"His strategy to leave his poems bare, accessible, and like open doors has given us a good self-portrait of a man who knew the consequences of war and faced them time and again."

Electrifying energy! Infectious speed! A roaring beat! Raw rhythm! Even in translation, the sensuous genius and violent creativity of Vladimir Mayakovsky (1893-1930) soar through the page. He was both a revolutionary writer and a writer who wanted to shape a revolution. Through his writing, he wished to shake people out of their habitual frames so they could both see the world and themselves in new and startling ways. He wrote words to inspire action. In 1930, Mayakovsky begins his poem “Screaming My Head Off,” addressed to us, the people who will come after him.

"Surrounded by atrocity, she shapes her syllogistic vision into a remarkable poem of discovery. She responds to atrocity with her own unique vision and authentic voice."

Adam Zagajewski’s intriguing poem “To Go to Lvov” is a “return poem,” which captures the consequences of war without ever mentioning the word. As we enter into it, let’s remember the two most famous return poems, also the two oldest—Homer’s The Odyssey and Virgil’s The Aeneid.
Read More Here

Contributor Update, Spring 2025