'Crayfish' by Fleur Adcock

Of course with all those legs they�re arthropods �
crayfish, lobsters and their armoured ilk.
At school one day a bunch of us nipped out
in our lunch-break and bought a prickly hulk
to have our way with, rip apart and crunch.

It was like eating a pterodactyl �
morally, I mean, in retrospect �
but the sea-drenched jelly when I snapped
a leg from the carapace, cracked it and sucked in
ecstasy� no,

Photo of the Week: "Woodpile Under Snowfall"

I remind all interested that my new photographs are available at a daily photo journal blog. I invite everyone to visit the blog for commentary about the photo and to click on the images there to examine them in high resolution or to magnify them for a detailed look.

J.P. Dancing Bear: "Stone City"

The VPR Poem of the Week is J.P. Dancing Bear�s �Stone City,� which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2010-2011 issue (Volume XII, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

 

J. P. Dancing Bear is the author of Inner Cities of Gulls (SalmonPoetry, 2010), Conflicted Light(SalmonPoetry, 2008), Gacela of Narcissus City (2006), and Billy Last Crow(2004).  His poems have been published in Shenandoah, Third Coast, New Orleans Review, Natural Bridge, The Raleigh Quarterly, Mississippi Review, Verse Daily, and many other literary magazines.  He is the editor of American Poetry Journal.

Tuesday of each week One Poet�s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it. 

Fault by Joanna Preston

A mistake. An error of judgement. A penalty
brought against a quiet city. Stroll
through the park, lunchtime almost over.
A defect, a small disappointment. A summer day
laden with clouds, grey light that softens the walls,
the stone and brick, the glass. Less
than expected. Someone to blame. A sparrow
rests lightly on the hand of a statue. A weakness
in the system, communications break down

Photo of the Week: "Winter Tree"

I remind all interested that my new photographs are available at a daily photo journal blog. I invite everyone to visit the blog for commentary about the photo and to click on the images there to examine them in high resolution or to magnify them for a detailed look.

Scott Brennan: "Toboggan"

The VPR Poem of the Week is Scott Brennan�s �Toboggan,� which appears in the Fall/Winter 2012-2013 issue (Volume XIV, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

 

Scott Brennan's work has appeared in a number of magazines and journals, including Gettysburg Review, Sewanee Review, Notre Dame Review, Chicago Review, Oxford Magazine, The Literary Review, Chariton Review, Carolina Quarterly, Cortland Review, The Journal, South Carolina Review, Cimarron Review, Third Coast, Poetry Quarterly, Tar River Poetry, Poet Lore, and elsewhere.

Tuesday of each week One Poet�s Notes highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the issues of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it. 

The Gift by C. K. Stead

Allen Curnow 1911 - 2001

Brasch in his velvet
voice and signature
purple tie

complained to his
journal that you had
'interrupted'.

I wasn't sorry.
That was Somervell's
coffee shop

nineteen fifty-three.
Eighteen months
later you and I

were skidding on the
tide-out inner-
harbour shelvings

below your house
from whose 'small room with
large windows' you saw

that geranium 'wild
on a wet bank'