American Toxicity: Wade in the Water by Tracy K. Smith
How does one wade in the water, when the water is toxic? The current United States Poet Laureate, Tracy K. Smith, approaches this...
Unframed: Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl by Diane Seuss
Within stillness there is movement, just as within silence there is noise. These opposing forces have the power to reveal one another, to...
A Solitary Gaze: Eye Level by Jenny Xie
“Suffering operates by its own logic. Its gropings and reversals. Ample, in ways that are exquisite.” I am inclined to agree with Jenny...
Survivors’ Lyrics: Registers of Illuminated Villages by Tarfia Faizullah
One definition of register is “the range of a human voice or a musical instrument,” and in Registers of Illuminated Villages, Tarfia...
A Woman’s Acreage: Blackacre by Monica Youn
Poetry often benefits from a poet’s previous career or occupation. Some of my favorite collections were written by doctors and nurses...
Claiming the Female Body: Lessons on Expulsion by Erika L. Sánchez
Erika L. Sánchez’s courageous debut collection Lessons on Expulsion begins with a rite of passage, a poem titled “Quincerañera,” which is...
