Barn Lit By a Duck Egg, by Lillo Way

Lillo Way’s poems have appeared in New Orleans Review, Poet Lore, Tampa
Review, Tar River Poetry, Madison Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, Poetry
East, and Santa Fe Literary Review, among others. Seven of her poems are
included in anthologies. Way's full-length manuscript, Wingbone, was a
finalist for the 2015 Barry Spacks Poetry Prize from Gunpowder Press.

About the poem:

“Barn Lit by a Duck Egg” was written in direct response to a 3-hour workshop
led by Natalie Diaz, which was the best and most intense short poetry workshop
I’ve ever had the pleasure (and pain) of participating in. Charles Burchfield was
an early twentieth-century American painter. Olivier Messiaen was a 20th century
French composer. Burchfield describes hearing music projected from the
colors and shapes of objects. Messiaen describes seeing colors and patterns in
response to musical sounds.

The Pear Trees at Terezin, by Jennifer K. Sweeney

Jennifer K. Sweeney is the author of Little Spells (New Issues Press), James
Laughlin Award winner, How to Live on Bread and Music (Perugia Press), and
Salt Memory. A Pushcart Prizewinner, poems have recently appeared in The
Adroit Journal, The Awl, Stirring, Terrain, Tinderbox, Thrush, and Verse Daily.


About the poem:

“The Pear Trees at Terezin” was written after spending a month in the Czech Republic.
My travels triggered so many folds of memory and experience that what I could tangibly
remember and what was part of me solely through ancestry felt embedded into the
present. At times I felt like I was reaching far back into my lineage, and at others, spun
out of that dream-like tumble, having never been so far away from my story.

The Scientists Agree, by Nate Stein

Nate Stein is an international human rights attorney in New York City. His work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Wordriot, Isthmus, Gravel, and The Santa Clara Review, as well as The NYU Journal of International Law and Politics, The NYU Law Magazine, The Orlando Sentinel, and Shanghai Expat Magazine.


About the poem:

It often takes me between a week and a month to think a thought. I wrote these [poems] when
I was thinking about how as I get older I don’t feel afraid as frequently. But I miss that feeling. I have had success in life and I miss being scared of failing and I also miss being allowed to fail.

California Dry, by Patricia L. Scruggs

Patricia L. Scruggs lives in Southern California. She is the author of Forget the Moon (2015). Her work has appeared in ONTHEBUS, Spillway, RATTLE, Calyx, and Cultural Weekly, among others, as well as the anthologies 13 Los Angles Poets, So Luminous the Wildflowers, and Beyond the Lyric Moment.

About the poem:

Last summer, during our 5-year drought, I began listing all of the names of places that were burning or had burned that year. I noted how many bore the names of saints. A poem began to emerge. The rest is court reporting of an incident during water aerobics and the scene around us—taking in the beauty of the day while parts of California were burning.