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Alone in Babel, Arts & CultureJune 20, 2014

Round 1: Denmark-Scotland

PREAMBLE

Bearing in mind that Denmark and Scotland are the locations for two of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, what could be more appropriate than asking Lady Macbeth to give today’s team talk?

‘I have given suck,’ she explains, threatening the Shakespearean equivalent of the hairdryer treatment, ‘and know/How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me…
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
… screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.’

Thanks for that, Lady MacB. With those fury-flecked words of inspiration still echoing from the dressing room walls, it’s time to meet today’s Poetry World Cup contenders.

Representing Denmark are the ‘words, words, words’ of Amalie Smith, a writer and visual artist who made her literary debut with ‘The next 5000 days’ (Gyldendal, 2010), a hybrid text which brings together prose, poetry and photography. A second collection, ‘I CIVIL’, is currently being translated into English by Paul Russell Garrett.

Ryan Van Winkle comes from Connecticut, but has been based in Edinburgh for over a decade and represents Scotland in our world cup. He is currently Poet-in-Residence at Edinburgh City Libraries, and he records a weekly podcast for the Scottish Poetry Library. The Glasgow Review has described his poetry as being ‘at the forefront of a shift to something new, it is on the way to a perfection of some new movement.’

                              Ryan Van Winkle

from I CIVIL

April is the loveliest
of the 48 months,
we’ve known each other

Now it’s light out, before I wake

I experience it as overexposed
overheated dreams
**
I wake up when the sun appears
from behind the house
as if it had slept in a box…

~ Amalie Smith, trans. Paul Russell Garrett

Read the full poem (in Danish and English)

Wait, Listen, If

If you are reading this
I hope you are going slow,
that the gulls have clasped
their constant beaks. If
the roads are icy, test
the brakes when you are alone
see if you slide. Leave
the fools and cowboys
to their wreckage

                wait…

~ Ryan Van Winkle

Read the full poem

 

RESULT: Scotland won by 9 votes

Editor’s note: If, for any reason, you’re unable to vote in the poll, please leave the name of the poem/country you’d like to vote for in the comments. 

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Amalie SmithDenmarkPoetry World CupRyan Van Winkle

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Previous articleRound 1: Cyprus-Serbia
Next articleRound 1: England-Russia

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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Round 1: Cyprus-Serbia

Match eight in The Missing Slate's Poetry World Cup.

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