Backbone > Poetica

Eited by Phil Levine

The New Poetry

I.
Don’t ever rhyme.
It’s archaic.
Do something new.

II.
Avoid cliché:
love, longing, loss.

III.
Edit, edit.
Include nothing
which might suggest
a past something.

IV.
Stay elusive.
Leave the reader
uncertain that
anything has
happened at all.

—Christopher Porpora

debriser (a sonnet)

‘twas a soul mate I met when least I meant,
a force larger than logic could reason.
a chance I stood until my mind I lent,
and it began an amorous season.

but this man and I are parted by fate,
whose iron will i’m not matched to deceive.
ocean between would be better than case,
for mere distance can be conquered by speed.

but if ten subtracted and knots untied,
if truth sought fully, desires realized,
the rules tossed away, on instinct relied,
this gap might’ve shrunk, blissful plans devised.

but reality remains, brains have left,
gone too is my heart, alone my regret.

–Aglaia Spenser

curl
of the corn worm
lingering heat
.
just enough snow
for boot tracks to bare the earth
end of November
.
watching you change
by the river at dusk
days too long for spring
.
crooked bra strap
of a cafe waitress
the heat

—Burnell Lippy from late geese up a dry fork
reprinted by permission

Why You Are I Am

You feel what I hear
What I taste you touch
Where you smell I sense
Why you are I am
I feel what I smell that
You hear why I see that you
Taste of what is when
Which is where that
Why you are I am.

—Teresa Marta Costa

To submit your poem to Chronogram,
send it via snail or e-mail. POETICA.
PO Box 459. New Paltz, NY 12561. info@chronogram.com. Subject: Poetica.