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Literature, PoetryDecember 2, 2015

FM-Biography

Listening What by Usman Ghouri. Image Courtesy ArtChowk Gallery.

Listening What by Usman Ghouri. Image courtesy ArtChowk Gallery.

Click here to read this poem in the original Polish

Such stories happen on the road —
the hitchhiker says: ‘wherever’
and you know where. There’s an easier way, there are
such places: pools of spilt light cool as billycans,
the snail-slow pulse of passing towns. Night
tastes of arsenic, mint. My friend-from-nowhere, when I was small
I washed my hair with lemon soap, witnessed spirits
on flyovers, out-of-this-world. And here, on radio,
biographies get written: ‘weather forecast for night travellers’. We get it:
tomorrow’s sun will be plush
and strewn. Corn’s ears burn, a quiet
crackle, with the ladybirds, grasshoppers,
dill’s white scraps. The seasons’s ending. After us,
brother, after us, the flood.

~ Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało, trans. from Polish by Clare Pollard

Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało is an award-winning poet with eight volumes to her name; she also writes novels, journalism and books for children. She is also known for her performance readings and her promotion of women’s writing in Poland.

Clare Pollard was born in Bolton and currently lives in London.  Her first collection of poetry, ‘The Heavy-Petting Zoo’ (Bloodaxe, 1998) was written whilst she was still at school, and received an Eric Gregory Award. Her most recent full collection, ‘Changeling’, was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She works as a journalist, editor and teacher, and is a core tutor on the new Poetry School/University of Newcastle Poetry MA.

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Agnieszka Wolny-HamkaloClare PollardPoem of the WeekpoetryPolishtranslations

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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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Agnieszka Wolny-Hamkało's 'FM-Biography' in the original Polish.

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