In the Blink | Chris Byrne

Dominic Symes’ “Intimacy” was first published in the bi-annual journal Meniscus in 2021, an issue of the magazine in which the specter of Australia’s covid-lockdowns understandably hangs over many of the poems and short-stories included. It is difficult not to read Symes’ poem in this context: for many of us, the lockdowns transformed intimacy into…

Other paths Would not have led Me here Some more attractive then Than they appear now Except for the bumps and bruises Hardship and sacrifice I would be at another place I did not follow My tribe in the mines The bleakness Of that fate The source Of my father’s admonition The coal seam Claiming…

Poet-slash-evil genius Jonah Winter and your guest blogger [Dan Nester] spent an afternoon in Pittsburgh not too long ago, talking of our lack of faith in Jesus Christ as our personal savior as well as making fun of poetry book titles. They all seemed so aggressively portentous, imbued with such fawning obsequiousness. To exorcise ourselves…

I’ve never felt this way before, You’ve brought out of me A hopeful, joyful being, Someone so different from Who I was before, A new person Unafraid of life and bounding Forward with courage and hope, Floating on air. I feel safe in your arms, You’e the one for me, My one and only, My…

Today I wanted to give a shout out to The Unsung Masters Series, which brings forgotten poets to a whole new audience. The most recent volume is about Bert Meyers (1928-1979), a poet new to me. Edited by Dana Levin and Adele Williams, the book reprints poems from Meyers’ out-of-print volumes alongside commentary by critics,…