What I'm Reading: Vinyl

74º ~ the sun is busy with its rising through a sky of gauzy white and blue, everyone here is giddy with the prediction of lower temps, but more importantly lower humidity, the weatherman was almost radiant with the good news last night

This morning has been a disorderly approach to reading time. Eventually, though, I settled on reading the premier volume of a new online journal: Vinyl Poetry. I believe that I linked to this journal through either Adrian Matejka or Kristy Bowen's blogs, as both are poets I admire and both have poems in the issue.

Cover Art by Allie Kelley (alliekelley.com)

I have to admit that the cover art whetted my appetite. The pluck and joy of the that little bluebird with its worm (an early bird, perhaps?) made me smile and want to click through, even though I already intended to do so. I've since also gone to the artist's website, listed above, and you should too, if the work moves you as it did me.

Here's a list of poets making an appearance in Volume 1:

JoAnn Balingit Kristy Bowen
Melissa Broder
Andrea Cohen
Sasha Fletcher
Matt Hart
Thomas Patrick Levy
Rob MacDonald

Adrian Matejka
Ben Mirov
Sam Pink
Anne Marie Rooney
Nate Slawson
Joseph Young
Franz Wright

WOW! That's quite a list, and after reading through the issues, I'm pleased to say that the whole thing stands up quite well. Also, kudos to the designers of the site for making the navigation between poets simple.

My favorite poems from the mix include:
Adrian Matejka's "Cocaine Blues" (a Johnny Cash poem, exquisitely wrought)
Anne Marie Rooney's "Alice, leaving the Caterpillar" (always hard to add to a legend like Alice's, but this one works)
Kristy Bowen's "how to re-imagine your life through mythological characters" (wonderful weaving of allusions and new additions to our mythology)
Sasha Fletcher's "all the tired horses" (a prose poem of bewilderment laced with darkness)


There are three other writers in the issue who, when asked by the editors to submit a handwritten grocery list, each moved in an entirely different direction from each other. Check out the results from Julianna Baggott, Jeff Mann, and Bob Hicok.

This is definitely a journal I'll return to for Volume 2. Also, hats off to the editors, Gregory Sherl and K.M.A. Sullivan for their submission policy. I'll let you discover that one on your own, Dear Reader, click here.