Vagabond City Releases their 14th issue

Vagabond City: a journal of poetry, art and nonfiction for your weird, your emotional and your challenge. Vagabond City releases their 14^th issue. Vagabond City is a journal who lives on the words of young minded people. This issue is exactly full of that!

As I began to sit down to read this issue caulk full of “weirdness” I expected to read works with unique voices. And, I did, I came across the first poem that started the issue with a great buzz. Kiki Nicole’s poem “Notes on Tenderness.” What struck me the most was their gung ho, take no shit, no holds bars verse. The poems undertones and edges seem to reflect Nicole’s fear of being “ugly” on their inside.  At the end of part I  they write “i cut a hole so it can breathe,/dabbed perfume before it had even scabbed over. /i tell them i don’t not know how to turn the Ugly off. “ As though bringing the reader close to Nicole’s heart and barring what’s deep and hidden off for most to see.

The second poem Hannah Cohen’s poem “In my Last Relationship I was a Television” began like thunder begins a rainstorm. “You used to grope weather/ forcasts from my throat” Cohen’s poem then starts to wind down a slippery profound slope explaining to the reader her last and seemingly dreadful relationship. Her somewhat whimsical metaphors are matched with the overall dark tone of the poem.

The third poem I would like to take a look at is “God Gives an Elegy” by Diana Khong. This elegiac expedition is one about contains poetics words that grab the reader by the neck. Khong’s words are profound and meaningful every step of the way. The personal poem is dedicated to a hollowness that surrounds her.

Vagabond’s 14^th issue is well worth a read. The ones I went over are only the tip of the iceberg and a read through would defiantly be worth it.

Nathan Alan Schwartz likes to swim naked in seas of black ink. He is also the Editor in Chief of Five 2 One Magazine.