Abraxas 48, reviewed by BL Kennedy

Abraxas 48

Vancouver, WA

108 pgs

$4.00

ISSN: 0361-1663 

Allelujah

Look at the sparrows from the tomb.

Give me their names on a white sheet of paper.

Outdistance the storm, be afraid of the silence.

Search out the ruins of carrousels.

Run your fingers through rain.

Treasure the hands of another.

Mix up the colors, throw them to the sky.

Drag the stars into it.

Pick up the pieces, build windows.

Sow seeds in burnt ground.

Visit the chapel at the side of the road in the autumn.

Learn of build ponies who worked deep in the mines.

Compose often, not just when you feel like it.

Strict attention to the child learning to write.

Take care of the flag on whose cloth the name of a country

         Has never appeared.

Walk through fields of milkweed as they catch fire in wind.

Conduct surveys at sunset, set up a table of dawn.

Wait with the crestfallen.

Tear the shrouds from the mirrors.

Look what I have found in the desert.

Give it up to the poor.

Remember the street corner in Kosovo where the band played on.

Abraxas Number 48; I just tremble holding it in my hand. You see, over the years that I’ve been exposed to this poetry journal, and its main publisher Ingrid Swanberg, and have never been let down in the quality of poetry published in this fine journal. I don’t know if you can purchase Abraxas where you live, but we have the address:

Abraxas Press Incorporated

P.O. Box 260113

Madison Wisconson, 53726-0113.

My suggestion would be to subscribe to this irregularly published independent poetry magazine. I promise you, the investment will be more than worth it. Abraxas has always been cutting edge, and is one of the most handsome literary journals available in today’s market.