Poetry and About Poetry

Thank you Magnolia Review for accepting 6 of my poems for Publication in Volume 5 Issue 2 (July 2019).

Thank you Magnolia Review for accepting 6 of my poems for Publication in Volume 5 Issue 2 (July 2019).

City of Rivers by Zubair Ahmed My rating: 4 of 5 stars Zubair Ahmed’s collection. “City of Rivers,” is a poetry of brutal realism mixed with the surreal nightmare, a gentleness of love amid the hard truths of living. Ahmed’s language is deceptively simple at times. Then he warps syntax and surprises. He writes of his family’s and Bangladesh’s history, of his own childhood there and his living in Texas now as he juxtaposes place and time, image and symbol to good and mournful effect because, in the end: The moon lights the ocean on fire. I watch the waves repeat themselves Until they become a house With soft lights and no furniture. I begin to sleep. My body is music. I will never have a home. It is worth spending time with this well-written collection. View all my reviews

City of Rivers by Zubair Ahmed My rating: 4 of 5 stars Zubair Ahmed's collection. "City of Rivers," is a poetry of brutal realism mixed with the surreal nightmare, a gentleness of love amid the hard truths of living. Ahmed's language is deceptively simple at times. Then he warps syntax and surprises. He writes of his family's and Bangladesh's history, of his own childhood there and his living in Texas now as he juxtaposes place and time, image and symbol to good and mournful effect because, in the end: The moon lights the ocean on fire. I watch the waves repeat themselves Until they become a house With soft lights and no furniture. I begin to sleep. My body is music. I will never have a home. It is worth spending time with this well-written collection. View all my reviews

My Poem “Frost Music” is included in Half Mystic Journal Issue VI: Interlude available in both hard copy and PDF here . Thank you Topaz Winters and the editorial team.

To Those Who Were Our First Gods by Nickole Brown My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nickole Brown’s “To Those Who Were Our First Gods” speaks through colloquial, even childlike voices desperately listening for the animal others to speak their pleas for “Mercy.” Even as she does so, we hear the fatalism of her deep humanity (animality?) in the examples she gives of our wasteful and callous misuse of our brothers and sisters in life. She still has enough faith (anger) to demand hope: Hope, you know by now, is not a thing you feel but something you do… She mourns the passing of each individual animal life as she “close[s] the extinguished/horizons of his eyes.” If only these fellow creatures could speak a word “mercy” we might hear and still our ravening hands. Read and care. View all my reviews

To Those Who Were Our First Gods by Nickole Brown My rating: 4 of 5 stars Nickole Brown's "To Those Who Were Our First Gods" speaks through colloquial, even childlike voices desperately listening for the animal others to speak their pleas for "Mercy." Even as she does so, we hear the fatalism of her deep humanity (animality?) in the examples she gives of our wasteful and callous misuse of our brothers and sisters in life. She still has enough faith (anger) to demand hope: Hope, you know by now, is not a thing you feel but something you do... She mourns the passing of each individual animal life as she "close[s] the extinguished/horizons of his eyes." If only these fellow creatures could speak a word "mercy" we might hear and still our ravening hands. Read and care. View all my reviews

You can view videos of Students from my Fall 2018 Creative Writing Class as they perform 10-minute Plays written by 2 of their classmates: The Doorbell Tolls for Thee The Cold of Winter

Purchase physical copies of The Magnolia Review, Volume 4, Issue 1, please click here to Purchase One, Two, Three, or Four Copies. Or send your payment to: The Magnolia Review Suzanna… — Read on themagnoliareview.com/purchase-copies/