Issue 3.4

Editorial Introduction

Note: for the best reading experience of ballast, we highly recommend viewing the journal on a desktop or laptop computer. If reading on a smartphone, the original formatting of the texts may be altered or lost.

Jerome Berglund:

  • Three Pieces

Tzotcho Boyajiev (trans. by Tom Phillips):

  • “Elegy”

  • “[and when the cart stops for me, drawn]”

Joel Chace:

  • “Egress glitch”

  • “Egress glitch”

Michael Daley:

  • ”Lowering My Standards”

  • “Crucify Me on Mt. Rushmore”

Geoffrey Detrani:

  • "Upon Expiry”

  • “Profanity’s Weight”

Connor Fisher:

  • “The Contaminated Tongue”

J. Freeborn:

  • “After the Wake”

G Timothy Gordon:

  • “Daliesque”

Vivian Ia:

  • “[camaraderie with the inevitable]”

Jenna Jaco:

  • “That Couple”

Ted Jean:

  • “Ecclesiastes”

David Koehn:

  • “Horse in Field Under Power Lines Quartern”

Jason Labbe:

  • “Dying of Sunsets (or, Anatomy of a Flamethrower)”

  • “Everybody”

Andrew Maxwell:

  • “binding”

  • “nunc dimittis”

  • “mystery”

Jory Mickelson:

  • “[Sometimes a hotel room]”

Pete Miller:

  • “Ethanol”

Matthew Murrey:

  • “E”

  • “L”

Caroline Picker:

  • “Notes on Mothering a Dead Baby”

Meg Pokrass:

  • “The Stranger Likes Soup”

RL Powell:

  • “Polaroids I Didn’t Take Only to Leave in Basque”

Kelly R. Samuels:

  • “Re: Talking of Wallpaper”

Hannah Azar Strauss:

  • “Warner’s Lolly”

Misha Tentser:

  • “Sacred Heart”

Rebecca Valley:

  • “January in the Japanese Garden”

Miharu Yano:

  • “Three Paintings”

  • “Three Paintings; Redux”

Dialogues — two poets in conversation

Hannah Azar Strauss and Rebecca Valley

Joel Chace and Andrew Maxwell

Jory Mickelson and Kelly R. Samuels

Voices — poets reading their own work

Matthew Murrey reading “E” and “L”

David Koehn reading “Horse in Field Under Power Lines Quartern“

Misha Tentser reading “Sacred Heart”

Caroline Picker reading “Notes on Mothering a Dead Baby”

Remarks — critical essays
(on “Modernism” for 3.4)

Editorial

Daniel Barbiero
“André Breton in Exile and on the Margins"

Robert Savino Oventile
“Poetry Ahead: Some Remarks on Hart Crane’s White Buildings”

cover image: Hannah Azar Strauss, "Their circle mouths make the world (for Rebecca)," 2025, wax crayon and graphite, 9x12.