journal of found poetry and art

UNLOST

remix of a photo by Rafael Garcin (unsplash.com) by D Wisely

#34: the only sign

Susie Meserve | "Sibley's with Erasure" | erasure

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R. Bremner

An erasure of Sylvia Plath's "Mirror"

I am I.
I swallow love.
I am cruel, truthful‚ a little god.
I meditate on the pink.
it is my heart. it flickers darkness.
Now I am a woman. Me.
Searching for what she really is.
liars reflect me.
I am important.
me a young girl, and me an old woman
day after day
terrible.

Source & Method: Erasure of Plath's "Mirror" (1961).

R. Bremner has been writing of incense, peppermints, and the color of time since the 1970s.

Kenneth Boyd

Tears of Blind Lions

Observations from the Outer Edge

Source & Method: The source material is a poem, “The Captives: A Psalm” by Thomas Merton, from the book The Tears of the Blind Lions (New Directions, New York, NY, 1949).

Kenneth Boyd is a poet and jazz musician, recently in Of Poets & Poetry, Wayfarer and Flora Fiction. He won the Royal Palm Literary Award. His book, Grasshopper Dreams, was published in 2023. He’s completing the UCLA Extension Creative Writing Program.

LeeAnn Pickrell

Cento: The only sign
of something said

Beginning with dust and the footprint
there was a way of living in the woods
promise of another Spring and Summer
in the dappled shade of leaves
the calmness of this slow-paced scene
Piano notes are a ladder
that holds the sound of rain

Source & Method: A poet passed along part of her collection of chapbooks. I took all the lines from seven of the chapbooks. From Patricia Dienstfrey, “Membrane”; Kate Pepper, “I was not mistaken”; Jabez W. Churchill, “The Thread”; Chansonette Buck, “Small Song to a Beloved”; Sherry Love Sheehan, “Dennison Lagoon”; Evelyn Leah Belvin, “Ascension”; Fritz Eifrig, “Familiar Dark” and “Ceasura”.

LeeAnn Pickrell's poetry most recently appeared in Unbroken. She is the author of the chapbook Punctuated, published by Bottlecap Press. Her collection Gathering of Pieces of Days is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in April 2025.

Nina Nazir

Deep Maths

Source & Method: Collage, watercolor and gel pen on paper / Text source: Howl, Allen Ginsberg. I love the hybrid space where art meets text and how one informs the other. I usually forage the text first then the drawing / painting / collage comes later. I find that if I stare at the page long enough, the poem will show itself.

Nina Nazir is a British Pakistani poet, writer and artist based in Birmingham, UK. She has been published widely, online and in print. She is also a Room 204 writer with Writing West Midlands. You can find her on Instagram: @nina.s.nazir.

Alexander Limarev

Genesis: postasemic cryptopoem (vers. 125 - 130)

Source & Method: Postasemic collage, mixed media, digital manipulation.

Alexander Limarev is a freelance artist, mail art artist, poet, visual poet, and curator from Russia/Siberia. Participated in more than 1,000 international projects and exhibitions. His artworks are part of private and museum collections in 74 countries. His visual art as well as poetry have been featured in various online publications including Bukowski Erasure Poetry Anthology, Maintenant, New Feathers Anthology, Degenerate Literature, Tuck Magazine, Ephrastic Review, Utsanga, Angry Old Man Magazine, and elsewhere.

Amy G. Smith

Pillars of Heavy Light

Someone I love is dying, which is why
crows strike their bargains with the breeze.
This is the truth: that we begin here––

embracing the ghost gowns of the past,
a fluid holiness
of spirits wrapped around the world.

The woman who left the house this morning
soon will be no more than a passing thought
through the layers of atmosphere.

I find my way by following your spine,
a tender tapping at the skin.
More and more we slip

into the shimmering air
implicit to the movement,
the flowing of the river––

Source & Method: A cento with lines and phrases borrowed from Tracy K. Smith ("Wade in the Water," "New Road Station," "A Man’s World," "Unrest in Baton Rouge," "Driving to Ottawa") June Jordon ("Poem Toward the Bottom Line," "Poem for Nana," "1978," "Newport Jazz Festival: Saratoga Springs" and "Especially about George Benson and everyone who was listening," "Evidently Looking at the Moon Requires a Clean Place to Stand," "Niagara Falls") and Dorianne Laux ("Abschied Symphony," "Piano With Children," "Only As The Day is Long," "Little Magnolia").

Amy G. Smith is a poet living and writing in Northern Nevada. She is currently pursuing her MFA degree in poetry through the low-residency program at the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe.

Susie Meserve

Sibley's, with Erasure

Occasionally you will find reflected light:

terns flying over green or blue water,

the light-colored edges of a silhouette,

a burst of wingbeats. Study the movement:

Starlings land heavily,

the shearwater performs a distinctive arcing.

The expert is one who knows

what constitutes a trill, the hoarse or burry

quality some refer to as begging.

Know the median throat stripe, the orbital

eye ring, the lores, the auriculars.

They can provide useful clues,

even at tremendous distance.

Source & Method: Erasure from The Sibley Guide to Birds.

Susie Meserve is a poet, novelist, educator, and creative coach living in northern California.

Allen O'Leary

Man must move

Source & Method: My game is that I take all pictures, words and the title from just one book, usually found in a charity shop. I make a zine, or rearrange to make a single work. I find myself using books that could have been from my own childhood and make an entertaining but critical work that engages with my personal feelings of nostalgia and the overt sexism of the time. The source material for this work is Man Must Move: The Story of Transport by Laurie Lee and David Lambert (Rathbone Books London, 1960).

Allen O'Leary, originally from NZ/Aotearoa, is a long-term resident of London, UK. Primarily a playwright, he has recently rediscovered a love for poetry and likes working with found and 'unpoetic' texts. He also writes and performs music and spoken word.

Jan Chronister

When the Sun Threatened Not to Rise (a cento)

I shiver at the thought of my own petty guilt
that goes unseen and unknown,
take a deep breath, reach into the icy caverns
of my mind to thaw out a fond memory.

In the dream I want to ask my father
what it feels like to take your last breath,
a drama so compelling we are called
to step off the path frosted by haloed visions,
snake shadows and diamond-ring splendors
of this spinning earth. At night

his head supports the starry sky,
folded wingtip feathers touch, having
embraced the veiny margins of the aching world.
The spirit spins with a greater light,
despite heavier loads. The sky

could open its mouth
consume me for lunch.
I breathe in and out, letting
precious air carry me. It is
a lovely and mortal thing.

Source & Method: Gary Jones (title), Liz Rhodebeck, Diana Randolph, Joan Johannes, Guy Thorvaldsen, Lucy Tyrrell, Sandra Lindow, Cristina Norcross, Georgia Ressmeyer, Katy Phillips, Jeff Johannes (Ariel Anthology, 2015-2017).

Jan Chronister splits her year between northern Wisconsin and South Georgia. Both homes are sites of intense gardening and writing. Jan has authored three full-length poetry collections and ten chapbooks.

Mark Hendrickson

Picture the Universe

vast collection of
rubbish. The world

ridiculous
this flaw
generally accepted

in accordance
with Scripture and hell

ad hoc
repugnant
apocryphal

repulsive
avoiding conclusion
the universe itself
could
question God

The Nearest Thing to a Straight Path

Bodies are
not made to move on

they follow the nearest
thing to a straight path in a curved space
a geodesic

a great circle

its shadow

elongated

the star
blocked out

Source & Method: Erasures: Stephen Hawking, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time: Updated and Expanded Edition (Bantom, 1996).

Mark Hendrickson is a poet and writer who worked for many years as a mental health technician in a locked psychiatric ward.

Sarah Cheshire

United Healthcare Student Resources

Has Your Best Interests at Heart*

*Exclusions and Limitations

No benefit will be paid for: poeakuroiaehreaoiw;krljeawoi;klrjealwkmn,sdvkjarfdm,bv.

Biofeedback.

Circumcision.

are otherwise payable under the Policy. The pa changed or improved physical

appearance.

Care provided in: rest homes, health resorts, homes for the aged, halfway hou. for

domiciliary or Custodial Care.

· Extended care in treatment or substance abuse facilities for domiciliary or Custodial Care.

Dental treatment, except:

· For accidental Injury to Sound, Natural Teeth.

· As specifically provided in the Schedule of Benefits.
This exclusion does not apply to benefits specifically provided in Pediatric Dental Services.Surgery or Elective Treatment.

Elective abortion.

Flight in any kind of aircraft, except while riding as a passenger on a regularly scheduled flight.

Health.. spa or similar facilities. Strengthening programs.

Hearing examinations. Hearing aids. Other treatment for hearing defects and hearing loss. "Hearing defects" means any physical defect of the ear which does or can impair normal hearing, apart from the disease process. This exclusion does not apply to:

· Hearing defects or hearing loss as a result of an infection or Injury.

Hirsutism. Alopecia.

Hypnosis.

Injury or Sickness for which benefits are paid or payable under any Workers' sustained while:

Participating in any intercollegiate or professional sport, contest or competition.

Traveling to or from such sport, contest or competition as a participant.

· Participating in any practice or conditioning program for such sport, contest or competition.

Investigational services.

Lipectomy.

Outpatient Physiotherapy; except when referred by the Student Health Center.

Participation in a riot or civil disorder. Commission of or attempt to commit a felony.

· Therapeutic devices or appliances, including: hypodermic needles, syringes, support garments and other non- medical substances, regardless of intended use, except as specifically provided in the Policy.

· Immunization agents, except as specifically provided in the Policy.

Drugs labeled, “Caution” - limited by federal law to investigational use” or experimental drugs.

· Products used for cosmetic purposes.

· Drugs used to treat or cure baldness. Anabolic steroids used for body building.

· Genetic counseling and genetic testing. Cryopreservation of reproductive materials. Storage of reproductive . Fertility tests.

Infertility treatment (male or female), including any services or supplies rendered for the purpose

intent of inducing conception, except to diagnose or trt the underlying cause of the infertility.

· Premarital examinations.

Impotence, organic or otherwise.

Female sterilization procedures, except as specifically provided in the Policy.

· Vasectomy.

Skydiving. Parachuting. Hang gliding. Glider flying. Parasailing. Sail planing. Bungee jumping.

Skeletal irregularities of one or both jaws including orthognathia and mandibular retrognathia.

Surgical breast reduction, breast augmentation, breast implants or breast prosthetic devices, or

War or any act of war, declared or undeclared

xxxx

Source & Method: An erasure poem of my old United Healthcare student resources "benefits" manual, which I composed in 2020 in a fit of rage after being denied coverage for treatment debilitating nerve pain caused by undiagnosed endometriosis.

Sarah Cheshire teaches English at the University of Alabama. Sometimes she also writes things.

Jennifer Mills Kerr

Abandoned Here

Everyone’s gone. Car lights
goldspinning the canyon floor,
burning, disappearing. Here,
in my mother’s chair on the front
porch, our dark lives. Ribbons,
tied, untied. This hollow house,
rented, dirty. Here, cricket eulogies
sizing the dark, fretting like
spiders’ secret alphabet. No trace
of passing changes, star-brilliance,
a showering void.

Source & Method: By discovering a wonderful anthology in my local library, I gathered three poems I'd never read. I had to let them soak, rereading each a dozen times before I began. Since I’d chosen three different poets, I was more challenged — usually, I use two poets/writers in writing found poetry. Consequently, creating this poem took more time. I had to mix three distinct voices to form cohesion as well as compress text into a short poem.

Sources: Charles Wright, "Sitting at Night on the Front Porch"; Nancy Willard, "Angels in Winter"; Dave Smith, "August on the Rented Farm."
From The Columbia Anthology of American Poetry, Jay Parini, Editor.
(Columbia University Press. 1995).

Jennifer Mills Kerr is an educator, poet, and writer who lives in Northern California. She has work upcoming in The Inflectionist Review. You can connect with Jennifer through her Substack newsletter, Poetry Inspired.

Luisa M. Giulianetti

Lament at the Late Night Diner

Come back lover, come back to the five and dime.
I’ve got a bone to pick. You left me

under the Druid moon. Forsaken at three a.m.
with my craving for the night’s mass-produced romance.

That dog-eared story where every angle is exquisite.
Sitting here, watching the neon burn out—

some nightlong nameless urgency. Hugging a sleeping
jukebox, the names of the tunes gone dark

dropping like a ball of sugar into a cup of black coffee.
In the prodigal smell of biscuits

my plate's gleaming, teeming emptiness. Come back.
We wove ourselves marvelous, buttered with light.

In one night, we could dream back everything lost.

Source & Method: I read a poem each morning upon waking. A cento comprised of lines from the following morning poems: Ellen Bass, "How to Apologize"; Rita Dove, "Dawn Revisited"; Edward Hirsch, "The Task"; Ted Kooser, "A New Potato"; Yusef Komunyakaa, "Camouflaging in Chimera"; Dorothea Lasky, "Red Rum"; Ada Límon, "Lover"; Joseph Millar, "One Day"; Naomi Shihab Nye, "Hugging the Jukebox"; Patricia Smith, "The Sun, Mad Envious, Just Wants the Moon"; Quincy Troupe, "The Shot Christian Woman, Sitting Down to Breakfast Alone."

Luisa M. Giulianetti is a Bay Area writer. Her debut book, Agrodolce, (Bordighera Press) was released last fall. Luisa teaches and directs programs at UC Berkeley. She enjoys cooking, hiking, and exploring the expansive beauty of the place she calls home.

Carla Sarett

My Dickens Year

Fog in the eyes and throats.
The ooze of a long vacation
behind dingy blind curtains.
A scarecrow of a project. Rabbits
with self-betraying tails.

A joke.

Unhealthy for want of air,
I was the girl who wrapped
the dear old doll
in her own shawl and quietly laid her
in the garden-earth.

I was the little mad old woman
in a squeezed bonnet.
When all was still, at a late hour,
I came weeping.
I had given birds their liberty.

Ships brightened and shadowed
and changed. I took pleasure in the unknown objects
around me in my sleep, faintly discernible
in the mist. The colors of the furniture.
My odd ways everywhere.

I was the mistress of Bleak House.
I was the happiest of happy.

Source & Method: During a workshop, I was asked to write about one of my muses, and Dickens immediately sprung to mind — Bleak House is one of my favorite novels, and got me through a difficult year in my life. I recalled many of the lines I use here (I think Dickens is among the most poetic of writers) — and I easily found them in the novel. A few words have been inserted to clarify meaning — and I have tried to make this my voice, using Dickens’s words.

Carla Sarett writes poetry, fiction, and, occasionally, essays; and has been nominated for the Pushcart, Best Microfictions, Best American Essays, and Best of Net. She has published one full-length collection, She Has Visions (Main Street Rag, 2022), and two chapbooks. Recent poems appear in Potomac Review, Stonecoast Review, Harpy Hybrid, New Verse Review, and Pictura. Carla has a PhD from University of Pennsylvania and is based in San Francisco.

Callie B. Dean

Six Ways to Watch an Eclipse

I.

The purple martins all went to roost.
A neighbor's roosters
began crowing and
coyotes yipped.

I swear every dog there
HOWLED like wolves.
Bizarre.

II.

I stood on State Line—
one foot in TX,
one foot in AR.

Everywhere it looked like dawn was breaking.
Like dusk, but strange.
A not-quite night—
like just before dawn
or just after sunset.

An eerie glow
as if it were about to rain.
An anticipation of something
to come, similar
to the stroke of midnight
on December 31.

III.

Everybody went crazy
when it happened—
cheering, gasping, crying,
connected in awe.

My six-year-old
turned to me
and said, Never
forget this moment!

IV.

After the initial burst of excitement,
it got calm.
Contemplative.
Reverent.

Soaking it in,
I was
struck by the
interconnectedness
of all things,
knowing
my small
part is still
part of the Universe,
thinking about
itself.

V.

It was all over so quickly.
The sliver of sun returned:
instant night to day.

I kept thinking about the largeness
of our solar system,
the omnipotence
of our creator—
magic on a magnitude
millions of times
greater than the size of me.

VI.

It's one thing
to see animations
and textbooks of our solar system.

But it's something else
entirely
to stand
in its literal shadow.

Source and Method: After the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, I collected stories and photographs from people who had been in the path of totality. (See all responses at bit.ly/totalityphotomap.) I then engaged in a process of poetic inquiry to analyze and present the data (described by Camea Davis at https://www.creative-generation.org/blogs/poetic-inquiry-as-a-research-process), crafting poems that reflected common participant experiences.

Callie B. Dean’s poetry and essays have appeared in Unbroken, Coffee + Crumbs, JMWW, and Five Minutes. Her first picture book, Marvelous Mistakes, will launch in 2026. Find her online at calliebdean.com.

Jenn Monroe

Imagine

I couldn't argue with

a good reputation

Couldn't

ask what

rumors
you heard

We

wasted an entire day

at a waffle house

naked

sipped tea

and

watched all of it.

Spooked

A girl can be too careful
bored
checking every
affliction. She
could
matter.
She could
be alone
in
desire.

Source & Method: Erasures. Source: John Grisham. The Whistler (Doubleday, 2016).

Jenn Monroe writes, runs, and loves in the wilds of New Hampshire.

Dale Patterson

Source & Method: I have used Flannery O’Connor’s book, Wise Blood, as source material for my erasure poem. The digital collages they are built into are created with found photos and textures.

Dale Patterson is a retired educator who spends his time creating visual art and writing poetry. His work has appeared in numerous online and print publications.

Unlost is edited by Dale Wisely, Ken Chau, Howie Good, and Tom Fugalli. Roo Black is founding editor emeritus. Our staff deuterolinguist / orthodontist is the Reverend Doctor Burnell Pearl III, C.P.A.

Our thanks to the contributors to this issue and all who submitted their work.

The editors of Unlost and all the Ambidextrous Bloodhound Press journals encourage you to stay alive. You are needed.