Sending a child off to college or out on her own is an important life passage for parents. While preparing a child to successfully “leave the nest” is the ultimate goal and at least one of the measures typically used to evaluate one’s effectiveness as a parent, that new stage can be felt as a…

During unsettled, unsettling times, we often look to poetry to make sense of chaos, to ground us, and to feel less alone. David Groff’s third book of poems, Live in Suspense (Trio House Press), is a wonderful place to turn. Read more

You want to matter. Everybody wants to matter. Physics and you were never best friends, but you know matter makes up the world. The table you’re sitting at, the chair, your notebook. Matter. Your whole body is matter, but how to matter? Is this aqua flair dress, these Rag & Bones jeans, this size ten, the measures…

Compelling author and editor Diane Gottlieb talks deep with us about resilience and loving others. Click to hear podcast

What if someone offered you hard-earned wisdom about life? Would you listen? Jesse Lee Kercheval’s latest collection of poetry, I Want to Tell You: Poems (Pitt Poetry Series) is a gorgeous examination of grief, death, God, silence, place, and dogs. Kercheval’s “voicey voice” (her words) presses us to learn from her mistakes so we can be spared…

THE SPIRITUAL FACT OF OUR ONENESS: A CONVERSATION WITH CHARIF SHANAHAN BY DIANE GOTTLIEB April 3rd, 2023 Charif Shanahan’s second poetry collection, Trace Evidence (Tin House, 2023) is a stunning tryptic that powerfully explores themes of mixed-race identity, time, mortality, and queer love. At the center of the collection is the poem, “On the Overnight from Agadir,” a…

I’d always avoided thrift shops. I never wanted used clothes. I feared absorbing a stranger’s energy. Maybe she was an anxious stranger, or angry, unkind, depressed. Maybe she was dead. I didn’t want to take that chance. Even after I’d laundered the clothing, some part of the past would remain in the weave. https://www.riverteethjournal.com/blog/2023/03/19/river-teeth-issue-preview-242

When the aides on the night shift drift off to sleep, residents jump out of bed. Tiptoe down hallways to the recreation room. First one in hits the lights. Read more

The Best 22-Word Poems Of 2022     ( 1st Prize)   The Only Thing Left was his smell. Buried in his collar, dank, musk after rain. Read more  

How much time do you spend pondering your breath? Maybe a lot if you meditate or practice yoga. Probably quite a bit when your sinuses are clogged or if your respiratory system is compromised. Otherwise though, breath, is not something most people think about very often. It’s automatic. A regular, automatic miracle. Gayle Brandeis’s Drawing…