“i want to believe / in the resurrection / of the body because / i have no memories / of birdsong.” In a new poem from Craig Santos Perez, documentary and lyric overlap in the destruction of both avian life and human culture on Guam.
“i want to believe / in the resurrection / of the body because / i have no memories / of birdsong.” In a new poem from Craig Santos Perez, documentary and lyric overlap in the destruction of both avian life and human culture on Guam.
“[H}e has outlived // everything but the taste / of his sons’ hair when gently / he kisses them incessantly // at the altar of their sleep.” In a new poem from Adam Tavel, Goya’s savage image of Saturn inhales decades of violence.
“I must learn / the language of rain / to speak to plants.” A handful of new poems from Tyree Daye summon the dead and the living, family and prayer. “If there is something perfect in life,” he writes, “let it come now.”
“His voice unzips / the few words he has formed // for this purpose, what he says / of coming apart.” The insidious dementia of a father fractures, assembles, retrieves, and unties in a new poem from Lauren Camp.
“The walls don’t have ears here. / Everybody is a woman here.” Zeina Hashem Beck weaves the conversations of women at a party into a world of song.
“When time breaks you can feel it in your body at noon when half the day is done and again at 3 pm when you are going home.” Page Hill Starzinger’s poem of her parents’ decline tries to restore the house they can no longer keep. “No, my father said, don’t do that, it’s not a good house.”
“A creak / A creaking / Your earth / Split and splayed” A crown of new poems from Ruth Ellen Kocher loops through outsets and aftermaths.
“Gramercy, that you sang in clicks to say / That all the world is stirring / And alive.” Six new songs of praise from Marly Youmans gather brilliance from the likes of dragonflies, sorrow, and marbles.
“Theories of comedy are no more comic in themselves than theories of sexuality are sexy.” Robert Archambeau digs into ideas of comedy and the poetry of Aaron Belz.
“What’s the word for…?” Philip Metres tells a life story in looking for words.