Getting Messianic

Having trouble viewing this email? [Click here]( to view it in your browser. [Newsletter Banner]   February 2, 2024 [Share on Twitter]( [Share on Facebook]( [Forward to a Friend]( [A photograph of Seamus Heaney sitting in a yellow chair, holding an open book, with bookshelves behind him.]( Essay [Getting Messianic]( Seamus Heaney’s letters present a mostly congenial poet with a dogged worth ethic and a desire to not be anyone's spokesman. By Declan Ryan [An illustration of a faceless female figure holding a sword and releasing letters from her hand. Dark butterflies surround her in a purple sky.]( Essay [A Brawl of Angels]( Sleep collects the incandescent English-language poems of the multilingual Italian poet Amelia Rosselli. By Joyelle McSweeney Poem Guide [Metamorphoses: “Erysichthon” by Ovid and “Erysichthon’s Seed” by Shanta Lee]( Race, Class, Gender, and the Imperial Body By Shanta Lee [White graphic with two red arrows, the Poetry Foundation logo in the upper left corner, and text: Poetry Foundation A Year in Review and Looking Ahead to 2024]( Foundation News [Hope Is the Thing]( When a year comes to an end, the opportunity to reflect on its successes and challenges while imagining what can be accomplished in the year to come is a gift. It means that we’re still here and have a reason for being—many reasons, indeed. Read the Poetry Foundation’s review of 2023 and looking ahead to 2024 message. [A group of nine CantoMundo affiliates standing in two rows on the porch of the Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University.]( Foundation News [Meet our Grantee-Partner: CantoMundo]( Founded around a kitchen table in 2009, CantoMundo, which means “song-world” in Spanish, is a celebration of the worlds of song within Latinx communities, from its elders to its youth. [Cover of American Inmate by Justin Rovillos Monson]( Book Review [American Inmate by Justin Rovillos Monson]( American Inmate is serenade and prayer book, confession and caution. These types of speech acts presume—and require—a listener to operate. Justin Rovillos Monson’s gift is to write poems angled both to his intimate listener and his unknown reader. He writes, “LANGUAGE CANNOT ANSWER what we ask of ourselves when we are alone. REVIEWED BY SYLEE GORE [Cover of Septet for the Luminous Ones by Fahima Ife]( Book Review [Septet for the Luminous Ones by fahima ife]( The speaker of fahima ife’s opening poem, “Entheogenic Rush,” evokes the expansive “mycological whirl” of the varied rituals and traditions that resonate throughout Septet for the Luminous Ones. REVIEWED BY Rebecca Morgan Frank [Cover of Lunar Solo by Jules Laforgue]( Book Review [Mandible Wishbone Solvent by Asiya Wadud]( At the end of Asiya Wadud’s Mandible Wishbone Solvent, in the prose-poem “Nearly Any Two Things Can Cohere,” the speaker watches a video of a US Border Protection agent emptying out water containers left in the “Sonoran desert, right where the US and Mexico meet,” for people making the journey from Central America. REVIEWED BY Janani Ambikapathy Featured Podcasts POETRY off the shelf [Instructions for Divorce]( Caitlin Cowan on rejection, tradwives, and poems from our better self. [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 #