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About Holly Van Hare

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So far Holly Van Hare has created 25 blog entries.

In Every Day

Una Chaudhuri

The lockdown seemed like a good time to return to one of our most famous literary recluses (and one of my beloved goddesses): Emily Dickinson. As luck would have it, there’s a new biography just out, with an inspired structure, inspired by Emily’s own method of distillation: These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson, by Martha Ackmann. Besides needing Emily’s distilling intelligence near me right now, I also bought this book because a numbered list sounded like something I could manage […]

In Every Day2020-06-13T04:54:14+00:00

522 Boulder Pass

Sarah Jane Weill

I’m in a house that doesn’t have a mailbox. Our closest neighbors are maple trees. For the first time ever, we tapped three of them in March and boiled their sap into syrup.

The walls around me are becoming strange. This house has always been a home, but now it’s a fortress. It enforces the distance between me and the suffering I read about daily. I try to mourn along with the rest of the world. I tell myself I’m doing my part by hiding. I spend too many hours looking out […]

522 Boulder Pass2020-06-13T04:53:47+00:00

Death Pass Hope Pass


Death Pass Hope Pass

by Bruno Manfredi

Di fronte a me, a ovest, la luce, la libertà.
Dietro di me, a est, il buio, la schiavitù .
Giù, a sud, la frontiera normale, gratuita, con migliaia di lavoratori, turisti, auto, treni.
Su, a nord, il Passo della Morte.
Io sono in mezzo, nella terra di nessuno.

Il contrabbandiere mi ha salutato.
L’ho pagato come ogni giorno.
Aspetto il buio.
Amo il pericolo.

A qualche chilometro da qui, un villaggio mi accoglie.
Il […]

Death Pass Hope Pass2021-01-07T22:29:15+00:00

The War With the Joneses

Scott Bradfield

It began as a minor border dispute and quickly escalated to a state of total war.

“I don’t like the way he looks at me or my hedgerow,” Bob Phillips told his wife on the day the Joneses moved in next door. “That type of disdainful expression from somebody who doesn’t even belong in our neighborhood is way out of line. I planted that hedgerow (or at least hired the guys who planted it) and made my home in this town long before he even […]

The War With the Joneses2021-01-07T22:29:00+00:00

Sauna Head

Solbi Choi

Note: Due to its unusual formatting, this piece is best read on a computer screen, and not suited for reading via phone. 

“What do you think?” Will asked her one morning, when she’d slept over.

“I think the oatmeal is burning,” she replied, getting to her feet.

They were a mid-twenties couple. They had been dating —long enough. She was bad with dates. Her head fit snugly under his chin. It was love, like she hadn’t known was quite possible. He loved her and she loved him, which felt big enough to be a fact. […]

Sauna Head2021-01-07T22:28:54+00:00

What Was

Eli Coyle

I tip a beer back in East Harlem
blurring into winter windows.

Outside these panes of glass
there are souls leaving. 

There are souls down the street.
Souls in the alleyway
and around the corner 

looking for their brother,
father, sister, friend.

I take a mouthful of beer
a gunshot in the distance.

Another sip
a siren down the street.

I skull the pint
and there’s a funeral in black.  

Today it is not […]

What Was2021-01-07T22:28:45+00:00

Two Women

Dennis Etzel Jr.

you might sit     in judgment     in fear

of two women     together     next door

as they smile     while they hang out     laundry

work on a deck     complete another     household

chore before inviting you     over     for tea

why walk through     a chasm     when they built

a bridge here     you want them     in easy chairs

but they offer     love seats     my mothers

made my home     built a room for me     as I prepared

for my own     wedding     when no one

wanted my poems     two women     called me

poet     that no one could take my lines     away

two women     can save the country   President

Vice-President     someday     I […]

Two Women2021-01-07T22:28:39+00:00
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