Scrap Irons of Painful Mercy

Having trouble viewing this email? [Click here]( to view it in your browser. [Newsletter Banner]   October 27, 2023 [Share on Twitter]( [Share on Facebook]( [Forward to a Friend]( [A black-and-white photograph of Calvin Hernton, in sunglasses, sitting next to poets Norman H. Pritchard and Charles Patterson.]( Essay [Scrap Irons of Painful Mercy]( Selected Poems of Calvin C. Hernton is a long-overdue retrospective of one of America’s most important Black poets. By Nick Sturm [An ink wash drawing of William Shakespeare overlaid with pages from his First Folio.]( Essay [Slimed With Gravy, Ringed by Drink]( Four hundred unruly, obsessive, baffling years of Shakespeare’s First Folio. By Camille Ralphs [Beautiful autumn forest, Norfolk, UK.]( collection [Fall Poems]( Poems to read as the leaves change and the weather gets colder. By The Editors [White, red, and black graphic with a photo of three women standing in front of a building, smiling. Text reads "Poetic Justice Fall 2022 Poetry Programs, Partnerships & Innovation Grantee-Partner"]( Foundation News [Meet Our Grantee-Partner: Poetic Justice]( Ellen Stackable first entered Oklahoma jails and prisons to lead spoken word poetry programming. An experienced English teacher and spoken word poet herself, she discovered that while performing poetry is powerful in its own right, the process of transferring emotions to the page was a healing practice for people who have survived abuse, shame, grief, and—ultimately—arrest and incarceration. Writing a poem and speaking it aloud becomes an act of agency in a punitive and often inhumane system. [Watercolor painting of two yellow flowers with long green stems and leaves.]( Featured Blogger [The Turmeric Poets (Part I)]( There are two epochic impulses (in song and poetic compositions) that classically and elliptically shape, silhouette, and direct the inventive vector of my creative and (literary) life. By Vi Khi Nao [Cover of OCTOBERS by Sahar Muradi]( Book Review [Lotería by Esteban Rodríguez]( “Flick the cards down quickly,” a screenwriter once advised me. I thought of this counsel as I read Esteban Rodríguez’s Lotería, which takes its name from a popular game of chance in Mexican culture. Each poem takes one card as its title and uses that theme to explore an aspect of the narrator’s life. REVIEWED BY Sylee Gore [Cover of Secret Poetics by Hélio Oiticica]( Book Review [Secret Poetics by Hélio Oiticica, tr. by Rebecca Kosick]( Hélio Oiticica (1937–1980) was a Brazilian visual artist and sculptor who wrote a sequence of lyrical poems titled “Secret Poetics,” now translated from Portuguese by Rebecca Kosick (in a volume that includes essays by Kosick and Pedro Erber). In a short introduction to the poems, Oiticica writes: “The true lyric is immediate, that is, immediacy that becomes eternal in lyrical poetic expression, exactly the polar opposite of my plastic work.” REVIEWED BY Janani Ambikapathy Featured Podcasts POETRY MAGAZINE [Kiki Petrosino and Cindy Juyoung Ok on Crestfallenness, Cookbooks, and More]( This week, Cindy Juyoung Ok speaks with Kiki Petrosino, who has published five elegant and remarkable books, all with Sarabande, including the memoir Bright (2022) and the poetry collection White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia (2020). Petrosino speaks about crestfallenness and her new essay in the October issue of Poetry, “On Crestfallenness: A Pilgrim, Not a Tractor,” which appeared as part of the Hard Feelings series. [Listen to audio version }}]( Listen POETRY off the shelf [Living in And Times]( Sahar Muradi on cyclical time, leather butterflies, and saying goodbye to her father. [Listen to audio version }}]( Listen VS [Willie Lee Kinard III vs. The Choir]( Today Brittany and Ajanae interview Willie Lee Kinard III, author of Orders of Service. During this episode, they discuss Willie’s history with music, doublespeak as maximalism, queerness as a foundation for craft choices, and developing a love for the land. [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. © 2023 Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation 61 W. Superior Street Chicago, IL 60654 USA #