Poems

Nation Poetry

Saying I Am a Survivor in Another Language Saying I Am a Survivor in Another Language

We are in the moment before we decide, for the first time, to have sex. We fill our mouths with salami and wine. I am careful, peeling wax paper off glazed sponge cake baked by nun…

Jun 15, 2021 / Books & the Arts / Taneum Bambrick

Nation Poetry

DISCOURSE ON WHY INMATES EXIT PRISON WORSE THAN WHEN THEY WENT IN DISCOURSE ON WHY INMATES EXIT PRISON WORSE THAN WHEN THEY WENT IN

Bet you thought there was no such thing as too kind. I can’t write it into this poem without admitting kindness is a synonym for “too close” when its nectared syllables sap these p…

Jun 15, 2021 / Books & the Arts / B Batchelor

Nation Poetry

Boxes of Ashes Boxes of Ashes

México lindo y querido, si muero lejos de tí, que digan que estoy dormido y que me traigan aquí. —Chucho…

Jun 10, 2021 / Poems / Rigoberto González

Nation Poetry

Observations from the conqueror’s diary Observations from the conqueror’s diary

When the British invaded Tibet in 1904, the Tibetan rulers fled, and waited from a distance for the river to turn blue. It is not clear what they did with their time. The victors w…

Jun 8, 2021 / Poems / Tsering Wangmo Dhompa

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

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