Left untrained,
the bitter melon’s taken over
the mulberry, dusting it
From Lockdown Garden
May 2, 2022
Issue 23, Issue 23 Poetry, Poetry
All posts tagged: Poetry
Adoption Day
May 2, 2022
Issue 23, Issue 23 Poetry, Poetry
Even if the sky collapses, there will be a hole in it.
Korean proverb
Our cat died before the towers fell.
Letter to Emily Brontë
May 2, 2022
Issue 23, Issue 23 Poetry, Poetry
I’m writing this from lockdown on a day
when the dogwood throws out its dose
of darker pink. The schoolyard
holy war
May 2, 2022
Issue 23, Issue 23 Poetry, Poetry
for the black women who died for motherhood
how long has my womb ached
to carry half of my laugh gently
April 2022 Poetry Feature
April 28, 2022
Poetry
New work from our contributors: ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA, DAVID LEHMAN, and MATT DONOVAN.
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra | “The Walk”
David Lehman | “Just a Couple of Mugs”
Matt Donovan | “Portrait of America as a Philadelphia Derringer Abraham Lincoln Assassination Box Set Replica”
The Walk
By Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
In a tree hollow like a cave mouth,
in which you and your partner
selfied yourselves, is a trash bag
oozing trash juice.
March 2022 Poetry Feature
March 31, 2022
Poetry
New poems from our contributors JORDAN HONEYBLUE, ROBERT WOOD LYNN, BENJAMIN PALOFF, and LYNNE THOMPSON.
Table of Contents:
Jordan Honeyblue | free it.
Robert Wood Lynn | Peepers in February
Benjamin Paloff | Of Vanity
Lynne Thompson | Paradise: 579
From Lviv In March
March 23, 2022
Dispatches
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Is Poetry Possible at the Moment History Stirs: Poets of Ukraine
March 9, 2022
News, News and Events
I ask
Half-awake
Is poetry possible
At the moment history stirs
Once its steps
Reverberate through every heart?
— From “Can there be poetry after” by Anastasia Afanasieva, translated by Kevin Vaughn and Maria Khotimsky
With the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, we at The Common have been reflecting on the powerful words of many Ukrainian poets who have appeared in our pages. In recent years their work has been rooted in conflict, as the country struggled first with self-determination and later with the Russian annexation of Crimea and, since 2014, with a Russian-incited war in the East. This focus lends a feeling of prescience and timeliness to their work now, even though most of these poems are not new. We hope you’ll make time to read and reflect on the work of these poets, as we all keep Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in our thoughts.
They Say You Are Everywhere
March 9, 2022
Dispatches, Poetry
Unincorporated Arapahoe County, Colorado
Through mantle, earth, gender, air
through false stories and true
undistracted by pectin, pucker, time
scale, sugar, seed, dripped rainbow of
oil, prism, crushed berry residue,
om of home, acid, oxygen song—
I grip jelly jars to my eyes
mock binocular my way to You—
February 2022 Poetry Feature
February 24, 2022
Poetry
New work from our contributors: MARK KYUNGSOO BIAS, SARA MUNJACK, and DANIEL TOBIN
Table of Contents:
Mark Kyungsoo Bias | Visitor
| Meeting My Mother
Sara Munjack | Friendship Talk after Love-lives
Daniel Tobin | The Door
| Prayer in Passing
