Passport Journal Poets 2007


POETRY by Charles P. Ries, Poetry Editor
	Charles P. Ries: Book Review-Near Occasions of Sin by Louis McKee. Charles P. Ries lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His narrative poems, short stories, interviews and poetry reviews have appeared in over one hundred and twenty print and electronic publications. He has received three Pushcart Prize nominations for his writing and most recently read his poetry on National Public Radio's Theme and Variations, a program that is broadcast over seventy NPR affiliates. He is the author of THE FATHERS WE FIND, a novel based on memory. Ries is also the author of five books of poetry - the most recent entitled, The Last Time which was released by The Moon Press in Tucson, Arizona. He is the poetry editor for Word Riot (www.wordriot.org) and on the board of the Woodland Pattern Bookstore in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Most recently he has been appointed to the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission. You may find additional samples of his work by going to: http://www.literarti.net/Ries/ He is Poetry Editor for Passport Journal. You may write to him at charlesr@execpc.com
	Cunningham, a strange freak improvising upon an old IBM typewriter, prefers leathery Bordeaux wines, mid-sixties Miles Davis and sleeping past noon whenever possible. he's published seven books of poetry including Thru the Heart of This Animal Life, A Measure of Impossible Humor (Liquid Paper Press; 2005) , And Still The Night Left To Go: Poems & Letters (Bottle of Smoke Press; 2006) and Flowers In The Shadow Of The Storm (Sunnyoutside, 2007), as well as hundreds of poems throughout the small and large press. Cunningham lives with is girlfriend of sixteen years and his dog of one year in a dusty suburban compound outside of Atlanta, Ga. He can be reached at www.savageheavens.blogspot.com.
	Brian Morrisey the publisher of Poesy, a quarterly American poetry journal, and the author of two chaps, "Love Poems for the Wicked" (2007, Zeitgeist Press) and "Slow Drink" (2003, Magenta Press) Hosts the Wired Wash Café Open Mic Friday nights in Santa Cruz, CA where he resides as a marathon runner, a pimp, and gets paid for looking at shiny glass.
	Ralph Murre-Send a biographical note, they say, but my biographer is on an extended hiatus, so I suppose I’ll write an autobiographical note, which is likely to be filled with half-truths, wishful thinking and outright lies. It seems clear that I live near Jacksonport, Wisconsin, because the bills keep coming here, and that I was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin in 1944, because there’s a document to that effect. Beyond that it gets a bit fuzzy – there was some city life, some farm life, an untold number of jobs in 27 job descriptions, two of them requiring professional licenses. There was messing about in boats. Motorcycles. Bicycles. Two marriages. Two kids. Four grandkids. And, there was messing about in books. A little dreaming. A little writing. A couple of poems I’ve liked. And always, there is the wind and the woods and the water.
	The poet Spiel was born out west to decent white farmers the same year the U.S. entered WWII. From day one, he claims, he was a maverick, a creative force, gay and genetically predisposed to mental illness. As a child, he earned extra money painting pictures. Then, as he matured, his art evolved through his many intellectual and professional lifestyle changes, eventually leading him to a position of considerable national exposure. But in 1996, a traumatic life/death illness brought his career to an abrupt halt. Following that confrontation, Spiel became reticent: recognizing that he was not going to die; and for the first time in his life, uncreative-until the spring of 1999-when he found an urge to write a long-forgotten childhood story. Once his fingers hit the keyboard, his pathway opened to becoming the Pushcart Prize nominated, devoted artist we now know for his often iconoclastic poems, his curiously human short stories, and curious bits of visual art, published in scores of independent press journals (on and offline) such as: Abbey, Barbaric Yawp, Bathtub Gin, Chiron Review, Free Verse, Parting Gifts, Presa, Skidrow Penthouse, Slipstream, Unlikely Stories & Zygote in My Coffee. Among Spiel's chapbooks are: "Insufferable Zipper," published by FourSep Publications; "church floor," by Chiron Review Press; "it breathes on its own," and "come here cowboy: poems of war," by Pudding House Publications. A revealing 2007 interview with Spiel may be found online at: The League of Laboring Poets. Spiel 89 W. Linden Ave Pueblo West CO 81007 719 647 1517 spielspeak@earthlink.net
	Mark Wisniewski is the author of the novel CONFESSIONS OF A POLISH USED CAR SALESMAN. His book of poems ONE OF US ONE NIGHT, winner of the 2006 Evil Genius Chap Series, was published recently by Platonic 3Way Press. His work has appeared in more than 200 magazines including THE MISSOURI REVIEW, VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW, NERVE COWBOY, POETRY, BOULEVARD, POETRY INTERNATIONAL, THE DIRTY GOAT, THE HOLLINS CRITIC, and THE SUN, and he's won a Pushcart Prize, the 2006 Tobias Wolff Award, and a 2006 Isherwood Foundation Fellowship.
Return to Passport Journal cover