MEMORIES THAT SMELL LIKE GASOLINE ~

 

R E A D   M E

       new edition ~

      Nightboat Books 2025

THE NIGHTMARE SEQUENCE ~

 

R E A D   M E

     Nightboat Books

     2025

DOUGLAS CRASE ~

 

R E A D     M E

Nightboat Books, 2022

POEM I LIKE ~

Someone asked me the other day — "what's the sort of poem
do you like?"
All types!
But here's one I read the night before, before falling off to sleep, and I marked it:

The untitled poem is by Douglas Crase from his forthcoming book
The Revisionist and The Astropastorals
(Nightboat Books, 2019)




_______________________



Under the rim of maybe

Back on the edge of regret

Around the corner from should have

Down the street from forget

Out on a limb with willing

Too far gone to remark

Close to the tip of almost

Up slip creek in the dark

MICHAEL HELLER ~

Orion In December

                            Charles Burchfield's painting and note

"tortured by a multitude of thoughts,"


he lay awake, looking at luminous sky


"black studded caves" of night


first two emerging stars


then a third, Orion's belt


"peace and comfort"


came with recognition,


with resolution and familiarity,


"some Being saying 'All is well' "


                                                 .   .   .



This night, Orion


enormous in the East


—tremulous sky


pines dark

against starlight

—the constellations


no longer testify

even as they offer

"diadems"


the word cries out

thrall of space


but legato to emptiness


learning


that brought us close,


companionate


with loneliness


even as we pointed


to clustered stars


in those dark nights,


soulless nights


of stellar distances



————————

Michael Heller
DIANOIA
Night boat Books
2016