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Poetry of Stanley Moss (a 199-word review + samples)
There is no pleasure like a hot-spring bath. Ideally naked we slip into the steam and mineral cooking-egg smell of it, sliding bare buttocks down the slickly gnarled sloping rock until our chin rests on the amber surface of the water. If we pray, we pray to the forces of sacred nature, laughing and arguing as we might across the Thanksgiving table. We are part of their family. I lied in that first sentence. Reading Stanley Moss is a hot-spring pleasure—an escape into healing intensities, words kneading the aches from intellect, feeling, and spirit.Read More
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Now and Then, by Murray Moulding (a 199-word review)
It had been a long day’s grind into inanition. In bed I tried reading but fell asleep. I got up a while later and walked in the dark. I knew all the sharp corners and the distribution of toe-bruising dangers—like the mini-grotto of amethyst crystals in a halved chunk of stone, the heavy meditating Buddha made of resin. But near the kitchen I bumped the dining room table and heard a muffled patter like a dropped jigsaw puzzle. I flicked on the light. Some jigsaw pieces lay scattered on the floor. Not many.Read More
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On Percival Everett’s The Trees (a 199-word review)
Clearly, Percival Everett’s longtime publisher, Graywolf Press, couldn’t quite figure out how to characterize his new novel, The Trees. On the back cover: “A blistering tale of revenge in the Deep South.” “Blistering,” a hype word from 1950s B-movie trailers. “Revenge,” yes! But: “In the Deep South”—well, the novel only begins there with gruesome murders and mutilations of white racists in Money, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955. Yes, it’s all connected. But Money can’t contain the spirit of retribution fueled by American history. The real history, not the one we learned in school.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
