Public Republic

Colleen Harris Photo: Capture Queen ™ “Do you know how they say get back in Arabic?” He flicks the safety off, shouts “CLICK!” and waits for us to laugh.

Colleen Harris Photo: The U.S. Army This poem takes liberties with the truth. He was not thinking about how the IED sounded like God bellowing after stubbing a toe. He was not whispering his sister’s names aloud while still deaf from the blast. It is true that the shrapnel shredded the mail, including a letter […]

Changming Yuan Photo: blmurch (for Liu Yu and other mothers) A line this is for my mother’s birthday A birth line for my mother’s day A mother for the birthday of a line A celebration of my mother’s line of birth Mother, I will line your birth with celebration I will day a line with […]

Accents Publishing is happy to announce its 2010 Poetry Chapbook Contest. Two winners will be selected – one by an independent judge, Richard Taylor, and one by the Senior Editor and founder of Accents Publishing, Katerina Stoykova-Klemer. Each winner will have his/her submission published as a perfect-bound chapbook and will receive 50 free copies, along […]

Kathleen Driskell’s second book of poems Seed Across Snow (Red Hen Press, 2009) has been listed as a bestseller by the Poetry Foundation. Kathleen received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is Associate Editor of The Louisville Review and has taught creative writing and literature at Spalding […]

Colleen Harris Photo: Eddie 07 They are so poor, he says, they sit on rough patches of dirt stacking rocks to pass the time while goats scavenge the garbage. He says he watched a boy shoot a man for taking a rock from the boy’s side of the mountain. It was just a rock, he […]

Kristin Dimitrova Photo: fdecomite from My Life in Squares (forthcoming from Smokestack Books, 2010) We were playing cards with God when he trumped my king with a two. ‘But God, according to the rules you cannot do this’ I brandished my fan of cards. ‘Then think up of some explanation’ he said. And dealt again.

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s interview with poet Dorothy Sutton Dorothy Sutton is the author of Backing into Mountains (Wind Publications). Dorothy Sutton’s work has appeared in Poetry; The Hudson Review; Antioch Review; Prairie Schooner; Virginia Quarterly Review, Poetry Daily web site and others. Her chapbook of poems, Startling Art: Darwin & Matisse, won the Finishing Line Press […]

Katerina Stoykova-Klemer’s interview with poet Lynnell Edwards Lynnell Edwards is the author of two books of poetry: The Highwayman’s Wife (2007) and The Farmer’s Daughter (2003), both from Red Hen Press. Her work has appeared on Verse Daily and in the anthologies Poets Against the War; Raising Our Voices: Oregon Poets Against the War; What […]

Debra Fox It is Barry George’s palpable regard for the cast of characters who inhabit the urban landscape in his haiku collection, Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku, that makes it so powerful. Whether he is describing a conductor, a window washer, an accused teen, or a homeless man, George suggests they are all deserving […]

Roumen Leonidov Photo: Stuart Chalmers At Central Station in the center of the snack joint the drunk railwaymen are drinking their twentieth beer… Boys that hang around are hitting on Diddy once again, Diddy, the beauty behind the buffet; time and again they raise their glass trumpets blowing them ardently, then at the cash register […]

Christina Lovin Photo: Zest-pk They love each other. There is no loneliness like theirs. James Wright, “A Blessing” Now there are two. Seven deer, I’m told, before the cougar’s appetite growled: one by one they were taken down to the forest’s soft floor. Just these two escaping: a tale told by the ragged ear of […]

Interview with Barry George by Barbara Sabol Barry George’s haiku have been distinguished through numerous publications and awards. Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku, to be released April 1, 2010 by Accents Publishing, is his first collection of haiku. George’s haiku blend a distinctly urban content with the nature-oriented perspective of traditional haiku. A true […]

Chris Mattingly is currently pursuing an MFA in poetry from Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. His poems have appeared in public-Republic, Margie: The Journal of American Poetry, Moonshot, The Louisville Review, and the forthcoming chapbook Ad Hoc from Q Avenue Press. Chris is also a banjo player and long time member of The Fatted Calf […]

Roumen Leonidov Photo: Anosmia Because my straitjacket armor was a bit too short they shod me in a pair of knights’ boots, they pulled a helmet over my eyes, my hands they chopped off, just in case. And because it’s only knights I’ve met since then, I rush to handshake them, rush to handshake them, […]

Christina Lovin Photo: hickoryhollow113 I am afraid, I admit. There are reports of mountain lions in these woods. I am mortal, like the deer and the squirrel, but I come prepared: large stick in my hand, a knife from the kitchen in my pocket. A quick study, I stop and turn as I have read, […]

Kenneth Pobo Photo: [nati] Thirteen in October 1967, face smeared with brown Clearasil to hide popped pimples. Bullies gathered. Jesus said He’d return one day to avenge me. Too distant. The Family had a hit single in Chicago, “Face The Autumn.” How to face Atutumn? Winter? Spring? Bullies, birds surrounding the house at the end […]

Kerana Angelova Photo: HaPe_Gera Caterpillars wriggle And creep fluffily It’s difficult to believe Their mother is the butterfly With oriental eyes Her wings made of ashes and beams of light Her flight above oval meadows As aslant as the dance of souls Butterflies have such a lot of Sky to fly And What a lot […]

Roumen Leonidov From The Night of the Salesman Photo: DerrickT In an empty room a little boy is sitting cross-legged With its back to us. The child is naked, it is obvious he is resting his chin On an elbow, thinking. The square of the floor rises Into a cone, the room turnes into a […]

Christina Lovin Photo: Ctd 2005 I wanted to write something deep, but your eyes are only blue: that color of October oceans or the clear skies of May, though not so fathomless. Your gaze holds more these tidal pools reflecting August’s rain-thirsty heaven and flocks of greedy gulls. Knowing them to be too shallow, too […]