Archives

Spring Issue: Rediscovery

Welcome to the Spring Issue of Poor Yorick Journal! We are delighted to share a selection of wonderf…

Valentine’s Mini-Issue: “After Julian” by Christie Cochrell

    After Julianby Christie Cochrell     When Julian’s ashes had been strewn in his family&#82…

Three Poems by James B. Nicola

Tetradic Sequence from Below and Above, Before and After blocked ears, closed minds, rage;wisdom fal…

November Double Feature!

Hello from Poor Yorick! And welcome to our November Double Feature. This month we are highlighting t…

Announcements from Poor Yorick

  Hello from Poor Yorick! A couple of announcements from our editorial team:  Our submissions are cu…

Photo of a concrete wall with a hole in it revealing a red brick wall beneath
Two Poems By Jason Thornberry

Black and white photo of a surgical mask discarded in the grass
The Poet’s Mask, a Poor Yorick Special Issue

  Editor’s Note     The theme for this special issue emerged from multiple sour…

December Mini Issue

Editor’s Note:  Occasionally while going through submissions, we come across works that j…

Three Poems by C.A. Shoultz

The Ruins Along the mountain pass I made my way, Beneath the razor edges of the hills, Below the pea…

Silhouettes of people in a cave
Shadows Long and Shadows Short by Jeremy Gadd

Shadows do not own their shape but rely on that of their origin— whether alive or inanimate stone— a…

Photo of an antique bathtub in front of a bright window with plants growing out of it
Lead: Three Poems by Jessica Martin

Our golden apparitions decay and leave the poisonous lead behind

Silhouette of a woman with a train of lanterns behind her walking into the sunset
Tell Them (the song all of me sings) by Meghan K. Strapec

I’ll alight on this wing, my own song to sing, til darkness makes its call

Silhouetted human standing alone looking up at the night's sky lit by an unimaginable number of stars
Space Signals by Mackenzie Hurlbert

He was a quiet man, with a quiet life in small town Middlebrook, Pennsylvania. He could count on two…

Photo of a sign that reads "closed" in a classy script font with warm lights in the background.
Submissions Closing May 1-September 1

Poor Yorick will be closed to new submissions between May 1 and September 1.

Skull with a heart on the forehead on a stack of books.
Remembering Yorick by Elizabeth Sylvia

Often, at home, I unpinned Yorick’s bells and put them on myself, taking a bit of laughter’s weight,…

Painting of Jake the Dog from Adventure Time standing triumphantly in front of some mountains.
Bacon Pancakes by Mercury-Marvin Sunderland

They may not be French onion soup or chicken parmesan or banana bread, but I’m going to enjoy my bac…

Black and white low angle shot of a ship mast.
“From the Found Journal of Captain Miles Standish” by Richard LeBlond

A fictional reenactment of the pilgrims’ first day ashore in the New World, on what is now the Provi…

Close-up of illustration of the U.S. Capitol building as printed on the back of the $50 bill
“Words Matter” by Ellen O’Donnell

When history unfolds before our eyes, someone captures in words what our emotions cannot articulate.…

Red carnation next to Vietnam Memorial
“I Don’t Know Anyone in the War” by Karen Schubert

Walter Cronkite ends the news with the number of American & Viet Cong dead, so older girls in bell b…

Woman in black gloves making handprints on a wall in black paint
Two Poems by R. S. Mengert

The Assistant Vice-President of Student-Teacher Adversity examined your contents, looked for abnor…

Monochrome photo of person standing in a hallway
Two Poems by Darren Demaree

I tend to see horses on the second floor of this new house, which we bought with money that wasn’t o…

Submissions Closed: The Poet’s Mask

Announcing our latest call for submissions in honor of National Poetry Month

Four Poems by Elle Shim

The Moving Man Said This house is haunted, and then he sat down my couch.He said it casually, like a…

Three Poems by Tim Suermondt

King Sing Street No king has ever walked the streetor sung there, but it does seem regal,nestled in …

“Windowsill” by Carrie Jewell

Out of one window you can see a whole pasture, waving, the name of which I’m not sure I ever knew.

Hallow’s Eve Horror: a Poor Yorick Special Publication

Our special issue celebrating the spooky, creepy, and downright horrifying.

“Stetson” by Rikki Santer

They say Custer died in his cattleman-creased Stetson. My Annie Oakley knock-off from the local K-ma…

Uncovering My Grandfather’s Past by Michaela Lawlor

As I begin my second semester of the MFA program at Western Connecticut State University, I am excit…

“The Distance Between Two Points” by Ken Post

I always wondered where the expression “as the crow flies” originated. A crow does a lot…

“Ode to a Lawn Sprinkler in Contoocook, New Hampshire” by Suellen Wedmore

I believe in permanence,your brass head whirlingdroplets into the seared August air,without complain…

“Beauty, Prayer, and the Sticky Image: My iPhone Practice” by Randall VanderMey

My hand slides into my left front pocket, reaching for my iPhone. It’s not blind reflex or mechanica…

Now Accepting Submissions: Hallow’s Eve Horror, a Poor Yorick Special Publication

Show us your best flash fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or photo essays that will make our hearts poun…

“An Eternal Light” by Mara Fein

Loss can be a terrible thing, but not always. In some cases, “gone” is good. After all, absence make…

In the Time of Corona: a Poor Yorick Special Publication

In May, we invited the writing community to contribute to this special issue addressing the chaos, i…

“Inventory” by Claire Van Winkle

one yard of faded pale hair, braided; (tied off with a bow— stored inside the next-to-bottom drawe…

“This Piece Just Didn’t Grab Me:” Reflections on Rejection from the (Former) Editor

As the Poor Yorick Editor, I didn’t want to wear an ermine cape. I went into the experience steeled …

“Danish Girl About Town,” by Harvey Soss

Let us postulate Hamlet had knocked up Ophelia, Quietly, on the sly. And, before dying, she gave b…

image of chain link fencing hanging between two cement posts, over slate path
“4 Objects, 21 Lessons,” by Steven Wingate

"Freshly divorced, I drive from Miami, Florida, to Durham, New Hampshire, with my new girlfriend, wh…

Excerpts from THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ADMIRAL DOT, by Nance Van Winckel

This series, which I call The Further Adventures of Admiral Dot, combines two sources. One is a set …

“Curiouser and Curiouser,” by Deborah H. Doolittle

Afterwards, once the neighbors were gone, the curtains shifted back to the places they had occupi…

“My Brother’s Brother,” by Austin Adams

At 4:44 a.m. on Monday, May the 2nd, as many as four or as few as two assailants forcibly entered 13…

“Lost and Found,” by Marlene Olin

Ten years old is the worst age ever. Betsy's too young to be interested in boys and too old not to b…

“The Last Eighty-One Seconds,” by David Miller

Pudgy pre-acnoid twelve-year-old. First rock vinyl jacket. Stares at final I’d love to turn you on…

“An Amputee Looks Through a Ring,” by Dina Peone

I wore it on my right middle finger: one of ten short but slender, pale, nervous, guitar-blistered f…

a poem by Christopher Kobylinsky
“May 7, 2017,” by Christopher Kobylinsky

His grandmother’s old Replogle rests by the window. Spinning it around, he finds the pink lip of Ch…

“The Book,” by John Bonanni

My father had an unusual book that rested on his work desk. It was worn and brown. The covers looked…

“The Nile River: The Holder of Ancient Secrets,” by Gabrielle Frulla

The Nile River, the world’s largest river, spanning 4,132 miles, was considered the source of life b…

“Along the Nile,” by Heather Bourbeau

Ten years ago, before the protests, before the disguised military takeover, I bought a used photo…

A Thousand Words, Give or Take

By Josh Fox             Capturing images has been an art form for nearly as long as human society ha…

Antinous

Seth Copeland examines the story behind the discovery of Antinous in Delphi, Greece.

Protected: So Art Deco

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Ginger Rogers’ Hand in Her Own Legacy

By Briana McGuckin Ginger Rogers knew that the artifacts of her career would outlast her, and that s…

Ginger Roger’s Feathered Gown

Rikki Santer remembers one of Ginger Rogers' most famous outfits, the ostrich feather dress from Top…

Worth More Dead Than Alive

By Gabrielle Frulla             Most people walk through a graveyard, crowded by crooked and crumbli…

Requiescat in Pace

A letter to his Excellency detailing the grave robbery of Father John Doyle.

Jamestown 1609-1610

By Rebecca Shaw                 The winter of 1609-1610 was one that the colonists of Jamestown, Vir…

A Curious Case of Colonial Cannibalism

The tragedies of the worst winter in Jamestown's history haunts one family nearly four hundred years…

Cluttered Space

By Chelsea Nevin Imagine laying on a blanket in the middle of a cool summer night, a light breeze ti…

Stones Fall from the Sky

Sherry Rind examines our night skies. Is it a shooting star or flying debris?

She Met the Red-Haired Artist

By Gabrielle Frulla Jeanne Calment was a French woman who possessed the title of a super-centenarian…

Buying Pencils

Marc Meierkort introduces us to the young girl who sold Van Gogh his art supplies and her memories o…

Contemplating One’s Omphalos

  By Joshua Fox             When it comes to navels, you have your “innies”, where your navel caves …

The Omphalos of Pritchard McCovey

This story follows Pritchard McCovey as he reflects on moments of his life, bouncing between the goo…

Two Tragedies

M.S. Rooney takes the time to remind us of the tragedies of Sodom and Gomorrah, and how unforgiving …

The Solid Truth

By Chelsea Nevin There are many cities that have disappeared into the ocean over the centuries. One …

German Immigration and New York’s Garment Industry

By Lisa Peterson By the turn of the 20th Century, German immigrants, many of them Jewish, were comin…

It Doesn’t Cost Anything to Promise Love

Ruth must clean out her deceased Aunt Fanny's apartment and in the process uncovers the truth about …

Gott Segne Amerika

 By Josh Fox        While America hasn’t been the greatest country in the world for long, it’s been …

The Stranger in the Box

Sara Etgen-Baker is digging through her grandmother's attic one day and comes across a box of old ph…

The King’s Well

Rebecca Pyle takes us on a magical journey in search of the king's well.

The Origin of Wishing Wells

By Rebecca Shaw Wells have inspired everything from songs and ballads to fables and poems. Throughou…

The Velvet Album

Barbara Krasner explores an album left behind by her deceased grandmother, whom she has never met.

The Evolution of Photography

By Rebecca Shaw It is the only window we have into the personal lives of our family whom we have los…

Fine Arts

In this poem Gayane M. Haroutyunyan explores the lives and struggles of some of the most famous arti…

The Life and Times of Artists

By Josh Fox The life of an artist is one that seems undeniably tied to the whims of fate. Sometimes,…

The Jazz Age

By Lisa Peterson America’s prohibition period and the 1920s overlapped and created a decade known as…

The Testimony

This poem by Diane G. Martin memorializes her Great Aunt Lillian's days as a flapper driving around …

Obscure Items in Obscure Places

During one of my many travels through abandoned insane asylums, I stumbled upon a forgotten object t…

Behind the Film: A Q&A with Sharon Woodward and Stephen Barker

Poor Yorick: What got you and your group interested in the topic of the Indian Army in WWI? Sharon: …

Museum Spotlight: Florence Griswold Museum

The Florence Griswold Museum is a nationally recognized center for American art and history. The 11-…

The Indian Army in the First World War

The film documents research being carried out by participants from the local Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim…

A New Home for a Historic House in Trumbull

I. John Naeher, director of operations at Christian Heritage School of Trumbull, Connecticut, was in…

The Alchemist’s Bench

In this fiction piece by Josh Woods, a professor in Missouri buys a glossy black wooden bench adorne…

The Art of Alchemy

By Rebecca Shaw The saying, “You can’t turn lead into gold” has been tossed around for generations w…

Opening a Closed Book

A small box of family treasures given to Gayla Mills by her father sparks a journey through the gene…

Person Behind the Prose – A Q&A with Gayla Mills

By Mattea Heller   Poor Yorick: In your essay, you state, “There’s a story here.” It seems that…

Anna’s Billy Club

Grandma always blamed the pain in her arthritic knees on the diner. Anna was a small-framed, round-s…

Ode to a Bright Idea

A common household annoyance begins with a flash and a small puff of smoke. It’s time to change a li…

Greer County’s Dizzying Colonial History

By Kevin Hudson Ryan Clark’s experimental form for his poems, in which he dismantles his source mate…

Excerpts from ‘Old Greer County’

These two poems are part of Ryan Clark's series exploring the history of the part of southwest Oklah…

The Conjurer

This poem by Susan J. Cronin implores of the reader the same thing painter Hieronymus Bosch, who die…

Bosch’s Works: Not What They Seem

By Gina DiGiovancarlo Hieronymus Bosch’s The Conjurer is a genre painting, set in a daily situation …

How to Own a Star

By Dr. Leslie Lindenauer Joyce Munro’s “Let Evening Blush to Own a Star” ranges across time and spac…

A Mysterious German Bible from 1898

When I was sixteen, a European exchange student enrolled at my small-town high school for the year. …

Let Evening Blush to Own a Star

By using form, poetry, and visuals, Joyce Munro's story moves beyond fact and prompts readers to con…

Campbell Soup Kids

I found a toy that may have belonged to your great-grandparents once upon a time. A little thrift st…

Skeleton as Cultural Icon

by Josh Fox Skeletons—we all have them. We all know about them. Starting off with 270 bones when we’…

Velvet Painting

This cheeky poem by Wichita writer Linda Imbler pays homage to a skeleton as a piece of art.

Creative Clothing During the Great Depression

by Melissa Johnson To survive after the stock market crash of 1929, families had to be creatively th…

Has-Beens

Dori Appel reflects on the lives of items, including an old dress, discovered at a rummage sale.