This is a poem that begs to be read aloud.

Smokey
Robin-
son 1
Alan Bern

Around
I shopped
She did
Too shop

We paid
And bought
The same
Good gots

Our selves
Did I
Mention
The shelves

So full
Just filled
Up stuff
Fine sale

Bowed down
Both we
Hands held
And strolled

—
Alan Bern is a retired children’s librarian and co-founder with artist/printer Robert Woods of Lines & Faces, illustrated poetry broadside press/publisher. Among his awards: honorable mention for the 14th annual Littoral Press Poetry Prize (2021); finalist in flash fiction for Ekphrastic Sex: The Contest (2021); first runner-up for Raw Art Review’s Mirabai Prize for Poetry (2020); and a medal in 2019 from SouthWest Writers for a WWII story set in Assisi. Recent and upcoming writing and photo work in HAUNTED WATERS PRESS, Aletheia Literary Quarterly, CERASUS, Mediterranean Poetry, Slouching Beast Journal, Feral, and Mercurius. Alan is the author of three books of poetry and performs with dance/choreographer Lucinda Weaver as PACES: dance and poetry fit to the space and with musicians from Composing Together.

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Have you read these poems:
Arches, Utah by Irena Praitis
In Praise of Uncertainty by Joel Savishinsky

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