Bill Caraher |

As I dig back through the NDQ Archives, it’s great to see names that appear both in issues edited by the former editors (especially Bob Lewis) and in those that have appeared over the last five years.

Earlier this week, I was drawn to a poem by Brandon Krieg titled “Domus Aurea” which appeared in 76.4. You can read the poem here.

I was drawn to this stanza stanza in particular.

“He could not keep art separate in his mind,”
was the answer, “everything he touched transformed
to simulation, and many died to make it so.
He was hated. Except for a few descriptions—
terse—his palace is an ellipsis.”

Brandon Krieg’s poems have appeared in 86.3/4 and 88.1/2. In 86.3/4 he published “Stairs” and in 88.1/2 “For C” and “Memento”. These poems reflect a simpler and more incisive style. You can read “Stairs” here and “For C” and “Memento” here.

I particularly appreciate the closing lines of “Stairs”

into the museum of skunk cabbage
pushing up melting rings
through thin poems

~ Bill Caraher is the editor of North Dakota Quarterly. Brandon Krieg is the author of Magnifier and teaches at Kutztown University.