As we reach the end of 2024, we have collected our top most-read pieces of memoir, criticism and reportage.
Two poems by Sylvia Legris:
‘rumors of bees on speedwell, / no oxidative stress just / effortless pollination’
– ‘In the Wake of’
‘The wandering pineal sac stays put. / The corpus callosum sketches perplexity’
– ‘In the Wake of’
Two poems by Momtaza Mehri:
‘Rub my scalp and tell me who I could have been. / Feed me a morsel or two.’
– ‘This Little, This Late’
‘The moon is a split lip, / spilling all over your brown shoulders.’
– ‘You Will Never Tell Your Daughters’
Two poems by Zoë Hitzig:
‘somehow you are your own meridian, / you hold the date line like a blade’
– ‘cache 9’
‘on the mountain pass, can’t remember, who saw the train / first, who backed into the, who was driving when,’
– ‘cache 14’
Nearly White Girl Girling on Behalf of Sonic Fluency & At me and beautiful problems | Eve Esfandiari-Denney
Two poems by Eve Esfandiari-Denney:
‘I hope to hear the spirit of my mother’s native pessimism faintly pass through a line of translated poetry’
– ‘Nearly White Girl Girling on Behalf of Sonic Fluency’
‘ancestry.com fucks with my mind’
– ‘At me and beautiful problems’
The One It Came All This Way For | Victoria Adukwei Bulley
Three poems by Victoria Adukwei Bulley:
‘still as horses we stood with / so much refuse in the air’
– ‘we never could’
‘all the furs & bright feathers won’t beat / the sunlight on my face like I’m the one it came / all this way for’
– ‘look bet you’
‘has it come to this? / air forced in rubber bags’
– ‘the dream of boxes’
Two poems by Maya C. Popa:
‘You said the arc of things was always / towards their ends’
– ‘An Elegist’
‘the knife twice broken / in his hand. Still, I miss him’
– ‘Things’
Three Mukhatabat | Najwan Darwish, trans. Kareem James Abu-Zeid
‘Is it becoming of me / – I who have run completely out of words – / to covet the Words of my Lord?’
‘Three Mukhatabat’ by Najwan Darwish, translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid.
Calais to Dover | Jana Prikryl
‘If you need a renewable resource / then look in the direction of the sea. / It’s deep as feelings you didn’t know you had.’
‘Calais to Dover’ by Jana Prikryl.
David Attenborough | K Patrick
‘Motherhood is this chapter, / we all love a mother, / disastrous as it is.’
‘David Attenborough’ by K Patrick.
Lover’s Quarrell | Tamara Nassar
‘Certainly we are not too old for that day / as dense as age on your bedroom floor.’
‘Lover’s Quarrel’ by Tamara Nassar.
Feature image © Jack
