Author note: These poems are part of a longer sequence that Golan and I collaborated on for my new collection, Footnotes in the Order of Disappearance. All the poems are bas…
Poetry
God Is BurningThrough an open wound in God’s left side,springtime enters into the world,sticky, green, with a taste of iron.That’s not the wound I hurt from.There’s a dull pain…
[untitled]Dear Lombard fog maternal densesix in the morning, winter,espresso machines are steamingin the first bars to open in the square.The city of gravestones is quiet, each has a name:under the sa…
[1]feichi lali mülen ñi nontual katrütuleufün feichi lali mülen ñi nontual katrütuleufünchem trewa ngiyulaenew, nielan trewatrongli trewa nümüal…
Who are these people marching at noontide?Why do we hear these beating drums?What are the pigeons looking for on fluttering banners?What are the scattered words that stain the air?Sweat soaks the squa…
Photo: Daniel Simon[1] this oursthat it be a unionof scissors: cutthe hair, the hems,the cord thatfeeds me worry withevery bite, mysecret familyline. Cut itas if it w…
From Yousef Khanfar’s project Humanity at Large, in cooperation with the United Nations. Khanfar writes, “These photos are impressionistic images that show human beings as islands within the…
Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978), Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, 1914, oil on canvas, 69 x 85 cm, private collectionMy village sits on a circular platform. The gate of every house faces to…
There’ll be no more mother. We’ll have to live nowWith the looks on the faces of our friends,And half-open windows, and lamps that go onBy themselves, and an egg standing on a plate. Last night…-
Sam Roxas-Chua 姚, Pilgrim, 27 x 51 in., sumi-e and squid ink. www.samroxaschua.comStill of our world, dear father, in your graveOr at my winter window, looking hardInto a life you never knew…
The 200,000 lights in the Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation in Paris represent the number of deportees sent from France to Nazi concentration camps. Photo by Zak / Flickr Martyrs of the Depo…
Photo by C.P. Ewing / Flickr "The sky has never seen such a moon” The sky has never seen such a moon, not even in its dreams,No water could ever extinguish the fire of its light,Look at my b…
Valery's "cemetery by the sea," Sète, France / Photo by Mathieu / FlickrAn Encouragementby Yoo An-Jin“The wind is rising!We must try to live!”So said Paul Valéry.How shall I adopt that Frenchman’s lea…
For more, read Daniel Simon’s interview with Ted Kooser, “Starving for Order.”The ConstellationI was on my way home from a party,ten-thirty, a dark winter night, no stars,a few snowflakes driftin…
Photo: Ath-Har Saeed / Flickr I play on the water.It’s not completely necessary or required, but things flow under the treeslike a gentle melody. Day unto dayuttereth…
Mona Nicole Sfeir, The Maps of Our Making (detail), 2015, acrylic, chalk, collage on canvas. Political maps are human constructs that have continuously changed since the first maps were scratched onto…
Photo: Daniel Ebneter/FlickrCrossroadsAll winter I didn’t write a poem, and I didn’t remembereven one dream that I dreamt. I left a houseand a wife, rented an apartment, and everything I neededI found…
Photo: Daniel SimonEgretThe bird was just searchingfor food not metaphors –or taking rest from a day’s flightIt was dusk after all and its ancestorswho might have crossed the MiddlePassage, crossed th…
Satiro della Valle, Capitoline Museums, RomeЭти бездонные ночи в июлеЭти бездонные ночи в июле, О!Ты вопрошаешь: — Меня обманули?…
Photo courtesy of the authorI.A mark across the body. The morning I watched my beloved uncle disappear down the alley. His car left sitting in our yard for thirty days. This tattoo we…
Norman Akers (Osage), The Gathering (2012), lithograph, 22 3/4 x 16 3/8 in / Courtesy of the artist (normanakers.com)Summers we lie out on the hot porchpalms splayed—raising flames from ragwe…
Tony Tiger (Sac & Fox / Muscogee),Intertribal / Courtesy of the artist(facebook.com/tony.tiger.5268)IMix cultures of homeWest Africa West Indies disrupted along slave tradeFrench and…
Photo: Ruth Ellison/Flickrfor someone who’s been delayedon a cold, gray, rainy daytakes me backto that little girl waiting in the cold car with the littler onesas the night took over the skywhile…
Photo: David Hepworth/Flickri pull my brothers from words, stupid injun, shot like bullets. when people ask why my brothers hated school i say: the spirit remembers what it’s like to be left…
Photo: Jin Choi/FlickrAll the mangoes I’ve tastedin California were imported and lost their true flavors in transit. And, even though all the mangoes I’ve enjoyed in Hawai’i were homegr…
