Summer Hiatus - Submissions Remain Open

Generations of Poetry is going on a Summer Hiatus. 

Submissions remain open.

In our initial three months, we have published 54 poems, displaying the talents of 42 different poets. We are very pleased with the quality of the submissions we have received, and hope our readers feel the same.

Submissions have slowed, so we are taking a publishing hiatus. Our plan is to return in autumn -- as the leaves are changing colors, and children are returning to school -- with more great poetry to share.

Interested poets are encouraged to read the submission guidelines.  We will maintain our goal of a two-week maximum turn around on responses to submissions; the hiatus will only impact the date of publication.

A Divided Plane

A Divided Plane
Diana Matisz

I look in the mirror
and chisel my face
into quadrants of four:

Carolina.
hands never still
Slovak and English
quietly falling from lips
kissing the sweet crown
of a newborn's head
her plump cheeks rest
on the bones of my face

Martin.
stoic coal miner
living for family
dying for family
the one of four
I never knew
his nose delineates
my facade

Isabella.
inner steel beneath
soft Scots burr
pale soap-scented skin
the backbone of family
deep-lake blue eyes
those through which
life finds me

Walter.
digger of earth
puffing pipe smoke halos
cigars and pinochle
straight-backed
reserved Englishman
my hesitant mouth
speaks his words never said

These four without whom
my face would be
just a face.

***

Diana Matisz lives in Pittsburgh, PA and writes for the simple joy of it. She's also a casual photograper and her work can be found at Diana's Words, and Life Through Blue Eyes.

Erected to the Memory

Erected to the Memory
Charles S. Carr

I could not find you
among the weeping cursive
of names scrolled on crusty pages
listing Donegal’s dead 1847.

But here you are enshrined
under the foliage of an Irish Yew
cultivating questions in me,
but I only have the silence

to address your stone
with the murmurs in the mist
a breath of your vintage air
the babble of birds.

Listening to the crunch of my steps
scratch your edges
fingers tapping,
trace the inscription:

By his sons in America.

***

Charles Carr is a native Philadelphian, born and raised in Southwest Germantown. Charles attended LaSalle College and Bryn Mawr College, and has a Master's degree in American History. For 35 years Charles has worked in social services, developing programs and advocating for the needs of abused and neglected children. Charles has also completed missions to Haiti and he is active in raising awareness and funds for Haiti. In 2009 Cradle Press of St. Louis published Charles's first book of poetry: paradise, pennsylvania. Charles has been published in various local poetry reviews and is the 2008 First Prize Winner for the Mad Poets Review. Haitian Mud Pies, Charles's next collection of poems will be completed in December 2011. Charles is married and has one son.

Genetic Counseling

Genetic Counseling
Matt Quinn

My Dear Client:

All of European descent
are statistically bent
to be born of kings
and other royal things:
More ancestors were needed
for you to be seeded
than people provided
so tree forks elided.

If I coupled Charlemagne
to your trim train
and attached Brian Boru
to your scant retinue,
it’s more about the fact
than where they’re tacked.

Best regards,
Certified Genealogist Evan Gerard

—Kindly note Queen Elizabeth replaces
Uncle Joe who bet on races.

***

Matt Quinn is a freelance writer and professional genealogist who lives in St. Louis, MO.