Fig Now that I’m old I’m trying to stay focused on my feet, trying not to trip so I won’t break a hip, end up in a hospital surrounded by a swarm of nurses and germs, a plastic container of apple sauce, a juice box of prunes, bleachy blankets thin as a wish. I don’t want to die like this, a kingdom of white walls, machines beeping beside me, saints appearing in my peripheral vision offering to escort me […] The post Three Poems by Dorianne Laux appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

From the start Flaco existed in two realities: the park and online.        magine Flaco, the escaped Eurasian eagle-owl, flying through Central Park after dark. Owls are known as the lords of the night, but it is during the crepuscular hours that they truly reign. Flaco would have flown silently, his wings holding an evolutionary secret that humans had long noted but not understood. Those wings are made up of feathers that, unlike other birds, reduce turbulence and […] The post Flaco: A Triptych ~ Part 2: Evolution appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

Old Roads, New Stories: A Literary Series   eople have always told stories. We’ve told them in order to find meaning, or create meaning, and then pass that meaning on to others (think myths, origin stories, and fables). We even did it visually before language evolved and got cookin’ (think cave paintings). But there have always been people who want to stop this seeking, finding, and passing on of meaning. There have always been people who want to censor it, […] The post Poetry Month vs. Book Bans appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

To the Source Take my hand: will you bring me to the source, to the river’s mouth? If I rise with the river, I’ll be flooded with cattails and runoff. If I run off with you, do you know a place beyond the arm of the state? It’s getting late. Lead me to the heart- land or a body of water, to my earliest language so we can pledge to soil, seed, and air, indivisible in a sparrow’s first subsong. […] The post One Poem by Sarah Giragosian appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

  Wonder About The By Matthew Cooperman Middle Creek Publishing | 2023 | 85 pages    the information flows / that is yearning.   – Robert Duncan Thoughts on things fold unfold above the river beds   – Lorine Niedecker   iver: a livestream? Witness blue herons, human settlement, meanders, “a spilling presence.” Winner of the 2022 Halcyon Poetry Prize, Wonder About The builds a “field sense,” that is, a poetic ecology that reveries past and presentness of a place […] The post <em>Wonder About The</em><br> Poems by Matthew Cooperman appeared first o ..read more

From up above, Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl hooted down on New York City.   his is the last place I saw him,” David Barrett is saying. David and I have just made our way through the Shakespeare Garden and over to the west side of Central Park. We emerged around 81st Street and headed north, passing buildings like the famous Beresford on 211 Central Park West with its massive octagonal towers. A light rain is falling. For the last year […] The post Flaco: A Triptych ~ Part 1: The Escape appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

A Friend Tells Me His Grandfather is Dying as I Write a Note to Jonathan Johnson About His Latest Memoir for Zach Johnston And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.    – 2 Kings 2:9   Jon, those golden bricks of larch […] The post One Poem by Cody Smith appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

   It sounded as if the streets were running— And then—the streets stood still— Eclipse was all we could see at the Window And Awe—was all we could feel.    – Emily Dickinson    I. “I’d like to change my answer,” she says. Our tour group stands in clusters, killing time before we go through customs from Argentina to Chile. Wrapped in scarves and dozing on our neck pillows, we wait to be called forward to have our passports stamped […] The post Totality appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

The sea will have its way with you.   ll that once stood firm began to fall away; first to go, the condemned apartment buildings at land’s end, their backyard railings falling into the sea, in the storm’s big blow. Next, the patios; cracks appeared in the concrete, widened into fissures, fault lines, then whole sections broke apart and fell down the cliffs like calving icebergs. Along went the patio furniture, the Adirondack chairs, the big umbrella, a rusting barbeque […] The post Crumble Cake: The California Coast appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more

G is for Greenhood for spring sitting on my shoulders then fastening to eye level chanteuse gladiolas spinning bowing in the distance scents of green greening until earth gets it right green that I can’t keep to myself say: green belongs within reach like an extract of sepal outside of the flower body you wouldn’t recognize me when I cradle green for fear of it becoming worn in many places even when morning lurks upside-down green (not this green) never […] The post One Poem by Dorsía Smith Silva appeared first on Terrain.org ..read more