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2023August 23: Shō Poetry Journal featured by NewPages: New Lit on the Block Series August 23: We joined Bluesky! Follow us here.
The End of June
by Robert L. Penick The old man at the corner bus stop –there without fail each morning at eight – disappeared either two weeks or six months ago.I’m not sure which.Was 1987 the year I dated the girlwith the long auburn hair?Perhaps it was 1986.I was at the university, I know.I remember the mole on her …
Hiroshima
by Lyn Lifshin patterns of kimonosburned on some women on the 12th daywounds began to open wider. Womensaw their hair fall out. Someone without eyes calling for a sister. Purplesores. Some couldn’t be touched, their skinfell off in glove-like pieces. By the 20th day,vegetation began to grow wildly, lush green weeds,huge wild flowers. As people …
Cleaning
by Robert L. Penick I’m dropping empty cat food cansinto the recycling bin.There have been a dozen of themsitting on the kitchen counterfor weeks. The house stinks of them.I take the garbage outside,remove your clothes from the dryer,fold them up and put them onthe dresser. When I wash the dishesI handle each piece gingerly,trying not …
Shō Number Two
Shō Number Two Shō Number Two appeared in Spring 2003 and featured poetry by Amy Uyematsu, Jim Simmerman, Ann Menebroker, William Packard, Todd Moore, Gerald Locklin, Joan Jobe Smith, Fred Voss, Lyn Lifshin, Robert L. Penick, and others. In this Issue PAUL AGOSTINO The Girls of Summer ART BECK The similarities are striking: / Nicotine ANSELM …
Shō Premiere Issue
Poems for Shō’s Premiere Issue were solicited and selected by founding editor, Sita Martin. Shortly thereafter she succumbed to a battle with cancer and Johnny Cordova stepped in to oversee production and cover design. Shō’s Premiere Issue was released in Spring 2002 and consisted of sixty-eight poems by nine poets, as well as a small …