Lilliput Review Issue #168

The Lilliput Review features poems ten lines or less and Issue #168 is small enough to fit just under the length of your hand. Don Wentworth has put together another fine journal whose subtle themes include barbarians and poets for Issue #168 and I would like to share several with you:

from Waiting for the Barbarians

Because night has fallen and the barbarians have not come.
And some who have just returned from the border say
there are no barbarians any longer.

C.P. Cavafy
Translated by E. Keeley and P. Sherrad




in 5 minutes
the old man
has told me everything

Robert Epstein
El Cerrito CA

I have to wonder if the old man has told a nugget of truth, his life story, or of an event. The curiosity is unbearable!


i stumble
the pebble shows
its darker side

Natalia L. Rudychev
Des Plaines, IL

I think this is a clever and funny little poem, don’t you?


a morning
empty of words –
a shadow
begins to form
on my desk

Mike Montreuil
Gloucester, Ontario

Quite a poetic way of describing writer’s block, don’t you think? That’s how I interpret it at least.


The art of November—
an old man raises orchids;
his humid room—
white and purple petals.

Peggy Garrison
New York, NY

This makes me wish I could breathe in the smell of those orchids and also makes me thankful that we are back to warmer weather.


If you enjoyed this little sample you’ll be thrilled to know that each issue only costs $1.00 and if you have really tight purse strings you can see older issues in their entirety on-line through links at Lilliput Review’s blog: Issa's Untidy Hut.

Don Wentworth is one of the hardest working and most generous editors I know. He has a web-site, Facebook Page, blog, twitter, posts samples of past issues, twitters past poems, and is willing to occasionally post an entire issue for free. He also accepts submissions year round and hand-writes messages to all who submit accompanied by a free issue whether their poem gets accepted or not. He’s also only charged $1.00 an issue for the past twenty years. If that doesn’t motivate you to stop by and pay him a visit on-line I don’t know what will. So please pay him a visit with any of the links posted, you will be happy you did so.

Thanks always for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…