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
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)
Michael Simms: Three Young Poets Drinking All Night In the Cemetery of the Black Angel, Iowa City, 1977
as if we could carry away the urn
of grief long dead parents felt for their child
lost to diphtheria, typhus, pox or pure accident
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.
Lisel Mueller: Place and Time
My life began
with Beethoven and Schubert
on my mother’s grand piano
Ma Yongbo: On the Farm in the North
It is quiet all around, only the two of us—
no red flags, no father, no yellow military uniforms.
The army seems to have withdrawn,
leaving us there, forgotten.
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.
