Poetry

  • Winter 2019

    A thrashing figure in shadow immersed in water
       By Ennio Moltedo
    Photo: Bash Fish/Unsplash   1 At what time must the birds lined up in gardens, trees, and cages sing? Look to the law.   2 Let’s appoint the village madman. Chief Justice on the Court of Appeals, wit...

  • Winter 2019

    A turbulent wave, capped with foam, from above
       By Khal Torabully
    Photo: Michael Olsen/Unsplash [Carry my metaphor] Carry my metaphor; I touched the sea before waves deceived me. Carry my dream; I saw it all without opening eyes of salt. Carry my soul; I met dea...

  • Winter 2019

    A fiery sunset pauses before dipping below the ocean's horizon
       By Sharmistha Mohanty
    Photo: Kordula Vahle/Pixabay * Granaries as long  and winding as the shores from which we look  at the lit ocean, behind us the fertile land, rivers coming to this sea, silt behind us thousands...

  • Winter 2019

    A purple flower against a black background, sitting on reflective surface so it appears there are two flowers
       By Namrata Verghese
    Photo: Foto-Rabe/Pixabay   Guide to Bharatanatyam  Your smile, shredded into silver shards across panes of mirrors lining studio walls.Tuck your sari, tight. Open your eyes, wide.  You lear...

  • November 2018

    A closeup of browned leaves on a tree branch
       By Xavier Bordes
    Photo: Claus Grünstäudl/Unsplash Maybe it will be like the end of a yearwhen you find yourself alone in a deserted roomlike a statue at the end of a public garden pathfaced with bare autumn after the...

  • November 2018

    A blunt ink and water painting of a man offering a bird's head to a large bird figure
       By Ashur Etwebi
    In the Presence of the Simurg, by Ashur Etwebi How Can You Recognize a Blue Morning? How can you recognize a blue morning?The sea to his right, the desert to his left. What voices does the m...

  • November 2018

    A hand mirror is open, its dull face open to the reader, on a table
       By Mehrdad Fallah
    Photo: Ria Alfana/Unsplash   A Conversation from Far, Far Away * No linedear friendconnects here, where I am,with where you are.Isn’t it strange that I’m talking to you? The question you handed meh...

  • November 2018

    A garden surrounds the memorial to Celia Sánchez in Cuba
       By Alice Walker
    A garden surrounds the memorial to Celia Sánchez in Cuba. Photo: Clara Sanchiz/Flickr But there we were a small contingentwaiting for Her.A nun showed up first,of course,this being hundreds of years...

  • November 2018

    The sun shines through plants alongside the Han River
       By Hwang Tong-gyu
    Pampas grass on the Han River. Photo: dnlspnk/Flickr Wild Geese At the northern edge of the Han RiverI saw field-cannons marchdown the snowdrifts of the valley. Wild geese flew low.I woke to see mys...

  • November 2018

    A close up of tree seeds opening to the world
       By Kedarnath Singh
    Photo: Momoko Morita/Pixabay The Earth Shall Remain I’m surethe earth shall remain,if not elsewhere,it shall remain in my bones;as a wood louse lives in the trunk of a tree,as a weevil lives in a see...

  • November 2018

    An abstract photograph
       By Ivy Alvarez
    Photo: Lizzie/Unsplash   Nag-aagaw-dilim Filipino idiom meaning twilight (literally, snatching darkness) Hold the flashlight and I’ll raise my hands, make these shapes for you to g...

  • September 2018

    The flag of Ethiopia spray painted on a brick wall
       By Eric Ellingsen, Mihret Kebede
    Photo: Pixabay / David Peterson A Sound Flag: United States of America by Eric Ellingsen Author’s note: The flag is part of Poetry Jazz: Wax...

  • September 2018

    Many pieces of luggage, all spray painted uniformly with a metallic sheen, stacked into a wall
       By Cia Rinne, Nebiy Mekonnen
    Photo: Pixabay / Kaserei   Friends and Enemies by Cia Rinne (stockhausen’s childhood) the french were our enemiesand the e...

  • September 2018

    Light from a sunset reflected in water
       By Mihret Kebede
    Photo: Pixabay / Kaz   የጸጥታ ወግ  በጸጥታ መኃል…. አርምሞ ለሰማ ጸጥታ ወግ አለው…. ሚኒሊክ እንዳለውአሁን እኔና አንተ… አሁን አንተና እኔ ካወራው ሁላ የትኛው ተወዶ… የትኛው ተጠላ ?፤ይሄ...

  • September 2018

    A painting of opera singer Leontyne Price
       By Kevin Simmonds
    Bradley Phillips, Leontyne Price (1963), oil on canvas, 127.6 x 92.1 cm, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, gift of Ms. Sayre Sheldon, npg.si.edu Weather Event: Leontyne Pri...

  • September 2018

    Jaz Graf, Between What Was, 2018, toned cyanotype and serigraphy on paper, 25 x 33 in.
       By Monchoachi
    Jaz Graf, Between What Was, 2018, toned cyanotype and serigraphy on paper, 25 x 33 in. [Listen to the poem in the original Creole]   And the musicians played tunes of madness               ...

  • September 2018

    Close-up of the blue sequins on a dress
       By Samantha Thornhill
    Photo: Hans Braxmeier/Pixabay Blue Soca Fugue  He thought it would be a good idea to invite Andie.I’ve always loved men who swim in the ink of their ideas.I loved that brown suit of skin he wore.The...

  • September 2018

    Stacks of shipping containers in primary colors
       By Andrea Cote Botero
    Shipping containers in Barcelona, Spain. Photo: Rubén Bagüés/Unsplash Merchant Ships And then they are fleetswakes,excessesof ships in the night. Among swells of mistset looseby the mouth of the abys...

  • September 2018

    The bloom of an exotic flower
       By Salgado Maranhão
    Photo: Hans Benn/Pixabay Delirica II You speak (while walking) psalmsof flame,a luminous design ofchamber music.The forbidden fruit in your traintempts warriors and far-flung mariners.You speak the m...

  • September 2018

    A black and white photograph of tangled roots at the base of a tree
       By Ursula Andkjær Olsen
    Photo: Matt Artz * so many deadtheir eyeballs are filling this vessel gravevesselgravevesselthe earth is a slow fire re: counting the dead: I have a strategy in placeI HAVE A STRATEGY IN PLACE   * l...

  • September 2018

    An observation tower rises out of the swirling froth atop a sea wall
       By Yi Sha
    Photo: Momoko Morita/Pixabay Suitability The typhoon has arrived.Wind force 12.It is merciful. From this city,it has taken only one person away,the one with unkempt hair.The one who wanders all day a...

  • September 2018

    An extreme close-up of a thread passing through the eye of a needle
       By Nazem Elsayed
    Photo: Andrew Magill/Flickr The Blind Thread If only I were the rubbing of shoulders in crowded places,the sympathetic applause,the neck that turns to change the view and move a life.If only I were t...

  • July 2018

    A painting of three fishes stacked on one another, composed using a kind of brutish pointillism
       By Salim Barakat
    A detail of a painting by Salim Barakat Translator’s note: Salim Barakat’s language is intimidatingly dense and complex, flaunting a vast and daunting vocabulary. His texts possess...

  • July 2018

    A painting of a woman's face, composed of mostly angular lines
       By Hero Kurda
    Ismail Khayat, A Girl, 2015, Sulaimani, 40 x 27, acrylic paint and colored pencils on paper You in Me On the shore of the warm seaI standMy heels kiss your shoresI lift my dress to my knees...

  • July 2018

    A painting of a woman's face, composed in angular lines
       By Sherko Bekas
      Photo: Ismail Khayat, A Girl, 2015, Sulaimani, 40 x 27, acrylic paint and colored pencils on paper. Answer After Halabja* suffocated,I wrote a long complaint to GodBefore...
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