Podcasts & Audio | Page 9

Podcast: David Moloney on “Counsel”

December 8, 2020 Podcast, Podcasts & Audio

Writer David Moloney speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his story “Counsel,” which appears in Issue 19 of The Common. “Counsel” is an excerpt from Moloney’s novel-in-stories, Barker House, set in a correctional facility in New Hampshire. The book follows nine correctional officers over the course of one year on the job. Moloney discusses his own experiences as a correctional officer in a New Hampshire facility, and the work of turning those complex experiences into stories for the novel. Barker House was published by Bloomsbury in April 2020, so this conversation also includes discussion of what it’s like to publish during a pandemic.

Amblyopia

October 28, 2020 Issue 20, Issue 20 Poetry, Lusosphere, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry

By ANANDA LIMA

I close my right eye meu olho direito
and see everything tudo                   que
my mother my father meus pais no meu país
didn’t
know não sabiam
to do      tudo
            then que fazer?
                                                                      e hoje, minha vista cansada

The Mermaids’ Cry

October 28, 2020 Issue 20, Issue 20 Poetry, Lusosphere, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry, Translation

By LEONARDO TONUS
Translated by CAROLYNE WRIGHT

The Common Magazine · The Mermaids’ Cry (Leonardo Tonus)

they say that the most impressive of all crossings
is not thirst
or the fear
afterwards.
The humiliation
no longer wounds
what does not exist
they say
bodies in a boat
of bodies
veins
eyes
skin
penis
nails
vagina

Brazilian Poets in Translation

October 15, 2020 Lusosphere, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry, Translation

As part of this fall’s Lusosphere portfolio, we’re publishing accompanying work online. This translation feature highlights the work of two Brazilian poets, Eliane Marques and Leonardo Tonus. Work appears in both the original Portuguese and in English.

“A body on the sand” by LEONARDO TONUS, translated by CAROLYNE WRIGHT

“Federal Intervention” by ELIANE MARQUES, translated by TIFFANY HIGGINS

Goddamn

July 15, 2020 Dispatches, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry, Poetry Recordings

By MORIEL ROTHMAN-ZECHER

Music by ABRAHAM KATZ

The Common Magazine · Goddamn

Northern Israel-Palestine

The chunk of the ball
On the cracked blacktop
And our torsos so covered
In sweat nearby the sea
Swells and the smell seeps
Into our hair and the air

A List of His Flaws

May 8, 2020 Issue 19, Issue 19 Poetry, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry, Poetry Recordings

By PETER MISHLER

Single-headed.

Flowering inwardly.

Barely felt in the birth canal.

Medical marketer.

Sick with planet.

Love, Under a Falling Sky

April 27, 2020 Issue 19, Issue 19 Poetry, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry, Poetry Recordings

By MEGAN PINTO

The Common Magazine · “Love, Under A Falling Sky” by Megan Pinto

Say Chicken Little was right, that the sky
is falling. What I want to know is,
will the moon fall too? Will it bounce softly
like swiss cheese, or will it crumble
like a stale cookie? Do skies bruise?
Do they ache? And is the sky
a metaphor for all the ills and evils
of the world? A testament
to how the earth can only hold so much
pain and grief? But why
would God send a chicken? Would you listen
to a chicken? Is the chicken a metaphor
for Jesus? Did the Bible mention this
and somehow I missed it? Is this because
in 6th grade my teacher made me promise Jesus
my virginity in a gift basket? Actually, if the sky falls,

Modern Gods

April 27, 2020 Issue 19, Issue 19 Poetry, Podcasts & Audio, Poetry

By JOHN FREEMAN

The Common Magazine · “Modern Gods” by John Freeman

Backlit by the glow
from a small passageway,
he kneels into the fog
of yellow light,
head kissing the carpet.
I step around him,
respecting his privacy, when
the mat becomes not prayer
rug but builder’s tool,
a black piece of tarmac, laid down
before the bank so he could
peer close, fix the dead
motion sensor so that people
with money could
be seen, all doors opening
for them.