A gin-damned drunkard’s wan half-witted face 2
stared with piteous recognition in fixed eyes. 3
The winds from the west all breathed a story; 4
I couldn’t understand a word. 5
How long I stayed alone with the corpse I never knew. 6
What is that noise now? What is the wind doing? 7
They pursued it with forks and hope; 8
the jaws that bite, the claws that catch, 9
the secrets and the signals and the system. 10
Is it a banished soul? 11
Essence of winter sleep is on the night. 12
I sit and listen to the wind’s 13
laughter out of dead bellies. 141The title is from Agernon Charles Swinburne’s “Hertha.” I added capitalization.
2 from Gilbert Chesterton’s “The Mirror of Madmen.”
3 from Wilfred Owen’s “Strange Meeting.” I removed a line break.
4 from Ella Wheeler Wilcox’s “The Lost Garden.” I added a capital and the semi-colon.
5 from Edwin C. Ranck’s “The Epic of the Hog.” I added the period.
6 from Christina G. Rossetti’s “Under the Rose.” I removed a line break and capital,
and added the period.
7 from T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.”
8 from Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark.”
9 from Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky.” I removed a capital and an exclamation mark,
and added a comma.
10 from Carl Sandburg’s “Our Prayer of Thanks.” I added the period.
11 from Bliss Carman’s “Behind the Arras.” I added the question mark.
12 from Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking.” I added the period.
13 from Joanna Baillie’s “Night Scenes of Other Times. I added the ‘s.
14 from Ezra Pound’s “Ode Pour L’Election de Son Sepulchre.”
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones