Ned Balbo

Ned Balbo’s books include The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots, 3 Nights of the Perseids, The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems, and Lives of the Sleepers. His awards include a National Endowment for the Arts translation fellowship, and four Maryland Arts Council grants.

Poetry – Issue 38

A Spell for Lamentation and Renewal

For the quiet of the hazel In the quiet of the hazel / For the seed inside the acorn In the blazing of the bluebell. . . .

Poetry – Issue 28

•A Year Without Sweethearts

After 116 years as America’s confectionery currency of affection, Sweethearts (love u) are dead . . . [Their] maker, the New England Confectionery Company . . . was sold in a bankruptcy auction in May.
—the Washington Post, February 8, 2019

Sweethearts, you’re lost to bankruptcy,
gone with the flavors we once loved—
let’s kiss my pet say yes love bug
Concrete hearts, seductive candy,

Poetry – Issue 20

•Sea Star

In water cobalt-blue a sea star melts, / its five rays torn away to join the silt’s / suspension, sand, and clay, / a spent core all that’s left. . . .