M

In The Museum

by Lori Powell

Quick: before dust decides for you.
The guard has turned his back.
The hour, uneaten,
grows soft in the center.


Lori Powell lives near the Potomac River just outside of Washington, DC. Her poems appear in various online and print publications and in a chapbook, Truth and Lies, published by Black Buzzard Press.

How important do you think is “mystery” to a (compressed) poem? And if it is important, what are some specific strategies for creating mystery (as opposed to confusion) for the reader?

Because poetry is more compressed than prose, mystery is inevitable. But, I think it’s also desirable. Emily Dickinson wrote: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.” A “slant” telling can be more effective, and often more truthful, than telling it straight. Good poems don’t spell things out for the reader. They imply, allude; they make unusual and startling connections. Telling it slant allows a poem to have repercussions far beyond the boundaries of its words. One way to avoid confusion is to build the poem around a central image (or metaphor). Make the image as visual, as tactile, as possible. An image is truly a large idea in a small package. It works on many levels at once: sensory, emotional, intellectual. It doesn’t tell the whole story, but, mysteriously, it can make you feel as if it does.

News

Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.

Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.

Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.

Submissions

Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again March 15, 2023. Submit here.

Upcoming

09/09 • Rae Gourmand
09/16 • Chiwenite Onyekwelu
09/23 • TBD
09/30 • TBD