Timothy Gager

Into the Silent Sea

It’s so quiet down here, so quiet
you can’t hear the rage on the seawall

feel the twisting turn of your stomach,
the nervousness of nobody home.

The moon was not full today;
it was shaped like a heart

seen from the bottom. light diffracted
in a way that made you nauseous

spun down amongst lantern fish,
cookie cutter sharks

bristle mouths, anglers,
and viper fish, some sort of eelpout.

Nobody likes you, you say
to them, but you are here too,

like an incredible ship
sunken and abandoned.

Timothy Gager has published 18 books of fiction and poetry, which includes his latest novel, Joe the Salamander. He hosted the successful Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, MA from 2001 to 2018, and started a weekly virtual series in 2020. He has had over 1000 works of fiction and poetry published, 17 nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work also has been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, The Best Small Fictions Anthology and has been read on National Public Radio. In 2023, Big Table Publishing published an anthology of twenty years of his selected work, with 150 pages of new material: The Best of Timothy Gager. He was the Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, and the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives in Dedham, Massachusetts.

Timothy Gager

New York Confession

New York was hard to find
only if I pealed the onion,
I can pray for sleep to overtake

the stumble, into place
and stumble out, never saw
what’s in front of my face:

Life’s jugglers, clowns, the beat
masters of three card monte, I
won then the stakes got higher

in a city of nightmares,
morning, afternoon, night
feel like different places
unless troubled, they merged
into one, I was awake through all
waiting for the city to let me go

forced to sing myself to supper
by climbing the highest mountains
the trees in The Village.

On 2nd street, and Avenue C
I was lost, even with obvious
nomenclature of the corner

smack in the middle in the intersection,
my arms stretched out, Jesus,
4 AM, begging for crucifixion.

Timothy Gager is the author of fifteen books of fiction and poetry. His latest, Spreading Like Wild Flowers,is his eighth of poetry. Timothy hosted the successful Dire Literary Series in was the co-founder of The Somerville News Writers Festival. He has had over 600 works of fiction and poetry published, of which seventeen have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work also has been nominated for a Massachusetts Book Award, The Best of the Web, The Best Small Fictions Anthology and has been read on National Public Radio. Timothy is the Fiction Editor of The Wilderness House Literary Review, and the founding co-editor of The Heat City Literary Review. A graduate of the University of Delaware, Timothy lives in Dedham, Massachusetts with some fish and two rabbits, and he is employed as a social worker. He is currently seeking representation for his third novel, Joe the Salamander, a semi-finalist for The Holland Prize.

Timothy Gager

This Poem is Like a Bruise

This poem is like a bruise

A deep black Lake Superior knocking

over the white caps rolling into last breaths

An angry purple from the rage of red

until the flattening of color blends

into a subdued yellow of surrender

If you’re weak of heart

this poem is not a holiday,

It does not twinkle, nor

Are its words, lights from a city

observed upon the descent

each, a pushpin of hope

If you wait, there is just a tiny ripple

when a coin is flipped into a well

hallow, the eye-socket, black, and empty

Timothy Gager is the author of fourteen books of short fiction and poetry. Every Day There Is Something About Elephants, a book of 108 flash fictions, selected by over fifty-five editors, was released by Big Table Publishing in 2018. He's the former host of the successful Dire Literary Series in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He has had over 500 works of fiction and poetry published and of which thirteen have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His work has been read on National Public Radio. 

In Which I Promote Some of My Lovely and Talented Friends

I have many many poet friends but three are dear to my heart. I'm going to link them because I can. Probably best-known among them is Timothy Gager, a one-man publishing machine. He also runs the Dire Literary Series, co-founded the Somerville News Writer's Festival, and edits fiction for the Wilderness House Literary Review. You can find his poems in Night Train and many other places around the web.



Sue Miller is a founding editor at GUD and has published poems all over the place, too. notably in FRiGG, Thieves Jargon, and in Night Train. Never let it be said I don't take care of my friends. :-) Good thing their work all holds up.

Last but not least, Kenneth L. Clark. He's kept a somewhat lower profile than most poets today, but that's going to change here very soon. Poor Mojo's Almanack, Story Garden, Fried Chicken and Coffee is where you can find some of his stuff.