Isaiah Janisch

CONTACT:
Email
Website
Social Media: @plaza.of.poetry and @isaiah.janisch                             

BIO:
Isaiah Janisch is a poet and artist from Evansville, WI. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English-Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. His writing has been published in Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar, Digging Through The Fat, Chicago Poetry Magazine, and numerous other journals. As an editor, Janisch worked on the Rock River Review literary journal and Landward Podcast. Janisch has also had his work displayed at the Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison, WI and Rahr-West Art Museum in Manitowoc, WI. To mix his love of poetry and visual arts, he founded the Instagram page @plaza.of.poetry--a collection of poems and digital art that explores liminality and cultural transition. Outside of publishing, he developed and hosted a poetry class for middle and high school students.                   

Poetry

The Ecstasy of Goldfish

At his hip,
hung a metal revolver
worn out from years of use.
Standing, waiting
for the chance to fire it again.

He stared down his mortal enemy.
No other
than his brother
with snot running from his nose.

His horse stood still,
with a plastic look,
like a stick
tied to the fence.

Silence everywhere;
but the small brush
of a tumbleweed
blowing by.

The summer sun
beat down
on him and his menacing foe,
facing each other one-on-one.

His brother yelled,
“Draw!”

But the battle was interrupted
by another call.
“Lunch time,” mother said
from inside the house.

So the brothers went in instead of fighting it out.

  First published in The Hemlock Literary Journal

Clarity of Mind

static
breaks the tone,
saxophone, and gain
in—air.
Frequency of thought

made minor by
static
—reverb sucks
the soul—from
theta waves.

Out of range
—out of mind—
static
stronger—with
time.

Hear—tune of 
what once was 
—slip, drip--drown by
static
—sounds.

clarity
—lost—
where--our thoughts—
now only—
static

First published on @plaza.of.poetry