February 21, 2024
Six Poems We Seriously Considered Stealing Somehow
by Karan Kapoor
Best new poems in lit mags featuring AGNI, december, Berlin Lit, Split Lip, Banshee, & Shenandoah
Ars Poetica — Issam Zineh
Favorite Line
“Be the biggest presence in your own life, your own biggest ghost in your own cemetary of numbers.”
Craft Magic
Powerful invective sentences
Philosophical ideas embedded in surreal turns of phrases
The revolutionary undertones in each line!
a Life/Mislaid — Allisa Cherry
Favorite Line
“Summer died into fall eighteen times and then she slipped over the bridge in her silver hatchback.”
Craft Magic
Strong narrative focus that hooks you from the opening line.
Simple sentence structure helps to flow through the poem easily.
Concrete imagery linked abstract thoughts (“…an idea as thin as fog burning off a warming lawn..”)
Happiness — Tim Tim Cheng
Favorite Line
“[Happiness] comes like an ambulance you hear from a distance.”
Craft Magic
Captures place brilliantly through sensory evocations
The theme of missing and memory is the focal point
Amiguity is used beautifully between the “you” and the “implied-I” speaker.
What We Thought Was the Sound of Heaven Was Only Just the Coinstar — Dare Williams
Favorite Line
“…bouncing toward the throne…even the dog got a bone…”
Craft Magic
The rhythm here is to die for
The visual arrangement matches perfectly with the content and feels wholly intentional
Working-class poetry arising from personal experience yet reaching out towards the universal
Orson and Akira — Ingrid Casey
Favorite Line
“Orson is in the higher academic stream, without enough brand knowledge or street smart or toddler recognition of corporations and pop stars.”
Craft Magic
Prose poem that pulls the perfect strings to channel the best of lyric and narrative.
Very funny in an intelligent, even cocky way.
Unexpected — you can’t anticipate the next line — and thus enrapturing!
I Asked about Desire — Dorsía Smith Silva
Favorite Line
“There is no one to save me. I’m free to pretend this is an earthquake drill.”
Craft Magic
Immediate, pulse-racing vibe to each successive couplet.
The central question (Who will save me?) creates an anchor for the whole piece.
The voice is bold and does not shy away from narrative while also managing to be surreal in an engaging way.