April 2024

POETRY Magazine - April 2024, Volume 224, Number 1

Best Poem of the Issue: Isabella DeSendi - Once, While Disemboweling the Chicken

Overall Issue Rating: 2/5

Comment: One of the weaker issues of 2024. Translated poems are always a struggle to read, because even with the best of translators, it is impossible to maintain the original intent of the poem. I also didn't enjoy the Melvin Dixon catalog. I certainly understand Dixon's frustrations with modern American society, but I find it difficult to take seriously a person who blames all of their personal problems on race. Dixon's catalog struck me more as complaining rather than as poetry. Mr. Dixon isn’t attempting to solve his problems. He views people with stable lives as the problem, ignoring the obvious truth that stability is the result of effort and has nothing to do with race. Post-World War II America has so badly confused the ideas of equal opportunity and equal outcome. Dixon complains only about outcome, not about lack of opportunity; in other words, he plays the victim. Dixon is a tragic figure - sad, confused, and angry. To paint him as a revolutionist or activist is to overlook the glaring flaw of Dixon's worldview: every problem is someone else's fault. On the other hand, this worldview seems to be a mountain that most contemporary liberals are willing to die upon, so perhaps it is appropriate to label Dixon as a pioneer of the victim mentality.

Adrian Matejka

• Editor's Note (Rating 5/5)
  "The rest of the year, poets' expectations for attention are minimal..."

Rosalie Moffett

• Redeem (Rating 5/5)

• Make-Believe (Rating 2/5)

• A Prophecy (Rating 4/5)
  "You can try to change, the man on the meditation app says, the world, but it's much easier to change your mind."

• Transfer of Power (Rating 4/5)

Sid Ghosh

• Hats May Perish (Rating 1/5)

• Let Me Go (Rating 1/5)

• Hope (Rating 1/5)

  Isabella DeSendi

• Once, While Disemboweling the Chicken (Rating 5/5)
  "She said be fearless & god-fearing..."

  Melanie Tafejian

• Happiness Index (Rating 1/5)

• Regret (Rating 1/5)

  Corey Van Landingham

• ASMR (Rating 1/5)

• All Saints' (Rating 2/5)

  Ariel Francisco

• Seeing a UFO and... (Rating 3.5/5)
  "I would watch that shit show Ancient Aliens with my mom and she would say, you know in Guate we remember where the Mayans came from, raising her eyebrows into orbit.”

  Elaine Kim

• Respite (Rating 2.5/5)

  Marc Isaac Potter

• (Untitled) g111 (Rating 1/5)

  Erik Tschekunow

• Roll Call (Rating 5/5)

  Jan Wagner

• tires (Rating 2.5/5)

• portrait of the rain (Rating 4/5)

  Nica Giromini

• Currency (Rating 1/5)

• Babble (Rating 2/5)

  Bo Hee Moon

• Sacrifice (Rating 5/5)
  Comment: Typically, I am not a fan of these sorts of generic, broad, over-arching religious statements, but this poem seems to work well because each religion has obviously been well-researched.

  Cyrus Cassells

• His Own Apollo (Rating 2/5)

• Chiaroscuro Springtime (Rating 5/5)
  "Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass-"

  Kacper Bartczak

• Phosphorous (Rating 1/5)

• This song (Rating 1/5)

• The truth of the picture (Rating 2/5)

  Xuela Zhang

• To Compare III (Rating 2/5)

  Krista Franklin

• Everyday (Rating 2/5)

• (Untitled) Blues (Rating 1/5)

• The Future is Black as a Pocket (Rating 1/5)

  Ruth Ellen Kocher

• My Enemy. My Love. (Rating: 1/5)

  Samiya Bashir

• nail hard (Rating 4/5)

  Melvin Dixon

• Getting Your Rocks Off (Rating 3/5)

• The 80's Miracle Diet (Rating 1/5)

• Autumn Leaving (Rating 2/5)

• Place, Places (Rating 3/5)

• Spring Cleaning (Rating 3/5)

• And These Are Just A Few... (Rating: 2/5)

• One by One (Rating 1/5)

• Mother's Tour (Rating 3/5)

• Going to Africa (Rating 3/5)

• Hands (Rating 3/5)

• Grandmother: Crossing Jordan (Rating 1/5)

• Heartbeats (Rating 1/5)

• I'll Be Somewhere Listening for My Name (Rating 2/5)

• Cyrus Cassells - On Melvin Dixon (Rating 1/5)