Alex Roulette In April of 1999, when Escape Into Life founding editor Christopher Al-Aswad (1979-2010) was not yet twenty (but was taking more care to date his journals than he did later in his young life), he drafted this poem in pencil, trying out its words and stanzas on several pages, and ending with three […]

How Long Will I Cry?: Voices of Youth Violence Edited by Miles Harvey with an Introduction by Alex Kotlowitz Big Shoulders Books, DePaul University 2013 Reviewed by Seana Graham First, a little background. On September 24, 2009, a shooting in the Roseland area of Chicago’s Far South Side led to factional fighting between two groups […]

Achilles and Cerberus, oil on canvas, 38″ x 49″, 2013 Arroyo, oil on canvas, 37″ x 62″, 2013 Creator, oil on canvas, 50″ x 54″, 2013 In the Forests of the Night, oil on canvas, 60″ x 80″, 2012 Small Glory, oil on canvas, 28″ x 50″, 2013 Hard Rain, oil on canvas, 28″ x […]

For immediate release: EIL Poet Scott Poole and EIL Poetry Editor Kathleen Kirk join central Illinois poets Judith Valente and Susan Baller-Shepard for News That Stays News: Sustaining Our World Through Poetry A poetry reading to celebrate Earth Day and National Poetry Month Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 7:00-8:30 p.m. First United Methodist Church 211 N. […]

Short takes By Mark Lewis So the Masters Tournament survived the absence of Tiger Woods who is recovering from back surgery. The first of the four major golf events also survived an uneventful Sunday as Bubba Watson grabbed control of the tournament from Jordan Spieth with a four-stroke swing at the end of the front […]

Nicola Yeoman The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy by Allen Meyer & Michael Nowak Off-Broadway by New York Deaf Theatre at the Gene Frankel Theatre Reviewed by Scott Klavan The most important things go unsaid in the revival of The Signal Season of Dummy Hoy, a dramatization of the career of a real-life deaf baseball […]

For the past several years, poet Kelli Russell Agodon has hosted a Big Poetry Giveaway in April, National Poetry Month. Poets in the blogosphere give away books of poetry through random drawings at their blogs. This year, 50 poets are giving away more than 100 books of poetry to the lucky winners! Several EIL poets […]

Crowning Connecticut By Mark Lewis Is it a story of redemption? Hardly. The University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball team grabbed the NCAA championship with a hard-earned, if often ugly, 60-54 victory over Kentucky Monday night. This marks the Huskies’ fourth title since 1999. And as we heard many times over the last three weeks, Connecticut […]

Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored (L’été tous les chats s’ennuient), by Philippe Georget English edition translated by Steven Rendall Editions Jigal, 2009, Europa Editions, 2013 Reviewed by Seana Graham A book with the word “summertime” in the title may seem cruel to mention to those of you still struggling with winter, or at least […]

Lizzie Gill You Arrive Carrying Apples Today, in a terrible rainstorm, you arrive, one great might-have-been, to sweep me out of my wind-blown cottage, bearing produce and white chrysanthemums with petals curled. I am not sure you are still welcome. The holidays were rather bad, your natural dawdling almost turned disaster, but now there is […]

On, Wisconsin: The ballad of Bo Ryan By Mark Lewis The usual suspects are part of the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four unfolding Saturday and Monday at 77,122-seat AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Kentucky and Connecticut classify as certified bluebloods of college basketball with eight and three national titles, respectively. Florida isn’t far behind by […]

Sparrow by Bethany Reid  Winner of the Kenneth and Geraldine Gell Poetry Prize 2012, Selected and with a Forward by Dorianne Laux  Big Pencil Press, Writers & Books, 2012  Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, Poetry Editor  Bethany Reid’s Sparrow is full of horses and orchards, quarters and ashes, memory, temptation, and dream. The book’s title and opening epigraph are […]

Officially speaking: A view from the scorer’s table By Mark Lewis With fans screaming, coaches gyrating and players making magic with acrobatic moves, it is my job to be the calm one. As official scorer for Illinois State University men’s basketball games, I get a unique perspective of the game and the officiating crew. When […]

Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson FSG, 2004, Picador (reprint edition), 2006 Reviewed by Seana Graham Sometimes books have to wait a long time for our attention. I happen to know exactly how long Gilead had to wait for mine for an odd reason. The book was recently suggested for my reading group, and I had the […]

On Balance, mixed media on board, 3 panels 14″ x 11″ each, 2013 Morphmap, mixed media on board, 12″ x 36″ (triptych), 2013 Morphmap II, mixed media on board, 12″ x 24″ (diptych), 2013 Shimmer and Spin (Chakra 3), oil on board, 30″ x 72″ (triptych), 2012 Year of the Dragon (Chakra 3), oil on […]

Sage Vaughn We are springing into translation this month at Escape Into Life. Jesse Lee Kercheval has been working on an anthology of contemporary Uruguayan poets under forty, including Agustín Lucas, the soccer-playing poet featured on March 5. Today, from Kercheval’s earlier translations of the “senior” poet, Circe Maia, EIL is pleased to present the […]

Officially speaking: Who are those guys in the striped shirts? By Mark Lewis With fans screaming, coaches gyrating and players making magic with acrobatic moves, it’s my job to be the calm one. As official scorer for Illinois State University men’s basketball games, I get a unique perspective of the game and the officiating crew. When the officials […]

Jim Naughten  SATCHMO AT THE WALDORF by Terry Teachout Off-Broadway at the Westside Theater, New York City Reviewed by Scott Klavan The one-person, or solo, show is a staple of the theater of today, an occurrence likely caused by the financial straits of the art form- already mentioned several times in these columns, and sure […]

Juuri This month we introduce our new Translations Editor, Jackie K. White. Jackie arranged for our translations by Jesse Lee Kercheval of Uruguayan poets Agustín Lucas, posted March 5, and of Circe Maia, coming up next week. Also this month, Jackie attended the AWP Conference in Seattle and the MELUS (Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the U.S.) […]

When the Killing’s Done, by T.C. Boyle Penguin USA, 2011 Reviewed by Seana Graham Although I was born in Southern California, and Santa Catalina Island was part of my Angelino awareness, I never really registered its more northerly cousins off the coast of Santa Barbara and Ventura.  It wasn’t until a few years ago, when […]

From Jesse Lee Kercheval’s upcoming anthology of Uruguayan poets under 40 comes “El diez” / “Number Ten” by Agustín Lucas, an Uruguayan poet and the author of two books, No todos los dedos son prensiles and Club. He is also a professional soccer player, formerly the captain of the Miramar Misiones, the Uruguayan Second Division […]

Our new theatre reviewer at Escape Into Life is Scott Klavan, an actor, director, and playwright in New York. By now, you’ve probably seen several of his reviews here, which are also often essays on the state of theatre in our culture. For twenty years, Scott was Script and Story Analyst for the legendary actors Paul […]

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, by Carson McCullers Houghton Mifflin, 1940 Reviewed by Seana Graham I reread this book recently with my book group. I use the word “reread” in a qualified sense because I know that as a teenager I never finished it. I was surprised to discover that I must have made […]

Riding on the Hope Horse, inks, handmade pigments on clay board panel, 12″ x 12″, 2009 In Awe, inks, handmade pigments on clay board panel, 18″ x 24″, 2010 Fire, inks, clay pigments, gold leaf on clay board panel, 21″ x 13″, 2014 Earth, inks, handmade pigments on clay board panel, 10.5″ x 6.5″ framed, […]

  Sean Mahan Girls with Moustaches Who can say what happens when two girls fall into giggles? Never mind that one is not quite five, while the other has just turned sixty or that the younger kneels in the other’s lap, blue eyes to blue eyes, wrinkles to not a blemish. The sound of forks, […]

Jarek Puczel Sam Rasnake In Matters of Love Yours is an ox’s heart — slow, determined, but strong enough to move any load as far as needed with a perfect knowing of moment and place and how it is you mean to let go Carol Berg At Sea Dear Sir, I seem to be marooned […]

The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths, by Sandy Longhorn Jacar Press, 2013  Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, Poetry Editor  The Girlhood Book of Prairie Myths, by Sandy Longhorn, is a truly haunting book of poems, full of blood, bones, death, mysterious disappearances, and eerie beauty. There are poems with titles that begin “Haunting Tale…” or “Cautionary […]

John Wentz Bronx Bombers by Eric Simonson, directed by the playwright Circle in the Square, 235 W. 50th St., Manhattan, New York, NY Reviewed by Scott Klavan Let’s face it: sports are better than theater. Every day and night, pro and amateur athletes, in major and minor leagues, take genuine risks, putting their bodies, their […]

Chris Ballantyne February Psalm For a couple of hours, the light snow drifts, disappears, drifts, disappears, and the feeble winter won’t make up its mind. I watch, drink my dark roast, as if I’ll live forever. I don’t have words for it really— only holes in the sky my fingers can’t reach though I stretch […]

The Kraus Project, by Jonathan Franzen FSG, 2013 Reviewed by Seana Graham Many readers may have become aware of Jonathan Franzen’s work for the first time when he famously declined to take part on The Oprah Winfrey Show in a discussion of his novel The Corrections (Picador, 2001), but I discovered him in an earlier […]

To See Your Face, oil on wood, 42 cm x 30 cm, 2013 Girl on Stool, red chalk drawing, 2013 Mine, Conté, red chalk, and charcoal drawing, 16.5″ x 11.8″ x 0.4″, 2014 The Unveiling, original oil on paper, 51 cm x 43 com, 2013 Portrait in Sienna, original oil on canvas, 50 cm x […]

Lee Eunyeol A Constitution of Silence by Jannett Highfill Green Fuse Poetic Arts, 2013 Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk Poetry Editor, Escape Into Life I needed some heat and light here in January in the center of the polar vortex, so I reread A Constitution of Silence, by Jannett Highfill, which came out this summer from […]

Luca Bartolato With eyes I love you with fount eyes. With ribs that open and close to call for late waves. Between sight and silence, these walls now exhale: I miss you with fog teeth Through a new shattered window that looks at the valley. Beltrán’s Obol Beltrán drank two of my strongest mojitos every […]

March: Book One, by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell Top Shelf Productions, 2013 Reviewed by Seana Graham As we come up on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I thought it might be nice to talk about a graphic “novel” that came out last year, a memoir in cartoon form by the noted congressman […]

What Favors of God You Deny, acrylics on canvas, 54″ x 72″, 2013 Indeed You Give in Abundance, acrylics on canvas, 54? x 72″, 2013 If You Remember Me, I Will Remember You, acrylics on canvas, 54″ x 72″, 2013 My God Is Near and He Listens, acrylics on canvas, 54″ x 72″, 2013 Increase […]

Trying to Fly, Music CD by Naomi Ashley Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk I’ve been listening to Naomi Ashley’s CD Trying to Fly over and over this winter, the way I read poetry chapbooks before I review them. This repeated listening turns a new album into a familiar and beloved album, offering a series of favorite songs […]

christmas eve The year of the ceramic Christmas tree “Uncle” Dell was a skinny Santa with whisky breath I was handed a cash filled envelope from dad “For what you want—your brother got the same” Holiday Inn on the television Mom had eaten by the sink during supper Embarrassed by her teeth Later I drove […]

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Shakespeare’s Globe in a limited run at The Belasco Theatre on Broadway Directed by Tim Carroll Starring Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry Reviewed by Scott Klavan Mark Rylance is usually a show unto himself, but in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, currently running on Broadway, he has the support of an accomplished […]

The Cold Cold Ground, by Adrian McKinty Serpent’s Tail, Seventh Street Books, Audible, 2012 Reviewed by Seana Graham When I first thought about writing this up back in December, it seemed like a pretty original idea. I’ve been a fan of McKinty’s work since I happened upon it several years ago, and have often tried to brainstorm […]

Heather Horton Escape Into Chris: Winged or Shriven Excerpts from the journals and library of Christopher Al-Aswad (1979-2010)  For those of us in the northern hemisphere, it’s the winter solstice, commonly known as the first day of winter and the longest night of the year. We are in the season of advent for some, a […]

Danielle Hanson Rails, by Tom Kenaston and Tom Paitson Kelly A musical reading at the York Theatre, New York December 13, 2013 An essay review by Scott Klavan New York is the Big Town these days for staged readings, script-in-hand performances of theatrical works-in-progress. Every night, it seems, there are theaters, large and small, presenting […]

  Rock Crystal, by Adalbert Stifter, translated by Elizabeth Mayer and Marianne Moore NYRB Classics, 2008 (first published 1853; this translation, 1945) Reviewed by Seana Graham Don’t get me wrong, I’m as much in favor of the Dickensian version of the Christmas season as the next person, but there’s room for other visions at this […]

Combine, pen, India ink, graphite, colored pencil, collage on paper, 24″ x 21″, 2011 Daydream, pen, graphite, colored pencil, India ink on paper, 38″ x 26″, 2011 Grow, India ink, pen, colored pencil, collage on paper, 72″ x 20″, 2012 Midline, India ink, pen, graphite, colored pencil on paper, 72″ x 22″, 2012 Passing Through, […]

Stone Bride Madrigals by Nicolette Wong corrupt press, 2013 Sort of a review by Kathleen Kirk Poetry Editor Stone Bride Madrigals, by Nicolette Wong, is a chapbook of eleven poems—brief or extended lyrical flights of image and language. Yes, there is a statue, there is stone, there are rooms and halls, but the poems escape […]

Three of our EIL poets have been busy in 2013 creating books that might inspire poets in 2014, so keep these two craft-related books in mind for gifts as you do your holiday shopping this season. Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano teamed up to provide daily prompts for poets in The Daily Poet (Two […]

Samuel Jan Child Sobbing at the Library Suddenly the quiet, that empty jug, is being filled with crying. A child is sobbing: not the wailing of a slapped kid, and not the tearful screeching of demands and whining. No, it is a child crying for something lost or broken, something that will never be replaced. […]

Mr. White’s Confession, by Robert Clark Picador USA, 1998 Reviewed by Seana Graham We should perhaps get clear from the start that the Mr. White in question here is named Herbert, not Walter. He is not a brilliant meth dealing chemist, but rather a lonely photographer with some memory problems. And the setting is not […]

And I Looked for It, oil on panel, 32″ x 24″, 2013 I Crossed That Off Too, oil on panel, 60″ x 48″, 2013 Lessons Were Learned, oil on panel, 48″ x 36″, 2013  Peace Is Soon to Follow, oil on panel, 48″ x 36″, 2013 Where the Water Left Me, oil on panel, 36″ […]

Xiong Lijun In praise and thanksgiving, we announce our Pushcart Prize nominees for 2013. Thanks to all our poets, writers, readers, artists, and loyal supporters! Spread the love. Pushcart Prize Nominees for 2013 Francine Leffler Ringold, “What to Do with Old Pictures” Simone Muench, “Wolf Cento” Susan Blackwell Ramsey, “Watching Sheet Lightning From The Porch of Ann […]

Sherry Karver The Jacksonian by Beth Henley at the New Group, New York Reviewed by Scott Klavan The Jacksonian centers on a mediocre motel by that name in Jackson, Mississippi in 1964. Here, a group of unhappy middle-aged southerners wreak havoc on each other and a little girl. Dentist Bill Perch (Ed Harris) has a […]

Scott Kahn Thank You, Chicago by Basel Al-Aswad Forty years ago, in August, 1973, an ambitious young man, I arrived at Michael Reese Hospital in the heart of the city of Chicago to start my Orthopedic Residency. I knew but two friends from back home (Baghdad) and all my belongings would fit in the back […]

Savannah Daras As the holidays and the dark days of winter approach, many people cope with depression or suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or are just plain cold and sad. In December of 2009, Escape Into Life founding editor, Chris Al-Aswad (1979-2010), was feeling cold and restless, was steadily writing in his journal, and […]

Brian Taylor No Man’s Land by Harold Pinter at the Cort Theater, New York Reviewed by Scott Klavan So how do you do Pinter in a Hunger Games world? How do you get across the subtle and sly interaction, elliptical, repetitive dialogue and nearly impenetrable story lines to an audience used to being spoon-fed blatant, overly explained, […]

Falconer, by John Cheever Vintage, 1992 Reviewed by Seana Graham I got on to this book after reading a recent Slate review, which claimed that Falconer was John Cheever’s masterpiece. I was surprised. Although I hadn’t read much Cheever, I’d thought his collection of short stories, which aficionados refer to as “The Big Red Book”, […]

  Ca’ d’Oro, Venice II, Watercolor, 7″ x 7″, 2013   Venice, Arrival, Watercolor, 7″ x 10″, 2013   Royal Palace Doorknocker, Fez, Watercolor, 8″ x 10″, 2012   Courtyard of the Mexuar, Alhambra, Granada II, Watercolor, 14″ x 9″, 2012   Royal Palace Doors, Fez III, Watercolor, 15″ x 9″, 2012 Artist Statement The […]

Nigel Cox Letter 3/12/07 At night, in the fields, small fires are burning. Nobody knows who sets them. People come and go in the darkness but they leave no trace. The moon enforces its pale cold silence from horizon to horizon and everything is strange to everything else. In the soil, small ordinary objects are […]

Angel Oak, 22 x 28 inches, 2012 Aspens, Utah, 22 x 28 inches, 2013 Sun’s Rays, Rialto Beach, 22 x 28 inches, 2012 Trees and Fog 2, Blue Ridge, 22 x 28 inches, 1997 Trees Taiwan, 22 x 28 inches, 1995 Leaning Trees, Yellowstone, 22 x 28, 2009 Dead Trees, Idaho, 22 x 28, 2012 […]

Darling Hands, Darling Tongue by Sally Rosen Kindred Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013 Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk EIL Poetry Editor Cover art by Nashay Jones I’ve recently learned two words, from other languages, similar to “nostalgia”—the Welsh “hiraeth” and the Portuguese “saudade”—that also describe feelings I get reading Peter Pan, seeing the movie, Finding Neverland, or […]

  The Haiku Apprentice, by Abigail Friedman Stone Bridge Press, 2006 Reviewed by Seana Graham A couple of weeks ago, this book came to mind again in the course of an online conversation, and I thought it would be a perfect one to share with readers here at Escape Into Life. The Haiku Apprentice is […]

Caravaggio Praise Your Life When on a June morning heavy with rain, you can taste the best cappuccino this side of Rome, in a cafe with scarred maplewood tables, a book of Caravaggio splayed open: The Calling of St. Matthew that could be set in a tavern, a gambling den, a dank office where tax […]

Dan May Kate Bernadette Benedict  The Gathering A spray of chevrons, epaulettes so fine! The thirteenth chevron seems a lucky sign. Indeed, this was the proper place to gather, where the better roads meet: 66, the Silk, the Via Regia. My compliments for choosing it. Yes, done! I’ve taken roll call. Only a few drones […]

The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf, translated by Susan Bernofsky NYRB 2013 Reviewed by Seana Graham New York Review Books has published this Swiss classic just in time to be part of our creepy Halloween lead up. Gotthelf is actually the pen name of a Swiss pastor, Albert Bitzius, who published the original in 1842, […]

Romancing Gravity by Daniel Romo Silver Birch Press, 2013 Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor Romancing Gravity is a book with balls. Stickball, baseball, football, tee ball. Swear words, anger, regret. Drive-in movies, magic shows, liquor stores. Current events, social commentary, nostalgia. And a car chase. It’s got prose poems, free verse, and a […]

Hunted, oil on beeswax and Dutch metal on board, 23″ x 40″, 2013 Cocoon, oil, beeswax, and Dutch metal on board, 69 cm x 69 cm, 2012 Still Here, oil on metal leaf gilding on canvas, 40″ x 40″, 2013 The Players I, oil, beeswax, and Dutch metal on board, 24″ x 18″, 2012 You Made […]

Unexplained Fevers by Jeannine Hall Gailey New Binary Press, 2013 Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, EIL Poetry Editor Unexplained Fevers, by Jeannine Hall Gailey, is a scary book of poems. The title hints at the danger: if the fevers are unexplained, there won’t be a way to find a cure. The fevers will remain a mystery […]

Don’t Look Now, by Daphne du Maurier NYRB , 2008 Reviewed by Seana Graham “Don’t look now,” John said to his wife, “but there are a couple of old girls two tables away who are trying to hypnotise me.” So begins the title story of a New York Review Books Classics collection of creepy tales that seems […]

Rashod Taylor If you had never known fear If you had never been told what to avoid, where not to walk at night. If you had never heard stories of girls who went out alone, the violent endings that keep you hyperaware and vigilant. If your body could be something other than desire’s object. If […]

Trine Bumiller Our newest Artist Watch editor at Escape Into Life is Maureen E. Doallas, who is also an EIL poet and who writes her own blog on the arts, Writing Without Paper. Maureen E. Doallas is the author of Neruda’s Memoirs: Poems (T.S. Poetry Press, 2011). Her work can be found in Open to Interpretation: […]

Meghan Howland EIL poet Susan Elbe has a new book out, The Map of What Happened, which won the Backwaters Prize at Backwaters Press. (By lovely chance, EIL poet Aaron Anstett is also a past winner of the Backwaters Prize, for No Accident.)  Susan will be reading from her new book this month at several […]

Samantha Huang We have a new Book Review editor at Escape Into Life, Seana Graham.  Seana is a reader, former bookseller, and fiction writer who maintains blogs on a variety of topics. We are glad to have her telling us about books here at EIL. Seana Graham worked for many years in an independent bookstore […]

Kenichi Hoshine A Deep Dark Wood All the raccoon thinks are raccoon thoughts, and all the chicken thinks are chicken thoughts. When they think of the thoughts of the other all they imagine is hunger. When they think of the thoughts of human beings all they imagine is hunger. Raccoons and chickens are very wise, […]

Our EIL Artist Watch photographer Rashod Taylor has this event coming up on October 12!  Check out his feature here, and if you live in central Illinois, consider a tintype portrait!

Saturday Night at Magellan’s by Charles Rafferty Fomite Press, 2013 Reviewed by Seana Graham Regular visitors to Escape Into Life may already be acquainted with the work of Charles Rafferty, as he is an EIL poet. I’ll give you a link to some of his work here at the end of this review. But it’s […]

Rapids, 8×10 tintype, 2013 Rapids 2, 8×10 tintype, 2013 Untitled, 8×10 tintype, 2013 Boat on lake, 8×10 tintype, 2013 Snow, 8×10, ambrotype, 2012 Mist on grass, 8×10 tintype, 2012 Countryside, 8×10 tintype, 2013 Kids at play, 8×10 tintype, 2013 Artist Statement As a photographer, I’m naturally drawn to portraiture. I believe it’s a perfect collaboration […]

Holly Friesen It’s Fall! Three poets are “falling for poetry” in the Washington, D. C. area this season, and two of them are EIL poets! Paulette Beete and Maureen Doallas will join Yahia Lababidi on October 27, for Falling For Poetry, a reading sponsored by Capitol Arts Network. It starts at 2:00 p.m., at 12276 […]

    Kitchen, by Banana Yoshimoto A Black Cat book from Grove Atlantic Reviewed by Seana Graham Have you ever gotten the completely wrong end of the stick about an author you haven’t read yet? Such was the case with my initial exposure to Banana Yoshimoto, pen name of Mahoko Yoshimoto (in English rather than […]

Her Vena Amoris by Carol Berg Red Bird Chapbooks, 2013 Review by Kathleen Kirk, Poetry Editor Carol Berg’s newest chapbook, Her Vena Amoris, goes after all the yearning, resentment, risk, confusion, frustration, and powerful love it takes to be a woman and a wife. Its organization lays it out for us beautifully: Part I contains […]

Sunset, acrylic, texturing medium, and varnish, 30″ x 40″, 2010 Eruption, metallic paint, texturing medium, and varnish,  24″ x 48″, 2012 A Paradox, texturing medium, acrylic/metallic paints, and varnish, 8″ x 24″, 2011 Growing Roots, texturing medium, acrylic/metallic paints, and varnish, 12″ x 48″, 2012 Lone Bare Tree, acrylic/metallic paints, texturing medium, and varnish, 30″ […]

Kelly Reemsten Watching Sheet Lightning From The Porch of Ann Paulson’s Cottage While Aretha Franklin Sings Inside The sky above the bay flares white, sustains it, gasps briefly black then goes for bright again, a mirror held up to the voice behind us. Feet up, tepid chablis in hand, we let passion by proxy wash […]

Speedboat, by Renata Adler Reviewed by Seana Graham  Renata Adler’s Speedboat was originally published in 1976 and it has been bouncing its way across the waters to us ever since. It has been on my radar but remained unread for a long time. I hadn’t realized that it has been out of print for many […]

Notes from the Journey Westward, by Joe Wilkins Reviewed by Kathleen Kirk, Poetry Editor Winner of the White Pine Press Poetry Prize Notes from the Journey Westward, by Joe Wilkins, reads like wisdom to me. “There’s nothing to be done / about hope,” he writes, in “Hardscrabble Prairie Triptych,” about cracking open mussel shells in […]

Monika Nguyen  It’s Labor Day in the United States, when we celebrate the achievements of American workers! Some of them get a holiday from work today, while others are working away relentlessly (in retail sales, for instance). And still other hard workers, many who never get a “holiday” from their labors, work on dutifully in […]

Alexander Korzer-Robinson Well, I had a plan this summer: to read and review a bunch of poetry books by EIL poets! Some I had requested for this purpose from the poets, some were given to me, and others I got hold of on my own. But, as John Lennon said in the song “Beautiful Boy […]

Amy Guidry Wolf Cento From this bleak hotel, & at the bored little forest, someone looks at me with the eyes of a wolf—domes shine out their darkgold— but I’m just tired like dead bees or numbers. All sleeping is a sinking down, all waking another sinking. Sometimes a door is opened that opening, letting […]

 A Priori, oil on panel, 42 x 84 inches, 2013 Death Lily, oil on canvas, 40 x 74 inches, 2013 Forget Me Not, oil on panel, 68 x 44 inches, 2013 Heart of Stone, oil on panel, 35 x 84 inches, 2013 Kinnick Kinnick, oil on panel, 38 x 86 inches, 2013 Middle Distance, oil […]

Martine Roch Here is the promised continuation of the Dog Days of August poems with dogs in them! Click on each poet’s name to see her or his solo poetry feature here at Escape Into Life. The mixed media art is by Martine Roch. Peg Duthie  Clinging The dog trots in, white blobs on her […]

“Neptune Estate” feels like the very end of a quiet night with friends, drunk in the booth of a dark bar. It feels like the end of a good night, to be sure. But…not a great one. A little melancholy mixed with your BAC. You’re still left thinking about that one person, your face illuminated […]

Kate Pugsley The dog days of summer are those terribly hot days in July and August when even dogs don’t want to get up! But here are some fine poems—with dogs in them—that manage to keep their cool! Sarah J. Sloat  Song of the Small Dog The dog raids the railroad yard to run alongside […]

Caught somewhere between a dream and the dance floor, ”Envision” is a brilliantly paced dance/pop/house song by Chicago duo Supreme Cuts and kicked up into the stratosphere by the exquisitely haunting guest vocals of Polica‘s Channy Leaneagh. Listen below. Chris aims to expose viewers to some of the most legit tunes of the times, peeling back […]

Maryjo Koch, Painted Letter with Broken-Winged Butterfly, gouache, 8 x 10, 2012 July is a delicate month for us here at Escape Into Life, as it is the month in which founding editor Christopher R. Al-Aswad was born (July 16, 1979) and died (July 27, 2010).  Chris dedicated Escape Into Life to his mother, Rosalind […]

Marci Cheary Best of the Net Poetry Nominations [for work published between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013] The list: Kate Bernadette Benedict “No Occasion Whatsoever for a Parade,” December 12, 2012 Carol Berg “The Wife’s Mid-Life Crisis While Dusting the Bathroom Cabinet,” August 8, 2012 Richard Fox “Small Love Poem” February 13, 2013 […]

Dark Eyed Junco Nest with Dry Leaf, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, 2011 Blackbird Nest, acrylic on board, 16 x 20 inches, 2012 Red-Winged Blackbird Nest with Eggs, gouache, 8.25 x 11, 2013 American Goldfinch Nest, watercolor and gouache on watercolor board, 8 x 10, 2012 Artist Statement As a child I was […]

Phillip Compton  From Basel Al-Aswad to his son and EIL founder, Christopher, on his 34th birthday: We mark your birthday today, dear Chris. You would have turned 34 years old. But you are gone and we are still here. “Death,” Kubler-Ross puts it, “is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding […]

Wayne White Bluff as a Theorem “Indeed, this world is flat; as for the other, nonsense.”  —Jules Laforgue My blood girds up, and that knucklehead, my heart, says its two words over and over. This filibuster of dark and light and dark again just doesn’t stop. Now I might swagger the front stoop, bluff as […]

Tangerine in a Silver Cup, oil on linen, 8 x 10 inches, 2012 Oranges and Ceramic Jars, oil on linen, 14 x 16 inches, 2013 Pear, Cheese, Grapes, Walnuts, Glass, oil on linen, 12 x 10 inches, 2013 Roses, Lilacs, Letters, oil on linen, 14 x 18 inches, 2013 Roses, Silver Vase, Grapes, Apples, oil […]

Brian Taylor Statue of the Blind Girl Nydia, the blind flower-girl of Pompeii She listens, not to the green world exploding around her, not to Vesuvius howling— the hour has come; of two working in the field one shall be taken; of two women grinding wheat one shall be taken; Vesuvius erupts and the black […]

Alison Jardine  From Basel Al-Aswad to his daughters and to his son, Father’s Day 2013: On this Father’s Day, I love you, Mandy & Susan, and I miss you Chris. You always came to Chicago to visit me. This time I was at your home in Normal, then paid you a visit at your resting […]

Diana Lemieux This Morning A weeping pipe, a peep. Silence. Finally, a persistent whine and again that urgent peep, neither bird nor human. The light is up, Pete with it. He stretches . . .Sighs. Cocks his head. Waits. Does a star dance when I appear. So it is with attachment. It feeds us. It […]

Inksuite, by Sarah J. Sloat Review by Kathleen Kirk Inksuite (dancing girl press, 2013), by Sarah J. Sloat, is a wonderfully smart and funny chapbook of poems focused on font and other particulars related to printing and ink. Its Emmanuel Polanco collage cover shows a boy with wings holding a book, his eyes gone in […]

Glenda Lissette On the Horizon, A Small Rustle of Wings and great conquering black eyes, river water, a nest of kisses, little puppets, mad with love. Sighing, the evening curves her back over the dark lilacs, rushes on their pale vertebrae. Vaguely lit by the summer moon, gods who bit flowers of ink jostle together […]

Untitled ( unit 21 of 55 ), 2012, photographs and acrylic on wood panel, 18 x 24 in. Green Island, 2012, photographs and acrylic on wood panel, 20 x 24 in. After Island, 2012, photograph on photograph, 12 x 18 in. Headland, 2012, photograph on photograph, 12 x 18 in. Portmanteaux Two, 2012, photographs on […]

 Anna Pogossova’s Website

Cecilia Carlstedt In one way, Survivors’ Picnic, by Debra Bruce, is no picnic. Its tough topics include divorce, breast cancer, and an emotionally ravaged son. In the poem “Someone’s Attention,” she’s straightforward about an awkward truth: “A woman can’t elasticize her years.” In “Plunder” it’s difficult even to say “surgery’s / savagery’s smoothed over,” let […]

Peg Duthie  Remnant a sprawl of tulips sassily yellow distant kin to the antique gown that once was white petals so bright against the mottled stone its text all but gone the chiseled lines now softer than the folds of a flower or a dress Robert McDonald  Dear Jelly Jar Glass of Water, I want […]

Untitled, 2012, oil on canvas, 195 x 150 cm Untitled, 2012, oil on canvas, 195 x 140 cm Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas, 165 x 97 cm Untitled, 2011, oil on canvas, 195 x 130 cm Untitled, 2012, oil on canvas, 195 x 150 cm Untitled, 2012, mixed media on canvas, 165 x 195 cm […]

Some songs asked to be dissected, taken apart to watch the knobs and gears twist and turn, analyzed and then put back together again. Guitar effects examined, lyrics parsed, influences interpreted. But other songs, like “Stand in the Sand” by Chicago teen punks Twin Peaks, feel like they can only exist if you refuse to look […]

David LaChapelle  Richard Fox  Your flowers pull everything they need out of the ground—even the sun, suppurating over lusterfancy morning. Buds: blooms: I am that I am. Though uncomfortable with your Christianity, you know it sometimes matters. Carol Berg  Self-Portrait As Farmer’s Market I am the sweetest thing you will ever put in your mouth […]

Ai Shinohara Almost Harmless I want him to rise, to grow, I want his fingers longer and his body lean like a cold wind, leaning away from me, taking off at a run if that’s what it takes to wake and speak from his own hard teeth. I don’t want him to be who I […]

April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land… –T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land” We poets are often told not to write poems about poetry. But we can’t help it! We love poetry! So, as April, National Poetry Month, moves cruelly toward its close, let’s say a gentle, gradual goodbye with these […]

Sarah K. Byrne’s Website

In our ongoing celebration of National Poetry Month, here is something two of our EIL poets are doing: the Pulitzer Remix. Sarah J. Sloat and Daniel M. Shapiro are among the 85 poets taking part in this project, sponsored by Found Poetry magazine. They are “finding” poems by way of collage, using words from the […]

EIL poet Scott Poole is also a runner, and he’s written a poem in response to the Boston Marathon explosions and in honor of the resilient spirit. You can read it above, and also here, at WBUR, Boston’s National Public Radio station, on the Here & Now show with Robin Young, where you can also […]

Cédric le Borgne Ren Powell I was early taught to sorrow to shed tears and now when sudden joy lights up or any unexpected sorrow strikes my heart I find it difficult to repress the full swelling tide of feeling translated into Norwegian by Eirik Lodén Jeg lærte tidlig å sørge å felle tårer og […]

Cassette Old Man on Bike Fire Hydrant  White Couch  Honest 8 Construct Lemons Horse on Back  Megan Dorien’s Website

Although Balearic pop’s big moment in the spotlight of the American music scene seems to have swiftly come and gone (see jj, Air France, etc.), its sound is still as infectious and transporting as ever. It’s tough to listen to a song from that genre and not feel carried away to some beach-side cafe in […]

Eric Zener translations from the Spanish poems of Graciela Reyes, by Jackie K. White Barcelona It was the best day of our life together, and the best afternoon in the city of Barcelona: the splendor of solstice over the lingering crispness of winter, the taste of champagne in the air, the celebration we carried on […]

Artist Statement Some of my paintings are about the exploration of my dreams. Exploring the unknown helps me appreciate the existence of life. I like to tell stories with my paintings with symbols. The web formations in several of my paintings deal with something that has been woven or created relating to my past, and […]

Artist Statement Because of my training as an Illustrator, I was very comfortable doing things in a realistic manner. However, at some point I felt I needed to let go of what I felt most comfortable doing and challenge myself further. Exploring new ways of expressing myself led to a much looser and more abstract […]

Julie Blackmon Standing in the corner The chair ended up in my hands while watching a childhood western. Spindles, rungs, rails and splats, the seat a block of burled pecan, whorls of accidental events frozen in the grain, transforming history into design. Tendrils slither and suck, saplings spiral and aspire, biting beasts writhe and burst, […]

Igor & Marina There’s a theatre game called Gibberish, invented by Viola Spolin, who said, “Gibberish forces the player to show and not tell.” Ah, that’s what we poets are supposed to do! In the game, one player speaks in gibberish, and the other “translates.” It’s fun, freeing, and leads to a direct experience of […]