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The Miscarriage by Amit Majmudar
Some species can crack pavement with their shoots Source: The Miscarriage “if I consoled you it would make the loss your loss” —– How can Amit Majmudar’s words so relentlessly tangle the insides? Each line comes loaded, “his wealth of heartbeats.” I am currently reading his collection Dothead (2016). It has two ghazals. One of…
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To tell you the truth
I have been writing poems a lot more than I usually do and reworking drafts of old poems. Perhaps due to my PhD work on the ghazal I tend to spend more time on structure and sound. Strict metrical scales and working with rhymes, refrains, provide me with an effective tool to have a dialogue with…
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I Go for a Walk in the Evening While the Body Stays at Home by Alix Anne Shaw – Guernica
These wet and windy days aggravate the rheumatism in my joints. I struggle to keep the body at pace with my mind. My mind: the curious two-year old, with the passion of a teenage romance, and the gravity of mid-life. The body oscillates. Move forward, I demand of it, it stays at home. Then comes…
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Liars, Cadavers and Vultures
“The liar often suffers from amnesia. Amnesia is the silence of the unconscious.” (Rich, Adrienne. Arts Of The Possible: Essays and Conversations. 32) Cadavers are Useful Things Vultures in wake Shoulders tense Crouching Hovering Pecking Gawk, squawk Peck, peck, peck Delicious diseased flesh Old World or New World? Filled with acid Leak, leak, leak Urine…
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Dilruba Pe Dil Aaya
I discovered Dilruba Ahmed’s poetry in the early part of this year and it has stayed with me. The first poem I read was: “Snake Oil, Snake Bite” and it lingered over my days, making me smile at odd-moments as I remembered its tender irony. Imagine my joy when I discovered she had written a ghazal.…
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The dance of Gods
The blood of Mahisasura dripping from her wrists His decapitation each year, year after year I like that story of Krishna At the back of his throat, she could see, the whole universe The sun, moon, stars, asteroids and meteors – his tonsils and uvula Did he eat them all? You offer aparajita…
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“Going Home” – Wislawa Szymborska
“Going Home” – Wislawa Szymborska He came home. Said nothing. It was clear, though, that something had gone wrong. He lay down fully dressed. Pulled the blanket over his head. Tucked up his knees. He’s nearly forty, but not at the moment. He exists just as he did inside his mother’s womb, clad in seven…
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The Body by Boston Gordon
The Body by Boston Gordon – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics. The Body By Boston Gordon March 16, 2015 There is of course the cutting of the body. Lean away from that for a minute. Stand in the middle of a shack on fabric row and browse the cardboard bricks wrapped in lace…
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The Pond by Gregory Orr
The Pond by Gregory Orr : The Poetry Foundation. Snapping turtles in the pond eat bass, sunfish, and frogs. They do us no harm when we swim. But early this spring two Canada geese lingered, then built a nest. What I’d heard of, our neighbor feared: goslings, as they paddle about, grabbed from below by…
