Now retired and living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Henry Taylor taught at Roanoke College, The University of Utah, and American University. With Ed Tedeschi, a Roanoke student, he co-founded Roanoke Review in 1967. Among his six books of poems is The Flying Change, which received the 1986 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Listen or read the transcript here.

 

No Ghosts Allowed

Hannah Martin

 

The house at the end of the street is on fire. It reminds me of the fireworks the Russo’s next door are always setting off at night. Italian kids lighting Roman candles that hiss up like spacecraft taking off through my bedroom curtains. They cast shadows on my popcorn ceiling and make little faces that stretch and disappear.

 

Touching Angels

Erin Wilson

 
 

I want to live
in a ramshackle shack
that touches—hyper-touches—
air, and have that shanty
startle back
like a child that has lured
and then touched a snake.

To a Tattoo

Emma Aylor

 

It’s just a line, really, and from the side
appears to be a crimped string, or nothing
much—a bobby pin with twists worked in,
edge of a broken oak, some given crumble—

 

Doors, because they close;
books, after they end;
spring, while it explodes;
cash, before it spends;