Arundhathi Subramaniam – Mitti
As a child
I ate mud.
It tasted of grit and peat
and wild churning
and something I could never find
a name for.
Later I became
a moongazer
always squinting through
windows,
believing...
Arundhathi Subramaniam
Described as 'one of the finest poets writing in India today’ Arundhathi Subramaniam was born in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1967. She is the author of twelve books, including five volumes of poetry. Widely translated...
Ellen Bass – Mammogram Callback with Ultrasound
So this is what I’m here for, to see inside
the mute weight of my right breast, heavy handful
of treasure I longed for as a girl, crying
behind the curtain in the Guerlain sisters’ corset...
Ellen Bass – Black Coffee
I didn’t know that when my mother died, her grave
would be dug in my body. And when I weaken,
she is here, dressing behind the closet door,
hooking up her long-line cotton bra,
then...
Ellen Bass – The Small Country
Unique, I think, is the Scottish tartle, that hesitation
when introducing someone whose name you’ve forgotten
and what could capture cafuné, the Brazilian Portuguese way to say
running your fingers, tenderly, through someone’s hair?
Is there...
Ellen Bass – Indigo
As I’m walking on West Cliff Drive, a man runs
toward me pushing one of those jogging strollers
with shock absorbers so the baby can keep sleeping,
which this baby is. I can just...
Ellen Bass: the best of oneself must shine like stellar dust
I have not yet read the complete work of Ellen Bass but I find her one of the most interesting contemporary authors for the writing process very engaged in themes that are not easily...
Barbara Ungar – PRIVILEGE (or, WHY WE CALL THE LAKE BDE MAKA SKA)
I am swimming on this hot May day
on a deserted beach in my white skin
I learned to swim in Minneapolis lakes,
one named after a slave-owner, Calhoun
Every time I put my face in I...
Tom Phillips – Poetry is the new rock’n’roll
None of us really wants it, do we?
Poetry is the new rock’n’roll –
the fame, the fortune, the snowdrifts of cocaine?
The megastores stuffed with slim volumes,
the stadia packed with hysterical fans.
Seamus Heaney struts through his...
Tom Phillips
Tom Phillips was born in Buckinghamshire in 1964. He is a freelance writer and guest lecturer at various British and Balkan universities. He has lived in Bristol, UK, since 1986, but since the 2000s...