Cincinnati Review

In this poem, Dan O’Brien shows us the coexistence of belief and doubt, the skeptic with an open mind, the observer with an eye for both the sublime and the terrestrial.

In Julie Cadman-Kim’s “Putting in the Seed,” plot and character take a back seat to imagery.

In this prose poem, Kiefer distills the moment to its crux, implying but leaving the larger implications unsaid.

Misha Rai’s “Lessons in Loss” echoes emotions what many of us might be feeling during this time, amid isolation, loss, tragedy. She, however, explores a different type of pandemic, one that’s ongoing, with no cure or saving in sight.

In this snapshot, an unrhymed sonnet, Pauletta Hansel shows us a walk near the river in springtime (an acceptable activity during social distancing), even as she ably calls up other time frames: a flood that’s receded, a potential eruption.

In “Some Meaning—,” Leonora Desar tackles this conundrum, bringing both the hollowness and everything-ness of “meaning” into sharp focus.