2023, Chicago

To be honest, I’m at a loss. Not of words and sentences only, but also, emotionally, the result of a quick sequence of events and remembrances in the last few weeks. From a minor sadness …

The Tiger and the Cage
A Memoir of a Body in Crisis

by Emma Bolden

Soft Skull Press, 2022

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk,
EIL Poetry Editor

Wow, what a great memoir. Beautifully written, gripping from the start, and I …

Julian Loida: Percussion & Connection

By Dan Ursini ©2023

Percussionist-composer Julian Loida has a new album, Giverny, that is a rarity – thoroughly inventive music that is immediately appealing.

Usually, music so fresh takes some getting used to. But …

The Evolution of Peace, by Paulo Sergio Zerbato

Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously mentioned the four freedoms: Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

As we approach the 4th of July, Independence Day, a …

Gravel Pit No. 3, pastel, 16″ x 20″, 2018

Alkali flats, mixed media, 50.5″ x 69″, 2023

What’s up with the Sky? mixed media, 44″ x 50″, 2019

Gravel Pit No. 1, pastel, 16″ …

Under a White Sky: the Nature of the Future

by Elizabeth Kolbert

Crown (hardback) 2021, Crown (paperback) 2022

reviewed by Seana Graham

Last Wednesday saw the final event of this year’s The Deep Read, a recently inaugurated UC Santa Cruz …

Neil T. Smith: Stop Motion Music

By Dan Ursini
© 2023

The music of young Scottish composer Neil Tòmas Smith is ideal for immersive listening—whether it is one of his fearless orchestral works like “Perihelion”—

or any of the several …

Midwest Hymns

by Dale Cottingham

Kelsay Books, 2023

reviewed by Lana Hechtman Ayers

Dale Cottingham’s Midwest Hymns are indeed true songs of praise. Though not religious, as the cover image of a church may imply, his poems embody the …

Art by Page Tsou

Chicago has been the object of my affection for close to five decades, since destiny brought us together in August of 1973 when I arrived to start my orthopedic residency. The relationship has not been easy, …

Digital cyanotypes by Ken Kashian

Fanny Hesse (1858-1934)
 
Watercolor dries quickly. Once it’s on the paper,
you have to move fast. No hurry, though, in the way it
bursts in the cup of water, suspended, like fruit in gelatin.
 
But …

Mother & I, digital photograph, 2021

Beyond the Veil, digital photograph, 2023

World on Fire, digital photograph, 2021

Self Portrait, digital photograph, 2021

Hangin in Brooklyn, digital photograph, 2019

Ghosts of Manhattan,  digital …

Art by Ilya Zomb

Michael Hettich

The Spitting Rain

She promises to catch me if I fall, as though
I’m way up high in a tree
and not walking on the sidewalk, holding her hand.
Just look at the leaves …

The Tree of Life by Frantisek Strouhal

For over a year after Chris passed away in July of 2010, I read his voluminous personal journals (all 70 of them) and along with his sister, Mandy, chose excerpts from them to …

Ways of Being

by Sati Mookherjee

MoonPath Press, 2023 (an imprint of Concrete Wolf Poetry Series)

reviewed by Bethany Reid

Ways of Being is Sati Mookerjee’s second book, and won the 2022 Sally Albiso Award in Poetry. As Rena …

Duy Huynh, Time Flies with Strings Attached

Recently I’ve been experiencing a certain unusual angst. On weeks that I have few planned events or obligations re: work, family, lectures etc…I find myself a bit anxious instead of being more relaxed …

Sarah J. Sloat, “In the clouds this evening (II)”
–The flowers included in Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust (1913).

It’s April, National Poetry Month, and we celebrate with one of Sarah J. Sloat’s wonderful visual poem collages, here all …

I have recently been introduced to the Mormon (Latter-Day-Saints) website, “Family Search” which is a collection of data about a whole world of family trees. It’s free. It’s addictive if you know a little bit about your grandparents’ names and …

Sergio Díaz de Rojas: What Really Matters

by Dan Ursini ©2023

There is no question that Muerte en una tarde de verano, which roughly translates as “Death on a summer afternoon,” is thoroughly provocative. Yet, it is subtle and …

It’s always wonderful to share good news from and about our contributors. And in March, Women’s History Month, we’re extra happy share some good news from our women poets.

Lauren Camp reported (on Facebook!) that her book Took House sold …

Muse

Textile Collage. Hand-dyed silk organza, hand stitched. 48″ X48″

Wintering

Machine stitching on linen, screen printed and painted with textile inks. 40″ X 40″

Paper Float

Mixed Media. Arches paper, line transfer drawings, vintage papers, machine stitched. …

Art by Penelope Dullaghan

Keepsies

The brick school was an edifice, a word I liked, had looked up in Webster’s—ten wide steps to double doors in front. I had to use the Girls’ Entrance every morning, but at recess, …

Mathematics for Ladies
Poems on Women in Science
by Jessy Randall
Goldsmiths Press, 2022

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, Poetry Editor, Escape Into Life

While I first read and responded to this book last August, in a Sealey-Challenge response in my …

This is Not a Book about Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something—Anything—Like Your Life Depends on It

by Tabitha Carvan

Putnam, 2022

reviewed by Seana Graham

This offbeat book might initially seem to be for a niche audience, …

March, 2023

David Houle recently wrote an article about the market for electric vehicles (EV) in the U.S.  He dug up some numbers from international sales, which were interesting. China leads the way.

So, here’s what he left out. EV’s …

Art by Simone Lourenco

Searching for the One

Searching for the one looking for me
and for the one not looking at all.
The bright sun blinds my eyes. I often
find that an annoyance. Who is tired
of searching …

In spite of his advanced age, Cormac McCarthy is still at the top of his game in his new novel, Stella Maris, where there is a dialogue between the protagonist, Alicia, and her psychiatrist in a mental institution about language, …

Alberto Giurioli’s Life
By Dan Ursini
©2023

Life, a debut album of instrumentals by composer/pianist Alberto Giurioli, tells the stories of the private anxiety, tenacity, and hope within those who take a headlong plunge in pursuit of their dreams. Giurioli’s …

Studia 4-22, pen & ink on paper,  24 x 18in, 2022

Studia 5-5, pen & ink, acrylic on paper,  14 x 11 in, 2022

Not a Boxer, pen & ink on paper, 11×8.5in, 2020

Dress Shirt No.1, pen & ink, …

I’ve noticed the outrage about Missouri’s new dress code for women in the legislature. Specifically, women have to cover their arms. A woman (Republican) presented the rule, and it was passed by the Republican majority. In January of 2023.

The …

Jardin Majorelle in Marrakesh

It has been awhile, over six weeks since my last post. I am caught between two forces: One, a sense of duty and commitment to keep writing regularly in EIL, as I have done over the …

Kurma: Stellar Enigma

By Dan Ursini

©2023

A happy enigma of longstanding friendships is how some can outlast great distances in time and place because “when we talk or get together, it seems as if no time has passed.” …

Leopoldstadt

By Tom Stoppard

Directed by Patrick Marber

Longacre Theatre, Broadway

Reviewed December 29, 2022

By Scott Klavan

Ironically, the most admirable things about Leopoldstadt, Tom Stoppard’s latest play, a fictionalization of his family’s experiences and his own childhood …

Valentina Ciardelli: Zappa and Beyond

By Dan Ursini ©2022

Valentina Ciardelli’s deep connection with Frank Zappa’s music, and her capacity for understanding it, was auspiciously expressed the first time she heard his work. She was 11 and, as she explains, …

Agave Memory, digital photograph, 2022

Agave Blue Light, digital photograph, 2022

 Tenuous Connections, digital photograph, 2021

Agave Folds, digital photograph, 2022

Agave Connections, digital photograph, 2022

Agave Reflected, digital photograph, …

The Wall (Die Wand)

by Marlen Haushofer

Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin 1968

translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside, 1990

New Directions, 2022

reviewed by Seana Graham

The title of this book may be more familiar to you …

Art by Jonathan Koch

Giving thanks to our writers this Thanksgiving holiday, EIL is pleased to announce its Pushcart Prize nominees in 2022:

“One day he decided he wanted to live”
by Richard Jones, published January 6, 2022

“Dispatch from …

Art by Robbie Porter

All through our lives we learn by processing information as well as experiences. These can be facts and knowledge, skills, and methods in a variety of aspects, personal relations as well as professional and public ones. …

Where Are the Snows

by Kathleen Rooney

The University Press of SHSU, 2022

texasreviewpress.org

Winner of the X. J. Kennedy Prize, selected by Kazim Ali

reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

First off, I love the title of this …

The Anchored World: Flash Fairy Tales and Folklore

by Jasmine Sawers

Rose Metal Press, 2022

reviewed by Seana Graham

In their author’s note at the end of this slim book, Jasmine Sawers explains how they came to write the …

Wild Waters in Wild Places, mixed media, 4’x 8′, 2022

This Place We Share, mixed media, 6′ x 10′, 2022

Lead Me to the Light, mixed media, 36 x 36, 2021

Homemaking, mixed media, 24 x 24, …

Art by Marcin Owczarek

Two by Jessy Randall

Conversation with the Cat

me to cat: boop boop boop beep boop boop-bee-boop-boop

cat to me:

me to cat: petty petty pet pet for the poody poody poody

cat to me:

me …

Grateful by Fred Lisaius

Congratulations to our EIL poetry nominees for the annual Best of the Net anthology, and a big thank you to Sundress Publications for the Best of the Net project! 

Bethany Reid for “Leaf, Bract, …

Lauren Tilden, Jairus’s Daughter, oil on panel, 36″ x 48″

Janet McKenzie, Holy Mother of the East, oil on canvas, 30″ x 30″

Marcin Owczarek, One Minute to Midnight, mixed media photography on aluminum, 26″ x 39″…

We celebrate the arrival of autumn with visual poems by Sarah J. Sloat, including In Autumn, above.

Sleepless Night #31

De Moor, Margriet. Sleepless Night. New Vessel Press, 2019.

That indispensable dame

Roughead, William. Classic Crimes. NYRB …

For the last year I have been working on archiving and digitizing my family’s history, mostly pictures, documents, and recordings. It is a huge undertaking and a work in progress, but it has allowed me to peek into the past, …

We are delighted to introduce our new Artist Watch editor, Rowene Weems, with a bit of her own photography! And we thank Maureen Doallas, our past Artist Watch editor, for all her fine work here at EIL, and the grand …

Art by Alexis Rockman

New York 2001: A Photographic Exhibit       

Months later, in Chicago, we sit on folding chairs, like in someone’s rec room, in front of a ten-inch black and white video monitor. Bits of almost silent videotape, spliced …

Art by Ralph Goings

Karen Weyant

A Nurse’s Aide Walks Home at Midnight

Tonight, it’s Snoopy scrubs, a loose braid,
and a small bruise on her cheek,
where old Mr. Richards, lost in a smog
of dementia, lashed out, thinking …

Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance

by Jessamyn Stanley

Workman, 2021

reviewed by Seana Graham

Yoga instructor and Instagram success story Jessamyn Stanley starts off this book with a brief tale. A freelance copy-editor (hoping to be hired by her) …

Art by Kareem Rizk

In mid-July, just before I traveled by car to the western part of New York State, I decided to take on a challenge. The price of gas was up significantly (recently it’s come down), and my …

Sister Tongue by Farnaz Fatemi

 Kent State University Press, 2022

Winner of the 2021 Tom and Stan Wick Poetry Prize

reviewed by Bethany Reid

In Sister Tongue, Farnaz Fatemi weaves the events of her life together to make a …

August 17, 2022

Team Reality, Continued

So, I’m still thinking about that Team name for people who believe in reality. I’m landing on the name “Team Reality.” It’s simple, easy to remember, and has a nice ring to it. I …

Arianna and Whimsy, oil on canvas, 20″ x 16″, 2022

Cosimo, oil on canvas, 60″ x 48″, 2021

Cody, oil on canvas, 20″ x 16″, 2020

Vicci, oil on canvas, 24″ x 30″, 2022

Salma, …

Life in the Box: How Do People Come to Believe the Opposite of Truth? 

August 11, 2022

One question has been bothering me a lot in recent years: how can so many people believe the opposite of truth? How could …

Artist Daniel Edlen was featured here at Escape Into Life in 2012. He contacted us recently about his new work, and we are happy to update you all! Check out his website, Vinyl Art, as well!

Daniel Edlen at …

I’ve been thinking for a while now that people who believe mainstream media is factual, and that the last election was fair, and that facts and evidence and laws and reason still matter, well, I think we need at team …

Aug 03, 2022 : I was going to write a summary and critique of the televised January 6^th Committee hearings. Then, I started seeing some very good synopses from news organizations like National Public Radio and others. See my …

Art by Elke Vogelsang

Luis Cuauhtémoc Berriozábal

Someone Just Like You

Have you ever met someone
who reminded you of yourself?

Is this world large enough to
house someone that is just like you?

Would this person be as mean…

I have been nibbling on a beautiful and tasty book this summer: “Flora: Inside the Secret World of Plants.” I was drawn to it like a “male pollinator” lured to a flower by the “fragrance of females ready to …

Mountain Garden, acrylic on wood panel, 24″ x 30″

Every Little Thing, acrylic on wood panel, “60” x 48″

Letting the Light Back In, acrylic on wood panel, 48″ x 36″

Moon Glow, acrylic on wood …

Memory 4, by Patrick Seruwu

A favorite pastime of mine is reading short insightful articles and essays in addition to books of fiction and nonfiction. They stimulate my imagination, inform and inspire me, at times all in one sitting. …

The Hurting Kind

by Ada Limón

Milkweed Editions, 2022

reviewed by Bethany Reid

In Ada Limón’s superb, tender new book, The Hurting Kind, the world has broken down. This is her pandemic book, so, no surprise: “I write …

Art collaboration by Jonathan Kawchuk, Tracy Maurice, and Brad Necyk

Trailblazer: Jonathan Kawchuk

By Dan Ursini ©2022

Music about a place (“A Summer Place,” “Woodstock,” “Tobacco Road,” etc.) is one thing. But I have been listening to music by a …

Art by Ben Tolman

I sit down,

The mind empty and full,

The body calm and restless,

The soul heavy and light.

Perpetual motion in solid presence.

I dwell in the moment,

The present moment.

A most precious and …

Art by Tifenn Python

Three Poems by Michael Hettich

The Pigeons

We sat in the kitchen talking about
the way the light fell through the window.

You said it made you remember something
about a particular person you’d loved
without …

MindsEye III, mixed media on board, 48″ x 72″

MindsEye V, mixed media on canvas, 38″ x 56″

MindsEye VI, mixed media on board, 48″ x 72″

MindsEye IX, mixed acrylic media on canvas, 48″ x …

Maya Youssef with qanun; photo credit: Nick White

Home Within: Maya Youssef

By Dan Ursini
©2022

To anyone familiar with the music of Maya Youssef, it is no surprise that her first album was produced by Joe Boyd, whose credentials …

the fact of memory: 114 ruminations and fabrications

by Aaron Angello

Rose Metal Press, 2022

reviewed by Seana Graham

The idea for this book came from a writing workshop that the Aaron Angelo attended. The participants were asked …

Art by Yoko Tanaka

Some Days

I’m a vestigial bone in the body
of a nearly-extinct mammal that’s being
studied by a team of graduate students
who keep it in a cage and watch what it does

when they give …

Wound, by Dan Reisner

In the past, bad news came late, in bits and pieces and invariably altered by the many communication vehicles in between. Until it happened to you it was “there,” away from you, in place and …

Art by Ben Tolman

I am happy for lots of reasons, mostly personal.

I am unhappy for a variety of others, communal & global.

I love and accept people, family, friends, and others not so close.

I disagree and reject …

Bird in the Wind [Vera Hall], hand-painted block print

Brotherly Love [Eric Bibb], hand-painted block print

Cotton Fields (Back Home) [Robert Johnson], hand-painted block print

Get on Your Knees and Pray [Keb Mo], hand-painted block print

Hard Times [Skip James], …

I was in Boston one February and the crocuses were blooming. This shocked me because I had never seen them so early—it was winter, after all, not spring.

As sure as March comes in like a lion and goes out …

Moscodelphia

by Charles Rafferty

Woodhall Press, 2021

reviewed by Seana Graham

Having read a couple of Charles Rafferty’s story collections now, I may have thought I knew what to expect going into this full length novel. And in fact, …

Socket wrench with ratchet, Wikipedia

After years of writing plays, reading about writing plays, and pondering the writing of plays, I was left with a simple question unanswered: What exactly makes a scene? Besides a bunch of characters entering, …

Art by Barbara Nessim

Mother’s Day is not all flowers and greeting cards. It’s complicated for some. That’s why our celebration at Escape Into Life contains humor, darkness, frankness, edginess, whatever it takes… 

Jessy Randall

One Mother Drives Three …

Everyone Needs a Lil’ Help, oil on canvas, 60″ x 36″, 2021

It’s Okay  to Go Home, oil on canvas, 35″ x 48″, 2022

Those Who Can, Leave; Those Who Can’t, Teach, oil on canvas, 48″ x …

Art by Valerie Patterson

Before I go any further, a bit on my background on this subject:

Born and raised in Iraq for over two decades, mostly 1950s and 1960s, I was a firsthand witness to the rise of a …

Art by Tim Flach

It’s April, National Poetry Month, and we celebrate again with poems on poetry itself…! Happy reading.

Andrea Potos

When Beginning the Poem

may there be a listening
rather than a making

curiosity over expectation,

lightness and …

The Girl Who Wasn’t and Is
by Anastasia Walker
bd.studios.com in New York City, 2022

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

March came in like a lamb around here and is exiting like a lion, in winter. Anastasia Walker …

Adobe Photoshop is hard to learn. The icons aren’t self-explanatory. The layers and masking seem indecipherable at first. Why would anyone try to learn it? My reason for learning it is that it does things I’ve always wanted to do …

Castle Romeo, 1954, Bikini atoll

It is generally acknowledged by historians that throughout human history the default condition was war and violence with short interludes of real peace interspersed in between. Because of advancement in the killing machines, a peak …

We had a darkroom in our basement when I was a kid. The bathroom door would shut and keep out light, and there was room for a card table where we set up the enlarger to print photos of our …

The Asteroid Hat, oil on panel, 12″ x 12″, 2021

The Brink, oil on linen, 36″ x 18″, 2021

The Glade II, oil on canvas, 30″ x 22″, 2021

The Ribbons, oil on canvas, 40″ x …

Art by Linda Plaisted

Woman as Pylon in an Empty Lane

I make all the right moves. Blinker signals my right turn. I brake at the all-way stop. But a Dodge Ram is in such a rush they swerve around …

Dodgeball (Back to School), oil on canvas, 16″ x 20″, 2021

Doing Shots, acrylic on board, 16″ x 24″, 2021

Birthday Selfie (Life During Quarantine), oil on canvas, 16″ x 20″, 2020

A Level of Malaise, …

Art by Gabriel Moreno

Richard Jones

Love Poem

If it were Valentine’s Day and I in jail
and in love with the jailer’s daughter,
I’d write a letter
praising her brown eyes and long black hair.
From behind bars I’d …

Heirloome’s Cycles

By Dan Ursini © 2022

A haunting blended tone, both grounded and ethereal, defines Cycles, the latest release by a singer-songwriter who self-identifies as “queer/nonbinary Australian artist Heirloome (they/them).” This music is imbued by a unique vibe …

Growing Weary, by Diana Lemieux

Forget the pandemic, the sickness of loved ones, and the personal setbacks. Yes, they’re difficult, but I can deal with them, and adjust, as many are doing, some more successfully than others. What really …

In Search of Arcadia II, mixed media photography on aluminum, 26″ x 39″, 2020

In Search of Utopia, mixed media photography on aluminum, 26″ x 39″, 2019

The Golden Age, mixed media photography on aluminum, 26″ x …

Wiping Stars from Your Sleeves
by David James
Shanti Arts Publishing, 2021

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

Cover image: Greg Rakozy on unsplash.com

As I was wiping the dust of 2021 from the edges of the new …

January 5, 2022

2021 is over. I almost said “thank goodness,” but that’s not exactly how I feel. A lot of great things happened last year. But it’s hard to take a deep breath and approach 2022 without knowing that …

Art by Mark Wagner

The I HATE AMERICA Plays
Broadway reviews by Scott Klavan

Girl From the North Country
Belasco Theatre, November 20, 2021
&
The Lehman Brothers Trilogy
Nederlander Theatre, December 18, 2021

This is a review of two …

50 years, A Reflection

On this day December 28, 50 years ago, I landed in NYC on board a BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) aircraft from London. In a few days I would start an internship at the Stamford Hospital …

Jesus of the People, oil on canvas, 30″ x 48″, 1999

The Divine Journey — Companions of Love and Hope, oil on canvas, 42″ x 54″, 2017

Holy Mother of the East, oil on canvas, 30″ x …

Art by Bruce New

The Points of the Star

I.

Hands, feet and head, the points of the star:
the body a trail we leave behind us in time.

Headless the body paces along the shore,
waiting for the soul …

Drawing by Christopher Al-Aswad

I want you to go deep, to be non-verbal, using no vocabulary or language. Try not to think or have your mind play games with you. Can you go back to a time of your ancestors, …

What Happened Was:
by Anna Leahy
Harbor Editions, 2021
an imprint of Small Harbor Publishing

Cover art by Stacy Russo, Women Gathering to Create Beauty

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

This is such a wonderful chapbook. It’s the …

The Voice of Welcome: Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian

by Dan Ursini ©2021

There are many additional compositions on Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian’s album Welcome Party that I could eagerly talk about beyond those already discussed in part one of this article. Indeed, there are …

A Best Sort of Welcome: Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian

By Dan Ursini ©2021

Lovely, unexpected connections inspire throughout Welcome Party, the debut classical album by British-Armenian composer, singer, and harper Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian. This is daring and ambitious music— yet presented in …

Elise Macdonald, Girl with the Peacock Earring

Pushcart Prize Nominees in 2021

Please join us in congratulating these poets, whose poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Anna Leahy, “What Happened Was: My Mother Was Pregnant With Me”

Richard …

Featherweight Champ, graphite, pastel, white conte, 8″ x 9″, 2021

Olympian, graphite and white conte, 6″ x 7″, 2021

The Crystal Gazer, pastel, 16″ w by 18″ h, 2020

Grey Route Messaging, pastel, 9″ x 14″, …

Trouble in Mind

By Alice Childress, Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright

Roundabout Theatre, Broadway, November 5, 2021

Reviewed by Scott Klavan

I was in the orchestra of the American Airlines Theatre, 42^nd Street in the middle of Times Square, one …

Ticker
by Mark Neely
Winner of the Idaho Prize for Poetry 2020
Lost Horse Press, 2021

Cover art ©Teun Hocks

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

Ticker, by Mark Neely, begins with disaster—specifically, the Challenger disaster, setting …

The Woman in Black

by Susan Hill

Hamish Hamilton, 1983, Vintage Books, 2011

reviewed by Seana Graham

You may be more familiar with this title than I was. I was just trying to find a good book to read for …

Art by Maremi Andreozzi

It’s CatOber at Escape Into Life, when cats appear in poems, or pictures, in sometimes scary, sometimes sweet ways. Please click the poets’ names to see more of their work, and the artist’s name to …

Dinah in March, oil on panel, 12″ x 12″

Covering, oil on panel, 18″ x 24″

Jairus’s Daughter, oil on panel, 36″ x 48″

Hurricane Ava, oil on panel, 20″ x 24″

September Wind, oil …

Photo courtesy of Faith Decker for the School of the Art Institute of Chicago

I am humbled and honored but mostly proud of my wonderful and generous daughter Mandy as we are both featured in this SAIC article linked below. …

Shade of Blue Trees
by Kelly Cressio-Moeller

Two Sylvias Press, 2021

Finalist for the Two Sylvias Press Wilder Prize

Cover art: “Gingko Porcelain Light Sculpture” by Andreea Braescu

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

What a beautiful and …

A Cluster of Noisy Planets

Prose Poems by Charles Rafferty

BOA Editions, 2021

American Poets Continuum Series, No. 190

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

I love how this book begins, with “Greetings,” containing the sentences: “People of …

Dan Reisner, George Floyd, bronze, 30 cm x 48 cm x 43 cm (Photo: Ron Kedmi)

Hansa, Madonna del Mare Nostrum (Or, Cloak of Love), oil on canvas, 125cm x 125 cm

Adrienne Stein, Earth I, oil …

Crown, by Dan Reisner

Please join us in congratulating Escape Into Life‘s poetry nominees for the 2021 Best of the Net anthology, with gratitude to Sundress Publications for offering this award series! Click the links below to find …

Teatime, oil on linen, 80 cm x 80 cm, 2021

Malachite Muse, oil on linen, 80 cm x 80 cm, 2021

Strelitzia, oil on linen, 70 cm x 80 cm, 2021

Girl with the Peacock Earring, …

Marrow of Summer
by Andrea Potos
Kelsay Books, 2021

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

It’s late summer now. Already a few yellow stars from the sweetgum tree have fallen on the still-green lawn. It’s a glorious blue-sky day …

Art by Salma Arastu, My God is Near and He Listens

Greg Grummer

The Field

And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth … –God

One day I went to the field which saw
the first …

Art by Guy Billout

Like the Ashes

A somber day seems to be in store
for me.  I feel like the ashes left

behind after a fire. The wind kicks
me all around. I hear echoes of my

shouts in …

I Feel You, Hanji paper, 9″ x 12″, 2020

Contemplating, Hanji paper, 12″ x 9″, 2019

Looking at You, Hanji paper, 14″ x 11″, 2019

Take Me Home, Hanji paper, 12″ x 9″, 2019

Bobby (Commission), …

Art by Peter Clark

Greg Grummer 

Autobiography of Desire

     Only if I reach 100 years old will I write a very complete
     autobiography. Not before…. –Mario Vargas Llosa

As I walk down the street the wind throws birds at me …

Hamnet: a Novel of the Plague

by Maggie O’Farrell

Tinder Press, 2020, Knopf, 2021

reviewed by Seana Graham

Despite the giant shadow that Shakespeare casts across our cultural and psychological landscape, there are significant gaps in our knowledge of …

Dialogues with Rising Tides
by Kelli Russell Agodon

Copper Canyon Press, 2021

Cover art: René Maltête, La bouée

What a sad and lovely book. The cover shows a hand rising up through a lifebuoy, in a cry for …

What Happens is Neither by Angela Narciso Torres

Four Way Books, 2021

Cover art: “The Art of an Artist,” Alexandra Regina Morales

My notes tell me my plan was to review this book in May, and I was on …

Basel & Wolfie in Bhutan

In January 2008, many moons ago, I embarked on a most interesting and exotic trip to The Kingdom of Bhutan and northern India. It included a nine-day trek of the Himalayan foothills in Bhutan, where …

Maybe it’s the Demerol. I hope not. This morning, the day after my colonoscopy, I awoke with a feeling of lightness, happiness and a quiet glow of joy in my heart (and intestines.) Yes, a day of fasting and then …

Art by Gail Nadeau

Miss Elizabeth Bryan

Victim #71: Age about seventeen. Of Germantown, Philadelphia. Brown dress.
Bracelet, seven strands and locket with initials, “E.M.B.”

How wildly the scene outside my coach window
transformed as the Day Express swept
into …

In this month on the 11th anniversary of your escape and the 42nd anniversary of your birth, I humbly offer this poem:

My Glorious Ornamental Pear Tree

That was what the arborist called you,
minus the “glorious,” ten years ago.…

Hurtsboro, oil on linen, 70″ x 120″, 2021

Crowd Scene, oil on linen, 72″ x 132″, 2020

Georgia, oil on linen, 60″ x 80″, 2021

The Thin Veil, oil on linen, 82″ x 100″, 2020

Motherland…

Not every human activity has to have a purpose or meaning. Efficiency and busyness are overrated in my book, ideas I have believed in for a while now, but which have been brought more into focus since the pandemic descended …

Indian Paintbrush and the Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole Wyoming National Park, acrylic on canvas, 30″ x 30″, 2020

Great Smokey National Park, Tennessee/North Carolina, acrylic on canvas, 30″ x 30″, 2020

Zion National Park, Utah, acrylic on …

Let Them Be Left: Isle Royale Poems

by Keith Taylor

Alice Greene & Company, 2021

Cover: Kathleen M. Heideman
Illustrations: Melanie Boyle

What a charming and essential chapbook by Michigan poet Keith Taylor. It places us on Isle Royale, …

Citizen: An American Lyric

by Claudia Rankine

Graywolf Press, 2014

reviewed by Seana Graham

I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.

                                                        Zora Neale Hurston

On the …

Art by James Aldridge

Jennifer Finstrom

Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary

     “The birds flock to her, green-black crests
     and useless claws.”
          –Elizabeth Kerper, “Magritte Explains Ornithology”
 
The week after you download a dating app, 
you give a man your …

Over the last two decades, on a yearly basis I have attempted to go on a nature outdoor trip. It can be trekking, hiking, canoeing, or rafting and is usually far away from my Chicago home base. Most have been …

May 26, 2021

In the days following the CDC’s “declaration of mask independence” my vaccinated friends and I have been taking cautious steps back into pre-pandemic life. A shopping trip, a small group indoor gathering, a test drive for a …

Photography by O. Winston Link

Memorial Day

The windows behind you face east and I can see the sky lighten
in the cut out spaces between buildings across the street–
can see it but am not watching so that each …

Inspiration, bronze, 40 cm x 25 cm x 8 cm (Photo: Avi Amsalem)

Love, bronze, 31 cm x 48 cm x 8 cm (Photo: Avi Amsalem)

Wound, 26 cm x 31 cm x 12 cm (Photo: Avi …

Photo of Julián De La Chica by Stan Ptisin

De La Chica’s Agatha: Image & Silence

By Dan Ursini

Usually I write about music that is complete on its own. But this time around, let’s explore music best understood …

Art by Michelle Morin

Donna Vorreyer

On the Beach, My Mother Comes Ashore

I preserve my sorrow in salt
as she emerges in the spray–
her face reflected in the tide
her eyes the same blue-grey
as the waves.
I …

It’s not that I’ve run out of things to say, not exactly. There are still lots of words going through my head. The problem is that the things I want to say have already been said. I’ve said them. I’ve …

Art by Dean Monogenis

dear kathryn

feels like being alive,
         like breathing,
nothing but sunlight and blue sky
at the end of winter,
the gentle collapse of dreaming cities,
                              of sleeping prophets,
and i am here in this room where…

Somebody Who Knows Somebody

by Charles Rafferty

Gold Wake, 2021

reviewed by Seana Graham

Charles Rafferty is no stranger to us here at Escape Into Life. We’ve not only reviewed an earlier collection of his stories but featured a …

Le Petit Prince ou l’Apprenti Sorcier, oil on canvas, 100 cm x 150 cm, 2021

Omen, oil on canvas, 100 cm x 150 cm, 2021

Ophelia, oil on canvas, 74 cm x 110 cm, 2020

Pietà della …

Art by Tallmadge Doyle

Greg Grummer

The Truth of the Higgs Boson

We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry….—Niels Bohr

Since the sun is god,
there’s only starlight …

Art by Deborah Van Auten

On March 16, 2020, I posted my first commentary on the pandemic in its early days, suggesting reflection and introspection as an antidote to the ennui resulting from the forced isolation and disruption of our …

Two Hearts, Two Windows by Karen Elias

Poems by Marjorie Maddox. Photographs by Karen Elias.

Quarantine

—after the photograph by Karen Elias Two Hearts, Two Windows

Apart inside,
together they stare

not at each other
but at the worn world…

The Two George Segals

I’d never watched the long-running ABC-TV sit-com The Goldbergs, because I was sad to see what had happened to George Segal. I was from Great Neck, the same hometown on Long Island as the actor, went …

The Outlier, oil on panel (diptych), 54″ x 72″, 2019 (Private Collection)

The Virago, oil on panel, 40″ x 60″, 2020 (Private Collection)

Paths to Wisdom, oil on linen, 4″ x 4″, 2020 (Private Collection)

Paths from …

Art by Anna Emilia Laitenen

Inspired by Pope Francis’s recent visit to Iraq, and complementing my post six years ago, “I AM.”

I am not Catholic, but

I am in awe of Pope Francis’s courage and compassion.

I am not …

Art by Seonna Hong

What Happened Was: my mother was pregnant with me

Images by Mikel Patrick Avery

By Dan Ursini ©2021

The COVID-19 era is about many things, but joyful sunlit release is definitely not one of them. Yet that is precisely what comes through in the music of guitarist/composer Dave Miller’s …

Emma Kidd’s Monsters

I Get It, Now

Reviewing the drama of my life
sometimes, I pause and wonder
was this or that incident intended
for my enjoyment or torment?

How about this or that person
do they represent pleasure or …

A Tale Has Been Born, oil printing/mixed-media work on paper, 23″ x 20″, 2020

Blissful Reverie, oil printing/mixed-media work on paper, 24″ x 20″, 2020

The Tree of Life, oil printing/mixed-media work on paper, 24″ x 20″, …

Code of Hammurabi

75th Birthday Post

The Longest Journey, Mesopotamia to The New World

Born in the land of the ancients,
of Warriors, Kings, and Prophets.
Civilization rises and empires fall.
His roots are deep,
his ancestors steeped
in faith …

John William Waterhouse, Psyche Opening the Door to Cupid’s Garden

Ex-Husband
         
               “The door swings open:
               O god of hinges, 
               god of long voyages,
               you have kept faith.”
               – Margaret Atwood, “The Door,”
         
Say instead he is the man you met…

Folded paper by Eric Gjerde

Maria Garcia Teutsch 

La Garza (The Crane)

She folds the first love letter he sent into an origami crane
and sets it afloat. She watches all the pretty words float downstream, words like: ‘rare’ and …

Now that Trump is out of office without a federal self-pardon, what can we expect as far as lawsuits against him? I did a few days of searching online, and came up with a list. It doesn’t include any actions …

Our new President, Biden, the one who actually won the election by a landslide, has asked for this nation to come together and heal the divide. So, in that spirit, I am supplying a guide to those who lost the …

So where next for Dear Leader? He fled to his golf resort in Florida, but he is legally enjoined from living there permanently. New York City hates his living guts. In fact, in most of America he’s likely to be …

Vera, ceramic, stain, and oils, 16″ x 4″

Vera (detail)

Vera 2

Iris, ceramic, stain, and oils, 14.5″ x 4″ (detail)

Iris (detail)

Iris 2

Kika, ceramic, stain, and oils, 18″ x 4″ (detail)

Kika (detail 2)…

Well, it’s a wrap. Dear Leader has Left the Building, and is now just another bitter old bigot, nursing his many resentments, up to his bushy eyebrows in debt, and facing a lifetime in legal jeopardy. There were some nervous …

Self-Portraits by Susanna Lang
Year of Convergence by Jennifer Grant
God of Sparrows by Christina Lovin

Three chapbooks bound together as Delphi Series Vol IX (Blue Lyra Press, 2020)

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

First, praise for the …

Most people I know think wind turbines look rather majestic. In addition, they symbolize a better, cleaner, more responsible and sustainable world; indeed, they’re helping bring it about. Dear Leader hates ’em. He cares nothing for living sustainably or responsibly …

Art by Mike Worrall

I am part of a small meditation community that has met on Sunday evenings every other week for many years. Until the pandemic hit us, we gathered in a hall generously provided to us in a …

Dear Leader is not happy. Congress is meeting to certify someone other than him to be president! What’s a statesman-patriot to do?! Why, exhort your fanatical, cultlike followers to stage your very own Reichstag fire-like disruption of the proceedings …

Art by Elise Ritter

One day he decided he wanted to live

in Vienna, to waste the summer musing,
maybe all of autumn, too, drinking sweet
tea in cafes and eating Sachertorte, listening
to Mozart and Brahms. He took a …

(This is Not a) Mixtape for the End of the World
by Daniel M. Shapiro
Published by bd-studios.com in New York City, 2020
Cover design by luke kurtis
Art by Stephen Tornero

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

This …

Remember those advent calendars that always appeared during the holidays–the ones that counted down to Christmas? Sure you do! Well there’s another hotly anticipated event we’re all counting down to. Let’s count down together, shall we?

Join me here every …

Art by Julie Blackmon

Revenge of Winter and Future       

Upslant of light. A licorice wind along runnels of sky.

My left hand in a red glove on the bent spokes of a turquoise bike.

I ride uphill along the dominion …

Serious Moonlight by Carol Lukitsch

What an irony: we crave success, but it’s mostly fleeting and rarely educational. We abhor failure, though it can be deeply transformative. As with all of you, over the years I’ve had my share of …

Snowman Cuddles, 2019

Presents for the Dogs, 2019

Festive Tree, 2019

Tree Peonies, 2020

Long-Tailed Tit on Apple Blossom, 2020

Fawn in the Snow, 2019

Artist Statement

My work is endlessly inspired by and …

One of the earliest things you learn as a photographer is that looking at famous artworks will help develop your eye for lighting, placement, balance, and design. Most photographers embrace the possibility of using their camera as not just a …

The Best of Brevity: Twenty Groundbreaking Years of Flash Nonfiction

edited by Zoë  Boissiere and Dinty W. Moore

Rose Metal Press, 2020

reviewed by Seana Graham

Although I’ve become more aware of flash fiction through a circle of writers I …

Hotel Almighty by Sarah J. Sloat

Sarabande Books, 2020

Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor

Travel is out of the question, so the only hotel I’m staying in these days is Hotel Almighty by Sarah J. Sloat. Or …