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Literature, PoetryApril 5, 2017

It is easier

Death of an artist II, by Sausan Saulat. Image courtesy of ArtChowk Gallery

It is easier
to be deaf at midnight
than look after these girls
who fall
like petticoats or net curtains
when the wind drops
Three paper rosebuds
strung on an unbreakable thread

Thistles with blue heads
are playing draughts
on a dune of cards
with money spiders who smile
faintly like collectors of plants

My firstborn fell into a net
with square mesh
Black and white white like silver
black like night

~ Alice Rahon, trans. from French by Anna Kisby

Alice Rahon (1904-1987) was a French poet, artist and member of the Surrealist movement in Paris in the 1930s who emigrated to Mexico in 1939. Friend of André Breton and Frida Kahlo, and lover of Picasso, her poetry was published by Éditions Surrealists.

Anna Kisby is a poet based in Devon, UK. Her poems are widely published in UK magazines and anthologies. She won the BBC Radio Proms Poetry competition 2016, Havant Poetry Competition 2016 and she was commended in Faber’s New Poets Scheme 2015-16.

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Alice RahonAnna KisbyFrenchPoem of the WeekpoetrySausan Saulattranslations

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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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