May 2018 Vol. III No. V
Not your ordinary poetry magazine!
If good coffee (or just the concept of coffee), great books, sharp wit, and great authors excite you, we are for you!
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Regular Features Pages
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​General Poetry with Suzanne Robinson
Haiku with Kevin McLaughlin
Formal & Rhyming Poetry with Vera Ignatowitsch
Poetry Translations with S. Ye Laird
African Poetry with Tendai Rinos Mwanaka
International Poetry with Michael R. Burch
Sentimental Poetry with Anthony Watkins
​ModPo & Experimental Poetry with Anthony Watkins
Fiction
More Fiction
Better Than Fiction! (creative non-fiction)
The Interview
Featured Poem (Publisher's Pick)
Featured Poem (Editor's Pick)
this month only:
Poetry Book Review
Featured Poem of the Month​
Formal Poetry
Swimming Toward the Light
Fish in caves are born blind,
they haven’t any need for sight.
Darkness is all they will ever know,
yet they easily navigate the waters.
They haven’t any need for eyes,
and—having no sense of what they’ve missed—
they skillfully navigate the waters,
just like all the sighted swimmers.
They have no sense of what they’ve missed,
unlike those who once knew light,
yet—just like all the sighted swimmers—
they move toward life with every breath.
Unlike those who once knew light,
blind fish are satisfied each moment
they swim toward life. With every breath,
they thrive in fluid, tranquil pools.
Blind fish are satisfied. Each moment
for those who remember the sun—
those who once thrived in fluid, tranquil pools—
can drown the soul with cold regret.
Many who still remember the sun
now swim in frigid, hostile waters,
their souls drowned in cold regret.
They move in circles, never at peace.
They swim in frigid, hostile waters,
and darkness is all they will ever know
while—moving in circles of quiet peace—
fish in caves are born blind.
​
Diane Elayne Dees's poetry has been published in many journals and anthologies. Diane, who lives in Louisiana, also publishes Women Who Serve, a blog that covers women's professional tennis throughout the world.
NEW! Featured Poem - Editor's Pick - this month's poem is My Mother's Back by Laura Hampton - read it in Free Verse
Welcome to Guest Editor Michael R. Burch!
Mike edits TheHyperTexts and has been a frequent contributor to BTS.
His first International Poetry Page is on the earliest English poetry of the British Isles.
We’re delighted to announce that Better Than Starbucks has been named a finalist in the Best Debut Magazine category of the Firecracker Awards. The Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP) sponsors these awards each year to support and celebrate independent publishing. Thank you CLMP and judges for recognizing our publication. And thank you to all of our poets, creative writers and editors who have contributed so much great work!
The Interview with Rhina P. Espaillat
by Vera Ignatowitsch
Rhina P. Espaillat was born in the Dominican Republic, has lived in the U.S. since 1939, and writes in both English and Spanish, but primarily in English. She has published eleven poetry collections, including Where Horizons Go (New Odyssey Press, 1998), winner of the 1998 T.S. Eliot Prize, Rehearsing Absence (University of Evansville Press, 2001), recipient of the 2001 Richard Wilbur Award, Playing at Stillness (2005), and a bilingual chapbook titled Mundo y Palabra/The World and the Word (Oyster River Press, 2001). She has translated the poetry of Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur into Spanish, among others, from and into both of her languages.
Vera: How old were you when you wrote your first poem? Do you still have it?
Rhina: I began making up poems at age 4, but didn’t know how to write: my grandmother—who was a poet and hooked me on poetry—wrote them down for me when I asked her to. No, I don’t have all those early things: they were left behind in the Dominican Republic. They were all in Spanish, of course. The earliest poem of mine that I have is in English, written when I was 10, in PS 94, in NYC.
Vera: May we read it?
Rhina: Yes, here it is.
The First Snowfall
Fell on the first snowfall
Flowers from the skies
Burying under heaps of snow
The place where summer lies.
And in that same tomb lies my heart,
Dead with summer’s gladness,
Harried by the Autumn winds,
Prey to winter’s sadness.
Vera: Thank you! You’ve been a daughter, wife, mother, and more through your life. Have you always been a poet at the same time? Did that ever result in conflict?
Rhina: Yes, I’ve always written, but sometimes a lot and sometimes very little, when I was bringing up small children and later teaching English in HS in NYC, and even later when I was taking care of aging parents during the little free time I had. But the writing has been with me all my life: mostly poetry, but also essays and stories.
Enter our Haiku Contest - details in June issue on Friday June 1st, 2018.