We’ve made Volume XII, Number 1 (Winter 2019) free to everyone. Poems by Ted Kooser, Marge Piercy, Dan Gerber and many others.
A Free Issue of 3rd Wednesday
Category: Uncategorized
Last Dance
Third Wednesday’s poem of the week is taken from our (just released) fall issue. Little needs to be said about this short poem from Cary Barney of Madrid, Spain.
The Art of Silence
You don’t see many ekphrastic poems inspired by the work of a performance artist, but our Poem of the Week by California poet, Laura Schulkind, is just that.
” I write poetry and fiction because, lawyer that I am, I believe in the power of a well-told story. In law I am entrusted with others’ stories. Through poetry and fiction I tell my own. “
Laura’s chapbook, Lost in Tall Grass (Finishing Line Press), was released 2014 and her newest, The Long Arc of Grief (Finishing Line Press) came out this summer.
The Panhandler and Me
Our poem of the week is by Jude Dippold, one of our favorite poets from Washington State, which is a hotbed of great contemporary poetry. This poem will appear in our fall issue, due out in couple weeks. The issue will feature the winners of our annual flash fiction contest and a cover that’s worth framing.
Amateur Husbandry – Phillip Sterling
Irises – William Snyder
Our Poem of the Week is an ekphrastic piece from William Snyder, a North Dakota poet who has appeared in the pages of 3rd Wednesday a number of times. It’s a preview from our fall issue, which should be out near the end of September.
3rd Wednesday Fall Issue
We’re excited to show you this preview of the cover art for our fall issue due out at the end of September. The cover painting, “Poet Under Pine Tree”, is by Hedy Habra of Kalamazoo, Michigan. A true renaissance woman, Hedy’s poetry has also appeared in our magazine.
Cityscapes – Rebecca Ruth Gould
Traversing the urban geographies of the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe, Cityscapes offers searing and intimate portraits of Damascus, Yerevan, Hyderabad, Delhi, Isfahan, and many other cities through the lens of war, peace, love, and despair. The collection opens with poems about the cosmos, before moving to earthly urban topographies, and concludes in a series of still lives chronicling urban spaces. Gould combines the insight of someone who has resided in the geographies she describes with a poetic gift for generalizing her personal experience. Includes original photography of Palestine (Gaza and the West Bank), India, and Armenia.
Rebecca Ruth Gould is the author of the award-winning monograph Writers & Rebels (Yale University Press, 2016). She has translated many books from Persian and Georgian, including After Tomorrow the Days Disappear: Ghazals and Other Poems of Hasan Sijzi of Delhi (Northwestern University Press, 2016) and The Death of Bagrat Zakharych and other Stories by Vazha-Pshavela (Paper & Ink, 2019). A Pushcart Prize nominee, she was a finalist for the Luminaire Award for Best Poetry (2017) and for Lunch Ticket’s Gabo Prize (2017). This is her first poetry collection.
Published by Alien Buddha Press, Cityscapes is available at 
The Arrest of Mr. Kissy Face – Mitchell Grabois
Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois has had over 1,500 of his poems and fictions appear in literary magazines in the U.S. and abroad. He has been nominated for numerous prizes, and was awarded the 2017 Booranga Writers’ Centre (Australia) Prize for Fiction.
Pski’s Porch Publishing prides itself on promoting passionate, weird, unfashionable poetry, and The Arrest of Mr. Kissy Face is a prime example—far, far away from the MFA poetry mill, and a breath of fresh air.
I kissed the woman who slices lunch meat
at King Sooper’s
She shoved smoked turkey at me
leaned away
and called: Next!
Midwest Medley: Places & People, Wild Things & Weather – Patricia Williams
Patricia Williams planned to write about Chinese art after retiring from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point, as a professor of Design History. Things took a different turn and in 2013 she began writing poetry – proof that it’s never too late to do something new. Life, like poetry, is always subject to revision.
Wisconsin Library Association Outstanding Poetry Book written in 2018.
I’ve read lots of poetry and appreciate a good poet’s careful and often spare use of words. Patricia Williams belongs to that group. In two of my favorites, “The Midwinter Night is Long” and “Magic in Collapsing Stars” much is expressed in a few words about the aspects of being human. I especially like the poignant lines from “Islands” and the great story, vast application and wonderful ending in “There Goes the Neighborhood.” – Jerry Apps, Award-winning author of 35 books on rural history and country life, Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin
Williams’ intimacy with the Midwestern countryside, its souls and circumstances, tumble forth from these well-crafted poems. We sojourn through “the season’s bullying chill” as “gales sweep the lawn clean of needles” and sense the “mortuary stillness” before a twister. In lovely language, her Midwest Medley resonates elegant simplicity and truth. — Nancy Austin, Author of Remnants of Warmth
Patricia Williams’ poems about “the middle of America” virtually glow with the beauty – and many of the irresistible quirks and foibles – that she finds there. Some gleaming freeze-frames of winter are particularly stunning, as in “The long-night moon / shimmers over a glacial setting / polished by winter’s breath”. We’re also treated to Williams’ fresh take on the area’s Great Indoors, where we feel right at home under the antlers and beer signs of the Northland Bar and Grill or crashing a sing-along with Aunt Mae at the player piano. Williams’ guided tour through a part of the country too often bypassed (or flown over) is a poetic experience not to be missed. – Marilyn L. Taylor, Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Emerita
Midwest Medley: Places & People, Wild Things & Weather is available at:
Third Wednesday Magazine 