As the sun assumes its seasonal slump
forecasts of frost revive. Repressed reflections
trail the scatter of autumn leaves, set free.
Anonymous arrays of contorted tumblers,
nomadic as Kansas tumbleweeds,
perennially sown across the landscape.
Synonymous bareback riders of planet Earth
drifting like Dust Bowl migrants
in land of too little or too much.
Swept up in the spirit of let go.
~ Robert Cory
Bio: Born in Missouri, Robert Cory was raised, schooled and has worked in Kansas most of his life. Dependably wearing out shoe leather, tires and ego trips in his quest for Aufklärung. His most recent work has appeared in Kansas Poems & Poets. In addition, The Euonia Review, vox poetica, The Catalonian Review, Poets Against War and The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature have published his work. In March, 2013, his poem Exodus: redux, was awarded first place in the Kansas Writer’s Association free verse competition.
Guest editor Eric McHenry’s new book of poems, Odd Evening, will be published by Waywiser Press in 2016. His previous collections include Potscrubber Lullabies, which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award in 2007, and Mommy Daddy Evan Sage, a children’s book illustrated by Nicholas Garland. He also edited and introduced Peggy of the Flint Hills, a memoir by Zula Bennington Greene. His poems have appeared in The New Republic, Yale Review, Cincinnati Review, Field, Orion, The Guardian (U.K.), Poetry Daily and Poetry Northwest, from whom he received the 2010 Theodore Roethke Prize. Since 2001, he has been a poetry critic for The New York Times Book Review. He lives in Lawrence with his wife and two children and teaches creative writing at Washburn University.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 