 Arlington Literary Journal an ejournal also known as ArLiJo, is located in Arlington, Virginia and is sponsored by Gival Press. The intent of ArLiJo is to feature a variety of authors/poets/artists from around the globe whose work provokes readers to contemplate issues, etc. The work chosen promotes understanding and sensitivity across borders, even if initially the work may cause one to take a double-take. Staff: Editor-in-Chief, Robert L. Giron Associate Editor, Sarah Fannon ArLiJo has reverted to a publication by invitation only. Any work published shall remain the property of the author/poet/artist and for any previously published work to appear the author/poet/artist must still retain the copyright of the work. Please note that ArLiJo is an ejournal. Payment for publication is a book from a selection of books published by Gival Press. |
Mary Ann Larkin Featured on ArLiJo This Is a Song This is a song of grief for the red wet boy who didn’t come screaming out of my womb to light, for the red-haired daughter who doesn’t sulk dreaming by the plums above the sea. This is a song of grief for my belly that never swelled taut as a blue-veined drum, for the wild ripe man with his poems of air who came too late with his quick thick seed.— from That Deep & Steady Hum by Mary Ann Larkin (2010, Broadkill River Press). Reprinted by permission. Copyright © 2010 by Mary Ann Larkin. Immigrant Daughter's Song Gone, the silver-green silk of time winding down centuries of custom and kinship, the pouring of the sea, the stars on the slate of night, the moon stamping the spire of the church on the sand. Time itself changed to a ticking, a dot on a line. Customs of grace and gentleness gone name-saying and knowing who begat whom and when and where and who could work and who could sing and who would pray and who would not and where the fish ran and the wild plums hid and how the old mothers fit babies’ hands to the five-flowered hollows of blue ladyfingers, and whose father fought whose with golden swords a thousand years ago at Ballyferriter on the strand below the church. Gone from a silken spool unwinding to rooms of relics and loss behind whose locked doors I dream, not daring to wake. from That Deep & Steady Hum by Mary Ann Larkin (2010, Broadkill River Press). Reprinted by permission. Copyright © 2010 by Mary Ann Larkin. Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo In a silence strong as water, Las Madres de Plaza hold aloft photos of their children for all to see, the way mothers do at parties. What could be more natural? Juan Pablo Ramirez, age 22, missing 6-11-77; Ada Estabar, age 17, missing 2-10-79. Pedro, Estela, Salvador. These mothers have coupled with death and nothing prevails against them, not the years, the evil of their own kind, nor the memories, waiting always to dissolve them, of those tender unshriven bodies. Birthing a huge implacable animal, Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo circle the square. from That Deep & Steady Hum by Mary Ann Larkin (2010, Broadkill River Press). Reprinted by permission. Copyright © 2010 by Mary Ann Larkin. Biography: Mary Ann Larkin is the author of five chapbooks of poetry: The Coil of the Skin, White Clapboard, The DNA of the Heart, A Shimmering That Goes With Us, and gods & flesh. Her poetry has appeared in Poetry Ireland Review, New Letters, and Poetry Greece, among many others, including several anthologies (American in Poetry / Ireland in Poetry). In the 1970s, she co-founded Big Mama Poetry Troupe in Cleveland, Ohio, which went on to perform in Chicago to New York. With her husband, Patric Pepper, she co-founded Pond Road Press. She lives in Washington, DC and North Truro, Massachusetts. |
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