Fall is upon us. The winds are growing colder, the trees are exploding with color, and the smells of cider and cinnamon tempt us to partake of the delicious treats we have waited for many a month. The blanket and steaming mug beckon. All that is missing is some great reading material – some great poetry, to be precise – to complete a perfect scene of autumnal happiness. And that’s where Minerva Rising can help! In addition to the poetry we’ve published in our past issues, it’s our goal to bring other women writers and their work to your attention.
For this week’s review, I made it my mission to find a few literary journals whose poetry selections are provocative, illuminating, and full of promise. The three publications below fulfill these criteria and more; their selections are carefully-curated and inspiring. They satisfied the poet’s soul in me and will, I hope, do the same for you this month!
Damselfly Press
Edited by Jennifer Taylor, Lesley Dame, and Kimyia Fatima Varzi, Damselfly Press “seeks to promote exceptional writing by women” by publishing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry in their online journal. Part of Damselfly’s mission is to promote writing that is “honest and explores human nature,” and the poems included in the latest issue of the journal reveal how successful they are at bringing forth work that offers insights into the realities of a woman’s life and the world we live in.
The three poems featured in this summer’s volume are all worthy of mention. Together, the verses set a tone of wonderment and quiet despair for the short (but sweet) issue. Laura Madeline Wiseman’s “What the Catalpa Knows” offers a catalpa tree’s view of the human beings constantly moving in pursuit of “some garden, some lost fruit” on the ground below. In “At Breakfast,” Laura Quinn Guidry questions whether joy can exist after the tragic loss of a child, asking if the “sweetness” of life can endure the bitterness. “Roseate Spoonbill” by Jane Ellen Glasser completes the set, imagining a bird’s understanding of the forces that prey upon her and the natural world she inhabits.
Issue 24 includes a non-fiction selection from j.a. alexander and can be accessed online for free here: http://damselflypress.net/category/issues/issue-24-issues/.
Josephine Quarterly
The poetry offered in Josephine Quarterly’s third issue has something for every taste. Founded last year by Atlanta-based poets Komal Patel Mathew and Jenny Sadre-Orafair, the journal simply aims to publish good poetry. “A good poem is a good poem,” the editors remind us, and one cannot help but agree with them.
Though still in its inaugural year, Josephine Quarterly has already collected quite a few good poems. The latest issue features a wide range of work from established and new poets. John Bradley’s quirky “In the Pole of Cold: List of Illustrations,” a unique and strangely humorous poem built from captions narrating a journey in the Arctic, kicks off the volume. “A Different Angle” by Jessica Lakritz is a standout for its skilled use of earth and sea imagery to explain how the entire world can shift if a person can only change their perspective. Danielle Sellers’s “Late October, Sardis Lake” also caught my eye, both for its seasonal timeliness and for its narrative about isolated moments that dominate a woman’s memories and shape her vision of the future.
Check out more from Josephine Quarterly here: http://www.josephinequarterly.com/summer-2013.html.
Clementine Magazine
Edited by Jeffrey Berg and Alicia Rebecca Myers, Clementine Magazine focuses on publishing “persona poetry” – verses that come from an invented narrator – that contains evocative language and presents a compelling voice to the reader.
Nine poets are featured in the magazine’s fifth issue and I’m sorry that there isn’t space enough to offer a glimpse of each work. Highlights of the issue include Cynthia Atkins “Unreliable Narrator,” which reads as a short speech by the aforementioned narrator who is determined to “tell the improbable mocking / tales that my mother warned against” and will bend the truth as needed to achieve the desired effect. “Lonesome” by Andrea Janov describes the sensations of first love while Helen Losse’s “Part of the cross” movingly suggests that the objects we carry with us are really symbols of memories. I also enjoyed Sarah Layden’s “5 Reasons to Care About Asteroids,” which analyzes humankind’s place in the grand scheme of things – a position at once vulnerable, comical, and significant.
Clementine Magazine also publishes original artwork and photography. Check it out here: http://www.clementinemagazine.com/.
(Artwork from Bats Langley, Clementine Magazine)
Happy reading!
