For Greg Bem x If love as a body peeling its rind of bandages, then us browsing digital boutiques for fuchsia bondage ropes the colour of coral vipers. If the sloe-pupil of your camera as our handsome voyeur, then your hand on my neck, my leg on your shoulder—each act as an acrobat for the […]
Author Archives: Dale
The L.A. Skyline at Sunrise Two Prose Poems by Jeff Burt
The L.A. Skyline at Sunrise Haze pink, a Hollywood cerise deeper than a pink flamingo or fandango pink and pinker than coral or salmon-crested cockatoo pink, darker than Persian pink or Persian rose of carpets, darker than raspberry, lighter than cranberry and deeper than watermelon, a cherry blossom pink less subtle than carnations and hung-over […]
Saturday 10/10/2015 Two Prose Poems by Michael Julian Arnett
Saturday 10/10/2015 I wake with a sneeze and shift in my skin. A four year-old girl was shot in her own home by a police officer responding to a 911 call. She had been badly cut by broken glass. The quick-thinking officer felt that the right thing to do was to shoot the family’s dog […]
Homicide, Suicide, Plea by Steve Passey
I don’t understand suicide. Homicide, yes. (False bravado now) Who hasn’t wanted to choke the shit out of someone? Choke them until they plead with their eyes, watch the light go out and they are gone. Holding on to them dead until the sweat pours from our brow. Fuck yeah—Give me some of that. But […]
Now and Then by Deborah Guzzi
The attic wants all loved things to come to it and remain. The timber expands in the heat, clamps closed in winter’s cold. An evergreen branch, nailed into the rafters in nineteen twenty-eight, and the floor boards of King’s Pine recollect the perfume of new cedar shingles mixing with the Old Spice on Grandfather’s square […]
Second Year Malaise by Josette Torres
I am sick of my voice. My teaching self talks too much. I use the grip tape wrapped around the red rails at the top of my spiral staircase to mark the boundary where I can speak my grievances. I use the street outside to mark the boundary of where I can’t speak anything. On […]
Pine Two Prose Poems by Elijah Matthew Tubbs
Pine Two brothers rip through the forest tripping over tree root, bramble and broken branches. They slip on the fallen leaves, their gaiety glows gold. Pine needles stick to the soles of their shoes, wedge themselves between the crevices while thicket scratches at their calves trying to hold them still—warning the boys, threatening. It is […]
The House is Sad Two Prose Poems by Hermine Robinson
The House is Sad It shudders and sighs, exhausted by the wind that blows out of the west. The front door creaks with each load that goes out to the moving truck and empty rooms cry with the stark bleakness of their loss. This place will no longer be the anchor that brings our family […]
An Interview with Nolan Liebert
Hey, guys, this week we’re talking to the awesome Nolan Liebert. Besides being an amazing author and poet, Nolan is also Editor in Chief of Pidgeonholes, a journal that consistently puts out fantastic work. You can find some of Nolan’s prose poems right here at Unbroken. We featured The Petals in our Inaugural Issue, First […]
An Interview with Maureen Kingston
Today, we’re talking to the fabulous Maureen Kingtson. Maureen has nailed the prose poem. Her work always packs a punch. It’s been our pleasure to showcase some of that work here at Unbroken. Be sure to check out Maureen’s After His Father’s Funeral pieces, and also her Fired, which was one of our nominees for […]
An Interview with Charles L. Crowley
Next up in our series is the awesome Charles L. Crowley, another huge favorite here at Unbroken. His A Car Crash at the End of the Universe is a piece that is frequently referred to in submission letters that we receive, and so we want to know how Charles works his magic with the prose […]
An Interview with Sandra Anfang
Hello, dear readers! It’s been a crazy week and we’re behind, but we’ve got another author interview for you. Today, we’re talking to Sandra Anfang. Frequent contributor to Unbroken, we love Sandra’s style. I like the way Sandra brings a simple scene to life with clear language and strong imagery. Her work has appeared in […]
An Interview with C.C. Russell
It’s Friday, and that means a brand new author interview! Today’s guest: the awesome C.C. Russell, a poet we love here at Unbroken. We’ve been privelaged to publish C.C.’s work in five issues, with more coming in March. We nominated his Spun for Best of the Net, and David’s Film for The Pushcart Prize, and […]
An Interview with Glen Sorestad
This week we’re talking to Glen Sorestad, another of our favorite contributors here at Unbroken. We first introduced our readers to Glen’s work in our Issue 4 (July/August 2015) with his vivid piece, Don’t Talk to Strangers. In our Issue 6 (November/December 2015), Glen took us to a rice-farming town in Gueydan, Louisiana, and in our […]
An Interview with Kelly DuMar
Next up in our lovely series in which we attempt to shed some light on this thing we love to publish here at Unbroken, we have with us today poet and playwright, Kelly DuMar. In our first year, we’ve featured Kelly’s work in three issues. From her poignant Earth to Venus in Issue 2 (March/April 2015), […]
An Interview with Howie Good
Continuing on with our series, up next is the incredible Howie Good. When I think of prose poetry, Howie Good comes to mind right away. And if you’ve read his poems, you know exactly why. Howie is a frequent contributor to Unbroken. He’s been with us right from the start, and I can still remember […]
An Interview with Santino Prinzi
If you’ve read our previous issues, you’re no doubt familiar with Santino Prinzi and his gorgous prose poems. Santino graciously agreed to do an interview with us, and we’re delighted to have him. RLB: Santino, thank you so much for stopping by to talk to us. Our readers want to know about this thing you […]
Prose Poetry: Finding the Magic Author Interviews Coming Soon!
We get a lot of requests from readers and potential contributors for tips on writing prose poetry, and we’ve responded by approaching some of our favorite contributors. Starting in January, we’re going to be posting author interviews in which we attempt to discover the magic that is prose poetry. Stay tuned!
What the Walls HeardA Concert in Three Acts at the Bataclan
by Georgene Smith Goodin
Heads bang and fists are raised in rock ‘n’ roll’s three-fingered salute. The Eagles are ready to soar. Drums beat and guitars churn, bluesy, but not yet blue. Staccato bravado from youth gone wild births rhythms that scare and scar. Dancers sprawl on the floor, soldiers in a war for which they were never armed. […]
Calamity by Matthew Smart
The sound of the TV from the next room reminds him that he should go to bed as should his wife. The sound of the newsfeed gave up hours ago, defaulted to infomercial desperation. She’s probably asleep or else she’s much more interested in new meat grilling technologies than he expected. Last time he checked […]
November Song by Ron Gibson, Jr.
On the edge of me, this light is hard to read when censor marks blight, broken trails disappearing beneath shifting shadows, and I swim, unseen, for the surface calm protects me from me. * On the grand opening of my skin, the world will hear all the unheard. Musicologists will chase down notes like black […]
The Lesson by RL Raymond
If you walk with the wind at your back, your ashes will carry much farther. RL Raymond just tells stories. Through poetry, fiction, painting, and photography, Raymond lives by his motto — A good story is like a well- placed punch: quick, effective, and impossible to ignore.
Desert A Collection by T.L. Krawec
Desert The people reach the desert at noon and try to drink the sand. While it crests like waves in slow undulations it is not water and the people spit it out. It is bad, the children repeat, I will not put it in my mouth. The people are still crossing when the next noon […]
Even Days by Ken Poyner
I took all the qualities that I thought made up my citizenship and gave them to the mermaid I was secretly in love with. She organized them, and began to apply them to rattling the waves and dividing the sea into houses for the finned and houses for the unfinned. She mocked the water and […]
The Detective’s Chair Two Prose Poems by Anne M. Carson
The Detective’s Chair (4) Salvo Montalbano doesn’t think like other men; his mind is lithe, elastic. He sees odour as colour—brownish yellow streaked with fiery red assails him in the sick woman’s room. A manly swoon stops him in his tracks when intuition kicks in. Metaphor is real and lived. Synchronicities appear with the force […]
Trip by C.C. Russell
Outside of us, there were visions—an orange sort of aura over the range. Third sunset since you last slept, your eyes a stranger to themselves. You threw your hands out in a wild sudden gesture, flapped them across the sky; encompassing. “This,” you said. “All of this.” And then you fell silent, the evident depth […]
Spooky Actions at a Distance by Howie Good
1 Because he has been pinned, unpinned, repositioned and pinned again, he thinks he’s turning into a god, and that’s what baffles me and why I choose sleep, hoping to escape from people tattooed with words like “imagine” and “remember,” only to encounter someone laughing for no apparent reason. 2 As the eye continues to […]
Whose Hope Lies in the Ocean by Zachary Bos
やゝ年も暮 (Bashō) ‘Gradually the year drew to its close…’ (trans. Keene) I WE DISEMBARKED AT THE SUBWAY stop closest to the beach. Like ritualists we walked from the underground station into the open air, into the winter seaside sunshine, passing from unimpressive afterlife into the waking world, from tomb to lambent promenade. I said this […]
Tessellation by Santino Prinzi
I want to finish the puzzle but there’s a piece missing. I’ve made my own, trying to force it where it doesn’t belong, bending the cardboard into this shape and that. I put one edge of the piece in my mouth and let my saliva swish and soak. I try again; something’s lacking. I wedge […]
Eh? by Scott Thomas Outlar
One life is all we get, eh? Sweet. That’s all I bargained for when I came here. Got the rough patches out of the way up front in the years when I didn’t know any better. Played five aces once the pot got fat. Holy roller screaming hallelujah in the midnight silhouette. Now it’s a […]
Under the Shade of a Sequoia by Charles L. Crowley
I dug up my time capsule, and then shook hands with my seven-year-old self. Together we looked at old pictures of us—you and me—and were reminded of your sunflower dress … my overalls … and the way we couldn’t smile without showing all of our teeth … I stood there—days ago—brother. Today I fumble with […]
Remission Two Prose Poems by Kyle Hemmings
Remission You’ll recover from her pomegranate lies. You still unpeel at the touch. Tossing in her bed like another stray dog, sweet canine shelter for animals shedding skin. Gluten will not unravel the night. So you stay hungry & speechless. Her meager hand-outs, her breasts that taste slightly vanilla and not-forgetful. She says she heard […]
Two People by Dalton Day
Aubrey Plaza goes through her day & sees two people. One of them is in their car, singing as loudly & badly as they can, using their hand as what Aubrey Plaza assumes to be a microphone. But, after thinking about it, Aubrey Plaza decides that this person is singing into a ghost whose littleness […]