Featured Works: Week of Sep. 25 (Modern Life)
Throughout the ages, poets and writers have examined the times in which they lived. As this week’s contributors demonstrate, our modern lifestyle offers opportunities for both humor and reflection. “In Velvet” by Audrey El-Osta raises a sit-com scene to divine self-expression. “Princess and the 21st Century Space-Age Mattress” by Mat Labotka provides a humorous update of a classic tale. “Interior Monologue (Girl with Cell Phone)” by Frank De Canio turns to the sonnet form for a wry dissection of modern...
Read MoreInterior Monologue (Girl with Smart Phone)
Though it’s no mace, but cell phone in my hand, I’d like to favor you. But I’ve a slew of messages whose import countermand desires of my awestruck retinue who pass me with petitions on the street. Because of this, I claim the royal right to read my e-mail following a tweet to devotees while you keep me in sight. Indeed, not only are my hands not free, but texting makes it difficult to turn, acknowledging those holding doors for me. Thus, I can’t give the gratitude you yearn for who suppose a royal highness grants indulgence to her abject...
Read MorePrincess and the 21st Century Space-Age Mattress
Pete, my roommate, is a strikingly handsome guy; he’s tall, blonde, strong, jovial, and he’s equipped with what a girlfriend of mine once described as, “A face to die for.” My girlfriend. She said that about Pete, to me. Thanks, honey. Pete’s got this problem, though. Pete only dates crazy people. I know what you’re thinking: “Women, am I right?” No, you’re wrong. I mean, wait, Pete dates women, yes, but not in the “all women are crazy” sense. The women Pete finds are straight-up...
Read MoreIn Velvet
(The Blessings of George Costanza) Draped in velvet, the petite wallflower emerges fresh, from a diner, ready for a summer of love: the true self blooms with all to gain and nothing to lose. Now is the time to indulge in a decade of urges. Disable the angst, just like flicking a switch to will hush the chorus of doubt within: acting as a binary shadow-self is to see your life become all it was meant to be. This is no lie if you believe it, spin your stories as truths stronger than antlers where your velvet hangs. Loosen your mind of its vice-grip, untether yourself from the edge of...
Read MoreFeatured Works: Week of Sep. 11 (Rebirth)
Fifteen years ago, we were deep into our preparations for the first issue of Wild Violet, an online magazine blending high art (poetry, literary fiction) with pop culture (humor, reviews, interviews). Taking advice from a poetry professor who said it was our responsibility to make a place for poetry in the world, we wanted to make a place for the arts. Now, as Wild Violet comes back from hiatus — me having spent much of the past ten months dealing with my mom’s estate after her sudden death just before Thanksgiving — it’s a good time to...
Read MoreReview: “Cooking with the Muse”
Title: Cooking with the Muse: A Sumptuous Gathering of Seasonal Recipes, Culinary Poetry, and Literary Fare Authors: Myra Kornfeld and Stephen Massimilla Publisher: Tupelo Press, April 1, 2016 Hardcover, 494 pages ISBN, 1936797682 / ISBN, 9781936797684 Link to purchase: http://www.tupelopress.org/ Or http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Muse-Sumptuous-Gathering-Seasonal/dp/1936797682/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1464723265&sr=1-1&keywords=cooking+with+the+muse My copy of Cooking with the Muse arrived, cornucopic and gorgeous, after much...
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