Presence 2025

CONTENTS

ARTIST’S INTERVIEW                                                                                       

Nick Patten                            on The Old Whaling Church                      10
interviewed by
Susan L. Miller 

FEATURED POET                                                                 

Kate Daniels                           A Note on the Poems                         13

              In the Rooms: Gertrude                     15

                                                Elegy, Many Years Late                      17

                                                Marital Gestures and their Fallout        26

                                                Resurrections                                     27

                                                Serenity                                             28

FEATURED TRANSLATIONS                                                           

Gregory Orfalea                    Reaching for Empathy: Voices
Jeannine M. Pitas                       from the Israeli-Palestinian
Mary Ann B. Miller                    Conflict                                            31

Diti Ronen                            Then There Was a War                       33
trans. by Joanna Chen

Hind Joudah                         No Time for Poetry                            33
trans. by Sharif S. Elmusa

Rita Kogan                            In the Park                                        35
trans. by Zackary Sholem Berger

Diti Ronen                           Headstone                                         36
trans. by Joanna Chen

Pablo Medina                      Witness                                             36

Sarai Shavit                          Instinct                                             37
trans. by Joanna Chen

Mahmoud al-Rimawi         Sweat Beads on Women’s Foreheads   38
trans. by Sharif S. Elmusa

Naomi Shihab Nye             No thirteen ways                                 40

Rita Kogan                           For Anat Inhar and Yehoshua Knaz    40
trans. by Zackary Sholem Berger

Sameer al-Zabin                  from Songs of Gypsies

                                                Road                                                41
Hope                                                41
All That Remains                               42
Weariness                                          42
Still Mine                                          42
trans. by Sharif S. Elmusa

Rita Kogan                            Sailing                                               43
trans. by Zackary Sholem Berger

Agi Mishol                            Cabin at the Forest Edge                    43
trans. by Joanna Chen

Daniel Oppenheim              Drop                                                44

Sharif S. Elmusa                   Mobile Mosque                                  45

Gregory Orfalea                   It Is Hard To Speak                            46

Yonatan Berg                        Amen                                               47
trans. by Joanna Chen

POETRY                                                                                             

Joseph Bathanti                  Coyotes                                            49

Helen Behe                          Tilting Earth                                       50

Aaron Brown                       Ghazal, Borrowed                              51

Betsy K. Brown                    Contrapasso                                         52

Mark S. Burrows            To Know Where You Are                   53

Andrew Calis                        Patron                                              54

Marta Eloy Cichocka            loop 13                                             55
trans. by Karen Kovacik

Julie Ann Cook                     Of Asimov and Eden                         56

Robert Cording                    Tillich                                               57

Sarah Cortez                         O Good and Great God                     58

Susan Cowger                       Tipping Points                                   59

Jim Daniels                            Faith Beside the River                         60

Michael Dechane                  When You Must Change Your Life      61

Daniel Donaghy                    The Language after Loss                     62

Jennifer Hyde Dracos-Tice   After I semi-retire and move
to Florida,                                       64

Alfredo Espino                       The Oriole                                        65
trans. by Maya Venters

Lane Falcon                            At Ronald McDonald House               66

Tom Furlong                           At Poet’s House on West Eighteenth   67

Anne Gerard                           Small Book of Designs                       68

Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo          Minefield                                          69

Jerry Harp                               Vespers                                             70

Ryan Harper                            St. Margaret, Bridgeport                     71

Samuel Hazo                           The Moment                                     72

                                                Last Rights                                        72

Vance P. Hedderel                  Duotone                                           73

Matthew E. Henry                  Job confronts Maggie Smith at a
conference                                      74

Mary Beth Hines                    Cold Storage Beach, December          75

John Hodgen                          Praise                                               76

Juan Ramón Jiménez             The white moon removes the sea        77
trans. by Wally Swist

Richard Bailey Johnson         Dove Hunting with Father                 77

Julie Kane                                White Marigold                                78

Richard Krohn                        Roberto, The Orphan                       79

Justin Lacour                          Out in the world                               80

Jean-Pierre Lemaire               Equipment                                       81
trans. by Margaret Morrison

Maria Lisella                           Cleaning Out Mom’s House               81

V. P. Loggins                            Sunday Morning                               82

Mia Ayumi Malhotra              In the Chapel of St. Calixthus             84

Erica Mapp                              Fritillaries in a Copper Vase               85

Kathleen Markowitz              As It Was Before                              86

James Davis May                    Standing Before the Relic at the
Basilica of the Holy Blood
in Bruges                                       87

Janet McCann                        In a Bar                                            88

Susan L. Miller                       The Third of Week of Ordinary Time 89

Paul J. Pastor                          Whisper in Early Twilight or
A Protestant Prays to the
Mother of God                              90

Brian G. Phipps                       In the Interim                                   91

Richard Pierce                         Budding Branch                               92

Andrea Potos                           To Do, Morning                               93

Eric Potter                                Against Metaphor                             93

Jean-Luc Pouliquen                 We Must Let Childhood                    95
trans. by Ann Cefola

Susanna Rich                            To Rescue Me, Brian,                        96

Whitney Rio-Ross                     Self-Portrait As Alternate Endings     97

Margaret Rozga                         If You Were Here                             98

Celerina Sánchez                      the first tu’un word                            99
trans. by Lori DiPrete Brown

Monica Silva                              Neuroplasticity                                100

Sarah Dickenson Snyder          In Another Dimension                    100

Judith Sornberger                     Outdoor Wedding                          101

Marjorie Stelmach                    Crimes in the Open                         102

Daniel Tobin                             The Snow Globe                            104

Natalia Treviño                         Muy Milagrosa                                105

Ryan P. Tunison                        Love Is Not—                                106 

Wendy Vardaman                      i want to tell them they were
always already                            107

Mirjana Villeneuve                   Walking on the Frozen Swamp         108

Brian Volck                               Cairns                                            109

Leslie Williams                         L’appel du Vide                              110

Eliot Khalil Wilson                   Connections                                    110

Marly Youmans                        Making and the Blackbird                111

Janice Zerfas                             The weather up there must
be changing                                 112

INTERVIEWS                                                                                       

Philip C. Kolin                          Mark S. Burrows on Mysticism and
a Poetics of Faith                         113

Marjorie Maddox                    “[W]hat we see, what we don’t see
and how we come to see”: an
Interview with Author
Laura Reece Hogan                    124

BOOK REVIEWS                                                                               

Sheila O’Connor-Ambrose       Mom in Space
by Lisa Ampleman                      134

Mary B. Moore                          Wonders of the Invisible World
by Claire Bateman                       136

Angela Alaimo O’Donnell       Atlas Sighs: Selected and New Poems
by Alan Berecka                           138

J. D. Graham                            City Nave
by Betsy K. Brown                       140

Elizabeth Harlan-Ferlo          Correspondence with My Greeks
by Scott Cairns                              142

Jane Greer                                The O in the Air
by Maryann Corbett                     145

Nancy Enright                         Hawk & Songbird
by Susan Cowger                          147

Michael P. Murphy                  Selected and New Poems
by John F. Deane                          151

Taylor Franson-Thiel               Bone Country
by Linda Nemec Foster                153

Fr. Peter A. Heasley                 Tobit Detours
by Elisabeth Mehl Greene           155

Rosa Mirna Sánchez               The Liquid Pour in which my
Heart has Run: Poems
by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz
trans. by Rhina P. Espaillat          157

Jeffrey Essmann                     White Terror Black Trauma
by Philip C. Kolin                         160

Melinda D. Papaccio              All Shall Be Well: An Anthology
of New Poems for Julian of Norwich
edited by Sarah Law                     163

Peggy R. Ellsberg                   Contemporary Catholic Poetry:
An Anthology
edited by
April Lindner & Ryan Wilson     166

Michael Dechane                   Hereverent
by Katie Manning                         168

Jana-Lee Germaine                Sea of Broken Mirrors
by Pablo Medina                           170

Peggy R. Ellsberg                    Dear Dante
by Angela Alaimo O’Donnell       172

Tara Propper                           Painting Over the Growth Chart
by Dan Rattelle                              174

Janet McCann                        The Luster of Everything I’m
Already Forgetting
by Nicole Rollender                      176

Linda Mills Woolsey              Ponds
by J. C. Scharl                                178

Richard Pierce                        The Mansions
by Daniel Tobin                            180

Steven Knepper                      Matters for You Alone
by Leslie Williams                        182

Andrew Lustig                        Saint Thomas and the Forbidden
Birds
by James Matthew Wilson        185

Eric Cyr                                   In Ghostlight
by Ryan Wilson                            187

LIFE’S WORK                                                                                     

Lauren D. Woods                  Daniel Berrigan: Poet, Priest,
Protestor                                      190

Heidie Raine Senseman       Brian Doyle (1956-2017)                  199

POETS’ BIOGRAPHIES                                                                 208