Poetry

Two Poems

By Rabiqe Nazim qizi

March 2016
Rabiqe Nazim qizi

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...
Five Poems

By Conceição Lima

January 2016
Conceição Lima

Photo: Kris Williams/Flickr Archipelago The enigma is some other thing – no gods live here Just men and the sea, immovable inheritance. Undeniable By dowry I received you at birth and I recognize...
Two Poems

By Kim Hyesoon

January 2016
Kim Hyesoon

Photo: Vincent Brassinne (Flickr.com/vainsang) Sand Woman A woman was lifted from the sand. She was perfectly intact, not even a split hair. When he left they say she didn’t eat or sleep. She didn’...
Four Poems

By Walle Sayer

January 2016
Walle Sayer

Editorial note: The Swabian versions of the following poems are read by the author. The English versions are read by Tegan White-Nesbitt. Abwesenheitsnotiz Aushäusig dahei...
Two Poems

By Iossif Ventura

January 2016
Iossif Ventura

Photo: Public Domain/Pixabay Untitled The wildflowers don’t bloom on command nor can their seeds be sown rebellious winds whirl at dawn winnowing seeds toward the ossuaries of the fields...
The Half-Life of a Lapsed Ex-Fisher

By Stephanie McKenzie

January 2016
Stephanie McKenzie

Photo by Fiona Baxter/Flickr i He once sold a portion of himself to a fish packing plant, slipped in the crates of the headless and dressed when all eyes were blu...
Two Poems

By Hedy Habra

November 2015
Hedy Habra

Jeremy Miranda, Salt Marsh, 2014, acrylic on panel. Courtesy of the artist. How Much of Yourself Remains Within the Walls of a Home? after Jeremy Miranda’s Salt Marsh (2014)...
Four Poems

By Mei-Tal Nadler

May 2015
Mei-Tal Nadler

Photo by Ryan Godfrey X Days After the Amnesia Epidemic We set out on this road knowing we would discover nothing amazing. We didn’t expect to find a new route to Mercury, we didn’t imagine we woul...
The Canvas of Encounter. Tàpies

By Andrés Sánchez Robayna

November 2015
Andrés Sánchez Robayna

Antoni Tàpies, Porta metàl·lica i violí, 1956, 200 x 150 x 13 cm. Back then I learned that the painter’sgesture contains both the movement of the planetand the blade of grass on the mountain...
Two Poems

By Zsuzsa Takács

September 2015
Zsuzsa Takács

Egon Schiele, Portrait of Wally Neuzil, 1912, oil on wood (32 x 39.8 cm). © 2015 Leopold Museum, Wien, Austria. www.leopoldmuseum.org/en/leopoldcollection/masterpieces/33 On Vision Wally...
Two Poems

By Joshua Bennett

September 2015
Joshua Bennett

Photo by Andrew Toskin Still Life with Toy Gun for Tamir Rice and John Crawford III after the after-party empties both of its fists the seven of us gather like a murderof crows to loose...
Taxonomy

By Frank Paino

September 2015
Frank Paino

Adam and Eve,by Gail Caulfield, Villa Montalvo (Italy) Genesis 2: 18–22 After a while, the glitter began to fade, the way a bright star, regarded full-...
Two Poems

By Tahel Frosh

May 2015
Tahel Frosh

Tahel Frosh. Photo by Alon Porat הרי ספרד אֲנִי כּוֹתֶבֶת אֶת מַה שֶּׁלֹּא יִתָּכֵן כִּי יֵשׁ מִי שֶׁמְּדַבְּרִים עַל כֶּסֶף בְּאִינְטִימִיוּת מִי שֶׁמַּעֲבִירִים בִּזְרָמִים חוּשָׁנִיִּים כֶּסֶף שֶׁ...
Reborn

By Forugh Farrokhzad

March 2015
Forugh Farrokhzad

Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography All my being is a dark verse that repeats you to the dawn of unfading flowering and growth. I conjured you in my poem with a sigh and grafted you to water, fire...
Two Poems from “Standing on Earth”

By Mohsen Emadi

March 2015
Mohsen Emadi

Photo by ~dgies/Flickr Bilingual recordings by the author and Lyn Coffin 9 Death is when the heart does not beat and the clock beats. Love is when the heart beats and the...
Another Birth

By Forugh Farrokhzad

March 2015
Forugh Farrokhzad

[Click here to read the lyrics in Farsi.] The whole of my being is a dark verse of Scripture which in its repeated recitations will take you away to the dawn of eternal buddings and bloomings. I...
A Country in the Leader’s Eyes, a Country in the People’s Eyes

By Misrak Terefe

January 2015
Misrak Terefe

Misrak Terefe (far right) with fellow Ethiopian performance poets. This says the meaning of country is sitting in the balance.In order to say, to be able to see,the balance, the leader must...
A Suite of Contemporary Ethiopian Poetry

By Eric Ellingsen

January 2015
Eric Ellingsen

For a group of art performances in July 2013 called Wax and Gold organized by the Netsa Art Village, visual artist Mulugeta Gebrekidan presented “Invading Samsung Square” to protest the corp...
A Welder of the Word

By Niyi Afolabi

January 2015
Niyi Afolabi

for Mia Couto Dream, Dream, Dream.Never cease to dream Dream on, MiaYour beginning A tale of yesterdays Your today A tale of future...
Two Poems by Luljeta Lleshanaku

By Luljeta Lleshanaku

November 2014
Luljeta Lleshanaku

Photo by Brent Pearson/Flickr Negative Space I I was born on a Tuesday in April.I didn’t cry. Not because I was stunned. I wasn’t even mad.I was the lucky egg, trained for gratitudeinside the belly f...
Five Poems by Ana Blandiana

By Ana Blandiana

November 2014
Ana Blandiana

Photo: Kristina Sheppard/Flickr A Young Horse I’ve never figured out what world I live in.I rode on a horse as young and as happy as I.When he galloped I could feel his heartbeatAgainst my thighsAnd...
Five Poems by Julia Fiedorczuk

By Julia Fiedorczuk

November 2014
Julia Fiedorczuk

Photo by Alberto Varela Bio How unlike a dead fish a live fish is – Maxine Hong Kingston Kiedy byłam rybąKosmos jak zawsze okrągłyMiał przytulne ściany Śniłam o boskich pł...
Two Poems by Lawson Fusao Inada

By Lawson Fusao Inada

November 2014
Lawson Fusao Inada

Todd Stewart, “Fence Line, Tule Lake Relocation Center, 2001,” from Placing Memory: A Photographic Exploration of Japanese American Internment (University of Oklahoma Press, 2008). Eating No...
Two Poems by Amarsana Ulzytuev

By Amarsana Ulzytuev

September 2014
Amarsana Ulzytuev

The author reading at the Gogol House Museum in Moscow, February 2014. Photo © Anna Dikareva. Listen to videotaped recordings of both Russian originals in the following clip (4:00-10:05). Shenhe...
Audio Recording of “The Swallows”

By G. Mend-Ooyo

September 2014
G. Mend-Ooyo

Swallows. Photo by Kenneth Cole Schneider/Flickr The Swallows G. Mend-Ooyo Returning from afar, swallows in flocksEmbrace the tales of the gentle, tranquil steppe.The waters of eter...