Literal Latte: A Journal of Prose, Poetry and Art

     The poetry journal that I chose to read from is Literal Latte (http://www.literal-latte.com/). Literal Latte debuted in 1994 in New York to bring "mind-stimulating stories, essays and poems" to the people of the city. Literal Latte states that their mission is finding and nurturing new writers and helping their careers flourish in a world where it's become increasingly harder for new writers to get a leg up in the traditional publishing world.
     Literal Latte has various contests for its writers, one of the more recent ones being their Food Verse Contest. One of the winning poems was Toothache by Jack Miller. His poem talks about driving in the winter and the sugary, candy-like imagery in the landscape:
"By daylight the car was glazed, dipped in molten sugar and set back down to harden."
"I passed so many cars that had spun out, wedged in dirty snowbanks like glacé cherries in nougat."
"The night you arrive, we share the king bed, the sheets smooth like wedding buttercream bleached unnaturally bleached"
     At the end of each poem, Literal Latte puts in a summary about the author and summarizes their other accomplishments and works. They also link to their profile page on the Literal Latte website and other sites, allowing for more publicity to the author, helping unknown authors widen their audience in a way that otherwise would be nearly impossible.
      Another poet, Susan Cohen, talks about Felix Baumgartner's 23 mile free fall to earth in her poem Freefall. She doesn't state this outright, but from the title and many lines the reader is able to pick up that this is a prominent free fall:
"He plans to plummet from the edge of space".
"...first man, Adam of the stratosphere, Icarus come back to report from the sun's proximity."
     She has many beautiful, highly visual lines, one of my favorites being, "To think: God must see me now that I'm a cinder in his eye." This line by itself discusses the dilemma of humans wanting to be noticed by God, to be acknowledged, like a child acting out to get it's parents' attention.
     Another part of this poem that really struck me was the final few lines, personifying the earth: "New Mexico rushes up to ask him why he didn't find the ordinary plunge from birth to death terrifying enough." This "kerchunk" moment makes the reader reflect on what it means to take risks in life and how this adds to the already inherently terrifying nature of life and death.
     A third poem I enjoyed was The Last Sister by Tracy DeBrincat, talking about memories and the past. The first line immediately draws in the reader: "This is the trouble with visiting the past: you're not invited." DeBrincat personifies the past, writing, "The past prefers to be left alone, knitting sweaters from cobwebs." She goes on to describe a room filled with memories that have been "knitted" and "sewn" by the past. She sums up the poem reminding the reader to look forward and press on into the unknown, despite the desire to remain dwelling on the past.
     Literal Latte helps both its writers and its readers. It exposes readers to poems, poets, essay writers and artists that they otherwise may have never encountered on their own. Similarly, it gives publicity and attention to its writers that otherwise would struggle to get published in the modern publishing industry. It also goes against the grain of more political or scientific journals and emphasizes the importance of fiction and artistic writing. In addition, but being completely published online, it opens up a whole new world of writing to not just New Yorkers, but the whole world.