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Work: A Ghazal for Oklahoma

(State Motto: Labor Conquers All Things) I learned about the battle over the lethal drugs on the radio while

Julia McConnell

POETRY

When I was a Kid…

I tortured horny toads when I was a kid I don't feel good about that but I did – I surrounded em with lighter

Doug Claybourne

POETRY

Vigil

The light from our candles makes coronas in the mist as a breeze threatens to blow them out. He bought them at the

Matt Hollrah

Two Prose Poems by Wayne Zade

My Father Meets Oscar Peterson at the London House, Chicago, 1962 There they are, standing in the soft light at the

Wayne Zade

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Two Poems by Rose McLarney

First in Right A subdivision’s plumbing, a predictable grid, is of greater worth than irrigating the uncertain

Rose McLarney

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Two Poems by Grant Matthew Jenkins

Marks Along the river valley who hears the cry of the raptors? Will you avail yourself of the talents at your

Grant Matthew Jenkins

Today I Covet the Light

today i covet the light the undefined grey white cloak of the sky holding the remains of night

Walt Kosty

POETRY

To the Knights of Liberty

This verse appeared on the front page of the Tulsa Daily World on November 15, 1917. EDITOR’S NOTE: “The tarring

F.L. Lanford

Through a Country

You, on the one hand, see a land Green and rolling With chalky marble And stretches of yellowed sandstone Patched

Joel Stein

POETRY

Three Sonnets

1. Richard Roberts, ca. 1954 He used to hold her down (my mother used to say) and lick. His long, pink tongue would

Randy Roberts Potts

POETRY

Three Poems by John Brehm

Progress Report I think about my self- ishness all day

John Brehm

POETRY

Three Poems

The Dream Warrior I am intentional to light never capitulating the stars or the sway of grasses in my

Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya

POETRY

This Alley

May 2013, Oklahoma County Highway’s littered – Broken wasp mid upturned beetles, kindling

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

POETRY

Then

Black Blizzard—hundreds of thousands of years to create the topsoil. Red from Oklahoma, Texas grey, brown Nebraska.

Allison Adelle Hedge Coke

POETRY

The Stringtown Prison Blues

A collaborative blues poem written by the Stringtown Prison Poetry Workshop. This time is so hard to do

This Land

The Return

An old man sits in my straight-backed chair salvaged from the curbside trash sits quietly, without shifting

Jim Tolan

POETRY

The Number of Heaven and Earth

They stole chickens and slaughtered cows they castrated pigs they cut the tails off piglets they followed deer

John Colburn

The Japanese Garden

In 1958 or ’59 when I was sixteen I came up with the idea of replacing my parents’ back yard with a Japanese

Ron Padgett

The Hubble Telescope and the Wild Mustang

What does it mean, that the universe is growing larger, faster? Unlike my life, which seems to be slowing, even as it

Britton Gildersleeve

POETRY

The Ghost of Hank Williams Returns to Cain’s Ballroom

The last time, he was sitting on a stump in a cone of yellow light and cigarette smoke, and the bats

Markham Johnson

The Gentlemanly Art of Pugilism

I punch you in the head. You fall down, unconscious but not quite dead. Thank you. It was

Jim Tolan

POETRY

The French Horn and the Fire Escape

(Written while listening to the Andrew Hill Quintet) The French horn strays, then joins with upside-down notes, the

Bill Turley

The Falling

Where I come from, rain is the same thing as love, Falling rarely, and spoken about even less. Daddy tells me the

Preston Wells

The Ease of Trout

where the road descends steeply as it twists like gorgeous wreckage and there is always brightness like

Jeffrey Skemp

Photo courtesy Stanford Historical Research Center.

The Deluge

After thirty-four days of rain we wake to mallards navigating the back lawn and four survivor squirrels beached on

Markham Johnson

The Burden of Being Tate

see brady see brady now a ghost of tulsa’s flitting past wandering the old streets without aim ambition or

Walt Kosty

The Buckhorn Inn

That-which-regions is an abiding expanse which, gathering all, opens itself, so that in it openness is

David Bearden

The Bicyclist

Your sweat falls in drops dotting the trail on a map, in a tour along the river, beside the irrigated

Frank Graham

POETRY

The B Side

Since April is National Poetry Month, we’re pleased to run poems by a pair of younger writers who participated in the

Bryonia Liggins

That’s Not Funny; You Clowns Don’t Make Me Laugh

The woman in the grocery store on Sunset stopped me in the produce, her claws about my shoulders, to bless me on

Lynn Melnick

Sundown on the Blue River

White sun hangs just above the falls. You look upstream at cascading water immersed in sound, frozen by its

Ken Hada

Summer Leaving Oklahoma Before the Advent of Global Warming

Some morning in late September he’d stumble in the diner ragged as a dandelion in a dust storm: ripped

Nick Norwood

POETRY

special you’s

you’re too much waist in time. you’ve been renting a room in the wrong house and your bill was late. you’re

Mia Wright

Sowing Ohio

Housebound in this town, love yellows. Stay, and watch the walls peel away from their ceilings. Look through this

Rochelle Hurt

POETRY

Shop

Rusted valves and pipes, sleeping gas lines, tables with saw blades rising to railway, vintage dust taking in streams

Bill Turley

Shoes Without Laces

Eldon Dykes’ father arrived on Sunday nonstop Greyhound bus from Oklahoma for a visit Next morning after

Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel

Safe

Added a padlock to the fence, I am safe, nine different passwords, I am secure. New model with

Landry Harlan

POETRY

routine

every evening after the six o’clock i ate dinner, something fast, sitting at the desk. eight tv screens, three

Quraysh Ali Lansana

Rooftop Raccoons

A triumvirate of sad-eyed raccoons lounging on the roof of an apartment building in Stillwater benignly

T. Allen Culpepper

Rapture

We are the plastic children, flying toward the sun. We are the infirm rising through rooftops, we are the

Miss Terri Ford

POETRY

Queer as Folk

& then gay marriage was legal in Oklahoma & it was renamed “Oklahomo” & cowboys went broke

Nick Weaver

Prophecies: Right Here, Right Now

Today it’s a guy hawking prophecies on the 4 train. Strides into the car at the Brooklyn Bridge stop, white

John Brehm

Poetry and the News

POETRY AND THE NEWS by Scott Gregory 1. There’s a long poem by William Carlos Williams (from late in his

Scott Gregory

Plane Cowboy

The man in a yellow shirt behind me His head too close to mine above worn navy-blue faux-leather, above the

Shandhini Raidoo

POETRY

Pairings

The taste of red wine and dark chocolate Swirlin’ together inside my mouth is Like smoke escaping from the

Jenny Sullivan

Only Indians Can Talk to Animals

Snow covered fields with ice hanging from limbs of trees. A doe came walking out from behind a cedar and

Michael Daugherty

POETRY

Onehorse, OK, pop. 1,000: Saaaaaaalute

Driving home tonight, I see Loretta Lynn on a casino billboard & take a left turn to

Benjamin Myers

Oklahoma Boyhood

Each time I painted nails Brilliant Blush, Sparkle Silver, I’d land in the bathroom. Larry the Ladle or

Amy Susan Wilson

Oil Change

Oil filters into fingertips and under my nails, stains my callouses, clothes, driveway. Now it’s five

Randall Weiss

POETRY

OG’s and Lemonade

These new cool gangstas aint got nothing on the O.G.’s, The original G.’s, The Pistol packin, dynamite in petite

Keiyetta Guyon

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Nude in the City

Your hands on newspapers, your hands in your hair. Is your body yours to undress? Or is someone across town

Regina DiPerna

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Night Hoops

With tar still sludging our fingers from roofing jobs worked through the heat of day, with scratches down our

Benjamin Myers

New Law Makes Local Poet Nervous

Others have book fests, opera and garden expos. We have gun shows. Ammo. Freedom and now more freedom: open

Jane Vincent Taylor

Empty House Dennis McGilvray Oklahoma Dustbowl

Nearly Empty House

A path is worn smooth in the hardwood floor, heading out the front door. The window above the kitchen sink is cracked

Denis McGilvray

Malissa

1983 A week before, I bought my first maternity gear at the Goodwill, a brown empire-waist polyester top with

Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

Love Smells of a Man Named Floyd

It is difficult to offer up our hearts like raw chicken on a hibachi grill often the chefs are not

Jennifer E. Hudgens

Last Paperboys in Oklahoma Carry the News

At five am, thick bundles litter the front porch of the highway patrol, while all the newspaper boys in South Tulsa

Markham Johnson

Landscape

Pools of light illuminate the fine, faint under-painting: ghosts appear like a dirt road that ends in tall

Bill Turley

Lament

oh, woe to the woeful, aloe to the alone, tissues for the tears, this bitch world on its knees, the danger of

Michael Wright

POETRY

Karma, Oklahoma

As I puzzled over the position of Karma, a bony waitress at a roadside café swept up all my change and explained how

Caleb Puckett

Job Machine

as wages stagnate up store square feet sore from eight days a weak excuse for profit margins measure of time out

Melody Charles

Jazz on a Diamond-Needle Hi-Fi

Mama dropped the needle and my heart jumped. It was fascinating, titillating, be-boppin’, foot stompin’, traffic

Deborah J. Hunter

It’s Too Late

For the houseboat in Amsterdam. The snake of blue through the city will wind without me turn to ice

Britton Gildersleeve

POETRY

In the Field

The red fox flashes in the field, and the mind wants to stop it. Run the catalogue of what it knows, put a

Michael Madonick

Howl for Me

Since April is National Poetry Month, we’re pleased to run poems by a pair of younger writers who participated in the

Nick Weaver

Housing

House of all day; house on the sea, of doors no one knew how to enter; house of small country and green, green land;

Karen Alayna Thimell

Hope

In the woods, in the deep hole I dug, beneath the power cable and the roots of box elder trees, down among the

Gordon Grice

POETRY

Homecoming

For Uncle Max Greed, I guess—my father answered me uncharacteristically critical of our ancestors, their

Ken Hada

POETRY

Home State

somehow you became pixel became less dust and sky turned into newsfeed away from

Nicole Callihan

POETRY

Hay Maker

By mechanics, lanes of yellow vanish into the bailer’s munching mouth, while out the other end, like some

Sandy Hiortdahl

POETRY

Haul

Their two-ton Jimmy staggers now, rolls and wobbles on creaky springs, creeping over berms on a

Nick Norwood

POETRY

Hard Luck Okie

This poem was recorded by the Library of Congress at a migrant farmer’s camp in California in the late 1930s. Before

Roy Turner

Handwritten Letter 1934 (a found poem)

Tulsa Okla. 10th April Mr. Henry Ford Detroit, Mich. Dear Sir. --- While I still have got breath in my

Scott Gregory

God Says Yes to Me

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic and she said yes I asked her if it was okay to be short and she said

Kaylin Haught

Galarshes

drink me, rain says it’s hard to swallow the whole world dry so drink me everything tastes better in Oklahoma

Jennie Lloyd

Forever Home on Mind

I wept into the sea; it did not overflow. (Buddhist meditation) Spread out over a great

Kyle Erickson

For This Time, At Least

As darkness descends, this time in-between, when stars are not yet lit, the moon lingering far away, I

Ken Hada

POETRY

For Rachel, Who Is Not Lost

A seagull on the moon is not lost, She is a student of lunar soils. A cookie in a salad is not lost, It is

Rob Roensch

Flashes

There was a time when I couldn't write a poem without my mother showing up in it. There she would

Nicole Callihan

POETRY

First Lesson in Racism — Mississippi — 1993

here are yr. five year old fingers plucking pecans in front of the trailer here is the lynch rope looming from your

Claire Collins

POETRY

Fireflies

Behind the backyard in red gold afternoon, shadows from the freeway wash against the side of forty-year-old homes

David Beebe

POETRY

Fast Forward

As we move yet one more step towards dust Desire fades and jealousy and

Warren Brown

Eulogy for Ireland

*** Me, Shrouded in green, white, and orange I wake up tossing up electric blankets in my single-bed

Declan Kiely

Eschatology

The neighborhood dogs are barking again: a chain letter cha-cha-cha that begins blocks away and rolls through the

Markham Johnson

POETRY

Duct Taped Heart

Sometimes I google “art AND love,” and then I click on “Images” and scroll way, way down until I come

Nicole Callihan

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Dry Oklahoma

dry Oklahoma burns from Ponca to Tulsa green tip pushes through stalk fingering down to shit and char lily hood

Grant Matthew Jenkins

Driveway

Again I slid up over the horizon and the lights of Tulsa spread flat out before me. “Ah, there you are,” I

Ron Padgett

Driveway

Again I slid up over the horizon and the lights of Tulsa spread flat out before me. “Ah, there you are,” I

Ron Padgett

Dream Catcher

“And where are you from?” The inevitable vacation question. And I want to say Not that Oklahoma, The one you

Xandra Kaste

POETRY

Downtown Sunday Morning

this is where the wind comes to a place where there are no longer plains to bolster the pioneer

Walt Kosty

POETRY

Doomed to Repeat

(About the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre: It is not our failure to remember the past that dooms us to repeat it; it is our

Deborah J. Hunter

POETRY

Desiderata

In the valley the treetops are bandaged in a dirty gauze the fields lusty with flames set to startle another growing

Justin L. Bond

Curled, Slightly

Don’t think because I hid in the bathroom that I didn’t enjoy last night’s office party. I loved your red-ribbon

Tim Carter

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Chet Baker’s Return

night club no time lighted juke box music, pockets of muffled chatter from expectant patrons scatter

Paul Austin

POETRY