Allen Shadow's Blog

Award-Winning Poem Featured in ‘Boomerlitmag’

My poem Dream and Dream and Dream, which was long-listed for the 2023 Fish Publishing Poetry Prize, has been published in the highly-rated Boomerlitmag. The journal is #58 on a highly-regarded list of the top literary magazines. The ratings are based on the number of their contributors from the previous year who are selected as winners of the coveted Pushcart Prize. As an example, Paris Review is ranked #1.

Here is the link: https://boomerlitmag.com/allen-shadow-2/ and the poem is posted below.

Dream and Dream and Dream

Mama, as everything was going on
I was watching, always watching you

crossing the Bronx streets when I was five
taking my big sister to school

you were crossing me
but, really, I was crossing you

when my father would let go your hand
in the middle of a vast boulevard

when cars rumbled when trucks roared


Always, mama, always
wanting to make it better for you
even though there was no way

when Superman flew
the blind girl around the world
and she could see again

I wanted him to come break
through the front windows
and take you

bring you back seeing
setting you down in the little square
living room or on the back porch

so you too could see all the
birds and the great Oak
and then could dance

around the corner
along Southern Boulevard
all the way to Tremont


All the places, just think, mama—
the story clouds, the platypus at the zoo,

elephants, the island in the Pacific
where, surely, you’d be a princess


Just think, we could cheat the
night custodian to off-load all the fear

and float on the aimless wind—
the sky is loud, mama, loud


Well, I could always go to sleep, anyway
and dream and dream and dream

sometimes there’s a song you can’t know
but you can sing, nonetheless

Finalist for the Robert Day Award for Fiction

I’ve been named a finalist for the Robert Day Award for Fiction, from the noted literary magazine New Letters. The editors are currently considering which finalist short stories it will publish in the magazine.

The short story I submitted, A Day in the City, is one of the first I began writing when, in the 1990s, I felt I finally had my fiction legs under me. I always thought it was a strong, worthy story, and as an example of how kooky discovery is in this field, the story has been rejected by magazines 52 times over the years (despite receiving very strong comments from a number of top editors). Even now, while I feel this award has validated my feelings, the story still may not be selected for publication. And, until it is, I can’t show it here or anywhere else, since it must be virginal to be considered by magazines. Tough stuff, eh? And I’ve had many similar experiences with poems, manuscripts, songs, and screenplays. Fortunately, however, in the case of poems, many that have been rejected numerous times, have finally been selected for publication. Ahh!!!

As I’ve been watching the baseball playoff games this October, I’m reminded of the fortitude required of professional baseball players. The other night it was noted how one outfielder in the game, now 28, had played in more than 700 minor league games before being called up to the majors last month.

BTW, New Letters is ranked #37 on a highly-regarded list of the top lit magazines. The ratings are based on the number of their contributors from the previous year who are selected as winners of the coveted Pushcart Prize. As an example, Paris Review is ranked #1.

I Read Your Letters, America

For Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I offer this poem of mine

I Read Your Letters, America*

So now I know about your lies
lies you told Sitting Bull
and Chief Joseph
over and over again
before the God mountains
and sacred grass

So now I know about your bullets
and your torture
how you tore the hearts from the Lakota, the Apache and the Nez Pers
how you tried to stretch their souls onto a cross

Shame on you, America
I didn’t know my father was a thief
it will be hard now to ride in the Buick
with the top down
the radio dancing over the corpses under the highway

*Will appear in the fall edition of Waymark magazine

‘The Beautiful Winding’ Selected in Major Poetry Book Competition

Today I learned my poetry manuscript The Beautiful Winding was recognized as an honorable mention in the 2023 Stevens Poetry Book Competition, judged by the distinguished poet Edward Hirsch, a National Book Critics Circle Award winner and MacArthur “Genius Grant” recipient. In addition, he is president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Last year’s winner, Nancy Hengeveld

There were three winner categories and three honorable mentions, from 249 submissions world-wide. At first blush an honorable mention might not seem like something to crow about. But it’s huge to have a manuscript recognized in this class. It’s telling you you’re not crazy, your stuff is that good, and gives you extra oomph to keep pushing for The Beautiful Winding to become a winner and to be released by a top publisher. The competition these days is stiffer than ever.

I write every day. It’s something I’ve done most of my adult life, as poet, novelist, and songwriter. That said, since I retired from my job six years ago, I’ve been able to put my shoulder into submitting my stuff—to agents, publishers, magazines, etc. I’ve had individual poems published by some of the best literary magazines. So now I can hope to become a winner in the book category, as I keep pushing.

My poem now in Poetry International Online

My poem It Was the Coffee in the Mornings has been published online by Poetry International. The poem was chosen from my chapbook manuscript These Are My Psalms Now, which was named a finalist in their latest chapbook competition. Click here to see it.

Poetry International has published the likes of Seamus Heney, Carolyn Forche, Derek Walcott, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Edward Hirsch, and Robert Bly, to name a few.

Recent Poetry and Screenplay Wins

Recently learned one of my poems was short-listed, and two of them long-listed, for the 2023 Fish Publishing Poetry Prize (Cork, Ireland), judged by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. Fish is doing God’s own work. It’s an inspiration and an avenue to writers everywhere. – FRANK McCOURT (Pulitzer winner, author of Angela’s Ashes)

In other news:

I was selected as a finalist in the latest Poetry International Chapbook Competition for my chapbook These Are My Psalms Now, and they’ll be publishing my poem It Was the Coffee in the Mornings online. I’ll announce it,  when it goes live and post it here. Poetry International has published the likes of Seamus Heney, Carolyn Forche, Derek Walcott, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Edward Hirsch, and Robert Bly, to name a few.My antiracist pilot “Raceless” was named Best TV Pilot/Screenplay in the thriller category at the NY Screenwriting Awards 2023, and was selected to be part of NY International Screenplay Festival 2023.My poem Green Black Waters was named a finalist for the Omnidawn Poetry Broadside Prize.

Two of My Latest Published Poems

Following up on my last post—Three Poems to be Published—I can now post two of them, below. (Once a magazine comes out, the rights revert back to the author). The first is from the magazine Constellations; the second, from the British magazine Seaside Gothic.

The One-Time Grandma

Was only fourthe one time evershe came to see mebrought me a truckfilled with hard candydoors opened, tires rolledjust this one gauzy image—her abundant, smiling facecraning down to mea face that held a theaterI couldn’t knowof cobwebs and cold cornersof unpainted pain in triplicateand difficult wishes boiling in potson an ancient stoveears that held the screamingof her sister being rapedover and overby a mob of menand of distant deathand death too closeat the hands of thugs and militiashate, rape, thievery and murderin the pogrom of 1905as it had been for Jewsfor millenniums

What Happened When We Emerged from the Ocean, Anyway

What happened when we emerged from the ocean, anywayreturned from eternityand the Moses shoresReborn in the Jersey lights— the high sheen of industrialblood and glitzy sinHere on the boardwalkwhere kids fly across lit towersand lizard eyes spy from wild ridesThe wooden coaster tattoos the horizon like a snake goddess,great wheels topple to the musicof clatter and screamsA cavalcade of plush figures,necklace of chance stands and fry huts,where lunatic visages frame dark portals with invitations to cheap seduction Ghosts of Freud and Coney Islandyet watch from the grandstandsplay Fascination with Madame Twisto and the Mule-Faced BoyTen-wheelers tear the ancient sandsflowers show from the boxesof jeweled motels where Jewsand Italians once shared radio songs of Rosemary Clooney and Johnnie Ray

Three Poems to be Published

Recently, a number of my poems have appeared or are forthcoming in highly-regarded literary magazines, including Constellations (The One-Time Grandma), the British magazine Seaside Gothic (What Happened When We Emerged from the Ocean, Anyway), and Slipstream (An Accidental Song for the Sacred and the Profane).

While I don’t have the rights to reprint most of these poems at this time, I think the stories behind them make for good reading, nonetheless.

The stories behind two of these titles surround my experiences as a four- or five-year-old boy.

In The One-Time Grandma, I recall sitting on the floor at age four with this gauzy image of my father’s mother craning down to greet me, offering a toy truck with wheels that rolled, filled with hard candies. Mysteriously, it was the only time she visited us. I never did learn why.

In An Accidental Song for the Sacred and the Profane, I’m playing in the little backyard of our two-story house in the Bronx, surrounded by brick apartment buildings. It’s a warm day in spring when I notice this beautiful woman in a diaphanous nightgown slowly brushing her long red hair at an open second-floor window, not 30 feet from me. What was a boy of five to make of such a sight? At the same time, an old Jewish man is davening at an open second floor window of another apartment building. When such a devout man is davening, he rocks to and fro while singing prayers, “nasal strains rising and falling and rising again.” Thus, An Accidental Song for the Sacred and the Profane.

In addition, I’ll post the entire poem What Happened When We Emerged from the Ocean, Anyway in a few days.

‘Gran Fury’ now on Juked

My short story Gran Fury now appears in the highly-rated online literary magazine Juked. The posting had been delayed due to COVID-related issues.

The story behind Gran Fury is interesting. The title, as some may have guessed, is taken from the Plymouth model manufactured in the 70s and 80s. To me the name was always evocative, and I took to noticing how beat the surviving cars seemed to be—a kind of irony on wheels. The vehicle first came to star in a poem of mine by the same name. Years later, I had the idea of how the poem itself could be repurposed in prose as the opening of a short story. The rest of the piece practically wrote itself. Since then, I’ve used at least two other poems as the basis for short stories. It’s nice when your work keeps on giving.

Poems Published in Top Zines

Recently, a number of my poems have appeared or are forthcoming in highly respected literary magazines, including Twyckenham Notes, the I-70 Review, the Broadkill Review, and the White Hall Review.

My poem Pale Pink Taxi Garage, Croton, went live today on the website of White Walll Review. The poems in Twyckenham Notes, Lansing and Sitting on a Guardrail in the Shadows of Early Morning are published on their website and include audio renditions. My poem The Road from Millerton appeared in the November/December 2019 issue of the Broadkill Review. The work In the Tire Shop is scheduled to appear in a print issue of I-70 Review.

Meanwhile, my short story Gran Fury is set to appear in October in the online magazine Juked.

The story behind Gran Fury is interesting. The title, as some may have guessed, is taken from the Plymouth model manufactured in the 70s and 80s. To me the name was always evocative, and I took to noticing how beat the surviving cars seemed to be—a kind of irony on wheels. The vehicle first came to star in a poem of mine by the same name. Years later, I had the idea of how the poem itself could be repurposed in prose as the opening of a short story. The rest of the piece practically wrote itself. Since then, I’ve used at least two other poems as the basis for short stories. It’s nice when your work keeps on giving.

Tire Shop and Sitting on a Guardrail were both inspired by the same subject: a Hispanic man I observed, yes, sitting on a guardrail, waiting for the tire shop he worked in to open. He and his situation (as I imagined it) held my attention for months, as I passed him daily around ten-to-eight in the morning. He was always sitting idly holding a brown lunch bag. I had been in that tire shop and had also observed workers returning home after their shifts, their clothes almost completely blackened. I knew how hard the work was and how cold the drafty garage was in winter. I imagined that he might have been from a Central American country, come to the states to work and send money home to his family. So, fairly or not, I fictionalized a character based on him. I know there are some who would criticize me for making assumptions. But this is what writers do. They observe life and make up stories based on those observations.

I’ve also recently had poems published in Waymark, a magazine published by noted poet Roger Aplon that I and my longtime poet friends Joel Scherzer and his wife, the late Robbie Rubinstein have appeared in often over the years. The magazine publishes many of the poets who are members of CAPS, a literary organization that sponsors regular readings in New York’s Hudson Valley. At the same time, Waymark has included a number of writers who are part of the Pueblo Poetry Project, in Pueblo, Colorado. In addition to Joel and Robbie, the magazine has featured the work of PPP writers Tony Moffeit and Kyle Laws. I’ve had the pleasure of participating in PPP readings several times over the organization’s 30-year history.