Tag Poetry Magazine

The July/August issue of Poetry Magazine is guest-edited by Esther Belin, a Diné (Navajo) multimedia artist and writer, and is dedicated to the topic of  Land Acknowledgments. In the “Dear Reader” introduction, she writes:

“One of the biggest take backs is the re-territorializing of language. In this issue, quite a number of Indigenous writers are expanding poetics, resuscitating tribal languages, refashioning the English language with tribal meter, rhythm, and sound. I hope more than a few readers will understand the significance of this feat. Little more than fifty years ago, many of these writers would have been overlooked, misunderstood, or questioned about the legitimacy of their poetics. This volume acknowledges the history of racism and privilege in how access to publishing has been extended and the selection process of those eventually published. This volume acknowledges that the represented writers merely hint at the momentum of literary sovereignty occurring in Indian country, in addition to Indigenous writers throughout the globe.”

Writers included in this seminal issue are Allison Akootchook Warden, Manny Loley, Beth Piatote, Dean Rader, Abigail Chabitnoy, Valerie Wallace, Elise Paschen, Gabriel Dunsmith, Anthony Cody, Max Early, Franklin K.R. Cline, Michael Thompson, Megha Rao, Jayant Kashyap, Hao Guang Tse, Micaela Merryman, Halee Kirkwood, Ariana Benson, Arthur Sze, Michelle Whitstone, Tina Deschenie, Majda Gama, Ibe Liebenberg, Carol Moldaw, Toni Giselle Stuart, Jake Skeets, Laura Da’, Jay Wieners, Yvonne, Jennifer Militello, Krysten Hill, Jessica Kim, Khải Đơn, Yaccaira Salvatierra, Bai Juyi, Tim Tim Cheng, and Adedayo Agarau. There is also an interview with Arthur Sze. Poetry Magazine and its many wonderful resources are free online.

The June 2022 issue of Poetry Magazine is guest-edited by Esther Belin, who offers a “Dear Reader,” introduction that is as beautiful and compelling to read as any poem she has selected for this month’s collection. Uniquely offering two different writing prompts in her note, she closes by commenting on writing from “a mountain desert region in the American Southwest”: “Once again, reader, I think of you as I write from a hardback chair at my dining table placed near a south-facing window. This window is comforting to me, as is this table and chair. I have labored from this place, I have experienced joy from this place, and now I experience grief from it. The familiarity and safety of this space help me to propel toward the essential and recalibrate my center. That is my offering to you. May you align with a poem (or many) in this volume that propels you back to your center.” Guiding the readers in their alignment with poems in this issue are Esther Belin, Jill Zheng, Ae Hee Lee, Fatemeh Shams, Armen Davoudian, Max Schleicher, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Rajiv Mohabir, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Monica Sok, Tarik Dobbs, Sarina Romero, Romeo Oriogun, Madeleine Wattenberg, Qiang Meng, Heather Nagami, Orlando White, Courtney Faye Taylor, Shook, and Chad Bennett, Shelby Handler. All of Poetry Magazine‘s content is free to read online.

The May 2022 issue of Poetry Magazine begins with Guest Editor Srikanth Eddy’s final Editor’s Note, providing context for the theme “Make It Old,” with “old” being a “comparative measure.” The issue features “old” works in contemporary translations, and this is one time where the online version may rival the print publication. The print issue features English-only versions whereas online, readers can view the original text, the translation, and translators’ notes on their poems. Some works include “an avant-garde Brazilian poem from 1912, a Mayan creation myth, fragments of a pre-Socratic cosmology, the first circle of Dante’s Inferno stripped down to couplets, Medieval rune poems excavated after a fire in the harbor district of Bergen, Norway, a Nahuatl drinking song, a late Tang dynasty love letter, Osage talk, what might e the first Japanese tanka about baby diapers, and many more contributions.”