Poetry

July 2013 Poetry Feature

July 23, 2013 Poetry

Our July poetry feature celebrates the distinguished career of The Common contributor John Matthias with a selection of several of his poems from the last five decades. This year Shearsman Books completes the publication of the collected poems of John Matthias in three volumes: Collected Shorter Poems, Vol. 2 (1995-2011), Collected Longer Poems, and Collected Shorter Poems, Vol. 1 (1961-1994).

June 2013 Poetry Feature

June 20, 2013 Poetry

This June, we’re showcasing poems by five new contributors to the print journal!

Everything is Filled with You

May 24, 2013 Poetry, Translation

by MIGUEL HERNANDEZ

Translated by DON SHARE

Everything is filled with you,

and everything is filled with me:

the towns are full,

just as the cemeteries are full

of you, all the houses

are full of me, all the bodies.

Morgualos

May 24, 2013 Poetry, Translation

By DARÍO JARAMILLO AGUDELO

Translated by DON SHARE

Morgualos love chimneys, white cotton shirts, the agapanthus, a tree called the seven-skin, the scent of fresh cilantro as it falls into soup, the sound of church bells, and days without clouds.

May 2013 Poetry Feature

May 24, 2013 Poetry, Translation

Don Share published three poems, including “Wishbone,” the title poem of his newest collection, in the first issue of The Common. He’s been on a roll ever since, publishing five books as author, translator, or editor in the last year and a half. Here are a few selections from and links to those volumes:

Meditation on a Ficus Tree

May 1, 2013 Issue 05, Issue 05 Poetry, Poetry

By DENISE DUHAMEL

mermaid legs/ whiskers/ open mouth/ callipygian bark/
semen sap/ elbow fold/ knees/ arms stretched above a head/
torso swung upside down/ hair sweeping the ground/
breasts/ cave turned inside out/ toes holding on/
eye socket/ palm/ thumb/ twisting veins/ freckle/ bellybutton/
vulva/ ghost fetus/ nose/ nipple/ thigh/ petrified cloud

Ode to the Coastal Flowers/ Oda a Las Flores de la Costa

May 1, 2013 Issue 05, Issue 05 Poetry, Poetry, Translation

By PABLO NERUDA

The Isla Negra wildflowers
are blooming,
they have no names, some
seem like sand crocuses,
others
illuminate
the ground with yellow lighting.

August

May 1, 2013 Issue 05, Issue 05 Poetry, Poetry

By ALEXEI TSVETKOV

apples went brown and sizzled on the ground
the instant they touched it and the vain promise
of autumn stayed just that the august was
interminable and the vet was blunt
a month at best he said and that was not
a promise so we farmed the ailing dog
out to the in-laws and just left him there

Dear Darkness

May 1, 2013 Issue 05, Issue 05 Poetry, Poetry

By ALEXEI TSVETKOV

myrtle our neighbor on the left side had
a headache with her ron the vietnam vet
fading from parkinson’s connie whose house
bulged into our backyard was a nurse who spent
her summer days sun-bathing in the nude

Poetry

July 2013 Poetry Feature

June 2013 Poetry Feature

Meditation on a Ficus Tree

Ode to the Coastal Flowers/ Oda a Las Flores de la Costa

August

Dear Darkness

Discover the extraordinary in The Common.

Name:

Email: