January & February 2024

Written By Cliff Sowers

POETRY Foundation Magazine – January/February 2024, Volume 223, Number 4

Overall issue rating: 3/5

Best poem of the month: Brandon Menke - Sissy Aqueducts (Rating 5/5)

 

Adrian Matejka

  • Editor’s Note (Rating 5/5)

“…so that this year can be one of possibility instead of inevitability.”

 

Ruth Awad

  • My Hair Burned Like Berenice (Rating 5/5)

Comment: Thoughtful, intelligent, and clever line breaks.

 

D. A. Powell

  • Toast (Rating 2/5)

  • Learning to Paint (Rating 1/5)

  • Positivity (Rating 2.5/5)

 

Pamilerin Jacob

  • Anti-Pastoral for Twenty-Faced Pathogen (Rating 2.5/5)

 

Humberto Ak’abal

  • En el Suelo / On the Floor (Rating 2/5)

  • Aullido / Howl (Rating 2/5)

  • Venado / Deer (Rating 2/5)

  • El Único Día / One Day (Rating 1/5)

 

Karen Leona Anderson

  • Ant Ode (Rating 5/5)

  • Charm (Rating 2/5)

 

Bruce Snider

  • Ode to a Dolly Parton Drag Queen (Rating 4/5)

  • At the Rainbow Cattle Company (Rating 5/5)

 

Victoria Chang

  • Today (Rating 2/5)

 

Samyak Shertok

  • A Blessing (Rating 3/5)

 

Brandon Menke

  • Sissy Aqueducts (Rating 5/5)

 

Mary Jo Bang

  • Science Says (Rating 1/5)

  • The Gospel of Mary (Rating 1/5)

  • Madonna of the Chair (Rating 1/5)

 

Regan Huff

  • Mask (Rating 2.5/5)

 

Edwina Attlee

  • May (Rating 1/5)

 

O-Jeremiah Agbaakin

  • the root word of babble is babel (Rating 4/5)

 

Eduardo Martinez-Leyva

  • Portrait of a Boy on the Other Side of a Glory Hole (Rating 4/5)

  • Colorete (Rating 4/5)

 

Hari Alluri

  • Wundrkut Forever Ghazal (Rating 1/5)

  • The Part That’s Left for You (Rating 1/5)

 

Tian-Ai

  • Romer’s Gap (Rating 2/5)

 

Ellen Elder

  • Flung Vase (Rating 2/5)

  • Mother and Daughter at the Grand Hotel, Locarno, Switzerland (Rating 3/5)

 

Sarah M. Sala

  • Migraine as Whale: A Triptych (Rating 5/5)

Comment: “Migraine as Whale” is a brilliant and creative poem worthy of a five-star rating; however, the author has labelled this poem as a triptych, and I take issue with this designation. Poems delivered in three sections are far too commonly labelled as triptych without having achieved any of the form’s established rules. I take no issue with artistic interpretation of form, but the term “triptych” is so widely abused that it has lost value and meaning. In my opinion, the poem should be labelled as an avant-garde poem or an experimental poem. Perhaps it could be more appropriately labelled as a “Burning Free-Verse” in the same vein as Torrin A Greathouse’s “Burning Haibun” in which pieces of the original poem are highlighted in the second verse, then pieces of the second verse are highlighted in the third verse.

 

Eileen G’Sell

  • Topless Modeling on New Year’s (Rating 2.5/5)

  • The Last Lophodytes (Rating 2.5/5)

 

Jim Daniels

  • Tunnel to Canada (Rating 1/5)

  • Jesus on the Iron Cross (Rating 4/5)

 

Ahmad Almallah

  • Some Things Last (Rating 1/5)

  • The Sky Keeps Surprises (Rating 1/5)

Cliff Sowers
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March 2024