Poetry

  • August 23, 2017 Shamshad Abdullaev
    John, “Fallen Angel,” August 29, 2010 Here and NowHere he is sitting across from the balcony door;the wind will blow – a wound. The rustling lightblushes and fades in the rectangular mirror – the…
  • August 15, 2017 Phoebe Giannisi
    Lorenzo Gaudenzi, “Agria,” September 15, 2016For more, read Brian Sneeden’s translator’s note on Giannisi’s work. (Nostos I)       …
  • August 7, 2017 Perrin Langda
    Tail light. Photo: Sarah-Rose/Flickr Pistoningseas rise andmountains flow a river spreadsin the bed of an undulatingvalley forestswither and entire citiesblossom people copulate thereon certain n…
  • August 2, 2017 B. B. P. Hosmillo
    coniferconifer, “water ablution pavilion,” November 30, 2013 Sparrows, SparrowsShe is a man in her late forties and nobody knows when she was born or when she built a silvery house at the notorio…
  • July 31, 2017 Laurence O’Dwyer
    Chañaral is a small coastal city in the Atacama region of Chile. Devastating flash floods in 2015 caused an estimated $1.5 billion in damage to the region. Photo by jipe7. worldlittoday · Chanaral…
  • July 26, 2017 Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee 
    Editorial note: This Sunday, July 30, marks the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, established in 2013 by the UN General Assembly. Nadia Murad—nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize…
  • July 24, 2017 Kedarnath Singh
    Mike Prince, “Black Drongo at Sunrise,” October 7, 2015Where Would I GoWhere would I goI shall only stay here,like a handprinton a doorjust to be there,I’ll be hidden inthe smell of a suitcasesitting…
  • July 20, 2017 Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee 
    Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani died of breast cancer on July 15 at the age of 40. A professor at Stanford University, Mirzakhani became the first woman to win the prestigious Fields Medal…
  • July 19, 2017 A. G. Pettet
    A H T, “Goreme – Pasabag,” December 5, 2014GöremeA ripple of flicking eyelids,a rooster’s cryand the call to prayerbreak through this dustyIslamic morning.I have been in this room before.The tense jaw…
  • July 4, 2017 Puneet Dutt
    Gary Burke, “Remembering 9/11,” September 11, 2014i’m from where the towers felli’m from where the towers felljaws where we mourned Tupacarmpit of a state bruised byhad-it-too-hard dollar ferries and…
  • June 19, 2017 Nausheen Eusuf
    Eros Bendato (Eros bound), bronze, 1999, by Igor Mitoraj, Kraków, Poland / Photo by Val KerryNot Elegy, But Eros          …
  • June 14, 2017 Matt Mason
    Rich, “On a Saturday Afternoon” (on the road from Royal, Nebraska, to the Ashfall Fossil Beds), May 25, 2013Creation StoriesMy favorite creation story right nowis the Babylonian one,where Apsu and Tia…
  • May 24, 2017 John Kinsella
    Geoff Whalan, “Mistletoe Bird (Diaceum hirundinaceum),” Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve, Middle Point, Northern Territory, Australia, November 8, 2015Graphology Endgame 55: AdjustmentWe have no…
  • May 22, 2017 Óscar Hahn
    Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase (1912), oil on canvas, 147 × 89.2 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art / The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950Desnudo bajando una escaleraEste…
  • May 15, 2017 Joanna Pollakówna
    Giovanni Bellini, Pietà (1505), oil on wood, 65 x 90 cm, Gallerie dell’Accademia, VeniceFor more on the poetry of Pollakówna, read “A Terrible Ecstasy,” a companion essay by Alice-Catheri…
  • February 8, 2017 Hendrik Marsman
    Seb, “Gilded/Glider,” Amsterdam, October 8, 2008from Zodiac Early in the morning he wanders through the city.The silence is unnerving, and quickly the streetraises empty eyes to…
  • January 25, 2017 Elisabeth Eybers
    Antti T. Nissinen, “Untitled” (spirit level), May 25, 2011Homesickness A house is something that stands up to a slopeby what it confronts on every side.But take note: say house in this c…
  • November 23, 2016 Diti Ronen
    Isis Olivier, La grive II (The thrush II), 2015. All illustrations courtesy of the artist.A Note on the Illustrations Diti Ronen: “I suddenly have this unexplained urge…
  • October 4, 2016 Geet Chaturvedi
    The translation of The Diamond Sutra by Kumārajīva of the Yao Ch’in dynasty, in a handwritten version by Zhang Jizhi of the Southern Song Dynasty in 1253. Kumārajīva had established…
  • September 27, 2016 Najib George Awad
    A refugee’s shoes are worn, wet, and muddy after a long journey. These shoes are owned by Ali, a Yazidi refugee who traveled from Iraq to Preševo, Serbia, to avoid persecution (photo by Meabh…
  • September 15, 2016 Lauren Camp
    Tony Webster, Dakota Access Pipeline protest at the Sacred Stone Camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, August 25, 2016This poem addresses the demonstrations against the Dakota Access Pipel…
  • September 13, 2016 Zofia Romanowicz
    Quinn Dombrowski, “Velvet Flower,” 2008For more, read “The Renaissance of Zofia Romanowicz,” an essay by Alice-Catherine Carls. The CircleLion fangs, bear claws…
  • July 27, 2016 Nader Naderpour
    Mohammadali F., “Daffodils,” Tehran, 2009Translator’s note: Regarded as one of the leaders of the movement of “New Poetry” in Iran, Nader Naderpour (1929–2000) composed many poems ce…
  • July 20, 2016 João Luís Barreto Guimarães
    Esther Schwarz, “Lush (66/365),” 2009. For more of Schwarz’s photos, visit Inside My Shell. Tangerinas de Natal«Será que eles ainda fazem?» Édomingopara segunda. Resolvesa teu f…
  • July 11, 2016 Aaron Brown
    Aaron Brown, “Brickyard,” Ati, Chad, March 2007Author’s note: I recently returned to Chad after a five-year absence and found the nation of my youth to be both the same and yet remar…