Open Poetry

Conversation with
Ellen Bass

Releasing in June, Rattle #40 is our first-ever entirely open issue. With no theme or focus to consider, we simply chose our favorite 42 poems from the tens of thousands that had been submitted to us over the previous six months. One of poetry’s responsibilities is to represent the tenor of the times, and these poems do, covering pop culture and politics, love and lust, truth in beauty, and tragic violence. Jon Sands decodes the Trayvon Martin case, Alison Luterman responds to mass shootings, and Moe Szyslak (of The Simpsons) calls the Listen Lady. In other poems we find canned coats, a lost mermaid, crepe myrtles, and the “ridiculous big” Fried Elvis sandwich. These are poems of horror and humor and heart, with a new story on almost every page.

In the conversations section, Alan Fox discusses poetry and life with the always-vibrant Ellen Bass.

= audio available

	Open Poetry
	Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz	Things That Happen During Pet-Sitting
	Corrina Bain	When the Focus Group Calls …
	Ellen Bass	How I Became Miss America
	Michael Bazzett	The Last Expedition
	Francesca Bell	I Long to Hold the Poetry Editor’s Penis …
		Where We Are Most Tender
	C. Wade Bentley	Storytelling
	Roy Bentley	Ringo Starr Answers Questions …
	Tom Chandler	A Kind of Lincoln
	Bill Christophersen	Hole
	Bruce Cohen	Career-Minded
	Steven Coughlin	Sacred Heart
	Kwame Dawes	Rope
	Kim Dower	Boob Job
	Kelly Fordon	Tell Me When It Starts to Hurt
	Alan Fox	Two Poems
	Chris Green	Christmas Canner
	Mark Hendrickson	Cupcakes
	Tom C. Hunley	Moe Szyslak
	Charlotte Innes	The Ex
	Ann Eichler Kolakowski	Triolet for Laika, First Dog in Space
	S.H. Lohmann	What It Means to Be Taken
	Alison Luterman	When I Heard About the Gunman
	Marie-Elizabeth Mali	Mind Too Much
	Michael Meyerhofer	Virginity
	Matthew Murrey	Box Turtles Fucking
	Alicia Ostriker	Ghazal: Freedom in America
	Julie Price Pinkerton	Why I Opted for the More Expensive …
	Marge Saiser	The Story, Part of It
	Jon Sands	Decoded
	Megan Sexton	In Favor of Union
	Eric Paul Shaffer	The Word-Swallower
	Virginia Smith	[The Age We Live In]
	Jacob Sunderlin	Fried Elvis
	William Trowbridge	Dead End
	Twixt	Untitled
	Wendy Videlock	Merchant Culture
	Timothy Daniel Welch	Bolero
	Mark Williams	Identity Theft
	Yim Tan Wong	Boy Stirring Puddles With a Stick
	Conversation
	Ellen Bass
	Photography
	Doug Brenizer