January 1, 2024

4 poems that wrung out our hearts & hung them OUT to dry

Best new poetry in lit mags today feat. The Kenyon Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Isele Magazine, & Alien Magazine

“I love most that object which evokes another. How the split fig on my tongue leaks honey, the gummy resin of eternal rivers.”

Spare prose poem with each micro-paragraph packed with sharp images.
Devotion and doubt are handled delicately.
Goes from the grand and godly to the primordial, deeply personal emotions between child and mother.

“My god the wailing!”

Begins from a strong personal note, drawing us into the narrative
Excellent internal rhyme and rhythm (even though it’s so short!)
Unapologetically “dramatic". Human emotion is dramatic. Poetry is human emotion.

“My uterus is a bounty hunter…”

Big, bold metaphors
Becomes almost essayistic in the way it reaches across culture and time
Surprising use of words like “billowing” and leaps between images that keep the reader hooked

“…allow a quick lick and goodbye to only surviving kitten…”

Lack of capitalization and the prose poem format feels like it is a screenplay beginning "In medias res”
Each action is described with clinical precision, creating a very unsettling effect
The ending is the resounding echo of all that has been at the core of the poem from the beginning (the title!)