FEATURE
December 2006

Ross A. Gay


THE CORTLAND REVIEW

E
SSAY
Tony Barnstone
  "A Manifesto on the Contemporary Sonnet: A Personal Aesthetics"
Tony Barnstone considers the sonnet from its formal beginnings to its evolution into the twenty-first century, including some generative techniques for sonnets of your own


S
ONNETS
Tony Barnstone

Willis Barnstone
Lorna Knowles Blake
Kim Bridgford
Billy Collins
Leisha Douglas
Barry Ergang
Ross A. Gay
Soheila Ghaussy This marks an author's first online publication
Miranda Girard This marks an author's first online publication
Myrna Goodman This marks an author's first online publication
Susan Gubernat
Heidi Hart
Jay Leeming This marks an author's first online publication
Anne Marie Macari

Patricia O'Hara
John Poch
Michael Salcman
Patricia Smith
A.E. Stallings

Gerald Stern
Joyce Sutphen
Jeet Thayil
Meredith Trede This marks an author's first online publication

 

Ross A. Gay's book, Against Which (2006), is published by CavanKerry Press. He teaches in New England College's low-residency M.F.A. program and at Montclair State University. His poems have also appeared in American Poetry Review, Harvard Review, and Alehouse.

In A Country They'd Not Visited In Years    


In a country they'd not visited in years,
where there was an erupting tree
whose sweet was like a kick in the heart's knees;
where a river more muddy than clear
dragged fat water insects which swam
with spindly legs burdened by want
and coo; where the boys and girls would flaunt,
with scant cladding, abundant tans,
and then some; where the sun-warmed marble steps
made the snaky lounge easy as the air
heating between them, the craving pair,
until hungry for the other's tongue and neck
they retired to their room alone
to lick the meat from each other's bones.

 

 

Ross A. Gay: Poetry
Copyright ©2006 The Cortland Review December 2006 FeatureThe Cortland Review