4 poems that wrung out our hearts & hung them to dry
Best new poetry in lit mags today feat. The Kenyon Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Isele Magazine, & Alien Magazine
We’ve done this for the past two months and I think it’ll be sticking around. Often, “best" lists tend to encapsulate poetry that’s been published a long time ago or perhaps only by really famous poets. We want to be inside the beating heart of the poetry community as it is living and breathing right now. This means actually reading the lit mags we ourselves love to submit to. And reading all the brilliant poetry being published all over the world today.
Below are just a handful of the best poems we’ve read in the past few weeks. Enjoy them, tell us what you think in the comments, & share your favorites too!
Fatal Music
Sarah Ghazal Ali via The Kenyon Review
FAVORITE LINE:
“I love most that object which evokes another. How the split fig on my tongue leaks honey, the gummy resin of eternal rivers.”
CRAFT MAGIC:
Spare prose poem with each micro-paragraph packed with sharp images.
Devotion and doubt are handled delicately.
Goes from the grand and godly to the primordial, deeply personal emotions between child and mother.
Omar Sakr via Cordite Poetry Review
FAVORITE LINE:
“My god the wailing!”
CRAFT MAGIC:
Begins from a strong personal note, drawing us into the narrative
Excellent internal rhyme and rhythm (even though it’s so short!)
Unapologetically “dramatic". Human emotion is dramatic. Poetry is human emotion.
A Bloody Penchant
Undoing is a red song Billowing between what is divine & What may be an overflow Every month / I aspire to perspire to acquire Whatever those fancy speakers Say in their motivational talks, To damn my body & conquer this world To make my waist into fennel & pretend the current flowing Between my legs is not a Madhouse — I go to church & There is prophecy about painless periods, Since the Holy Book says God has a penchant for women / In blood & pain I move to the altar I go to make my case— {Isaiah 41:21- Bring forth your strong reasons…} A preacher once said it was not blasphemy to make case with God, So I kneel & I say, God, The Brahmaputra river in India Turns blood-red for 3 days in June every year, Gracious God, Why give a woman's rest to a river? But how much of putting words together Is saving me from seven days of overflow When a woman’s body is an emmenagogue My uterus is a bounty hunter, And every month I must pay for not bringing A newborn into this world, Is such a dilemma as birthing / The only way out of this cycle When my sister bled through a pregnancy / & continued after childbirth? Today, I pay allegiance to the women lubricating this world into a spin /May we remain Unkillable {Amen}
Roseline Mgbodichinma via Isele Magazine
FAVORITE LINE:
“My uterus is a bounty hunter…”
CRAFT MAGIC:
Big, bold metaphors
Becomes almost essayistic in the way it reaches across culture and time
Surprising use of words like “billowing” and leaps between images that keep the reader hooked
Clifton Gachagua via Alien Magazine
FAVORITE LINE:
“…allow a quick lick and goodbye to only surviving kitten…”
CRAFT MAGIC:
Lack of capitalization and the prose poem format feels like it is a screenplay beginning "In medias res”
Each action is described with clinical precision, creating a very unsettling effect
The ending is the resounding echo of all that has been at the core of the poem from the beginning (the title!)
Thank you, Shannan. Love this!
I'm really curious about the process for this. Do you reach out to the poets themselves, the magazines or do you post them based on the fact that they are publicly available online? The behind the scenes makes me curious.