O:JA&L Poetry: All forms & styles
Richard Widerkehr
In The Hall of North American Mammals:
Museum of Natural History
To explore more of Richard Widerkehr’s poetry, click on the pamphlet titles Deer in Fog at Twilight Near Squalicum Lake Road and Potter’s Vally Road.
Writing in the cool of the morning near the diorama
of the saber-toothed tiger—
no need to tell you about my tar pit of an apartment
near the river in Manhattan or the nettles I fell in when I fled
to Day Creek.
You don’t want a woman, said the hooker
in red hot pants in Times Square. In the summer of love,
nights in Adam & Eve’s,
I nursed Stingers ‘cause that’s what Bogart drank.
And yet,
under my Vodka-and-burnt-toast breath,
I muttered, God, please take my life.
In the cool of the morning, the frozen saber tooth
beige-gold. Sometimes, yes, I soared
like a god with his female city
in air, in fog with its/her orange-pink halo
at night over the Empire State Building,
the spire King Kong fell from,
his fist uncurling, fingers letting go,
setting down Fay Wray slowly,
tenderly,
at dawn, on her ice-gray platform,
not calling God God
About the writer:
Richard Widerkehr’s fourth book of poems, Night Journey, was published in 2022 by Shanti Art Press. Main Street Rag brought out At the Grace Cafe the year before. His work has appeared in Open: A Journal of Arts & Letters, Writer’s Almanac, Verse Daily, and many others. He won two Hopwood first prizes for poetry at the University of Michigan, three prizes in The Bridge’s annual awards, and first prize for a short story at the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference. He reads poems for Shark Reef Review.
Image: Femme au chale rouge by Félix Vallotton (1865-1925). Oil on canvas. No size specified. 1920. Public domain.
Pamphlets
Individual works
Poetry: All forms & styles|Richard Widerkehr|”Two December Mornings”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Richard Widerkehr|”Kristallnacht, 1938: Night of Shattered Glass”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Richard Widerkehr|”When You Ask About That Dream”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Writer’s Portfolio||Richard Widerkehr|”At O’Hare Airport: Her Foxgloves”
Poetry: All forms & styles|Writer’s Portfolio||Richard Widerkehr|”Spin The Bottle: 1958″
Poetry: All forms & styles|Writer’s Portfolio||Richard Widerkehr|”Sympathy for the Scarecrow”
Americana|Poetry: All forms & styles||Richard Widerkehr|”Biloxi”
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.
BUTTONHOOK PRESS MASTERS SERIES
Click on the titles to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks.
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Brian Clements on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Mark Budman on Flash Discourse
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Ray Gonzalez on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Michael Martone on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Roberta Allen on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Master Series: Peter Conners on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Maxine Chernoff on Prose Poetry
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Pedro Ponce on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Tom Hazuka on Flash Fiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Kent Dixon on Flash Fiction & Nonfiction
With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Jim Meirose on Experimental Discourse
With an interview by Associate Editor Warwick Newnham
O:JA&L’S HIGH BUTTON PRESS ART CHAPBOOKS
Click on the titles to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks.
RITES OF CALIBRATION: Images & Excerpts
Fine Art Photography by Rex Wilder
Fine Art Photography by Natalie Christensen
Painting and drawing by Anne-Marie Brown
BY LAND AND BY SEA: Awakening the Sensual
Sculpture and Installation by Mark Yale Harris
Painting and drawing by Bette Ridgeway
Painting and drawing by Kathleen Frank
Painting and drawing by Catherine Eaton Skinner
Implications of Energy
Artist portfolio of Dr. Ernest Williams III
