Half the Kingdom/Det halve rige
“I neither cut off a toe, nor shaved off a heel/ just minced my way through it all/ with a smile…” Poem of the Week (October 12), by Jesper Wung-Sung, translated from Danish by Lindy Falk van Rooyen.
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a dua for the masses
“This is… for you who cut yourselves open to feel something already lost, /for you who skip prayers to smoke…”
Poem of the Week (September 28)
“I came to go back the favour”
“Not knowing they were medically induced/ he married her for steady eyes,/ lingering vowels, for,/ in the library, her drawing of vinegary pens/ over print….” Poem of the Week (September 21), by Hannah January.
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Letter (after Dionne Brand)
“exhausting, these post-modern certainties/ no truth, no meaning, no author/ no beauty I suppose in the old songs of remembering…”
Poem of the Week (September 7), by John Robert Lee.
Keeping a date/Acudiendo a la cita
“The fugitive’s road is always long./ Every place is always too/ close to be the end.” Poem of the Week (August 17), by Felipe BenÃtez Reyes. Translated from Spanish by Anna Rosenwong.
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Tornadoes
“Every week/ I am reminded of how my presence isn’t wanted/ in my own home country and I have to swallow/ that truth like a glass of water. I gulp it down // and nearly suffocate every time…”
Poem of the Week (July 27), by Deonte Osayande.
Echoes: A Historical Afterward
“The truth is you are part of the same tribe/But no one speaks about that//The reason is it’s easier to be a threat/How else can they justify the killing.” Poem of the Week (July 20), by Nathalie Handal.
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A Pakistani Poet’s Complaint
“Apollo only showers acclaim and accolade/ on the hesitant, reluctant/ crop of Pakistan’s 9/11 English language novelists/ with their liberal credentials, hurt countenances…” Poem of the Week (July 13), by Raza Ali Hasan.
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The View from Seventy
“The enemy//to watch out for is the one who enters stealthily with unmarked/baggage…” Poem of the Week (July 6), by Saleem Peeradina.
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In the Unlikely Event of the Apocalypse
“The world is ending// & we have been here before.”
Poem of the Week (June 29), by Natalie Wee.