Cavalier Literary Couture

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Featuring new interviews with an open-source photographer and a Bollywood dance choreographer, plus a stirring look into the darker side of Nathanial West’s Depression-era fiction.

In Irwindale by Aaron Belz

"Are we in Irwindale, Shonda? I’m gambling not, though you might beg to differ—you beg often enough...."

An Assortment of Haikus by Christopher Willard

A sampling of off-beat and irreverant Haikus, including:

"The granddad would curse
the hirsute miss, daily, still
bearded at his hearse."

"Thankfully your dress
Is the epitome of
inadequateness."

Anthropopathy, by Jacob Rakovan

"...In the dark, the bed sighs and moans,
the pillows slip from their cases
like the heads of hostages
and while she sleeps
the moon and I
stare at each other."

Three Short Stories by Steven Miller

"If it does not slacken soon, I shall be crazier than a rat in a shit house. I shall have bats in my belfry, be as nutty as a fruitcake, as mad as a morbidly obese woman at a salad bar, be pushing my bed-slippers across the gritty linoleum of Wonderland, tinkered in my thinkered, bothered in my nothered, the local chairman of your third party branch, the life coach of Kanye West...in other words, I shall be hitherto unwell in my head." (An except from the short story "One Week.")

Family of Stars

"When the sky is
no longer just sky, the buffeted debris of wind and light,
sucking black holes
and colliding galaxies, and we are ready to improvise ragged visions
on the bottomless up
we stare into, the endless tales tongued by clouds,
half seen, hardly seen,
much less heard, quickly scudding toward a weathered dissolution,
hail and pounding deluge,
a preparation for yet another resurrection beyond stone worship
and memory."
So Walter Bargen, author of some 13 books of poetry, begins his celestial poem "Family of Stars;" this is the poem for anyone who has ever wanted to see the spirit of Van Gogh's "Starry Night" rendered in verse.

Hansel and Gretel Enjoy a Beer

Timothy Kercher is a contemporary poet of Eastern European origin, and it shows in his suprising take on the classic Grimm tale. "What sound do beers clinking in a forest make when no one’s around?" Read the poem to find out.

Laustic, a classic medival tale told in a not-so-classic format.

CLC's own Yoon.Ji KIm continues her series of graphic renditions of classic poetry with Marie de France's narrative poem of courtly love, 'Laustic.'

Edgar Allan Poe Comics!

What happens when the words of 19th century melancholia meets the preferred medium of 20th century escapism? 21st century art. Check out Yoon.Ji Kim's art-deco rendition of a Poe classic.

At Crate & Barrel

In "A Supermarket in California" Allen Ginsberg insured we would never look at grocery store cucumbers the same way again; now renowned poet Pui Ying Wong revives the poetic shopping experience, with a multicultural flair.

The Play of Clocks

Salvidor Dali may have mutilated clocks, but Francine Rubin chooses instead to coronate one. Beautiful bunnies, six horses and King Pisces join in the timeless poetic ritual.

Demotivational Speaker

Demotivational Speaker Murph Murphy Addresses the Cast of the Henry David Thoreau Middle School Production of "West Side Story."