Poetry | Page 56 | The Common

August 2018 Poetry Feature: New Poems by Loren Goodman

August 31, 2018 Poetry

This month we welcome back contributor LOREN GOODMAN, the author of Famous Americans, selected by W. S. Merwin for the 2002 Yale Series of Younger Poets, Suppository Writing, and New Products. He is an associate professor of creative writing and English literature at Yonsei University / Underwood International College in Seoul, South Korea, and serves as the UIC Creative Writing Director.

RAPTURE

The Rabbi’s little son
Decked out in stripes
One leather strap
Over the edge
Of the black
Lacquer box wraps

July 2018 Poetry Feature

July 27, 2018 Poetry

New poems by our contributors, ERICA EHRENBERG and SEBASTIAN MATTHEWS

ERICA EHRENBERG

The Toy Lamb

It was the limpness that I loved,
the way it dangled
even when it was sitting,
when it was as low down
as it possibly could be against the line
of gravity,

June 2018 Poetry Feature

June 29, 2018 Poetry

New poems by our contributors: NATHALIE HANDAL and STEVE KISTULENTZ

NATHALIE HANDAL

Lettera Lirica, Jerusalem

Because I see the shape
of your shadow in every city

Because you are on the edge
of every body of water

Because your language is tilted
towards the world

but you’ve kept some sentences
well-hidden

Because some words together
can frighten loneliness

like the lagoon moving aside
for the sea

May 2018 Poetry Feature

May 25, 2018 Poetry

New poems by our contributors CALLY CONAN-DAVIES and PETER JAY SHIPPY

CALLY CONAN-DAVIES

At the Meringo Hotel

There’s nothing to leave at the door.
There is no door.
No writing on the wall.
Where are the walls?
No need to raise the roof.
The lack of roof proves the sun and moon,
and the cliff edge of a continent
is not so steep you can’t head your horse down it.

Bella Figura

May 19, 2018 Poetry

By JULIA LICHTBLAU

The best garden in Brooklyn is like Fred Astaire
Charming but inaccessible.
A private creation for public viewing.
I look down into it from my living room,
Its spilling vines and spruce hedge-tops lend cachet to my garden.
Yet a high fence keeps us
Properly separate.
As does the rusty chain link gate on the street side,
which is only opened for
Tree-trimming and the like.

Digging Out Potatoes

May 11, 2018 Poetry, Translation

By BESIK KHARANAULI
Translated from the Georgian by ILAN STAVANS with GVANTSA JOBAVA

“We should dig out potatoes tomorrow!”
you told me,
pulling the chair close to the bed
where you were planning to place your clothes
after switching off the light.

Scarpia (Aside)

April 30, 2018 Issue 15, Issue 15 Poetry, Poetry

By RICARDO PAU-LLOSA

Tosca

I heard those ripened, muted swoons, although
that was no kiss—a dagger sunk into my chest.
What use authority if it cannot impose
a hidden will? The songbird, let her muse
the painter in his cavern, his mettle at the test,