Issue > Poetry

John L. Stanizzi

John L. Stanizzi’s collections are Ecstasy Among Ghosts, Sleepwalking, Dance Against the Wall, After the Bell and Hallelujah Time! He’s had poems in Prairie Schooner, American Life in Poetry, New York Quarterly, Tar River, Rattle and many others. John has read at venues throughout the northeast, and he teaches literature at Manchester Community College in Connecticut. He lives in Coventry with his wife, Carol.

Whisky Sonnets

not humility
or rest
or a warm coat
not promises
not anger
nothing will change this
not now
it's 8 degrees
both bottles
are empty
it would be simpler
to tell you
what doesn't hurt
waiting

*

how inevitable
disappointment
the mountain
of years
grief on
every peak
no strength
to stave it off
in the morning
in the morning
everything
will be
all right
how long that excuse

*

bless the handful
of readers
bless them
and bless the shed skin
its ashes
by the door
and the storm ceaselessly
menacing the hills
tonight I won't sleep
I'll think all night
I'll get up early
work all day
make something
true of me