Welcome to The Brasilia Review’s third anniversary issue. It’s been three years! We are celebrating with an all-poetry extravaganza.
In this issue we feature the work of 19th century poet Cyril Hurk. Be sure to read his fascinating bio, by an anonymous editor, in the link below. Hurk lived the kind of life that any one of us could admire.
Three exceptional poets make their return to our pages. Charley Foster has a powerful way of distilling society in his poems. Matthew James Friday brings a compassionate eye that is equally trained on peering into the dark. And David W. Pritchard combines his impeccable technique with heartfelt feels.
We round out #15 with four newcomers. Jadie Audrey pens a prose-poem that is about love, without giving off the feel of that subject, which shows skill. On the opposite end, Brian O’Neil does a lost love right, by speaking memory simply and truly.
We are pleased to showcase two poems from Ian C. Smith, whose work achieves the feeling of being both classical and contemporary at once, and his characters are top notch. F.L. Wolf presents a sonnet, one we could be reading from a scroll, running its ink where it draws.
Guy Benjamin Brookshire returns with another stunning cover. Be sure to check out his site.
The next issue will be in November and submissions are open.
Thank you for three wonderful, amazing, up and down (largely up) years. This has been the most rewarding project of my career. Let’s keep going.
Dan Souder, Editor
Poetry
liminal spaces and broken white lines (part 2) by Jadie Audrey
“i love you best in the colors of bruises”
I’m getting more irritable by Charley Foster
“My goal is to get sponsored”
No Scam, Affection by Matthew James Friday
“they should be at school / adding up their few chances”
Not a Poem by Cyril Hurk
“the sure, clipped precision of your / Voice”
Past Midnight Past by Brian O’Neil
“Turned to lies by my presence”
Poem for Joshua Ending with a Line from Diane di Prima by David W. Pritchard
“modernism / in unnavigable hotels of Boston”
Escapism and Prolepsis by Ian C. Smith
“cigarette smoke from his cue hand fretting over baize”
Within my graying eyes by F.L. Wolf
“face the consequences of immense desire”