New Poetry by Mark J. Mitchell

NOCTURNAL BARRIER

                                                           

This unmended gate

marks where my dream rests.

It’s lazy, creaky, it waits

for another snore to move

it, I guess.

Clever, it eludes

sleep even when I’m up late.

It never ends—it escapes.

- Mark J. Mitchell 2015

Mark J. Mitchell studied writing at UC Santa Cruz under Raymond Carver, George Hitchcock and Barbara Hull. His work has appeared in various periodicals over the last thirty five years, as well as the anthologiesIt has also been nominated for both Pushcart Prizes and The Best of the Net.  Good Poems, American Places,Hunger Enough, Retail Woes and Line Drives.  Two full length collections are in the works: Lent 1999  is coming soon from Leaf Garden Press and This Twilight World will be published by Popcorn Press.. His chapbook, Three Visitors has recently been published by Negative Capability Press. Artifacts and Relics, another chapbook, is forthcoming from Folded Word and his novel, Knight Prisoner, was recently published by Vagabondage Press and a another novel, A Book of Lost Songs is coming soon from Wild Child Publishing. He lives in San Francisco with his wife, the documentarian and filmmaker Joan Juster.