Third Wednesday: Review by Zvi Sesling

Third Wednesday
Spring 2008
Volume 1, Issu 3
A publication of Gravity Presses
Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Third Wednesday is a magazine out of Ypsilanti, Michigan. To date they have published three issues (and I have been fortunate to be in two, including the latest). Within its 58 pages and inside back cover you will find some familiar names such as Simon Perchik and Wanda Coleman, maybe some other names you recognize or don’t. In addition to poetry there is art work, photographs, short stories.

The magazine is named for a group of poets who meet each Third Wednesday in Ann Arbor, Michigan (reminds you of the Bagel Bards who meet each week in Somerville and Cambridge). Some of the writers are undoubtedly from this group. However, regardless of where they are from, the material contained in this issue can be interesting and fun to read.

One poem, What Dad Got in the Divorce is a reminder of any separation of two people:
"He turns up the radio/mouths Madonna/and pushes the gas-/a lull of slick tires and fresh rain./Mom’s Chanel lingers in the upholstery-/a ghost that envelops/nauseates, gags me quietly..."

There is also Jan Worth-Nelson’s story, Clover Island, 1984, about looking back on life, sadly. It’s more about what a woman thinks and wants, not about love and tenderness. But then it takes place in Michigan and it gets quite cold up there.
"Half drunk, he follow her whim, stumbles abreast her confident stride through the noisy Pacific beach-side carnival crowd. Air electrified with the squeals and screams of joy riders is likewise peppered by her syrupy notions....." So begins Wanda Coleman’s The Wild Mouse which like Jan Worth-Nelson’s story, is about a woman who doesn’t get what she wants or needs. With a kicker on men.

And there’s Perchik’s untitled poem which begins "These leaves getting fat/the way a child born ravenous/almost devours its mother...

There are intriguing ideas throughout the magazine and Third Wednesday is worth reading and submitting to. You can check them out at thirdwednesday.org and submit to them at submissions@thirdwednesday.org. However, I suggest a read first.

*Zvi Sesling is the winner of the International Reuben Rose Award (2007) and the founder of the "Muddy River Review"