January 25, 2023
January 24, 2023
Poetry
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Illustration: Amina Rizwan after Tarfia Faizullah Here, by this tide of waste thatribbons black across empty fields, parched grass a girl gnawsand fills... -
A collage of two images by Alex Majoli, created by Daria Birang. Courtesy of Cherry Trees Gallery (Megève, France). To honor Mabanckou on the occasion of his visit to the University of O... -
A stream in Pico de Orizaba, Veracruz. Photo by Anwar Vazquez/Flickr xxxviii Then they landed in large pastures, light aircraftsof gringo registrationfrom which som... -
Photo by Julian Böck/Unsplash (Heavy Water #74: going down) i. the version of my father’s brother’s drowning i was raised on and preferis the one in which his frien... -
![Kathy Vargas (b. 1950, San Antonio), Oración: Valentine’s Day / Day of the Dead [Hand], ca. 1989–90, gelatin silver print with hand-coloring, 24x20 in.](https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_thumbnail/public/2016/september/kathyvargas-25.jpg?itok=sIxrSTeC)
Kathy Vargas (b. 1950, San Antonio), Oración: Valentine’s Day / Day of the Dead [Hand], ca. 1989–90, gelatin silver print with hand-coloring, 24x20 in. You must know, Lord, who was... -
The instrument did not choose this ceremony.My mother offered me five strings, nounswithout a grammar.I left my mother’s emptiness, to embrace my own.Whose darkness sits in the north,if no one can sin... -
Photo by Jordan Whitt/Unsplash U k’a’ajsaj a tuukul Kin k’áatiktuntimbáe’Bix a máan a ta’ak a wichtu bo’oy táanxel t’aanilKa’ a wa’al ma’atan a na’atik u t’aan Yum Iik’. A yuume’tu yu’ubaj a tsikba... -
![Kathy Vargas (b. 1950, San Antonio), Oración: Valentine’s Day / Day of the Dead [Rib Cage], ca. 1989–90, gelatin silver print with hand-coloring, 24x20 in. Vargas writes, “This series began as a remembrance of friends who recently died of AIDS.”](https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_thumbnail/public/2016/september/kathyvargas-22.jpg?itok=Ga0YK6IR)
Kathy Vargas (b. 1950, San Antonio), Oración: Valentine’s Day / Day of the Dead [Rib Cage], ca. 1989–90, gelatin silver print with hand-coloring, 24x20 in. Vargas writes, “This seri... -
i There is no possible house any longer.If there ever wasa first one mentioned,she is now in ruins and does not await returns,or transient guests still confusedwho arrive weary to scrutinize the dust... -
Photo by Paula Goodale Thistles and Gods Thistles and gods all withered in the sunLike the blanched remains of temples,Long and slender skeletons,Irrevocable examplesOf the burden of being immortal... -
In a Warm Bed (An Alba) by Tomasz Różycki In a warm bed, the minute just before dawn.A blackbird has woken up and is tracinga figure eight outside the window. Belowthe sound again of unknow... -
Image courtesy of the International Dunhuang Project as if a drunken body carried by handcart placed in a comfortable room, the coffinis now being lowered sutra engraved on the lidthough th... -
Photo: Himanshu Nerurkar The Ant Let it go back to the anthill. If it brushes inattentively against your fingersclimbs themand daydreamsin the furrows of your hand,don’t chase it away or squash it.... -
Willendorf Venus Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria. © Jorge Royan / commons.wikimedia.org Night is coming on.Pirate flags, family pictures,superhero figuresand the image of Venus de Willendorf... -
What One Leaf Tells In the wind, questions to heaven bang the white poplar. Answers fracture – a thousand white leaves. A thousand blameless mouths. A thousand. Ten thousand colorless excuses; I pi... -
Photo by Renate Dodell These are the closed doors of a hotel hallway. What once were dreams, what life will one day be. She dares to ask. Room 217 looks like a sunny Caribbean isle, like a shipwr... -
Photo by Kenneth Dellaquila Language Barrier “When you tell them about their own bodies,” My mentor told me, “realize Their anatomy is Greek to them. Their pupils dilate, pulses rise With all th... -
Photo by Benjamin Jakabek Photography alone i will live alone in a room with two birds, a cat and three flowers. in the mornings we will wake with blue eyes. in the... -
Photo by Zvika Melamed Song of the Younger Brother 1 I can think of nothing but the little one, the younger brother. He holds his father’s hand. Peering into the camera, h... -
A simurgh (a monstrous mythical bird with the power of reasoning and speech). From Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing, by al-Qazwīnī (d. 1283/682). Courtesy... -
Photo: Clarissa Bell To the Children of War Mornings, they run from the dark along the length of the seashore.Like an iron sword beaten by a blacksmith, the sun reddensas their feet strike the ground... -
Photo: Robert S. Donovan A Man’s Confession This is not simply loneliness. Your absenceis a terrible and bitter thing.Every night when I return, throwopen the front door, leavebehind all other amus... -
Photo: Unsplash We Shall Manage for Rabiqe, who doesn’t like to read sad poems our teardrops will drywe shall forget even the easiest of rebellions – rebellion against God we shall for... -
Bronze statue in Baku’s Fountain Square of a young woman in contemporary attire talking on a mobile phone, erected in 2014. Photo: Alison Mandaville I have broken a cup There is an ache in every corn... -
Photo: Stefan Schweihofer I Scatter Bread Crumbs to the Sparrows From my palms spills the joy of sparrows.I call them to the crumbs, Come quickly! and Who will be first?Their frozen bills wa...
