A Deed of Eternity

Having trouble viewing this email? [Click here]( to view it in your browser. [Newsletter Banner]   March 29, 2024 [Share on Twitter]( [Share on Facebook]( [Forward to a Friend]( [An illustration of Tu Fu's face partially obscured by a tree and a small flock of birds in flight.]( Essay [A Deed of Eternity]( Tu Fu, the greatest poet of the Tang dynasty, was torn between two desires: serving the emperor and writing literature. By Brian Patrick Eha [A painting of Black figures arranged on a chessboard that is covered with various objects, including a pink globe. A rural landscape stretches behind them, leading to a hill from which rays of light beam.]( Essay [Sweatshop of the Eye]( Perception shapes fear and desire in Gregory Pardlo’s Spectral Evidence. By Anthony Reed [Detail of "Giverny" by Sara Katz]( collection [Spring Poems]( Classic and contemporary poems to celebrate the advent of spring. By The Editors Foundation News [A Commitment to Clarity]( In November 2023, members of the poetry community published an open letter declaring a boycott of the Poetry Foundation. After multiple conversations, internally and with several of the organizers, the boycott was lifted in March 2024. To foster improved communication, connection, and understanding, we are sharing the guidelines and policies that outline how we approach our work and how each area of impact represents our vision to support poetry in all its diversity. [Detail of "Giverny" by Sara Katz]( Foundation News [Meet Our Grantee-Partner: Southern Word]( Southern Word serves Tennessee youth by providing poetry-centered school residencies and workshops with a focus on spoken word poetry. Beginning in 2008, youth development professionals, writers, and poets built Southern Word from the ground up with school and community partners in Davidson County, Tennessee. [Cover of Two Minds by Callie Siskel]( Book Review [Two Minds by Callie Siskel]( Callie Siskel’s elegiac debut, Two Minds, archives and distills the psychic disequilibrium wrought by a father’s early death. “Somewhere on earth is my Matryoshka doll,” writes Siskel in the book’s opening poem, “Mise en Abyme,” noting that “No generation lives neatly inside another.” REVIEWED BY Virginia Konchan [Cover of Makeshift Altar by Amy M. Alvarez]( Book Review [Makeshift Altar by Amy M. Alvarez]( Despite having grown up in a city, the speaker has not lost sight of her roots, which are alive in her in ways that are both beautiful and haunting. The poem, “Jíbara Negra,” goes on to reflect on the meaning of home (jíbara refers to a Puerto Rican farmer, someone with deep ties to the land). REVIEWED BY Leonora Simonovis [Cover of Treasurer of Piggy Banks by Álvaro Mutis]( Book Review [Treasurer of Piggy Banks by Vinod Kumar Shukla, tr. by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra]( The contemporary Hindi poet Vinod Kumar Shukla (b. 1937) is often described as a “magic realist” or a “modernist,” but his work defies such easy categorization. Treasurer of Piggy Banks is Shukla’s first collection to appear in English, translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. REVIEWED BY Janani Ambikapathy Featured Podcasts POETRY off the shelf [All the Shiny Knives]( Monica Rico on cooking, grunt work, and the heat at General Motors. [Listen to audio version }}]( Listen   [More Featured Podcasts]( SUBSCRIBE [GET POETRY]( [The Poetry Foundation]( [The Poetry Foundation on Twitter]( [The Poetry Foundation on Facebook]( [The Poetry Foundation on Instagram](   You have received this email because you submitted your email address at www.poetryfoundation.org. You may [unsubscribe]( or [change]( your newsletter subscription preferences at any time. © 2024 Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation 61 W. Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 USA #