Original Poem: St. James’s Place
Sean MurphyI've only been to Atlantic City one time (friend's bachelor party, obvi) and, admittedly, not being a gambler or fan of rooms thick with cigarette smoke (circa 2002), and loathing…
Original Poem: In the Unlikely Event of a Water Landing
It continues to be a joy and honor to have my work appear –alongside so many excellent writers– in Exterminating Angel Press. The theme of the Winter 2023 issue is All…
Kurt Vonnegut at 100
So It Goes: Reflections on Kurt Vonnegut (written after his death in 2007 and included in my first collection of non-fiction, Murphy's Law Vol. One). Kurt Vonnegut would say in…
Original Poem: RICHARD PRYOR ON THE SUNSET STRIP, 1982: AN EXEGESIS
I consider Richard Pryor's Live in Concert ('79) the single best stand up special in history. But Live on the Sunset Strip is possibly more important (maybe even better, if…
Sy Johnson: RIP
Let's face it. There were few human beings who could give Charles Mingus what he needed (what he wanted? the universe can't contain such multitudes and appetites); there were a…
Original Poem: Chet Baker’s Smog
It remains a blessing for this writer to find publications that “get” him --and what I'm attempting with my ongoing project (the first installment, of course, being The Blackened Blues,…
Original Poem: Ghost Poem
A night image of train tracks heading towards the Milky Way Galaxy in the USA. I'm always appreciative of the great work Washington Writers' Publishing House does, and if you're…
Original Poem: South Loudon Street, First Sustained Frost
Big thanks to Plum Tree Tavern for publishing two of my poems in their latest issue, which explores the topic of Homelessness. (And thanks to them for bearing witness; with…
Original Poem: The Voices in Your Head
Big thanks to Plum Tree Tavern for publishing two of my poems in their latest issue, which explores the topic of Homelessness. (And thanks to them for bearing witness; with…
Original Poem: After Chester Higgins’s “Bowery Denizen, 1985”
Chester Higgins has been using his extraordinary talents for decades to document America (the cities, the country, and all the people who populate it) and the wider world (check out…