Poetry

Table of Contents JANINE POMMY VEGA Wartime Kitchen Mean Ol’ Badger Blues SIMIN BEHBAHANI It’s Time to Mow the Flowers ABBAS SAFFARI Saturday Night Dinner JANINE POMMY VEGA Wartime Kitchen I think of Yannis Ritsos’s women marching to the kitchen at the first sound of war I think of the bulk of Grandma in Jersey…

Three Poems by Andy Clausen and Bo Baba             A Million to One I felt the fire with no heat or burn I endured the unmanifested wound no doctor could diagnose no healing teacher no priest had a clue Sleep would not arrive a smile would have shattered my face a simple pleasure would have…

 Poetry Section Table of Contents ALLEN GINSBERG Open Letter (Sept. 30, 1972) ANNE WALDMAN Bury the Skull of a Yak From “The Protest Diaries” WANDA COLEMAN The War of Wars ELIOT KATZ Three Poems Poetry Section ALLEN GINSBERG Open Letter (Sept. 30, 1972) In this open letter from the Fall of 1972, Allen Ginsberg urged…

Two Poems by Nicanor Parra (translated by Liz Werner) Something Like That PARRA LAUGHS like he’s condemned to hell but when haven’t poets laughed? at least he declares that he’s laughing they pass the years pass the years at least they seem to be passing hypothesis non fingo everything goes on as if they were…

We Really Can’t Talk about it in any authentic kind of way. There’s at least one Way, let’s leave it at that.  Plain and simple.  Let’s say, The sun’s setting.  I don’t like to brag or anything, but that’s pretty Spectacular this sunset.  What I mean to say is, we’re looking Straight at it, a tropical island shimmers on…

Poetry Shalom, Salaam by Jabari Jones Shalom may the bullets go on strike and study war no more Salaam may the bombs fall in love with the body and refuse to blow Shalom may the agents of Mossad step into the light of day and pray to live again Salaam may the agents of Hamas…

I All the photographs are lies, she looks Normal in them, like other people, Not mad, not spilling lava, Her eyes are compelling as doe’s eyes, And she did not know this, and the worst of it is She looks alive. Putting the photos away, I keep thinking How small and afraid she was in…

A Special Section of Israeli and Palestinian Poets featuring: Rivka Miriam, Mureed Barghouthy, Shaul Knaz, Fadwa Tuqan, Yehuda Amichai, Anton Shammas, Karen Alkalay-Gut, and Mahmoud Darwish Rivka Miriam Translated by Daniel Weissbort and Orna Raz, and by Linda Zisquit, from the Hebrew So by the altar …. So, by the altar, Isaac wished to remain,…

by Huu Thinh Translated from the Vietnamese by George Evans and Nguyen Qui Duc In Phan Thiet He owns nothing, not even a blade of grass Though the hills are wide, not even a small plot of earth, Yet my brother belongs to the land and sky of Phan Thiet. It was here he first…

WCW BLUES  Sexual lust may weaken me but I’ve always come back to my senses Sweet Free Emotion no one is corny here Sister, Brother It permeates! It melds and it coats and immerses It entwines and conceives It is gestating It is birthing! It’s composing It’s decomposing It has become One with the language!…