Alprazolam, 0.5mg
by Teo Mungaray
After the explosion, you choke,
Oxygen depleted, orbiting a planet
Red as rust and too far from earth
To call for help. Tubes whip around
Spewing precious air, air you need,
Air the hungry vacuum of space
Will laugh about later. You cannot
Swim in a vacuum, cannot balance upright
In the spin you’ve begun, Newton’s laws
And all. All you can do is hope to grab a tether,
The one you hardly ever use,
Wind it round your wrist
Wind it tight,
Pray help comes
As you drift among the exploding lights
That bloom above.
The Problem With Anatomical Thinking—
by Meridian Johnson
2016 Winner, BLR Prize for Poetry
The corpse is invented and now
little birds sit pecking at it. What they lift
from the shadows is not a body in bits. Look again,
feel the birds balling up the body-thread with their beaks, disregarding
the smell, unwrapping it into a thing of this world, carrying spools of body
back to the body. Around the whole of it:
oaks, maples, tuffs of grass.
One of the great things about poetry is how open it is—epic poems can run thousands of lines while others need just a handful of words to make an impact. Short poems pack a lot of meaning into just a few lines, and the feelings and images you’re left with will last long past the briefness of the read.
Here are five small poems from the BLR archive, in no particular order, that stir big emotions:
“The Oncologist” by Carole Stone
Do you have an appetite? No.
Are you anxious? Yes.
Irritable? Yes.
I hand in the questionnaire.
Instantly, a woman calls my name.
“You know we have counseling,”
she says cheerily. I nod.
“And a writing group.
Would you like to join?”
I imagine an unsharpened pencil,
and a blank page,
tell her, no. Is this denial?
“Nothing to say,” I tell her,
looking into her stranger’s eyes.
(Issue 28)
“Distribution” by Jenny Qi
Scatter my ashes in the ocean,
my father instructed,
as I cradled my mother’s in my lap.
I’d like to see the world.
(Issue 33)
“Attachment” by Sally Lipton Derringer
I don’t ask for much:
a few words,
a rented intimacy.
Even without the room,
her eyelids waiting to be closed,
you can imagine
the unmothering, its stark
perfection. You’ve occupied
these kinds of rooms, done your own
borrowing and giving back.
I don’t ask for much:
a conversation,
a form of permanence that I
can hold until it’s gone.
(Issue 22)
“Divination” by Stacy Nigliazzo
I dressed her wound
after the biopsy,
a scarlet braid
laced with black thread.
She was alone, but spoke of her father at her bedside
attending a bowl of water and sand,
pulling out stars.
He pinned them in her hair and stayed
until I cut the suture.
(Issue 24)
“I Never Saw a Wild Thing Sorry for Itself” by Yael Hacohen
When your CO singles you out in Krav Maga,
you’d better throw a punch, little girl.
Make your fist sing its soft goddamn
smashing into the bridge of his nose.
He’ll bob and weave, take out his clip
and whack it right into your skull. Don’t cry.
Not even in the barracks. Not even now.
(Issue 29)
The editors of Bellevue Literary Review were saddened to hear of the death of Hal Sirowitz, who passed away on October 17, 2025, of complications of Parkinson’s disease. An internationally known poet and former Poet Laureate of Queens, New York, Hal was the author of five books of poetry, including Mother Said,My Therapist Said, and Stray Cat Blues.
It can be challenging to find humor in a literary journal devoted to illness and disease, but Hal Sirowitz somehow managed to unearth the irony and wit embedded in even the weightiest of topics. With deceptively simple language, his poetry elicits flashes of recognition and a wry smile, without ever belittling the subject or circumstance of the poem. It’s little wonder that Hal turned out to be our most published poet—his poems appeared in eight separate issues of BLR!
We were fortunate to cross paths with Hal in person over the years, both at our readings at Bellevue Hospital and at the AWP conference, where he participated in a panel with other BLR authors. Most recently, he collaborated with BLR for Poetry & Parkinson’s, which included a screening of the short documentary Hal and Minter.
Hal will be sorely missed.
~~Danielle Ofri, editor-in-chief
Hal reads his poetry at BLR’s 10th anniversary celebration in 2011, bringing a smile to the face of a healthcare worker at Bellevue Hospital.
“Choice Of Diseases”
by Hal Sirowitz, from BLR Issue 6
Now that I’m sick & have
all this time to contemplate
the meaning of the universe,
Father said, I understand why
I never did it before. Nothing
looks good from a prone position.
You have to walk around to appreciate
things. Once I get better I don’t
intend to get sick for a while. But
if I do I hope I get one of those diseases
you can walk around with.
Two of Hal’s BLR poems explore the experience of living with Parkinson’s. Read them here: “The Speed of Mice” and “Learning New Words.”
Saleem Hue Penny reads his prize-winning poem, “Never the Less,” from BLR Issue 40. Saleem is interviewed by BLR Poetry Editor Sarah Sala.
BLR@20 Festival: Celebrating BLR’s 20th Anniversary.
for an exhilarating blend of poetry and dance, inspired by the challenges and possibilities of disability. Four dancers with disability created original choreography based on BLR poetry, set to music commissioned for this special event, plus ASL interpretation. Featuring the poems of Deborah Golub, Ona Gritz, George Looney, and Melissa Stein. A panel discussion with the artists follows.
A collaboration of BLR and the Paige Fraser Foundation. “Reading the Body” is an official selection of multiple film festivals.
Dancers
Paige Fraser graduated from the Ailey/Fordham BFA program and danced with Ailey II, Visceral Dance Chicago, and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater. She has performed in West Side Story and The Lion King National Tour. She is the co-founder of The Paige Fraser Foundation, which aims to create a safe space for dancers with or without disabilities.
Quemuel Arroyo (Q) is a transport/mobility and accessible design expert. He is a quintessential New Yorker who enjoys getting lost in the city. Q serves as the co-chair of the Heidi Latsky Dance Company and sits on the boards of New York City Outward Bound Schools and the Hudson River Community Sailing.
Samantha Figgins began her training at Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Dance Theatre of Harlem and received her BFA at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance. Upon graduating, Ms. Figgins became a member of Complexions Contemporary Ballet and is currently in her 7th season with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Jerron Herman is a dancer and writer. He has created pieces for The Whitney Museum, Danspace Project, and Performance Space New York. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Dance/USA and was named a 2020 Disability Futures Fellow by the Ford Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Composers
Randall Riley is a freelance mutual disciplinary artist hailing from Mount Vernon, NY. He has dance training from Diversity of Dance Earl Mosley’s Institute of the Arts and the Ailey School. He is former dancer with TU Dance (Minnesota) and Ronald K Brown/EVIDENCE (Brooklyn). Current Freelancer and Creative Movement Facilitator.
Darryl J. Hoffman is a Bronx native currently based in Chicago. He has composed works for Kansas City Ballet, Visceral Dance Chicago, Danceworks Chicago, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Philadanco, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago & Ballet X. He is the director of music for Regional Dance America’s 2020 choreographic virtual intensive.
Reader
Saleem Hue Penny is a Black ‘rural hip-hop blues’ poet with a vestibular disorder and single-sided deafness. He explores how young people of color traverse wild spaces and define freedom. Saleem is the winner of BLR’s 2021 Poetry Prize.
Sign Interpreter
Carly Zimmermann is Founder and director of Zimmermann Interpreting Services. She is a Nationally Certified Interpreter and holds a BA from Columbia College in ASL/English Interpretation.
Additional Panelists
Nina Shevzov-Zebrun is a third-year medical student at NYU. She recently complete a Rudin Fellow fellowship at NYU, researching and advocating for the nascent field of Movement and Medicine in medical humanities education. In her past life, she trained pre-professionally for a ballet career, attending programs at Juilliard and American Ballet Theater.
Danielle Ofri is editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Review. Her day job is a doctor at Bellevue Hospital and clinical professor of medicine at NYU, but she studied at the Alvin Ailey School during high school and the Martha Graham School during her medical training. Her newest book is When We Do Harm, A Doctor Confronts Medical Error. www.danielleofri.com
Ingeborg Riedmaier reads “The Department Store Badger,” a poem by Rachel Dragos from BLR Issue 35, a special issue on the theme of Displacement.
Videography by Sarah Johnsrude
Jane Bradley and Chris Henry Coffey read four poems from BLR Issue 29, a special issue on the theme of War.
Videography by Maya Curry
Jason Schneiderman reads “Luggage,” a poem by Ted Kooser from BLR Issue 33, a special issue on the theme of Family.
Videography by Stratton Films