Front Cover by Will Barnet
The Dream 1990
OIL ON CANVAS 48 X 32 INCHES
Gift of Elena and Will Barnet to the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College
Order a copy nowVolume 50, Issue 4
Encore
Please. Please, young people. Lenson has left the building. He got on his Harley and rode away. Please take your seats. . .our other acts are ready to perform.
But wait. . .the black and cavernous hole fills, a thousand points of starlight. One by one the fireflies click their tails. . .on, off, on, off. The stomping feet, waving palms, the cowbells and dogtags will not be stopped. A drunken yokel calls out, "Free Verse! Free Verse!"
Then silence. Something stirs, an echo perhaps. A phantom presence. Yes .Yes. The voice is unmistakable. And the shades. Moof (the protagonist) begins to wail. O O that ole saxyfelonious raga!
a beautiful thing for free
she widens and deepens
like spiritual quicksand
all our readers got caught in it
and came back speechless
call the exorcist
an uncomprehending man
dazed by years of inexplicable Visa charges
poverty tightens consciousness
it's tough to follow a sea of vomit
administer an aftershock after the shock
a feat to create history
without the museum air or the taxidermal language
making the little details of the phenomenal world really queasy
quiet in the anticipation
halting in its occurrence
a wonderful study in total stillness
its willfully naive embrace of this world
(just what atheists ought to do)
after a close and deadly serious reading
came the verdict
we love your delicious combination of depravity
lushness and
(!) brevity
all our readers got caught in it
and came back speechless
We kid you not. Each of the lines above are part of the Lensonian legend, gleaned from the backstage emailage of just the present issue, and deposited with his usual mastery and irrepressible verve into the inboxes of our MR clan. To quote Jules, who has foresuffered all, Davids "buoyant and life-giving self" sustained us?for eight dark years in a bushland where the music done died. We'll never snatch that pebble from the master's hand.
—The Editors
Entries
poetry
What Is Mine
By Hayan Charara
poetry
O Mother, O Father
By Hayan Charara
nonfiction
Of Phantom Nations
By Jim Hicks
fiction
The Strange Genius of American Men
By Jung H. Yun
fiction
A Better Life
By Michael Maschio
fiction
Person from a War-Ravaged Land
By Coralie del Roble Duchesne
nonfiction
On the Difficulty of Distinguishing between the Buildings Used to Keep the Foodstuffs and Those Associated with the Dead
By Scott Henkle
poetry
The Duplications
By Nicolas Hundley
fiction
Jocelyn
By Andrew Coburn
fiction
Karst
By Lucinda Harrison Coffman
fiction
The White Heart Bar
By Sara Majka
poetry
Before
By Khaled Mattawa
nonfiction
Will Barnet's Series of Paintings "My Father's House"
By Thomas Dumm
poetry
Don Giovanni
By Olivia Clare
fiction
The Oxbow
By Brion Dulac
poetry
Stream-Entering
By Alicia Ostriker
fiction
The Kid with the Ponytail
By Paul Kaidy Barrows
fiction
Plots
By Frances Greathead
poetry
Write My Father from Ukraine
By Jeffrey Perkins
fiction
Carpet Ride
By J.R. Hanson
poetry
Crow
By Joy Manesiotis
fiction
This One Isn't Going to Be Afraid
By Melinda Moustakis
nonfiction
Traffic of Our Stage: Godot Returns to Broadway
By Normand Berlin
poetry
To Market and Back
By F. Daniel Rzicznek
fiction
The Book of Tobin
By Eric Thomas
poetry
My Ophelia
By Miguel Murphy
poetry
victory
By Sonia Greenfield
poetry
[Morning Book: February 25, 2009]
By Yerra Sugarman
fiction
Escape Velocity
By D.M. Gordon
poetry
Alphabet of Snow
By Norman Lock
art
My Father's House
By Will Barnet
Table of Contents
Introduction by The Editors
What Is Mine and O Mother, O Father,
poems by Hayan Charara
Of Phantom Nations, an essay by Jim Hicks
The Strange Genius of American Men,
a story by Jung H. Yun
A Better Life, a story by Michael Maschio
Person from a War-Ravaged Land,
a story by Coralie del Roble Duchesne
On the Diffculty of Distinguishing between
the Buildings Used to Keep the Foodstuffs and Those
Associated with the Dead, an essay by Scott Henkle
The Duplications, a poem by Nicolas Hundley
Jocelyn, a story by Andrew Coburn
Karst, a story by Lucinda Harrison Coffman
The White Heart Bar, a story by Sara Majka
Before, a poem by Khaled Mattawa
Will Barnet, "My Father's House,"
paintings by Will Barnet
Will Barnet's Series of Paintings "My Father's House,"
an essay by Thomas Dumm
Don Giovanni, a poem by Olivia Clare
The Oxbow, a story by Brion Dulac
Stream-Entering, a poem by Alicia Ostriker
The Kid with the Ponytail,
a story by Paul Kaidy Barrows
Plots, a story by Frances Greathead
Write My Father from Ukraine,
a poem by Jeffrey Perkins
Carpet Ride, a story by J.R. Hanson
Crow, a poem by Joy Manesiotis
This One Isn't Going to Be Afraid,
a story by Melinda Moustakis
Traffic of Our Stage: Godot Returns to Broadway,
an essay by Normand Berlin
To Market and Back, a poem by F. Daniel Rzicznek
The Book of Tobin, a story by Eric Thomas
My Ophelia, a poem by Miguel Murphy
victory, a poem by Sonia Greenfield
[Morning Book: February 25, 2009],
a poem by Yerra Sugarman
Escape Velocity, a story by D.M. Gordon
Alphabet of Snow, a poem by Norman Lock
