Literal Magazine - Variety of Poetry

Poetry

PAINTED WINDOW

VENTANA PINTADA

Phoebe Hering

Image: (after Andrew Wyeth’s Wind from the Sea) Billow of curtain breathes. Evergreens cut this nothing notion of temporality. Monoseason: a lie whispered by pine needles in their permanence. The…

Poetry

Astillas (fragmentos)

Sandra Lorenzano

Inquietante lección de los jazmines: cuanto más agonizan más perfuman Santiago Kovadloff 1. Íbamos en lancha. El río marrón. El motor que ahora recuerdo silencioso. ¿Quién la llevaba en brazos?…

Poetry

Havana (An Elegy to Myself)

La Habana (Una elegía a mí misma)

Tanya Huntington

A poem…begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost I came here to Havana with no song inside my heart, except…

Poetry

CONVERSATION WITH THE WHITE LADY (EXCERPT)

Renato Tinajero

Translation by Tanya Huntington Chance is a single word, spoken in dreams. If the same word is uttered by you and me, also in dreams yet simultaneously, it is no…

Poetry

La heráldica del hambre

Sergio Pérez Torres

XXX. Él se hunde en mi hambre, la profundidad en la que una pluma cae sin ejercer su peso; cuando sus ojos me miran los demás astros ponen atención. La…

Poetry

Offering

Ofrenda

Ruth Behar

A few months ago I would have said goodbye. I tell you, I was ready to shut the door and not look back. I tell you, I did not expect…

Poetry

THE FOOTBALL

PELOTA DE FÚTBOL

Eduardo Mitre

Translated by Gabriel Mitre Growing up was watching it roll along the earth, cement or lawn, and running to meet it. A constant object of desire, like love and music…

Poetry

Cuatro poemas

Eva Castañeda B

Teoría de lo discontinuo (: todo esto es ficción, obviamente) La única vez que estuve en mi peso ideal fue cuando descubrí que tenías un romance con la reportera.…

Poetry

Capers

Alcaparras

Malva Flores

Translated by Tanya Huntington Bid farewell to her, to Alexandria who is departing –Constantine Cavafy It was better then: The sun dissolving like a sore At twelve noon As I…

Poetry

The Light of Desire

La luz del deseo

Marjorie Agosín

Translated by Lori Marie Carlson We searched neither for Temples Nor monuments to love by Only sacred time In a sacred city Beyond the hills While Jerusalem dozed In the…

Poetry

MOVING SEASON

TIEMPO DE MUDANZAS

Ana Merino

Translation by Tanya Huntington What remained was my vacant house, the empty space left by things that had to go in the moving van from one day to the…

Poetry

mujeres: memoria

Sandra Lorenzano

vengo de otra parte, escribí no es cuestión de geografía es cuestión de historia quería contarlo con las palabras de ellas con sus testimonios con sus confesiones quería contar los…