BY GREGORY SHERL Mel Gibson is a thundercloud. He formed somewhere over the Midwest, a few years after World War II. They say he emigrated from Australia, a son of prisoners surrounded by water—that they hated the dryness, but what to do? Mel found Catholicism in an unplugged fan. Me, I was born in a … Continue reading WIKIPEDIA
Category: Poetry
ODE TO A HAWK WITH WINGS BURNING
BY RYAN TEITMAN When our eyes can’t adjust to the fog of late light burning off under a heat of darkness, a black flower blooms for a single minute, and the bees waiting for its nectar die of thirst. They drop one by one into a furry pile around the stem, not knowing that the … Continue reading ODE TO A HAWK WITH WINGS BURNING
Remembering Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski died sixteen years ago today, March 9. Just a few years before his death, the hyperprolific Buk sent a startup literary journal a small bundle of poems—and a friendly warning, of sorts. In honor of his memory, we here atSycamore Review have decided to open up the archives and share with you one … Continue reading Remembering Charles Bukowski
THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY (an exerpt)
BY RITA MAE REESE The word is the making of the world. Wallace Stevens It’s a filmstrip afternoon and we’re all grateful to the humming projector in the middle of our desks, the closed blinds, the absence of a real adult. There’s a vague promise of revelation from the title and the dark, tree-lined streets, … Continue reading THE ALPHABET CONSPIRACY (an exerpt)
Michael Martone’s 25-Cent Napkin Poem
In his collection of essays, The Flatness and Other Landscapes, writer Michael Martone recounts how he and some friends would write poems for hire in Bloomington, Indiana. “We would go up to people on the street and ask them if they would like a poem today. On any subject, we said. In any form. We’d … Continue reading Michael Martone’s 25-Cent Napkin Poem
IN THE GARDEN OF MIGRATING GHOSTS
BY BARBARA CLAIRE FREEMAN If now you cannot hear me it is because we are breaking up because our borders are not secure because the iPod interferes with your pace maker because there is no reason to worry about the past when the past may never come because no one else will remember how damp … Continue reading IN THE GARDEN OF MIGRATING GHOSTS
SUSTAINABLE LIVING
BY JESSICA LOVE My brother won’t eat the Costco strawberries, twenty giant strawberries in a carton the length of a twelve-pack. He sips his Coke and shakes his curly head. Not cool, he says. I’ve seen apples smaller than those berries. We watch the storm together, at Mom’s new place, watch as it turns from … Continue reading SUSTAINABLE LIVING
ON THE ART OF PATIENCE
BY JIM TILLEY With a Mozart concerto in the background and little to do as I waited for the next available associate to be with me shortly, I began to comprehend how one infinity can be larger than another, not in the sense of the mathematician who can prove that rational numbers are countable and … Continue reading ON THE ART OF PATIENCE
THE MECHANISM OF PLEASURE
BY KC TROMMER For A. H. The brain is three pounds of soft mass. It’s the consistency of pudding, one doctor told me, which put me off pudding afterwards. He gestured, motion of the finger going through it, and even made the wet sound for something—the knife?—sliding in. Easy to make a mistake. They worked … Continue reading THE MECHANISM OF PLEASURE
POST WAR COOKBOOKS
BY DANIEL BRENNER Form will save us from Looking like scoundrels Or worse Being taken to icy waters & rescued from secondhand Remnants of trees After the war they dripped ice & then got warm again They commended each other & were embarrassed They wrote cookbook after cookbook As if to say here is something … Continue reading POST WAR COOKBOOKS
