Presence 2022
Contents
Mary Ann B. Miller Editor's Statement 10
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Beth Shadur on Transmutation 11
FEATURED POET
Julia Alvarez Ants 12
Recitation 13
Visitation 14
FEATURED TRANSLATIONS
Erin Goodman Threshold of the Yes
by Juana Rosa Pita 19
[three tankas]
by Juana Rosa Pita 20
We Prefer Heaven
by Juana Rosa Pita 21
POETRY
Millicent Borges Accardi In the Way that Sinners Take 23
Joseph Bathanti Requiem for the Living 24
Dmitry Blizniuk Just a Man
trans. Sergey Gerasimov 26
Mark S. Burrows At the Last 27
Catherine Chandler On Reading the Grand Jury
Report, an Altar Boy
Remembers 28
Lesley Clinton Last Hermit Crab Standing 29
William Coleman Work Song 30
Maryann Corbett A Late Regret 31
Brad Davis On Seeing and Being Seen 32
Juditha Dowd To a Friend Letting Her Hair
Go Gray 33
Linda Nemec Foster After Losing Her Sight, Her
Daughter Imagines the
Seasons 34
Michael Garrigan Searching the Database of
Priests Accused of Sexual
Assault 35
Amy L. George Pocket God 36
Jana-Lee Germaine The Bats 37
Mia Schilling Grogan Herself a Sign 39
Jerry Harp 5-26-21 At the Table Again 40
Lois Marie Harrod Cardinals in Snow 41
Kathleen Hellen talk. say “human” 42
Maeve Henry This is what it means to be
a prophet 43
Laura Reece Hogan Fast Radio Bursts Detected
Close to Earth 44
Thomas Holahan, C.S.P. God 45
Marci Rae Johnson Satan Watches Breakfast at
Tiffany’s in a Nearly Empty
Theatre 46
Stephen Kampa Christian Gifts 47
Tina Kelley How to Believe in God 48
Laurie Klein When a Pencil Grows Arms 49
Justin Lacour Little Flower 50
Sarah Law Father Michael in the Holy
House, 2017 51
Owen Lewis Suburban Christmas, A Draft 52
Julia Lisella Modern Easter Monday 53
Linda Malnack Biographical Statement 54
D.S. Martin Finding the Way 55
Paul Martin The Nun 56
Orlando Ricardo Menes Ezan 57
Julie L. Moore Gaze 59
Sheila Murphy Distance Learning 61
Amy Nemecek Petoskey Stones 62
Stella Nesanovich For My Great-Niece 63
Alfred Nicol An Irreverent Portrait of
Father McLaughlin 64
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell Conjure 66
Priscilla Orr Moonbow Elegy 67
Kyle Potvin Arguing About the Meaning
of Innovation 68
Joe Martyn Ricke Bad Memory (for Noel) 69
Whitney Rio-Ross Plowshares 70
Margaret Rozga Hope is a stalk of purple
aster at the edge 71
Barbara Sabol Letting the Kneeler Down 73
Alfonso “Sito” Sasieta Salsa Dura 74
J.C. Scharl Down the Basement Stairs 76
Joyce Schmid Apricot Preserves 77
Marian Kaplun Shapiro Witness 78
Judith Sornberger The Muse, as Garter Snake,
Drops You a Line 79
Michael Stalcup Appled Things 80
Catherine Stansfield Quiet Where It’s Always Been 81
Sofia M. Starnes Youth 82
Carole Stone Seeking the Sacred 83
Maxine Susman End of March, 2020 84
Teresa of Ávila About Those Words, “My
Beloved Is Mine”
trans. Dana Delibovi 85
Sally Thomas Ora et Labora 86
Judith Valente After Listening to Composer
Avro Pärt Accept an
Honorary Degree 87
John A. Vanek Invocation 88
Philip Vassallo A Higher Elevation than
the Bronx 89
Jerry Wemple Like Lazarus 90
Brenda Yates Cauldron of Blue Light 92
Yvonne 1910 Fitzwater 94
Kristin Camitta Zimet Singleton Returns to Painting 95
INTERVIEWS
Gabriel Cleveland Writing as a Conduit for
Emotional Honesty and Growth:
an Interview with Poet,
Psychologist and Publisher
Joan Cusack Handler 96
Philip C. Kolin An Interview with Poet,
Editor, Teacher Jill
Peláez Baumgaertner 106
BOOK REVIEWS
Kimberly Johnson Romances
by Lisa Ampleman 116
Susan L. Miller The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots
by Ned Balbo 118
Sean Thomas Dougherty Unholy Heart
by Grace Bauer 120
Annabelle Moseley After Before and In or Out of
Season by Jane Blanchard 123
Jake Oresick Vertical Bridges
by Paola Corso 126
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell Postcolonial Love Poem
by Natalie Diaz 128
Mary Lindroth Wild Kingdom
by Jehanne Dubrow 132
Doug Anderson Floaters
by Martín Espada 134
Collin Becker “Dense Poems and Socratic
Light”: The Poetry of
John Martin Finlay
edited by David Middleton
and John P. Doucet 136
Sean Thomas Dougherty The Blue Divide
by Linda Nemec Foster 138
Joshua Hren The Harvest & the Lamp
by Andrew Frisardi 141
Sarah Law Litany of Flights
by Laura Reece Hogan 144
Sheila O’Connor Ambrose Mothers of Ireland
by Julie Kane 146
Mark S. Burrows Delta Tears
by Philip C. Kolin 148
Maryanne Hannan Thérèse
by Sarah Law 152
Mary Grace Mangano Bone Rosary
by Thomas Lynch 154
Paul Mariani Sometimes I Never Suffered
by Shane McCrae 156
Gloria Heffernan Love in the Time of Coronavirus
by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell 159
Michael Angel Martín Thunderhead
by Daye Phillippo 162
Judith Valente Central Air
by Mike Puican 164
Jennifer Martelli Holding My Selves Together
by Margaret Rozga 167
Linda Nemec Foster The Ministry of Flowers
by Andrea Witzke Slot 169
Janet McCann Motherland
by Sally Thomas 172
Jane Greer The Strangeness of the Good
by James Matthew Wilson 174
LIFE’S WORK
Vivian I. Bikulege Jane Hirshfield: At the
Intersection of the Daily
and the Numinous 178
Pat Destito Sally Read: Lyrics After
Conversion 182
(with 3 new poems) 190
POETS’ BIOGRAPHIES 194