Joshua Bridgwater Hamilton

The Windward Review is proud to highlight contributor Joshua Bridgwater Hamilton, following his successful release of Rain Minnows​ with Gnashing Teeth Publishing. Hamilton is a splendid, regional voice in South Texas, whose work is masterful in its composition and poignant in its commentaries. Hamilton's work is an unconstrained exploration of creative writing often featuring bilingual works, that challenge our linguistic perceptions and enchant us with uniquely vivid imagery.

Here, we've curated a small sample of Hamilton's recent works, but please be sure to check out Rain Minnows,​ which will be linked down below!

Night Crystals 

Walk into new snow: 
Night of mirror, blank page, 
And rustle of warm kernel 
Where frost fingers breach numbness 
Into snow-sphere and crystal cackle – 
Jagged soft soundprint. 
Park all got up in bright mantle; 
Within pink flush of city 
Pulse scribbles the small hollows: 
Typocriptic shedding 
Of muscle memory 
Into the congress of boughs – 
Our chorus settles 
With a long, creaking sigh. 

Evolution of the Lunger 
 
Esta tormenta 
huddles its tortoise shell over the shocked birth — un pez, 
a floodsy gripe, un grito, then ponderous 
ponderosa bass fills the looming (sangre en el templo). 
Suspira… because its back again, 
mouth gaping — boca grande -- 
suffering oxygen instead of pure water. 
Agua, Acqua, Aquatic -- 
the fish swimmer lives 
between clear current 
and mirror sky: 
el cielo, la corriente, pasos pesados 
llenando sin hueco. 

Notopia 
 
The virtue model stagnates 
at 6 a.m.  At 9 a.m., all wind unwound, 
the unrequited state of grace to be found 
in the middle of a bottle, is purified by water. 
Impetus given by starvation of conduct, 
we there vacuum off the dust-mites 
and glass-top glamour.  Suck up 
the strychnine energy, the devils in mitosis 
will keep the fervor rolling a static ruckus. ​

Joshua Bridgwater Hamilton is a Louisville, KY native who migrated to Corpus Christi with his family.  Between Kentucky and Texas, he has traveled and lived in several places, including Spain, Appalachia, Panamá, Peru, the Philippines, and the Colorado River.  He has published a chapbook, Slow Wind, with Finishing Line Press, and his poetry appears in such journals as Windward Review, Driftwood, Voices de la Luna, and Noble/Gas Qtrly. 

Hamilton's latest collection, Rain Minnows, can be found on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3brwzCN