Poetry Magazine April 2020 by Don Share

Poetry Magazine April 2020 Reviews

• 
  Atri

  Maybe the detours of man's fall
  are like the secret desertions of meteors
  marked in the alphabet of storms
  alongside rainbows-
  
  And who knows
  the course of becoming fertile
  how seeds bend up
  out of depleted soil
  for the suckling mouths
  of light.
  
  (from 'Flight and Metamorphosis' by Nelly Sachs)
  
  ***
  
  They say the Earth spins and that's why
  we fall but everyone knows it's the
  music.
  
  It's been proven difficult to dance to
  machine gun fire.
  
  Still, my people made a rhythm this way.
  A way.
  
  (from 'Not Even This' by Ocean Vuong)
  
  ***
  
  
  This is your anger.
  This is mine.
  This is me
  
  reminding you to eat.
  Turn off the stove.
  Take your medication.
  
  This is the realization
  that I am yours and you are mine. This is
  you
  forgetting.
  
  (from 'Forgetting' by Joy Ladin)
• 
  Annalise Nakoneczny

  There were some poems in here that were lovely and I understood, some poems that were lovely, and some poems that I did not understand. I love the cover design of these mags very much.
  
  "A stranger always has
  his homeland in his arms
  like an orphan
  for whom he is seeking nothing
  but a grave."
  -Nelly Sachs
• 
  Joseph Dante

  Several stellar poems in this issue, including: Emily Jungmin Yoon, Ocean Vuong (of course), Pascale Petit, Joshua Bennett, and Tishani Doshi.
  
  Although I appreciate how Poetry has become increasingly diverse in its publishing non-white writers, I was appalled, like many others, by the Poetry Foundation's initial tepid response to Black Lives Matters. With their kind of money and power, they should be doing better by this, and I'm glad they were called out for it. That said, after this year, I'm canceling my subscription. I think they have enough money anyway.
• 
  Simon

  Faves from this issue: Emily Jungmin Yoon, Ocean Vuong, Pascale Petit, Joshua Bennett, torrin a. greathouse, Sally Wen Mao, Joy Ladin, John Shoptaw.
• 
  Erick Mertz

  Decent issue of Poetry. The amazing Ocean Vuong contributes a verse, "Not Even This" that is beguiling and worthy of re-reading -- I went back and forth through it a half-dozen times finding new lines and riddles in it. Otherwise, "Two Of Cups" by Patrick Samuel offers a warped look at pop culture; "Reparation" by Joshua Bennett is dark and oddly timely; Tishani Doshi's "They Killed Cows. I Killed Them" was a good read, filled with murder and political concern.
  
  Oh... and I even liked the art this time.
• 
  J.Istsfor Manity

  The Gertrude Stein / Bianca Stone reimagining was great, so was Madeline Gins’ “Tranformatory Power” piece, and Sally Wen Mao’s “Nucleation” (easily the strongest piece in this collection), et al... both Joy Landin pieces (the poem and the essay) where the black hole here (oy! what a way to end... a deflating hiss...)
• 
  Timothy

  Nothing really grabbed me, it was interesting to read what poets were writing before the pandemic and in it's earliest days