The Retort

Creativity

• Unwitting

  I’ve been losing hours of my day, waking up in strange places in the morning, tired like I haven’t slept at all.

• Bathroom Blues

  Oh, how I wish now I Would have stopped with just the wine.

• Please post notice

  Your impatience purrs and I can’t tell when it’s reaching the brim

• Farm Yard (1936-Present)

  There by the bunkhouse (no longer there).

• Eclipse

  The path to the sun, the man has no way of knowing.

• My Children

  How childish to hope to “fix” them.

• Manlike

  I hear your voice as you softly say hello and my brain aches to say anything but goodbye

• The Rook Spotlight - Three Winners Take Top Honors in the Latest Edition of The Rook

  Honors were awarded in three categories: poetry, prose/academic literature, and visual art.

• Shakes-peer: A Predicament

  Nostrils flare as I enter the cloud of lingering odor.

• Response to a Poetic Reading From Walden

  Thoreau relied heavily on intuition, creativity, and a religious belief that is highly conscious of nature as the connection to a vaguely defined deity or higher power.

• Sigma Tau Delta Poetry Contest Winners Announced

  Winners won cash prizes

• Patrick Michael Landry

  First place winner, Patrick Michael Landry, is a phenomenal emerging local talent. An Outdoor Adventure Leader Major, he plans on going into the army this fall

• 1st Place - Life’s A Book

  Bringing yourself a torment on the spine. The binding, too fragile for misuse of tongue

• 2nd Place - CLOSER

  You are where the sun goes down

• 3rd Place - ODE TO METROPOLIS

  We’ve made our beds with the scum of the city.

• Honorable Mention - The Traveler

  I told them when I think of Missouri, I think of red, And when I think of home, of Montana, I think of purple; I said right now, I’m just burning burgundy,

• A Deer in the Headlights

  The ground shifts Hardens

• Yew Tree

  Worms scale the wall where the grand tower stands oblivious.

• Birth Dance

  Plucked Woman ripe

• Second Annual Poetry Slam Features Billings Poetic Talent

  Some of the best young poets in Billings performed in front of a packed crowd at Venture Theater last month

• ®evolution

  so u say u wnt a revolution?

• What Indian Boarding Schools Accomplished

  From The Rook Volume IV, 2000

• Solitaire

  From The Rook Volume IV, 2003

• Technocrat #3

  From The Rook Volume II, 1998

• Road Work

  From The Rook Volume III, 1999

• Pumps

  From The Rook Volume IX, 2007

• Puzzle

  Flex the last singular piece into place,

• Sister

  my biggest fear is that I am you;

• His Mother

  You will miss words said in broken English, Arabic accent, stories of desert sand, sun, family

• A Private Struggle

  No amount of new stories can sufficiently blur the past.

• The Same Soft Hands

  what becomes of tiger, wolf and ape Once liberated from the hands of men?

• The Leak

  The roof ’s leaking again.

• Affection Algebra

  I don’t want her more than I want to learn Portuguese

• Experiments in Motion

  Terrified of a rhyme? That’s a sign of a child’s mind

• Colin

  I wonder what he’s running from Without his head.

• The Rook Spotlight – Pete Tolton

  Pete Tolton found success as a layout editor on The Rook and then even more success on the staff of the emerging Grindstone Magazine where he quickly became not only a layout editor but a regular monthly contributor.

• If All Farms Produced Organic Food, We May Starve

  My migration to the mother earth ethic Was nothing short of constructed and pathetic.

• Sacajawea Judas and the Übermensch Jesus

  But Sacajawea was their Judas, their necessary Knievil, if I may speak of the last frontier.

• Right foot swings left

  Heel stretched taught away from thigh

• Night Time Looking Up

  I—try to see high enough.

• Piles of Leaves

  The rustling leaves sound like a cheering crowd

• Little Women Blues

  One man-tear is worth 20 cried

• View of a Working Man

  A wheelbarrow still stands in Minnesota twilight with an expression of obtuse discordance

• Nest

  Words slip like smoke from bituminous mouths

• “Pax Ajax and the Crocuses”

  Atlas climbed a wall and stood

• Words in Memory

  A corpulent phrase recedes in ears

• The Rook Spotlight: Zach Duval

  Showcasing the many talented authors and artists from The Rook’s decade plus history.

• Heat

  It’s obvious, the disher is the drummer. He sets the pace of the band. Without him, everybody’s rhythm is messed up. The prep cook is base.

• Sense Collage

  The tongue, ear, eye, nose, and skin.

• Toby

  “The biggest Job Corps in the country, The one in Texas, I heard is ran by the gays—“

• Mortal Coil

  His scythe, winter’s slicing metallic vein, rattles lily stems blanketed by snow,

• Shaded Reflection

  Eclipse of my shape dims the ground

• Eve of Destruction

  On the eve of instruction The answers are there to be found.

• Snooze

  zzzzz

• Untitled

  Winding down now.... Don't quit now, He'd say, Suck it up.

• Artificial Happiness

  The leaves burn and i inhale the smoke The medicine begins to dissolve

• Spinal Tap

  It repeats itself over and over and over and over again.

• Dear Love in Seattle

  Everybody needs a love in Seattle Will you be my romance in a flash

• Hit Rewind

  Engulfed in responsibilities and expectation Wish I could hit rewind

• Untitled

  Confused about how things are going to turn up. So ready to die but anxious to miss out. What happens behind these eyes of mine and yours?

• Memories

  memories of words flashing in my mind

• I’ll Never

  Along with this comes the happiness of never having anything to miss

• Bryce

  My most unruly sin is being friends with him

• Where the People Roam

  my words fall short of what I really want to say

• Musings by a Nerd

  I must go capture pikachu

• Revolt Against MARTIN

  Gonna make Mario the champion of the mushroom kingdom

• For You

  We're crashing into the unknown!

• I Love You

  You're already with someone and it kills me.

• Retort Creative Writing Contest Winners

  See our 2nd annual creative writing winners

• My Dearest Alayna

  My heart is yours as you can plainly see

• Hit Rewind

  Wish I could hit rewind To a simpler time

• Heartbreaker

  But all I ask is for a simple “hi.”

• The Widow

  The widow spins her web Of glistening perfection;

• Hold on to Them Forever

  Don't let go, whatever you do.

• Untitled

  some damn fine poetry

• -Untitled-

  my Accomplishments hurt.

• (blank)

  we're screwed

• Wandering

  Does happiness end?

• My Greatest Failure

  I still believe in, do you believe in me?

• Beauty and the Beast

  A beast is nothing without his beauty

• Truth is to Lie, and Love is to Hate

  We hate everything!

• T.G.L.S.

  Introducing Dylan Big Medicine

• Want to see your creative writing in The Retort and win $50?

  Enter The Retort’s second annual writing competition.

• Head Over Head

  Have you forgotten what kind of animal you are

• Checkmate

  Your life is so meaningless

• Dear Love in Seattle

  Everybody needs a love in Seattle

• Never Left for Dead

  Remember that I miss you

• Artificial Happiness

  The leaves burn and i inhale the smoke

• Internal

  I had this feeling in my chest that I knew would be there until the day I died.

• Blind

  How can one see so much and yet see nothing at all

• Forgive Me for I Know Not

  I have changed

• Untitled

  Unsummarized

• Waking Dreams

  Happy Halloween from the creativity editor.

• Nonsense???

  What happens when you realize you have had eaten too much.

• Retort Poetry Contest Winners

  The results from our spring 2009 poetry contest. See who won!

• Poetry and Prose

  Poetry and prose from our own Creativity Editor