Joshua McKinney

Darkling

So little cause for carolings . . .

—Thomas Hardy

Fervorless as every spirit

huddled before a screen, I sat.

Unaware, I idly hoped

when I should have been plotting.

And that thrush? My human ear misheard

its song of fear as one of joy.

Joshua McKinney’s fifth book of poetry, Sad Animal (2024), won the inaugural John Ridland Poetry Prize from Gunpowder Press. His work has appeared in such journals as Boulevard, Denver Quarterly, Kenyon Review, New American Writing, and many others. His other awards include The Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize, The Dickinson Prize, The Pavement Saw Chapbook Prize, and a Gertrude Stein Award for Innovative Writing. He is co-editor of the online ecopoetics zine, Clade Song.