Portrait of a Girl at the Border Wall
“where do I put her?/ this girl pressed against the border/ this girl swallowing her papers whole…”
A poem against borders, by Sarah Lubala.
poetry
Midnight Train to Georgia
“Didn’t you know/ I was afraid to count the music/ on your side of midnight…”
A poem against borders, by Nathalie Handal.
From ‘Petra’
“El-Siq says, be patient,/ persist for your eyes and feet/ to deserve this journey’s exhaustion./ The road will lengthen between light and shadow,/ the sky will disappear…”
Poem of the Week (February 15), by Amjad Nasser. Translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah.
The Worst Ghosts
“Define in, I say when anyone asks/ if I’ve ever been in a war…”
Poem of the Week (February 8), by Hala Alyan.
Mythmaking
“We will both skitter and yield in the coming months,/ like the surface of unbuilt ice.”
Poem of the Week (February 1), by Hala Alyan.
a dream of Barbara Hepworth’s greenhouse
“In the grass and tree light and in the trees around me (though I cannot see) the men are turning to gold.”
Poem of the Week (January 25), by Edwina Attlee.
after Francis Thompson: a glosa
“at the turning of the year// in sight of 70, anticipating retreat/ I know the Kingdom’s door will swing//to receive me soon some new year morning…”
Poem of the Week (January 18), by John Robert Lee.
The Gypsy/الغجرية
“She knows the time/ from the way the roses bend,/ from how far or near the sky is…”
Poem of the Week (January 11), by Dunya Mikhail. Translated from Arabic by the poet.
My mother calls me Srikandi
“A wren/ Of a beached thing, flailing, always once/ Something else.”
Poem of the Week (January 4), by Khairani Barokka.
Lately, I keep crossing
“I think about the woman with the palest skin/ sitting across the table from me. Think most/ of the cavernous spaces opaque by her eyes.”
Poem of the Week (December 21), by Lauren Camp.