Brian Swann

2 months ago | commonwealmagazine.org | Brian Swann |Santiago Ramos |Vanessa R. Corcoran |Jonathan Malesic

I found bits of it even when   it maybe wasn’t there like clouds      or shadow. I found it when         I wasn’t even looking or didn’twant it, or it found me when   least expected, but when I tried      to grab, away it squirmed and bit me         hard. How confusing, life! I’ve often begged it to let me go.    I’ll keep quiet, I say. I won’t say      a word. No one will blame you,         no one will know. I’ll hide awayfrom it all. Think I care? it says. So   in silence I wait, going nowhere.

Nov 1, 2023 | commonwealmagazine.org | Brian Swann |Alexander Stern |Susan Reynolds |Xiao Situ

milkweed so it speaks monarchs, and the windsings stones with voices from where there are none,from even before there was anything to give voice,calling in that gull’s shadow angling in then gonesumptuous as this pebble balanced on my palm.

Jul 19, 2023 | commonwealmagazine.org | Brian Swann |Matt McManus |Gary Dorrien |Megan Buskey

The dragonfly hitches up mica wings, one twitch, settles back to watch and wait whiletrout subtle as water vanish in overhanging branches to rise again as vortex, silt-flicksurface rip, wavelets rasping rocks, replying as glass to glass glass through glass,bending light to make a world of whispers I hear as silence counter to itselfin everything that almost gets away.