STIRRING
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
Founded in 1999, Stirring is one of the oldest continuously publishing journals on the internet.
Stirring is an electronic quarterly journal.
KIP ZEGERS
"Is it ok if I pray?" Annie asked,
knelt beside our bed, then slept,
small on our floor, as I heard airplanes,
and the Air Force circling us is how that felt.
Days later, the #1 train back to work,
as some wept quietly, the ceiling said,
"This train will not stop at Cortland Street" ...
"for a very long time," a human voice amended,
and a little boy wailed, his mother held a pin,
his palm had a splinter in it.
She worked for several stops, then said,
"Got it," and kissed her boy.
There was actual applause
as another mother held tight to her kids,
and the rest of us sat or stood waiting
then my stop was upon me,
and I climbed to the light
at the mouth of up,
and the unseen downtown smoldering.
Kip Zegers is from Chicago, educated at John Carroll University, Northwestern University. and Union Theological Seminary. He applied for, received Conscientious Objector status, and did alternate service from 1969-71. He then began to work with poetry. He has published four full length volumes and six chapbooks, most recently The Poet of Schools, Dos Madres Press, 2013, The Pond in Room 318, Dos Madres, 2015, and A Room in the House of Time, Dos Madres Press, 2020. He later trained as a teacher at Hunter College (CUNY), and began teaching at Hunter College H. S. a public high school for gifted students, in 1984. Retired in 2017, in 2018 he began working with writers at New York Hospital Community Outreach and SAGE (Service and Advocacy for Gay Elders).
