Audio Feature: Cassandra Whitaker (Shō No. 3)
I split into two and the wolf split into four and we kept dividing
our greatness until I matched the air and the wolf matched the earth
Audio feature: Alfonso Zapata (Shō No. 3)
I sling myself up those stairs / with all the other tired men because //
who am I to refuse the slap / of hunched playing cards
Audio feature: Ellen June Wright (Shō No. 3)
Sometimes I forget I came from the Earth / from the rocks, from the spongy moss // was a home for all the squirming, crawling / slippery life that lived under me.
Contributors’ Notes, Shō No. 4
Erica Abbott (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based poet and writer whose work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Stone Circle Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Philadelphia Stories, Midway Journal, and other journals. She is the author of Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship, is a Best of the Net nominee, and is a poetry editor for Variant Literature. …
Editors’ Note, Shō No. 3
Like the bleary-eyed bear on the cover of this issue, we are waking up from hibernation—a twenty-year hibernation, to be exact. Shō’s revival was set in motion by our return to the United States two years ago. After spending ten-odd years in Southeast Asia, where we met, we moved to North-Central Arizona, which we now …
Notes on Poems, Shō No. 3
Sage Ravenwood on “Leonard Peltier’s Plea for Clemency,” pp. 10: Leonard Peltier is a Native American man of Lakota and Dakota descent, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe. To many despite tribe affiliations he is a hero; to the FBI he’s a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) convicted of two …
Contributors’ Notes: Shō No. 3
(SUMMER/FALL 2023) / Purchase Shō No. 3 Ally Ang is a gaysian poet and editor based in Seattle. Their work is published in Columbia Journal, ANMLY, Bellingham Review, The Journal, and elsewhere. Ally is the recipient of fellowships and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Trust, and the Jack Straw Writers Program. …
News & Updates
2024 Tuesday July 23: Shō No. 5 is here! Monday July 1: Submissions are now open! See our guidelines for more info. We now read for the Sita Martin Prize and Shō Poetry Prize. Saturday April 13: Shō Poetry Journal will be attending the 2024 Northern Arizona Book Festival (NOAZBF) in Flagstaff. Look for our …
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 …