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November 2008

Ana Benaroya, “Portrait of a Girl,” 2008.

The oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world.

  • Roberto Bolaño
  • Philip Levine
  • Mary Szybist
  • Fiona Sampson
  • Billy Collins
Image of Poetry magazine November 2008
From this Issue
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Ernesto Cardenal and I

      By Roberto Bolaño
      I was out walking, sweaty and with hair plastered
      to my face
      when I saw Ernesto Cardenal approaching
      from the opposite direction
      and by way of greeting I said:
      Father, in the Kingdom of Heaven
      that is communism,
      is there...

    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Our Valley

      By Philip Levine
      We don't see the ocean, not ever, but in July and August
      when the worst heat seems to rise from the hard clay   
      of this valley, you could be walking through a fig orchard
      when suddenly the wind cools and for...

    • poem
      By Mary Szybist
      —how her loose curls float
      above each silver fish as she leans in
      to pluck its eyes—

      You died just hours ago.
      Not suddenly, no. You'd been dying so long   
      nothing looked like itself: from your window,   
      fishermen swirled sequins;   
      fishnets entangled...

Table of Contents

Twelve Visual Poems