David Shook, Founding Editor of Phoneme Media, introduces a special selection of poetry.
“The petals fall./ One by one/ They fall from the kapok/ Over the afternoon’s skin…” By Conceição Lima, translated from Portuguese by David Shook.
“a poet who forgets all his words doesn’t have any weight/ he turns into a straw in the wind./ The wind howls in the howling of the wolves…” By Mohsen Emadi, translated from Persian by Lyn Coffin.
“I dip in a dream of my lion:/ naked on a rock of twilight/ with math under his nails…” By Jen Lagedrost.
“homo sapiens clinging to the world’s skin/ their boxed way of thinking has no brakes…” By Ruperta Bautista, translated from Tsotsil and Spanish by Clare Sullivan.
“Here, the procession of silence in the yard where hunger chews an ear of corn/ picked/ clean of its kernels, and dreams/ of gathering together the scattered remains…” By Eduardo Arellano, translated from Spanish by Anthony Seidman.
“I bring black to its knees,/… I make joy and sadness brawl.” By Tseveendorjin Oidov, translated from Mongolian by Simon Wickhamsmith.
“The dark night is deaf to the feet stepping along the path./ What am I that rides the enchanted shadows, kicking at the black rocks?” By Tseveendorjin Oidov, translated from Mongolian by Simon Wickham-Smith.