Vol 1 No 1 2007

Meena Alexander Judith ArcanaJason Guriel
Steven HeightonRay HsuTanis MacDonald
Yvonne MurphyAlicia OstrikerRussell Thornton
Priscila Uppal Mark Yakich

Accidental Poetry Written by My Father

As She Lay in Her Bathtub, Holding a Flute of Wine

Autumn at the End of The Third Man

Cleaning Kill in the Kitchen at Midnight, Father Made a Good Point

Elegy for Josef Hassid (1923-1950)

Rosebud

Accidental Poetry Written by My Father

The fretboard
that trellises the guitar
guides fingers up and along its length

like roses.
But not the violin,
Father stresses. The violin is fretless—

strings climb
its smooth neck like arteries
bearing bursts of blood up to a thought.

A violinist’s fingers,
Father stresses, must therefore train
to pursue, like medics, the jump of a pulse.

Jason Guriel