Poetry | The Common

Translation: Poems from The Dickinson Archive

April 4, 2024 Poetry, Translation

By MARÍA NEGRONI
Translated by ALLISON A. DEFREESE

Poems appear below in English and the original Spanish.

Translator’s note:
The Dickinson Archive is a series of 72 short meditations exploring the creative process through the lens of New England poet Emily Dickinson’s lifework and words. Dickinson said she was in the presence of poetry when “I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off.” The Dickinson Archive is a book that elicits such responses. Its poems, based on a few of the 9,000 words that Dickinson used most often, get under our skin and into our bones—whether our internal scaffolding is thick as a mammoth’s tusk or delicate as the rib of a songbird. Though María modestly describes the book as a “tribute,” the unique and unconventional pieces in this archive showcase Negroni’s own experimentation with form and language. Moments in these translations where word choice or grammatical structure may give the reader pause are not accidents; they are examples of Negroni at her finest as an experimental writer forging a cadence, locution, and syntax all her own. The Dickinson Archive is a book about play and creation. What light and lightness to translate such poems, to join this dialogue between women that spans continents and centuries, to channel the spirit of Emily Dickinson’s work through María Negroni’s words.

New Poems from YOU ARE HERE, edited by Ada Limón

April 1, 2024 Poetry

By ADAM CLAY, KHADIJAH QUEEN, ROGER REEVES, ANALICIA SOTELO, and RIGOBERTO GONZÁLEZ

To kick off Poetry Month we’re bringing you selections from Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s new anthology, You Are Here, out this month from Milkweed Editions.

As part of her signature project, “You Are Here,” 24th US Poet Laureate Ada Limón has commissioned fifty-two contemporary American poets to observe and reflect on their place in the natural world. The resulting anthology of original poems is a timely portrait of the myriad ways the natural world speaks to us and reflects us. Some of the poems included here contend with the destruction of nature, while others consider its abundance and resilience—and some do both at the same time. While these poems emerge from deeply personal perspectives, together they reveal that nature, like poetry, is universal—and that our interpretations of the natural world are grounded in the nature of our humanity. They also serve as a call for readers to take in the nature all around them, wherever they are.

(from the Foreword to You Are Here, by Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress)

March 2024 Poetry Feature: New Poems by Our Contributors

March 28, 2024 Poetry

New poems by our contributors DAVID LEHMAN, MATT DONOVAN, JULIA KOLCHINSKY DASBACH, and GRAY DAVIDSON CARROLL

Table of Contents:

David Lehman, “Honor Code” and “Rhode Island is Famous for You (for Denise Duhamel)”
Matt Donovan, “Looking at the Statue of Athena in Nashville’s Replica of the Parthenon, Waiting for Something to Happen”
Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, “What does the vulture say to the snowman(?) or how my son is learning to tell jokes(.)”
Gray Davidson Carroll, “November 19, 2022,”

February 2024 Poetry Feature

February 29, 2024 Poetry

New poems by our contributors CORTNEY LAMAR CHARLESTON, OLENA JENNINGS, MEGHAN MCCLURE, and JONATHAN FINK

Table of Contents:

Cortney Lamar Charleston, “It’s Important I Remember That Fascism Didn’t Come to America, It Was Already Here—”
Olena Jennings, “Jane Runs, Sirko Sleeps”
Meghan McClure, “Cut Through the Center”
Jonathan Fink, “Proxima Centauri”

Sharp Shadows

February 15, 2024 Poetry

By ANNE PIERSON WIESE

This poem appears originally in Which Way Was North, published by Louisiana State University Press. Poet Anne Pierson Wiese will be a guest at Amherst College’s LitFest 2024. Register for this exciting celebration of Amherst’s literary legacy and life.

January 2024 Poetry Feature: Four Poems by Vinod Kumar Shukla

January 25, 2024 Poetry, Translation

By VINOD KUMAR SHUKLA
Translated from Hindi by ARVIND KRISHNA MEHROTRA

Table of Contents:

“I solemnly pledge”
“Not with my own feet”
“To get out of bed in the morning”
“For a ray of sunlight”

January 2024 Poetry Feature: Part I

January 11, 2024 Poetry

New poems by ADRIENNE SU, ELEANOR STANFORD, KWAME OPOKU-DUKU, and WILLIAM FARGASON

Table of Contents:

Adrienne Su, “Solitude”
Eleanor Stanford, “Lover, before the pandemic”
Kwame Opoku-Duku, “Glory”
William Fargason, “Holy Saturday”

Solitude
By Adrienne Su

My body rebelled
against the amorphousness
of American

motherhood, which asked
me to be available
as if I were five

women: two grandmas,

December 2023 Poetry Feature: Part II

December 28, 2023 Poetry

New poems by our contributors CHRISTOPHER BAKKEN, CYRUS CASSELLS, JAMES RICHARDSON, CATIE ROSEMURGY

Table of Contents:

Christopher Bakken, “Theology at Dalabelos”
Cyrus Cassells, “Horsemen Watching Two Ancient Cities Burn”
James Richardson, “Train Dreams”
Catie Rosemurgy, “Diorama 1871 (say her name five times)”

December 2023 Poetry Feature: Nathalie Handal and Zack Strait

December 15, 2023 Poetry

New poems by our contributors NATHALIE HANDAL and ZACK STRAIT

Table of Contents:

Nathalie Handal:

“Monteverde Vecchio”
“Piazza Cavour”

Zack Strait:

“The Fields”
“Kid Chameleon”

Translation: “Night Drive”

December 14, 2023 Poetry, Translation

By RAINER MARIA RILKE

Translated from the German by STEVEN CRAMER

Translator’s Note:

“Night Drive” is from Departures from Rilke (Arrowsmith Press, 2023), poems that repurpose, update, or upend lyrics from Rainer Maria Rilke’s New Poems (1907/08), often leaving Rilke’s premises almost altogether.

— Steven Cramer