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"Poetry is concerned with using with abusing, with losing  with wanting, with denying with avoiding with adoring  with replacing the noun. It is doing that always  doing that, doing that and doing nothing but that.  Poetry is doing nothing but using losing refusing and  pleasing and betraying and caressing nouns. That is  what poetry does, that is what poetry has to do no  matter what kind of poetry it is. And there are a  great many kinds of poetry." 
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[Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), U.S. author. "Poetry and Grammar," Lectures in America, Random House (1935).]

The Irish Special edition launch at the
Cork International Poetry Festival 2017

From Self-Portrait with Dogwood: A Route of Evanescence by Christopher Merrill

Why Read War Poetry? by Constance Ruzich

Freed From Youth by Sumana Roy

Book Reviews by Pramila Venkateswaran

Deep Fish—Three Passes at Larry Levis’ Immortal Poem  by Suzanne Lummis

Photo Caption: A picture of Larry Levis giving a lecture, at the Aspen Writers' Conference, 1980.
“He was jealous of my Hawaiian shirts, so he went out and bought one of his own.”
– Kurt Brown

FB post, Ira Sadoff: “Larry wasn't awake for this one either. But he could say wise things about poetry in his sleep.”

Suzanne Lummis writes - The creation tales and lore of some Native American tribes, some Northwest Coast people certainly, and the Yuchi of the Southeast, posits the existence of three worlds. The Western tradition, in most of its expressions, holds to the idea of two— “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”  Of course, exceptions can be found, especially in poetry. 
I like to ask my students, the advanced classes, where Larry Levis’ “Fish” is best appreciated—for these poets have probably already attempted what he makes look so very easy—“Where does this poem take place, in the world below, the world above, or this one?”
There is a silence while the group considers the poem from this new point of view then someone will speak up. All three.    
Indeed, it moves fluidly, seamlessly, through and around the lower, middle and upper realms, each a chilly landscape glittering with a few sharp details that seem cut with an X-Acto Knife. 

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Read the essay here

from the Guest Editor of Issue XXXVI​

Sarabjeet Garcha

Consistently reading Indian poetry for two decades, I have discovered that the best isn’t essentially visible. Inadequate translation remains a major, even if not the only, culprit. While a lot of world poetry has been copiously translated into several Indian languages, particularly Hindi, not all the best poetry from Indian languages is available in readable, let alone memorable, English translation. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see some serious translators committed to changing the status quo. However, before venerating the classic, we need to make a genuine effort to come closer to the contemporary. To do so, we must start looking beyond the familiar bastion. The search for surprise must go on. As in poetry, so in life.
​

Read more

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Book reviews

Review of Melissa Studdard’s Dear Selection Committee by Hanna Pachman

Essays

Writing a Poem that is Larger Than You Are by Diane Frank

Poet in Focus​

Last known photo of Federico García Lorca, with Manuela Arniches on the terrace of Café Chiki-Kutz, Paseo de Recoletos 29, Madrid, July 1936

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editors' Recommendations
​

International Poetry of the First World War Ed. Constance Ruzich (Bloomsbury, 2020) reviewed by Kathryn White

After Grief, by Shikandin, Red River, 2021 reviewed by Pramila Venkateswaran

Witnesses of Remembrance by Kunwar Narain (translated by Apurva Narain) (Eka, 2021) reviewed by Mathura

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​Book review of We Are Not a Museum by Pramila Venkateswaran by Rohit Dey

Wings to Soar High, by Amir Or reviewed by Seth Michelson

War Music – An Account of Homer’s Iliad, Faber and Faber, edited by Christopher Reid

The Singer of Alleppey by Pramila Venkateswaran, Shanti Arts LLC (2018)

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Featured Poet

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is a poet, translator, and editor of several anthologies. His latest collection is Book of Rahim & Other Poems. He has received the Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for Poetry.

Editor's Choice

K. Satchidanandan is the author of 24 collections of poetry, four books of travel, a full-length play and a collection of one-act plays, two books for children and several collections of critical essays, including five books in English on Indian literature besides several collections of world poetry in translation. He is a Fellow of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi and has won 52 literary awards from different states and countries. His poems have been translated into 19 languages, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, English, Irish, French, German and Italian.

 Editor's Choice

Mamang Dai is a poet and novelist born in Pasighat, Arunachal Pradesh. A former journalist and a Padma Shri awardee, Dai is the author of The White Shirts of Summer: New and Selected Poems, The Legends of Pensam (a short story collection), and the novels Stupid Cupid, The Black Hill (winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award) and Escaping the Land (longlisted for the JCB Prize). Dai lives in Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh.

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János Áfra, Zoltán Csehy, Mónika Ferencz, András Gerevich, Ákos Győrff, Benji Horváth, Tibor Juhász, István Kemény, Árpád Kollár, Dénes Krusovszky, Gábor Lanczkor, Zoltán Lesi, János Marno, Hajnal Csilla Nagy and Others. ​(edited by Lanczkor Gábor ​and Balazs Szollossy)

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John Montague,Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, John W. Sexton, Matthew Geden, James Harpur, Bernard O’Donoghue, Moya Cannon, Mary Noonan, Enda Wyley, Paul Casey, Seán Lysaght, Celia de Fréine and others. (​Edited by Patrick Cotter)

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Martinus Nijhoff, Gerrit Achterberg, M. Vasalis, Hanny Michaelis, Gerrit Kouwenaar, Lucebert, Hans Lodeizen, Mark Boog, Hagar Peeters, Maria Barnas, Alfred Schaffer, Mustafa Stitou, Ramsey Nasr, Kira Wuck, Ester Naomi Perquin, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Donald Gardner and Jane Draycott (Edited by David Colmer)

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.​Anju Makhija, Rizio Yohannan Raj,Manohar Shetty, Arundhathi Subramaniam, A.J. Thomas, Sampurna Chattarji, K.Srilata, Mani Rao, Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih and others. (Edited by Abhay K)

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"A definition of poetry can only determine what poetry should be and not what poetry actually was and is; otherwise the most concise formula would be: Poetry is that which at some time and some place was thus named." 
[Friedrich Von Schlegel (1772-1829), German philosopher. Aphorism 114 in Selected Aphorisms from the Athenaeum (1798), translated by Ernst Behler and Roman Struc, Dialogue on Poetry and Literary Aphorisms, Pennsylvania University Press (1968).] 

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