triggerfish critical review

THREE PUBLISHED POEMS

I’m excited to have three poems published online in the July issue of Triggerfish Critical Review #20. As of today, Issue #19 is still posted, but Editor Dave Mehler will publish Issue #20 next week. I’m proud to be selected to join the quality of work Triggerfish publishes.

My three poems differ from one another in major ways, but there’s a spiritual element to all of them.

1- “Common Story Among Strangers” questions what and how we believe.

2- “I Pray” is a complaint to an impersonal you about one’s intrinsic needs.  

3- “On the Verge of Holy” Will seeking religion give me spiritual life? 

In a critique, Robert Stout wrote about my poems: “Powerful imagery emerging from everyday words and pacing that seems conversational, intimate.”

If you’re interested in poetry, it’s worthwhile to read Editor Dave Mehler’s "Letter To the Editor." Though I write poetry, I’ve had ambivalent feelings about the genre in general. Mehler tells us that we can hate poetry and still need it, using as reference Ben Lerner’s The Hatred of Poetry.

I think we all realize there is more to life than what we can say using language. The unseeable, what we know exists but can’t identify, is in many respects un-speakable. This inherent understanding eludes words. Poetry is our effort to express what transcends us.

I hope you’ll take a look at Triggerfish Critical Review. You’ll find interesting writers and poems.