All Music: Espressivo March ’24 Editor: Vallie Lynn Watson Managing Editor: Abbie Skinner Guest Editor: Karris Rae Assistant Editors: Aiman Tariq, Taryn White, Meilyn Woods Editorial Assistants: Mia Bonds, Alexandria Knight Shawnda McCollum, Rhythm Section, inspired by “Sound of Silence” by Disturbed Letter from the Editor by Vallie Lynn Watson…
Read MoreGwenyth Wheat Gwenyth Wheat is a MFA/MA candidate at McNeese State University. She is the Assistant Poetry Editor for the McNeese Review and a writing tutor for MSU. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Great…
Read MoreThe Music Carries Me Like The Wind Carries My Voice Vallie McGallion, High School Contest Winner __________ As if the sunlight, warm on my skin Seeped below, trickled within I feel the melody within me, visceral Metaphorical, and all the while, literal The beach’s breeze, blowing in my hair Carries…
Read MoreOn Becoming a Country Music Song Jenny Yang Cropp __________ That first night, I traced invisible letters in the shower, water carving their song into my skin. A mother-no-mother girl could have a new mother if only she changed her middle name to Lynn. L – Y – N –…
Read MoreThree Songs Mike Wilson __________ I A bird untucks her head from her wing. measures the spaciousness of sky. Clutching the branch, she feels the tree drinking earth with the beak of its roots. Without thought, she sings I am happy this morning before fighting for food begins. II King’s…
Read MoreThe Circle Game Gerard Sarnat __________ I recall all my being as an isolated youngster, can’t go outside cause of bad ragweed allergies, wrapped by Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives’ mournful sweet croons+twangy twinkly banjo tunes— stuck watching 10” vinyl discs go round and round 78 times per minute…
Read MoreShadows & Jazz Tony O’Dwyer __________ The sound of a clarinet can seduce Even the most careless of hearts As the short pumping kisses of breath, The deft curving of fingers, Transform to hot melting notes. We danced, holding our hands low, The music swaying on our bodies, Twined in…
Read MoreThe Stars—They Shine Just for Us Jill Michelle __________ Mission Impossible was the movie your dad and I watched the Evening before your birth, bars of its theme song, labor’s Anthem: dun, dun, dun, dun, dun-nun, a rhythmic hum beneath Nurse Peggy’s pink-capped reminders to breathe while she Deciphers the…
Read MoreSongs of the Past Amanda Meyer __________ She used to scratch lyrics into her flesh, afraid she’d forget them, the way her brain wears rose-colored glasses when she tries to remember the past. Before that she’d write songs on the thigh of her jeans instead of keeping her eyes on…
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