Tag: Darren C. Demaree

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Zoe Tuck’s “Terror Matrix”

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not exed just self-sent to another corner
of the empire though i still smelled of
clay and claimed a home in themiscyra
     i fell out of habit into cauldron so i
asked it since i misheard the lyrics are
we done here   drop the scrim it’s time
to introduce the villain which suggests
a victim     is it i presumed protagonist
the shrill and tender bleater if house
presume a plane and sewer no it’s just
as well that ladder we should climb     or
queue to climb or sit and turn within
but given space should we not dance
it through     think this for a moment
when a witch’s spell’s first word is toil
then does a poem mix if backlit penny
and frontlit spore     don’t answer that
my advocate advised me and implicate
yourself i started bleeding     implied
investigators found this troubling as they
had looked my language over     found
no wound

—

This selection comes from Zoe Tuck’s book of poetry Terror Matrix, available from Timeless, Infinite Light! Purchase your copy here!

Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, where she first encountered two of her great loves: poetry and breakfast tacos. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2008, she has been an active member of the local literary community, working for several years at Small Press Distribution and co-curating Condensery Reading Series. Her book, Terror Matrix (2014) is available from Timeless, Infinite Light. Some of her recent work can be found in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry, as well as online in issue 18 of textsound and issue 15 of dusie. She is also a poetry reader forHOLD: a journal, a monthly blogger at Michigan Quarterly Review, and an occasional book reviewer at the Volta blog. She is currently at work on a manuscript of tarot poems called Summer Arcana. Find her at zoetuck.com or on twitter @oh_that_zoe.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Zoe Tuck’s “Terror Matrix”

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only look askance at me and you shall
have all three     where did i go so wrong
document testament servility     only look
askance     have you ever been in prison
i am compelled to accept your jabs like
kisses     when did you first speak the
word comrade and where     let me borrow
blood return diluted what does it mean
to be a leftist speak my name     kill me
kill me don’t hurt me what does it mean
to be a girl     don’t stand in my way   do 10
you trust me help me     what does it
mean to assert that silence equals     i’ll
go freely death to the stone table of your
speech what does it mean to use your
life     many contradictory variants for a
figure no torch in my palm speech thrust
at me hiding on the playground reading
in the mine-car     the privilege to move

—

This selection comes from Zoe Tuck’s book of poetry Terror Matrix, available from Timeless, Infinite Light! Purchase your copy here!

Zoe Tuck was born in Texas, where she first encountered two of her great loves: poetry and breakfast tacos. Since relocating to the Bay Area in 2008, she has been an active member of the local literary community, working for several years at Small Press Distribution and co-curating Condensery Reading Series. Her book, Terror Matrix (2014) is available from Timeless, Infinite Light. Some of her recent work can be found in Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry, as well as online in issue 18 of textsound and issue 15 of dusie. She is also a poetry reader forHOLD: a journal, a monthly blogger at Michigan Quarterly Review, and an occasional book reviewer at the Volta blog. She is currently at work on a manuscript of tarot poems called Summer Arcana. Find her at zoetuck.com or on twitter @oh_that_zoe.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: J. Gay’s “Decomposition”

J. Gay

vii.

It is the noise that boundaries my infinity. My inevitable
crumble and decay.

Keep it.

My space must be less than infinite. Inside my body there
must be quantifiable galaxies. The darkness and depth
tempered. A multiverse of “yets” and “howevers” and
“considerings”.
I wonder, though. I wonder if I were to spread open my
chest, would gaseous columns emerge from my cavity?
Would the stars inside my brain loosen and crash into my
exposed womb? Am I the potential of dead space?

Things echo. Howls, explosions. The ghosts of sound
promise me, not with whispers, but with matter. With the
approaching ascent. The hot promise of sweat behind knees,
of calloused feet and toes.

I reach out and find.

 

—

This selection is from J. Gay’s book Decomposition, available from dancing girl press! Purchase your copy here!

J. Gay was born and raised in Louisiana. She received her Bachelor’s from the College of Santa Fe and her Master’s from Stonecoast. She lives in New Mexico with her husband and son. Decomposition is her first chapbook. Her website is jgaywriting.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: J. Gay’s “Decomposition”

decomposition

v.

But always at the edges, the pulse of persistent spacetime.

It is the constant effortless nature of white noise. The throb a
wave. The beach of my heart. A shell to the ear magnifies the
sound of blood pumping. Each vein houses a beach with a
just less than infinite night sky and the release of panic.
Crashing of blood against the shore. A body filled with
white noise. Crashing of blood against the shore. Crashing of
a body filled to a decimal place short of infinite. Releasing
panic is the constant effortless nature that lulls one to sleep.
Hush and swish and swing–

The invisible slit spreads its legs. Fill it with sand. Kill it. Keep it.

—

This selection is from J. Gay’s book Decomposition, available from dancing girl press! Purchase your copy here!

J. Gay was born and raised in Louisiana. She received her Bachelor’s from the College of Santa Fe and her Master’s from Stonecoast. She lives in New Mexico with her husband and son. Decomposition is her first chapbook. Her website is jgaywriting.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

Sundress Academy for the Arts To Offer Love Poetry Workshop

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Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to host visiting poet Darren C. Demaree to lead the workshop “Ugh: Writing a Love Poem Worth Reading,” an exploration of the successful traits of a contemporary love poem. The event will be held at Firefly Farms in Knoxville from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, September 17th. Tickets are only $25 and can be purchased at www.sundresspublications.com.

This workshop will provide an informal setting to discus and develop the ideas and inspirations of creative romantic poetry. Subjects covered to include: the history and common mistakes of the genre, new ways of conceptualizing the love poem, and new approaches to crafting one. Participants are encouraged to bring their own work, and come prepared to write some new things as well.

Dannen C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art Nor Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. Beyond his own work, Demaree is the founding editor of AltOhio and Ovenbird Poetry, as well as a member of the Sundress Publications editorial board.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: J. Gay’s “Decomposition”

J. Gay

Restless

This is not an easy space.
(No, it is too early for that.)
The dread of nipples brushing against a thin cotton shirt.
The disgust of sweaty, abjected breasts.

A scrub jay stalks around on the porch,
waiting snatch up the wriggling barn swallow chicks
into its screeing beak.

&

And. And.
I am tired of additions. I am tired of addendums.
And. And. And.
(Do not say “my”. Instead, scree like a bird.)
Hot air building in a throat,
drying out the wet sanctuary of the mouth.
Nothing ever grows here but dust storms.
Howling waste.

And
I like to say I don’t have the time when really
I don’t have the energy.

&

And it is the father who got it right the third time.
The mother who didn’t get what she planned.

&

There are no chicks to consume.
They’ve never been laid. They will never hatch.

 

—

This selection is from J. Gay’s book Decomposition, available from dancing girl press! Purchase your copy here!

J. Gay was born and raised in Louisiana. She received her Bachelor’s from the College of Santa Fe and her Master’s from Stonecoast. She lives in New Mexico with her husband and son. Decomposition is her first chapbook. Her website is jgaywriting.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: J. Gay’s “Decomposition”

decomposition

iii.

Space is not a vacuum in that
it is not a mechanism used for sucking unwanted bits from
surfaces but it is a vacuum in that it is:
without matter.
the void remaining once something integral has departed.
removed from the context which makes it whole.

It is when something is made isolated. Starting to speak,
wetting the tack of my palette, I feel the frozen void pulling
me inside out.

I am filled with space. Sound sucked–

gone.

The silence of a body about to implode.

—

This selection is from J. Gay’s book Decomposition, available from dancing girl press! Purchase your copy here!

J. Gay was born and raised in Louisiana. She received her Bachelor’s from the College of Santa Fe and her Master’s from Stonecoast. She lives in New Mexico with her husband and son. Decomposition is her first chapbook. Her website is jgaywriting.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: J. Gay’s “Decomposition”

J. Gay

Chemical Fire

A hazy morning as smoke oozes across the sky. I miss the
white light of the desert. The light here is yellow. It is thick
and shoves itself into my mouth like a gag. Today, the
asphalt will be so hot that you will break eggs on the curb
while nursing a forty. I will wear a dress and no underwear.
The sweat will gather around our jointed skin, making us
glistening and unbearable.

*

There is a chemical fire burning in New Iberia. Businesses
have been evacuated within a five-mile radius.

*

At night, you count the holes in the ceiling. Sometimes, you
have waking nightmares about spiders. You scream at the
moon for birthing them. I pretend to sleep. I wait for you to
wear yourself out like a two-year old. You turn off the a/c
and open a window. You count by threes. 3, 6, 9… 12, 15,
18… 21, 24, 27… 30, 33, 36… The grinding, the grinding, the
grinding of the brain.

*

The cause of the fire is unknown. It is fueled by asphaltene
treatment products, biocides, and corrosion inhibitors.

*

Together, we drink a bottle of wine. You say I make you
lonely. Outside, the hum of cicadas aches its way to
crescendo, a siren. The trees are heavy with sound. I tell you
my womb is a thrumming web. You open the slider and
throw the empty wine bottle into the street. The glass glitters
in the light of oncoming high-beams.

*

An information officer for the State Troopers stated, “Well,
we just gotta let it burn itself out.”

—

This selection is from J. Gay’s book Decomposition, available from dancing girl press! Purchase your copy here!

J. Gay was born and raised in Louisiana. She received her Bachelor’s from the College of Santa Fe and her Master’s from Stonecoast. She lives in New Mexico with her husband and son. Decomposition is her first chapbook. Her website is jgaywriting.com.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Stevie Edwards’ “Good Grief”

Author Pic 2013

ISO Chicago Accent, Smoker’s Cough

Sometimes Chicago says goodbye with a tire iron, a gallon of gasoline,
and a promise, and I still want it to take me back. I like to dip my
fingertips in the pooled wax of lit candles and peel the paraffin off. I
like to have my hair pulled. I’ve never been hit by a man I wasn’t related
to. I only can walk like a lady in heels when I’m walking away. I feel
relieved when fire trucks stop in front of apartments that aren’t mine.
I like the smell of tobacco when I’m trying to sleep. I was born with
my grandmother’s bad lungs. I can’t chase anything down. Sometimes
I try when I drink too much. I wake up bloody-kneed and alone. In
college I won a prize for best kisser. I quit studying economics to write
poetry. I know how to calculate the Gini coeffcient of a hungry city
but can’t solve anything, not even dinner for one. On my last day in
Chicago, I gave a homeless man a twenty and felt a little better. I’d
like to give you a try, especially if you’ve quit at least one addiction
and still shake out of habit at night. I’d like to feel a little better about
my life. I curse worst in the morning. I’m not sure about love, but I’d
like somebody to make me coffee, maybe bacon and eggs. I’ll give you
everything but a key to my place. I’ll say your name until you wish
you were never given it. Stranger, I can bend into anything but a wife.

—

This selection comes from Stevie Edwards’ book Good Grief, available from Write Bloody Publishing! Purchase your copy here!

Stevie Edwards is a poet, editor, and educator. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Good Grief, was published by Write Bloody in 2012 and subsequently won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze in Poetry and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award. Her second book, Humanly, is forthcoming from Small Doggies Press in 2015. She is Editor-in-Chief of Muzzle Magazine and Acquisitions Editor at YesYes Books. She lives in a castle in Ithaca, NY.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.

The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: Stevie Edwards’ “Good Grief”

Author Pic 2013

Glass Night Blessing

A boy, a half-decade too young, brings me roses
at work, like I’m a woman who owns a vase.
I fixed the snapped silver clasp of my favorite
necklace tonight, the one I snagged off,
too drunk for the precision of fingers.
When I was a child church ladies said
I had piano fingers, so I prayed for a piano
so hard I found music in every empty space.
I sang praise from my snug closet walls
and the branches of the cherry tree out back.
I never shut up. Mom would leave me
in the bath alone. She knew I wasn’t drowning.
I never shut up. It took me years to understand
I came from a lineage of tone-deaf housewives.
But I bent the forgiving metal of this clasp
between slender thumb and middle finger
with such precision it must’ve made
a shattering pitch. Thank god there wasn’t
any glass in the room. It’s comforting to say
that everything happens for a reason.
I never got my piano. Nobody I’ve loved
has ever given me a rose when I loved them.
I didn’t take the 63rd bus home from work
the night the boys threw bricks through
the windows near Cottage. When shards
must’ve had their two seconds of night glitter
before nicking a woman’s hand. When the bus
evacuated into the street. When the boys
shot a another boy who evacuated that breaking.
I am this blessed: I don’t know how to judge
if gun wounds in movies are realistic.

 

—

This selection comes from Stevie Edwards’ book Good Grief, available from Write Bloody Publishing! Purchase your copy here!

Stevie Edwards is a poet, editor, and educator. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Good Grief, was published by Write Bloody in 2012 and subsequently won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Bronze in Poetry and the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award. Her second book, Humanly, is forthcoming from Small Doggies Press in 2015. She is Editor-in-Chief of Muzzle Magazine and Acquisitions Editor at YesYes Books. She lives in a castle in Ithaca, NY.

Darren C. Demaree is the author of three poetry collections, As We Refer to Our Bodies (2013, 8th House), Temporary Champions (2014, Main Street Rag), and Not For Art For Prayer (2015, 8th House). He is the recipient of three Pushcart Prize nominations and a Best of the Net nomination. He is also a founding editor of Ovenbird Poetry and AltOhio. He is currently living in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and children.