clementine!

Hello dreamers.  I hope you will check out the latest Clementine -- an online poetry journal -- that I edited.

There you will find wonderful and varied poems by Philip Arnold, Cynthia Atkins, Andrea Janov, Sarah Layden, Amy Locklin, Helen Losse, Daniel Romo, Adam Soldofsky, and Megan Volpert.

It also features tenderly macabre artwork by Bats Langley (who recently did the Moonrise Kingdom-inspired illustration above).

Happy reading!

a fast life

I attended one of the best poetry readings I've ever been to last night at St. Mark's Church. It was a tribute to Tim Dlugos. I wonder if other writers have felt this way when every once in a while you discover a writer whose odd brain you feel a certain kinship with. I included some previously unpublished poems of his in the last issue of Clementine. From time to time poets have told me to read his work, but much of it was elusive. That's why it's so exciting to have his poetry compiled in an extraordinary book, A Fast Life: The Collected Poems of Tim Dlugos, beautifully published by Nightboat Books and meticuously and lovingly edited by one of my favorite poets David Trinidad.

o my darlin

It's was really exciting to edit the latest edition of Clementine (an online journal of poetry and photography) with Becca. I love and admire all of the poets represented.

The issue features five previously unpublished poems by Tim Dlugos, whose collected poems, A Fast Life (edited by David Trinidad) is due from Nightboat Books in 2011. There are also three previously unpublished poems by Karl Tierney. A poet whose work I discovered in the excellent anthology Persistent Voices: An Anthology of Poets Lost to AIDS.

As always, we tried to represent many different voices. There are two great poems inspired by Curtis Mayfield by Rio Cortez. A Showgirls sestina by Jeffery Conway. Persona poems concerning Amy Winehouse by Kerri French. The subjects of the poems range from Vladmir Putin to video games.

All of the poems--by Jerome Murphy, Sarah Stickney, Charles Jensen, Matthew Hittinger, Jeffrey Allen, Michael Comstock, William Wright, Jenn Blair, Joe Eldridge, Nathan Vulgamott and Steve Westbrook--are smart and refreshing.

I am crazy about the Barbie photos of Russ Pedro and Brian Brown's evocative shots of rural Georgia.

Clementine is interested primarily in the idea of the persona, but we are rather loose with what we consider a "persona poem." Some in the issue are more literal about this than others. Becca and I are proud of what we put together and so happy to share the work of these artists.

203 east 4th

A poem from my friend Becca. I love this one. Go seek her chapbook Greener (or order greenerchapbook@gmail.com). We co-edit Clementine together and are hoping for a new issue soon.


203 East 4th

I write you from a dense island.
Ships skirt the pratfall shore then grow
distant -- I grow inventive, pray radio
sleeps in the coconut's core. Can
waves refuse what they carry, manage
without baggage? I've lost how to row.
Flat palms vise the hot air, sostenuto.
The same sun that drowns rises, dripping.
Shells protrude like tusks or oars;
I string colors together, rope starlet
necklaces of auger, cuttlebone. Sweat
salts my eyes to tears -- that, and the hours
spent alone. You might forget
me completely. I write you from regret.


-Alicia Rebecca Myers

oh my darling

My friend Rebecca Myers and I co-edit an online journal named Clementine.

Our third issue went live yesterday and we are excited about it. With every issue, it's a pleasure to compile great poetry and photography by up and coming and established artists. One of my favorite poets, David Trinidad, is in the latest issue with two beautiful poems on death. It also features Chris Roberts, Lisa Newhouse, MRB Chelko, Sharanya Manivannan, Rachel Marie Patterson, Kaethe Schwehn, and Andy Stallings.

The gorgeous photography included is by Rick Herron (who took the picture here) and David Wright.

Compiling all of the unique perspectives has been fun and it's exciting to see Clementine blossom. It's also fun to work with Rebecca who is a very talented poet.

Our mission with Clementine are to give a space to poems that tackle or adopt ideas about the persona. Here's one of my favorite poems that Becca wrote from her chapbook Greener. The poem is in the voice of Maria von Trapp.

Maria Von Trapp, on the 25th Anniversary

Re-release of The Sound of Music on Video

They sugared and screened my life, made me

Julie Andrews, finder of comfort in brown

copper kettles, climber of mountains, settler

in unfamiliar territory. I went from hills to curtained

kids, yodeling all the way. Oh there's the whirling

dervish now, the how-do-you-find-a-

word-that-means-the-how-do-you-solve-a-

problem-like-Maria. Say it loud and it's almost

like praying. Maria. Sweet singer, second

mother, former nun turned able-bodied Edelweisser.

Christopher Plummer tired to make surrender

film worthwhile, but how, chin scar

like an either/or? Pick your poison,

your puppeteer. Will it be God or Captain,

abbey bells or seven children screaming?

Favorite things do nothing for fear. I hear

my well-kept songs wanting out, personal

refrains not fit for any festival chorus but voiced

Leisel-like at night, gazebo hidden. I sneak away

for secret ballads, strum chords crisp as abandoned hills,

wonder if when I wandered long,

afternoons by the high stream, through audience-

less and still a nun, I sang better.

I rewind the final scene, watch again and again

as my Julie Andrews legs trudge towards an unseen

inn in Vermont. A family fleeing war,

hands so full of Gretel, who can carry

a guitar?

-Alicia Rebecca Myers

I do hope you enjoy our latest issue!

o my darlin

Become a fan of the online literary magazine Clementine.

Submit poetry and/or photography here.

Clementine Magazine on Facebook

clementine issue two

Becca & I are so happy to unveil the second issue of Clementine Magazine today! There are excellent new poems by Kimiko Hahn, Marcus Jackson, Janine Joseph, Lauren Gould, and Erin M. Bertram. David Levine's 1970s photographs are also included.

Please check it out here.


Eve's Right Foot, Oregon Coast, 1977
Photography by David Levine

oh my darling

Rebecca Myers & I are thrilled to be unveiling a new issue of Clementine in July. We have been working hard on gathering the best poems and are very excited about it!

Please check out Issue #1 and stay tuned for Issue #2!

Peace.