CONTENTS
ARTIST’S INTERVIEW
Jacqueline Bishop on the Fauna series 10
interviewed by
Susan L. Miller
FEATURE: LIBRETTO
Dana Gioia The Story of Fiat Lux 13
Fiat Lux: A Work for Soloists,
Chorus and Symphony (text) 19
FEATURED TRANSLATIONS ______
Bänoo Zan Translation: Solidarity and
Sisterhood 22
Untitled
by Fatema Akhtar 24
Freedom and Law
by Fatema Akhtar 24
New Year
by Fatema Akhtar 25
The Great Buddha
by Baran Sajadi 27
Allahu Akbar
by Baran Sajadi 28
IN MEMORIAM
Martha Collins After Words: Remembering
Lee Sharkey 30
POETRY
John Bargowski Cash 32
Timothy E. G. Bartel Dizain for Guadalupe 33
Jill Peláez Baumgaertner Sunday Morning 34
Mildred Rivadeneyra Bello Naked Time 35
Lisa Breger I Need a Poem 36
Geraldine Connolly Above the Bored and Spiritless
of the World 37
Nicole M. Coonradt Choice Morsels 38
Kate Deimling Why I’m Making Scones 40
TFW 41
Dana Delibovi Reply Requested 42
Frank Desiderio, C.S.P. Gold Card Insanity 43
CX Dillhunt After Reading Psalm 31 44
Hilde Domin That’s not it
trans. by Charles Ducey 45
Lynn Domina Stories of Saints 47
Claudina Domingo Foreigner
trans. by Ryan Greene 48
Sandra Duguid A Christmas Prayer 50
Tyler Farrell On Reading John Montague
Poems to my Father 51
Linda Nemec Foster After the Long Winter of Chemo,
Her Lungs as Trees in Spring 52
Trina Gaynon The Whole of It 52
Jana-Lee Germaine Old Wallpaper 53
Maria Giura Sister of Charity 55
Marion Goldstein The Many Ways to Pray 57
Mia Schilling Grogan One mystery 58
George Guida Team Irreverence 59
Joan Cusack Handler The Gazebo 60
Maryanne Hannan Why I Now Can Stay Churched 61
Lois Marie Harrod the light that persists even if 62
Katie Hartsock Triolet on the Cigarette Burn
Inside the Library Copy of
C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape
Letters: Letters from a Senior
to a Junior Devil 63
Thomas Holahan, C.S.P. The Drowning Swimmer 63
Jason Irwin At The Mirror, Shaving 64
Paul Jaskunas Praying After the Night Train 65
Juan Ramón Jiménez Remorse
trans. by Wally Swist 66
Tina Kelley Lessons from the List of
100,000 Most Hacked Passwords 67
Gerry LaFemina The Abbott of the Order
of the Night 68
Iris A. Law Awakening Psalm 69
Isabel Cristina Legarda The Ecstasy of Saint Catherine
of Siena* 70
*regretfully “Siena” was misspelled
on the poem’s page of this issue
Sue Fagalde Lick What I Failed to Confess 71
James Littwin The Devil’s Midnight 73
Andrew Lustig Unconsoled 74
Margaret Mackinnon A Tomb of a Woman at Saqqara 75
D. S. Martin I Draw in Dust a Circle
With My Foot 76
Paul Martin Mother and Autistic Son at Mass 77
Orlando Ricardo Menes The Poet Richard Crashaw to the
the Sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo
Bernini 77
Theresa Monteiro Saturday 78
Steve Myers Powers on Podcast (Merwin
in Mind) 79
Madeleine Mysko Mother— 79
Amy Nemecek A Prayer on Rosh Hashanah 80
Tamara Nicholl-Smith Controlled Burn 81
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell The Journey 82
Gregory Orfalea Gaviota Beach 83
Kyle Potvin How To Be Fearless 84
Arthur Powers Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones 84
Tara Propper Have faith in the boat 86
Jacob Riyeff Vanitas 87
Tania Runyan For Lizeth, Lost 88
Nicholas Samaras An Idea of Heaven 89
Alfonso “Sito” Sasieta Lutheran Half-Gringo vs. Catholic
Andean Woman 90
Lee Sharkey For the Ghosts 92
Martha Silano When I Can’t Get Out of Bed 92
Eva Skrande Humble 93
Ryan T. Sliwa, O.S.B. To a Loon 94
Jen Grace Stewart Story with a Ghost in It 95
Robert Stewart Peace Be with You 95
Alfonsina Storni Funeral Notices
trans. Norman Weinstein &
Celia Gil Llamas 97
Stephanie Howe Sullivan Stained Glass 97
Maxine Susman Inside the Curtain 98
Maria Terrone Meditation 99
David Thoreen Shuttle 100
J. C. Todd Marigold 100
Pam Vap Of Little Faith 101
Cindy Veach Forgiveness 102
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff In the Grass
trans. Elizabeth Elin &
Oli Grogan 103
Rebecca Bratten Weiss Midway in the journey of our life 104
Luke William Blindness 105
James Matthew Wilson A Dedication to My Wife 106
INTERVIEWS
Philip C. Kolin An Interview with Poet,
Novelist and Editor, Sarah Law 107
Brennan O’Donnell “A presence shimmering behind the
dim / Veil of things”: An Interview
with Malcolm Guite 116
BOOK REVIEWS
Mia Schilling Grogan Taking Root in the Heart, edited
by Jill Peláez Baumgaertner &
Christian Poetry in America Since 1940,
edited by Micah Mattix &
Sally Thomas 126
Claire Bateman Prayershreds
by Bruce Beasley 128
Jane McCafferty Navigating the Reach
by Mary Buchinger 131
Sheila O’Connor Ambrose Daughter
by Cortney Davis 133
Carl M. Jenks Death Prefers the Minor Keys
by Sean Thomas Dougherty 136
Lana Portolano River, Amen
by Michael Garrigan 138
Jane Clark Scharl The World as We Know It Is
Falling Away by Jane Greer 140
Tina Kelley Testament
by Luke Hankins 143
Betsy K. Brown Wolf Trees
by Katie Hartsock 145
Jerry Harp The Third Renunciation
by Matthew Henry 147
Robert P. Miller Last Things, First Things, &
Other Lost Causes by Joshua Hren 149
Rosa Mirna Sánchez The Spring that Feeds the Torrent
by St. John of the Cross,
trans. by Rhina P. Espaillat 151
Janet McCann Our Lively Kingdom
by Julia Lisella 154
Christopher Honey Infinite Arrivals
by Nick Maione 157
Justin Lacour Jesus Merch
by Megan McDermott 160
Jeannine M. Pitas The Gospel of Wildflowers & Weeds
by Orlando Ricardo Menes 162
Paul Mariani Sleeping as Fast as I Can
by Richard Michelson 165
Paul M. Bielecki Prayer Book for the New Heretic
by Colin Pope 167
Susan L. Miller Old Songs 1980-1981
by Olga Sedakova,
trans. Martha M. F. Kelly 169
Lisa Toth Salinas Walking the Mist
by Marjorie Stelmach 171
Brent House Divination with a Human Heart
Attached by Emily Stoddard 174
Daniel Cowper One Hundred Visions of War
by Julien Vocance,
trans. by Alfred Nicol 176
Gloria Heffernan Masquerade
by Carolyne Wright 179
LIFE’S WORK
Laura Chalar Antonio Machado’s Footsteps
on the Waves 182
Robert Lunday Vassar Miller: A Poetics of
Pain and Loss 194
James Matthew Wilson Micheal O’Siadhail’s Assent 206
POETS’ BIOGRAPHIES 213