ISSUE 44
August 2009

Ryan Vine


THE CORTLAND REVIEW
 

POETRY
Julia Alter
Kurt Brown
Alex Dimitrov This marks an author's first online publication
Gregory Lawless
Austin MacRae
Kirby Olson
Simon Perchik
Marvyn Petrucci
Dan Veach This marks an author's first online publication
Ryan Vine
Rob Walker
Hilde Weisert
Marjory Wentworth
Ross White
Michael Wynn
 

FICTION
Haley Carrollhach This marks an author's first online publication
Mariko Nagai
 

INTERVIEW
David M. Katz
interviews Daniel Brown
 

BOOK REVIEW
David Rigsbee
reviews Divine Comedy: Journeys through a
Regional Geography

three new works by
John Kinsella

 

Ryan Vine's Distant Engines received a 2005 Weldon Kees Award and was published by Backwaters Press. He's Assistant Professor of English at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, and has new work forthcoming in The American Poetry Review.

Snowbank Sherpa    

The mountain doesn't know
when you're trying to climb it,

and the world around it
doesn't wait for you to finish.

Ward the Snowbank Sherpa
says this is his first edict.

The second: watch your step.
Because if you fall from here

you'll fall forever.  
See, at this altitude, darknesses

are easily mistaken
for substance, and any pains

you may have will appear
as people, dark silhouettes

always approaching, always
climbing up behind you.

At summit, we'll be six feet higher
than the streets of Duluth,

and when cars pass, notice
their headlights roll below us

before their sound. Notice
the streetlight's hum.  

People will accuse you
of being high, you may feel

lightheaded. Listen: I want you
to know, if something should happen,

no one can save us up here.

 

 

Ryan Vine: Poetry
Copyright ©2009 The Cortland Review Issue 44The Cortland Review