Poems

Nation Poetry

Adverbs, Fly Adverbs, Fly

Daddy, you always wake up at that hour. Not in my time zone, but in the deceased’s time zone, at that hour. N Daddy, a new daddy showed up like the way you whisper inside my crying…

Jun 1, 2021 / Poems / Kim Hyesoon

Nation Poetry

Final Poem for the ‘Field of Poetry’ Final Poem for the ‘Field of Poetry’

In the grip of a nor’easter, you come bearing grief, have in pieces not come in peace. You arrive bladed with certainty. You slam shut the car door and smolder before the locked ca…

Jun 1, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Phillip Williams

Nation Poetry

Searching for a Palestinian ‘After’ Searching for a Palestinian ‘After’

“The past is a future we return to” —Fargo Tbakhi After the Nakba, there was the Nakba of Before: Nakba of earth less-split, Nakba of root-less hollow, Nakba of take and take -back…

May 24, 2021 / Poems / George Abraham

Nation Poetry

from ‘The Angelgreen Sacrament’ from ‘The Angelgreen Sacrament’

You are afraid don’t be afraid be afraid don’t be afraid no one births you only my longing my angellonging and what I see is green arms and hands in your abandoned eye which is giv…

May 20, 2021 / Poems / Eva Kristina Olsson & translated by Johannes Göransson

Nation Poetry

Heaven Heaven

Apricots woolly by the hospital bed, a meal of light. The light falls on my mother’s hands. So much sunlight falls and does not get up but its hands pick up the dark and go on. Thi…

May 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Hua Xi

Nation Poetry

The Broken Bell The Broken Bell

I like, winter nights, to find in a heat lamp That beats and fumes, old memories Rising in the banging Of church bells through snow spray. Blessed be the bell of liberty That, anci…

May 4, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Daisy Fried

Nation Poetry

Overture to a Tragedy Overture to a Tragedy

Greetings to you who holds me close. I hold you close because of your beauty (I wanted to possess your beauty)— The beauty which leaves your body that remains. Greetings to you who…

Apr 20, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Kim Ok & translated by Ryan Choi

Nation Poetry

A Poem A Poem

It is not normal, a woman says Never has been, another said Ordinary, the men women make In parks, corners of street, rhyme Daily, I shut the window I pass messages by The so-calle…

Apr 20, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Jos Charles

Nation Poetry

To Julia de Burgos To Julia de Burgos

Already people murmur I’m your enemy since they say that in verse I give the world to me. They lie, Julia de Burgos. They lie, Julia de Burgos. The one rising in my verses isn’t yo…

Apr 10, 2021 / Poems / Julia de Burgos and Ilan Stavans

Nation Poetry

Ann Arbor doesn’t need streetlights Ann Arbor doesn’t need streetlights

Black ass is obvious at 2:00AM on Geddes Avenue. Should I blame N my thighs, sheering denim to skin windows? Or these cornbread- N cultivated hips Clifton passed on to me that seem…

Apr 6, 2021 / Poems / Courtney Faye Taylor

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