Tess Gallagher recommends Poems of Repossession: Leabhar na hAthghabhála edited by Louis De Paor, Irish-English Bilingual Edition (Bloodaxe Books, 2016). “This book of Irish poems in translation carries some very strong poems, [including] one by Seán Ó Ríordáin called ‘Switch,’ which is the central mandate for empathy—a poet’s main tool. Also, one may read what…
Ploughshares is pleased to present Belle Boggs with the first annual Ashley Leigh Bourne Prize for Fiction for her short story “In the Shadow of Man,” which appeared in the Summer 2018 issue, guest-edited by Jill McCorkle. The $2,500 prize, sponsored by longtime patron Hunter C. Bourne III and selected by our editors, honors a…
The sickening canal retains a gruesome beauty. Today, the weather haswaxed psychotic—chilly rainy in the morning, humid and dense as itgrew hot, sunny for a second, and now the bluish gray of photographsof Eastern Europe flows from the train bridge into the sky. On thesurface of the water, a cascade of soap scum rises to…
We feel we have felt felt. We have felt what felt we have. Havefelt. Feel. We feel what felt we felt is not what felt felt is. Whatwe have, we feel. What felt we have! Feel! Feel not what is, feelwhat felt is not. Not we, not felt. Is is is? We is what we…
Picture civilizations like sparse swarms of fireflies, space/timelike the evening air in which they’re suspended. Each bug flashesindependently, never simultaneously, randomly announcing itselfwithout regard for its distance from another or for the duration of itslight. That one there! That one is us! Doesn’t it lately seem a foregoneconclusion that the psychotic combination of our science,…
for Anna Maria Hong The master believes himself superior to his slaves. He desires comfort.He considers security and prosperity his birthrights. He prefers toignore the labor required to create his luxurious world. He often failsto acknowledge the extravagance of his environment by comparingit unfavorably to the surroundings of more prosperous people. Heignores anything that challenges…
First things first: I have bad feet. Otherwise this entire incident would never have happened. I prefer not to go into details about the feet—they’re rather intimate parts, don’t you think? Witness foot fetishes, for example. Or the binding of women’s feet in China, for which many cultural reasons have been adduced, but which always…
Ooga booga jigga bigga nigga ziggurati bati boom boom tutti fruittiDjibouti mama comma no drama Obama from a llama fonana fanaRosannadanna chapati do be doobie Debbie Rebbie covfefe lemmecrammalamadingdong ching chong Chobani Thulani Donnie honeyDamiani Romani in de windy Indy bindi— do the Lindy, Cindy. Damnyou fam, you slam a ham in a cham, you…
Too easy, perhaps, to romanticize your behavior by comparing itto natural phenomena. Yes, the bird may land on the branch out ofinstinct, without thinking (though who can know for sure). The humanbeing chooses to love based on a hodgepodge of past experiences—asense of humor, shared values, similar tastes, compatibility, evencombativeness. The criteria change often, the…
No products in the cart.