Introduction to Issue 97 Poetry (Q1 2026)
Happy New Year! And I hope you had a wonderful holiday on Christmas day.
We begin the 2026 with a traditional seasonal contribution from your poetry editor followed by a set of poems from both familiar and new voices. The poems this quarter are heavily surreal, metaphysical, even strange, science-influenced, fantasy, and a nod toward artificial sentience. The poetical structures lean toward free verse in this issue (but formal poems have significant presence in the spring issue 98)
Naming Animals by John C. Mannone [Oak Ridge, Tennessee]
Foiled by Anna Cates [Wilmington, Ohio]
The Truth About Wings by M. Frost [Towson, Maryland]
Give to All Today by Richard Magahiz [Wilmington, Delaware]
Geometry by Stephanie Smith [Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania]
The Snow Queen’s Women by Suzanne J. Willis [Melbourne, Australia]
Animal Eschatology by CP Nwankwo [Port Harcourt, Nigeria]
troll grows you by Hannan Khan [Kot Muzaffar, Punjab, Pakistan]
The House that Learned to Keep Time Differently by Veronica Tucker [Gilford, New Hampshire]
error_glitch.exe (flesh runtime corrupted) by Lucien R. Starchild [Ft. Lauderdale, Florida]
Most of these poems have audio performance by the poets. This adds increased depth of enjoyment as you read along with the mp3 recordings.