In “My Greco-Russian Investigation, Reginald Gibbons adapts Pindar’s Third Pythian Ode to hold Donald Trump up to history. And with “The Goddess,” Kathleen Ossip moves from Dante’s Paradiso through her own apotheosis as Mommybody, traveling across the U.S. in search of a sustainable vision of the future.
“as they shake / the field around them / withers.” With sharp wit and and in terrible detail,
Maya Phillips retells the young goddess’ forced descent into a world where “she’d sooner be kin / of fire. // And so she’ll let herself burn / to steal herself back.”
“One of my friends died yesterday, back home. / My newest grandchild will be born next week. // Three Junes ago, the roses were first blooming. / This May, the roses are nearly ending. // But I woke up with the words in my head / seventy years of beauty.” Shifting between poetry and prose, Ann Fisher Wirth sifts a life among others far from home, in a small town in France.
“The visits lessened and lessened. They were pursuing their own deaths.” Victoria Chang‘s obituaries spiral out from the death of her mother into a series of wide-ranging, imaginative, and heart-breaking meditations.
Read excerpts from Faisal Mohyuddin’s new chapbook, as well as an introduction by Dilruba Ahmed.
“it occupies me,” writes Christina Davis in a brittle and bold new poem of a self among selves, “this errand out of narrowness.” “such as I was / I was eligible.”
Read excerpts from L.A. Johnson’s new chapbook, as well as an introduction by Tyler Mills.
“Who begs for school, in such a / yellow voice? // A mother determined / to set her children free.” Two new poems from Mahtem Shiferraw take on colors, exclusion, and words.
Read excerpts from Conor Bracken’s new chapbook, as well as an introduction by Nick Lantz.
“you can see the need / to monitor words not meant / for me He wants to talk / to ones who are bored / And me I am not bored I am / flying” A turbulent cross-country flight–along with 30 minutes of free internet–turns into a capacious and kind new poem from Tanya Olson.