“…I’m sure it was a noble, / heavenly poet / heart made mature / by shadow and science.” -Antonio Machado, “The Water Wheel” By the time you read this, I will have just landed in London to begin a new chapter in my life. It seems fitting, as a celebration of my Americanness in the …
“Every evening / words /–not stars–light the sky. // No rest in life / like life itself.” –Umberto Saba, “Three Cities,” trans. Stephen Sartarelli “I hear that the axe has flowered, / I hear that the place can’t be named, // I hear that the bread which looks at him / heals the hanged man, …
So much of contemporary poetry seems to be a reaction against sentimentality and self-aggrandizement. To this end, many poets seem to be attempting to remove themselves as a direct presence in their poems. Persona poetry is one device by which an interplay of consciousness can exist without the complications of the troublesome “I.” Yet without …
Volume One, 2007 of Northwest Review contains stunning translations of the autobiographical sonnets of Umberto Saba. My favorite, “4”, is available on the bottom of this page.
