Saint Vitus Press & Poetry Review
Craig Sernotti is the
former editor of Yellow Bat
Review and now the editor
of the on-line zine "THE."  

TONGUE
By Craig Sernotti

Dressed in old
leather jackets,
carefully ripped
jeans,
band patches,
rings, ink,
he with more black
eyeliner than her.
Sharing a clove
cigarette.
He says now what.
She says I can
lick your ass
wagging her
studded tongue
at the passing
tourists


FEAR
By Craig Sernotti

I keep waking up
and you're dead
next to me
missing your face.
I look for answers
but all I find is
dust and blood
and your mother's tears.
The only thing
I can say
is agree that
it's all my fault

DANCE
By Craig Sernotti

The stripper dances
and there's nothing.
Her eyes are like dust.
I say this is about
as much fun as
combing dogshit
out of my beard.
She says this is
about as much fun as
shaving my dick
Crossing
By John Macker

Mangas,
imperfect winter tool of the
gods,
astride a good pony
the rare snow last night spitballed
sideways, frosted the organ pipe,
& indigenous chickadee;
soon,
it’ll be time to harvest the mescal
plant
eastern slope of the Chiricahuas,

despite the hoarseness & drear of
the
droughtscape.
Each flake disappeared in his hand
before it could declare its
individuality, a
brittle irony
not lost on the aged chief-

just north of the border,
oblivion rhymes with vermilion,
not a soul
was caught in the living act of
crossing
just the tarantulas & winter wired
coyotes;
now in his seventies,
dreams of one last score,
riding off some Fronteras rancheria’
s
renegade remuda
in the dark because
revenge this sweet must
be Mexican, must taste
mescal bitter on the tongue,
the dusk glows saffron
&
must last a lifetime.
consoling bear-trap pussy
By Justin Hyde

he's got a tattoo of a barcode
on his neck
even-odds there's a pistol
and at least five 8-balls of meth
under that
floor length leather coat.

she's twenty pounds underweight
wears black lycra shirts
cut below collar bones
jutting out farther than
most shoulder blades.

they usually roll into the flying j
around 2:30
after the bars close.

sometimes
i’ll smile at her
if he gets up to piss.

last night
she showed alone,
bloody lip
black eyeliner
running down her face.

she sat in the booth
right in front of me.

i turned my headphones up,
traced over
three lines of a poem
in my notebook
trying to pretend
she wasn't staring at me.

she waved,
then she
snapped her fingers,

then she whipped a saltshaker
right past my ear,

but my sphincter
didn't even flinch.

i felt bad
for the girl,
i really did.

but i’m thirty years old.

i've had a butterfly knife
at my adam's apple
and a loaded shotgun
flush with my nut-sack.

i’ve seen that show before.
POETRY NEWS
8/19/2008

Poets & Writers Picnic Sat. Aug. 23 in Mountainair
plus writing workshop

It's that time of year again! The 11th annual Poets & Writers Picnic in Mountainair, NM is
Sat. Aug. 23, noon to 5 pm, at the historic Shaffer Hotel outside in the gazebo yard. There
are terrific featured readers and music alternating with a gentle open mic throughout the
afternoon. People bring picnic lunches, spread out blankets on the lawn (there's actually
grass!) and come and go as they wish. The town is doing its Sunflower Festival that day,
so it is a fun time to drive out, noticing the fields of sunflowers along your way. Both
events are sponsored by the Manzano Mountain Arts Council and are free.

Featured readers at Poets & Writers Picnic this year are Hakim Bellamy, Gary Brower,
Maria Leyba, Lou Liberty, Merimee Moffitt, Connie Rossingol, Miriam Sagan, Charles
Usmar, and the Santa Fe Moon Writers poetry writing group: Debbi Brody, Zoe Dwyer,
Ann Hunkins, Mary McGinnes, Elizabeth Raby, and Rachelle Woods. Music is by "The
Blue Rose Ramblers" Jessica Billey & Bud Melvin, and "LuLu" Lou Blackwell and Gregory
Louis Candela.

Make it a whole poetry weekend by signing up for the Sunflower Poetry Writing
Workshop, also at the Shaffer Hotel from thursday afternoon Aug. 21 thru saturday noon
Aug. 23 - then you stay on for the Poets & Writers Picnic, of course! A special feature
this year is Plein Air writing at Tom & Edit Cates' THE LAND/an art site located in nearby
Loma Parda. Guest teacher Miriam Sagan just completed a poetry & art residency there
and will guide us in some fine
fresh air writing. Actor-Director Scott Sharot will coach us on performing poetry.
Guest teacher Vanessa Vaille will give us a head start on presenting poetry on-line and you
can begin your own blog. Tuition is $125. for the entire 3 day workshop and does not
include lodging or meals. Accomodations are limited, don't wait! Contact me, Dale Harris
poetdale@yahoo.com  to enroll.

There's much more info about the Poets & Writers Picnic, the Sunflower Poetry Writing
Workshop and the town of Mountainair's Sunflower Festival available on the Poets &
Writers Picnic blog (yes, curated by Vanessa the blog goddess!) The site includes bios
and poems by many of the Poets & Writers Picnic features and interesting links to other
parts of the poetry cosmos.

Meet you in Mountainair!

http://poetsandwriterspicnic.blogspot.com  
http://www.landartsite.org
http://shafferhotel.com
http://mountainairarts.blogspot.com

Dale Harris
2115 Aspen Avenue NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87104

Poets & Writers Picnic - Mountainair, New Mexico
Saturday, Aug. 23, 2008 during Sunflower Festival
Sunflower Poetry Writing Workshop Thurs. - Sat. Aug. 21-23
More info at http://poetsandwriterspicnic.blogspot.com

___________________________________________________________

Hello friends -

Thanks to Bill Gainer for reminding me that I need to keep up with my progress by
updating my website as well!  I've listed El Pagano on there with a PayPal button so you
can impulse buy to your heart's content.  Also, I've made it more accessible (I hope).  
And while you're at it, look for a new edition of the Lummox Journal!  It should be up by
this next week (still tweeking with the new format).

The third book in the Raindog Reader is available.  Perhaps this volume will meet with
better reception than the last (soon they will be available as a boxed set).  El Pagano is a
collection of short stories that will knock your socks off.  Please see the attached file for
more info.  If you'd like a copy, please email me and I will get the wheels in motion.

--
Raindog
Word Smith
Get the Raindog Reader (4 books) - A hot beef injection for your soul!
www.lummoxpress.com
www.myspace.com/poetraindog/
www.blogger.com/raindog-theviewfromdownhere/

______________________________________________________________

Hi,

I know many of you are anticipating the issue of #37. I predict a release as
scheduled in September, but late September. As usual, it is taking us a lot
of time and effort to get through the submissions. No matter how many times
I close submissions for 3 months, they seem to flood back in quite amazingly
fast.

Anyway, we have changed our "News" link on the website to connect with a
more user friendly page at : http://poesymag.blogspot.com. Here you can keep
up to speed with the current status of POESY. I would rather do this than
flood you all with emails.

Poetry submissions are closed for this issue, but we still are reviewing
photographs and art.

I will try to get back to you all personally very soon!
Brian
----
POESY
c/o Brian Morrisey
P.O. Box 7823
Santa Cruz, CA 95061
http://www.poesy.org

_________________________________________________________

Check out this website:  100 Near Perfect Books of
Poetry.
 
Dad’s
Dillinger books are mentioned here on this list, alongside folks such as Jack
Kerouac, Robert Bly, Charles Bukowski and others.  Here's the URL for it:  http:
//lilliputreview.blogspot.com/2008/08/100-near-perfect-books-of-poetry_10.html


___________________________________________________________

And last but not not least, believe it or not St. Vitus is getting more techno, hell, we
should, i'm majoring in Computer Networking at school!  
We've now got a
MYSPACE PAGE up and running
.  Check it out, send us shit to
post on it, videos, etc. and we'll do it.  Click on:  
Saint Vitus Press & Poetry Review
MYSPACE page