ISSUE 19 November 2020
Freesia McKee, Editor
Freesia McKee, Editor
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SoFloPoJo is proud to support President-Elect Biden and Vice-President-Elect Harris
If you are poet, prophet, peace loving artist, tolerant, traditional or anarchistic, haiku or epic, and points in between; if your poems sing, shout, whisper, dance, scratch, tickle, trot or crawl; if you value the humane treatment of every creature and the planet on which we dwell, SoFloPoJo seeks your best work.
SoFloPoJo Virtual Reading Series
Sunday, January 24, 2021, 7:30 pm EST
Maureen Seaton & Terese Svoboda
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84199645016?pwd=T0FNL0RTL2lXNTkyWVg2a2hPMXFaUT09
Meeting ID: 841 9964 5016
Passcode: 212135
Sunday, January 24, 2021, 7:30 pm EST
Maureen Seaton & Terese Svoboda
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84199645016?pwd=T0FNL0RTL2lXNTkyWVg2a2hPMXFaUT09
Meeting ID: 841 9964 5016
Passcode: 212135
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Do nothing for as long as possible by Leslie Ullman
I stare at the keyboard and find myself drifting to the construction site nearby-- jackhammers and drills in layered symphonics, excavators dumping soil from prehistoric jaws, crane releasing a stream of cement that must be directed quick while it’s wet, rapid-fire Spanish as workers spread foundation and lay pipe—it’s a noisy mess out there. A work of engineering whose grid-work will yield a high- end market lit softly with track lights, heat and refrigeration purring through ducts, shelves stocked with shine and color, a cornucopia unimaginable to most of the world. These men know circuit and sewer. Leverage and switch. The gears of costly mammoths that dig and dump and lift. If our cities were razed, lands stripped and food made scarce, they’d be the new elite. Tonight they will wash another day of labor from their bodies and sit down to dinner without wondering, as I do most of the time, while hours slip seamlessly as though through vents going who-knows-where, what it means to have done enough. Check out: http://www.leslieullman.com https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/leslie-ullman https://poets.org/poem/peace |
Interior Reflections from the Outskirts by Bryon Cherry & The caterpillar challenged her: Who are you…Explain yourself… by Margaret Rozga
Michael Hettich reviews Avalon by Richard Jones Freesia McKee reviews Burning Where Breath Used To Be by Jen Karetnick
Sean Cho A. Jonathan Aibel Lili Bita Craig Cotter Samuel Cross Paul Dickey Joan Kwon Glass Michael Hathaway AE Hines
Holly Iglesias Vicky Iorio Alexis Ivy James Croal Jackson Jennifer Ruth Jackson Holly Jaffe Janine Kelley Lúcia Leão & Angela Narciso Torres
Jennifer Martelli Susan Milchman Simon Perchik Geoffrey Philp Hyam Plutzik Cheryl A. Rice Alison Stone Jorge Tellier Lauren Tivey Leslie Ullman
Peter Vertacni Michael Walls Amirah Al Wassif Ed Werstein
Holly Iglesias Vicky Iorio Alexis Ivy James Croal Jackson Jennifer Ruth Jackson Holly Jaffe Janine Kelley Lúcia Leão & Angela Narciso Torres
Jennifer Martelli Susan Milchman Simon Perchik Geoffrey Philp Hyam Plutzik Cheryl A. Rice Alison Stone Jorge Tellier Lauren Tivey Leslie Ullman
Peter Vertacni Michael Walls Amirah Al Wassif Ed Werstein
Interview: Michael Hathaway of Chiron Review
Read the Interview With SoFloPoJo Associate Editor Sarah Kersey at The Rumpus
Miami Book Fair & SoFloPoJo
For the last four years, SoFloPoJo and the Miami Book Fair have partnered to bring world renowned poets to those who could not come to this prestigious event. In our interviews we ask poets to read a poem from their latest book to give readers a slice of the annual Book Fair.
We have had the honor and privilege to sit face to face with the likes of: Patricia Smith, Robert Hass, Charles Simic, Paul Muldoon, Lola Haskins, Chen Chen, Denise Duhamel, Richard Blanco, Jericho Brown, Chase Twitchell, Michael Hettich, Kim Addonizio, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Tiana Clark, Jos Charles, Julie Marie Wade, Jen Karetnik, Barbara Hamby, Rajiv Mohabir, Cheryl Clark, Catherine Esposito Prescott, Libby Burton, Steve Kronen, Jim Daniels, Maureen Seaton and Neil De La Flor.
For the last four years, SoFloPoJo and the Miami Book Fair have partnered to bring world renowned poets to those who could not come to this prestigious event. In our interviews we ask poets to read a poem from their latest book to give readers a slice of the annual Book Fair.
We have had the honor and privilege to sit face to face with the likes of: Patricia Smith, Robert Hass, Charles Simic, Paul Muldoon, Lola Haskins, Chen Chen, Denise Duhamel, Richard Blanco, Jericho Brown, Chase Twitchell, Michael Hettich, Kim Addonizio, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Tiana Clark, Jos Charles, Julie Marie Wade, Jen Karetnik, Barbara Hamby, Rajiv Mohabir, Cheryl Clark, Catherine Esposito Prescott, Libby Burton, Steve Kronen, Jim Daniels, Maureen Seaton and Neil De La Flor.
Florida Center for the Book & SoFloPoJo
Although they are now a memory, our readings in partnership with the Florida Center for the Book highlighted rock-star poets.
Although they are now a memory, our readings in partnership with the Florida Center for the Book highlighted rock-star poets.
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32 Poems / 32 Poemas
by Hyam Plutzik to be published January 2021 With a foreword by President Obama's inaugural poet Richard Blanco, this new bilingual collection includes 32 poems by American poet Hyam Plutzik (1911-1962) that have been translated into Spanish by fourteen poets/translators under the aegis of editor George B. Henson. This volume by Plutzik, thrice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, is bound to stimulate cross-cultural dialogue between immigrant cultures of past and present. As Blanco points out in his foreword: "Through the timeless art and grace of poetry, my 1968 Miami merges with Plutzik's 1911 Brooklyn, our parents become immigrants from the same country, and our languages blend as one." |
A Tremor Is Heard in the House of the Dead Man by Hyam Plutzik
Reprinted with permission from the Hyam Plutzik estate, this poem is from the forthcoming collection 32 Poems / 32 Poemas, a bilingual collection of poetry edited by George B. Henson. Published and distributed by Suburbano Ediciones. A tremor is heard in the house of the dead man And a door opens slowly Soon after the body is brought to the ground. He listens to the talk of the mourners, Sipping the words like a bird at a strange water Far from home. He flutters to him who saw the door opening, Calling in a reedy voice to the merciful God Who rots the beams and rusts the doors from their hinges. The grave lies north. He darts through an open window and flies southward Toward some hovering dots on a white cloud. A butterfly comes to the open window, Enters—(How strange! I’ll drive it away. Do not hurt it.)— And blunders back to the garden. The voices ebb and resume. The clock ticks. Father. Translated by Layla Benitez-James |
Check out work by our friend Arturo Desimone here
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Associate Editors:
Elisa Albo Don Burns Jennifer Greenberg Judy Ireland Gary Kay Sarah Kersey Stacie M. Kiner Caridad Moro-Gronlier Barbra Nightingale Sally Naylor Susannah W. Simpson Meryl Stratford Patricia Whiting Francine Witte |
Art Editor:
Kristine Snodgrass kristine.snodgrass@gmail.com Reviewers: Michael Hettich Freesia McKee Essay Editor Freesia McKee freesiamckee@gmail.com Managing Editor & Co-Publisher: Michael Mackin O'Mara mmomara@soflopojo.com Founder & Co-Publisher: Lenny DellaRocca lenny.dellarocca@soflopojo.com All work in South Florida Poetry Journal-SoFloPoJo- is copyrighted by the individual poets and artists 2020 |
Purchase our print Anthology from our first ten issues here
Visit our friends at: SWWIM MIAMI BOOK FAIR BETSY HOTEL PALM BEACH POETRY FESTIVAL LA MAJA DESNUDA
SoFloPoJo supports Performance Poets of the Palm Beaches in its monthly reading series; contact Susannah Simpson at
susannahws@aol.com or Judy Ireland at judyannireland@hotmail.com
SoFloPoJo supports Performance Poets of the Palm Beaches in its monthly reading series; contact Susannah Simpson at
susannahws@aol.com or Judy Ireland at judyannireland@hotmail.com