Ma Yongbo: Responding to My Deceased Father’s Order at Night (English & Chinese)
At last, we arrive at the small town of Sifangtai,
only my father stands there,
at the crossroads shrouded in thin mist
Helen Pletts: In the Presence of Things Flying Slower in a Grey Dusk (4 Poems in English and Chinese)
Rain from the Tang dynasty has re-surged,
all feelings gather in a fine mist, and lighter still is the joy of rain as a witness
to the landscape of fear fleeing like mist up the mountainside
George Yancy: It’s Not Enough to Abolish ICE — We Have to Abolish the Police
“What’s happening now has happened before,” Robin D. G. Kelley says, underscoring the anti-Blackness foundational to US fascism.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Late Afternoon Stroll on the Cliffs
We’re fast friends by now. Death much older of course,
but there’s no hierarchy between us: we’re both taking
a break from it all, glad to watch waves collapse on rocks
Lisel Mueller: Place and Time
My life began
with Beethoven and Schubert
on my mother’s grand piano
Barbara Hamby: Ode to Untoward Dreams
Have you ever dreamt you had sex with someone
you aren’t remotely interested in,
like a guy you work with or one of your husband’s friends
Mike James: Notes Towards An Informal Elegy
a nurse at her desk said, as i walked past,
your friend is very profane
yes, i said, he cusses creatively
in two languages
Jack Wolford: The Resurrection of Jack Wolford
(Being an anonymous manuscript that arrived in the mail)
Steve Loney: How to fight back when the federal government tries to silence you online
The freedom to openly criticize the government without penalty or punishment is the keystone of our democracy.
Virginia Raguin: Why Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgment’ endures
in 1536, Michelangelo was asked to create a painting for the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. For this 590 square feet, filled with 391 figures, he labored until 1541.
Delmore Schwartz: By Circumstances Fed
By circumstances fedWhich divide attentionAmong the living and the dead,Under the blooms of the blossoming sun,The gaze which is a tower towersDay and night, hour by hour,Critical of all and … Continue reading
Shelley Inglis: How to prevent elections from being stolen − lessons from around the world for the US
Citizens of many affected countries have learned various techniques to help protect the integrity of their elections and democracy that may be helpful to Americans today.
John Lawson: Flowers
A special tragedy, to survive
Almost till spring, when the nearing sun
Might quell dark fear, still
Convulsive shivering.
Woody Lewis: ‘A Stranger Comes To Town’, a novel by Lynne Sharon Schwartz
Lynne Sharon Schwartz begins her new novel, A Stranger Comes To Town, with Tolstoy’s maxim about plot: “All great literature is one of two stories: a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.”
Barbara Crooker: Things That Can Be Doubled
Team, time, troubles. It’s this,
or nothing. Boiler, barrel, bed, the blind’s
bind that puts us in jeopardy.
