ISSUE VIII
May 2021
Cover by Nicolas Pluquet
FROM THE (POETRY) EDITOR
Welcome to Bracken’s eighth issue, and its first composed of poetry and visual art, without fiction. Given our decision to forego fiction for the present, we’ve felt inclined to offer more poetry than in prior issues. It’s still a small selection—only the work that we felt we just couldn’t let go, chosen from among thousands of poems sent our way.
We all find things—poems, songs, pictures—that we want to have near and return to, as they help us somehow. They’re a kind of company we feel we need. That’s the kind of work we’ve sought in gathering this issue’s offerings, while we’re all caught up in a chapter of the human story that is as riddled with loss as any.
POETRY
Two Poems by Michele Bombardier
Avenue of Birds by Judith Skillman
Loss by Heidi Seaborn
Two Poems by Despy Boutris
Storm, Barrier Island by Jack Bedell
After Edward Hopper by David Axelrod
Two Poems by Claudia Putnam
The poem begins with us surviving by Erin Rodoni
Four Poems by Michele Karas
Words for Port Austin by Cal Freeman
Two Poems by Martha Silano
Morning glory blessing by Ruth Dickey
Three Poems by Rebecca Foust
Under the Lawrence Tree, 1929/2021 by Jory Mickelson
Two Poems by Rebecca Hawkes
Grave by Wei Zheng
Weed in a French Garden by Madison Mainwaring
Phone Booth to the Dead by Emily Franklin
Italian Prune by Ed Harkness
Red-Necked Grebe by Derek Furr
The Mandalina Tree by Bryana Joy
Poem with Lines from my Son by Jen Stewart Fueston
900 Miles by Lee Ann Pingel
last night I read the late T’ang poet by Kathleen Hellen
ART
