A premature Palestinian baby, who was saved from her mother’s womb after she was killed in an Israeli attack in the Gaza Strip, has died after days in an incubator. Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda died in a Gaza hospital on Thursday after her health deteriorated and medical teams were unable to save her, said her uncle, Rami al-Sheikh Jouda. [Photo: Mohammed Salem/Reuters via Al Jazeera, April 26, 2024 |
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The New Verse News
presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.
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Friday, May 17, 2024
ROUH (ARABIC FOR SOUL)
Thursday, May 16, 2024
CAN YOU LET THE CICADA BE BEAUTIFUL?
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
RIVER OF RHETORIC
DO WE HAVE A DEAL?
A billion cash, that oughta do it.
Regulations? You'll be free.
The sky, the air, the water—screw it!
What'd they ever do for me?
Steven Kent is the poetic alter ego of writer and musician Kent Burnside. His work appears in 251, Asses of Parnassus, Light, Lighten Up Online, The New Verse News, Philosophy Now, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, The Road Not Taken: A Journal of Formal Poetry, and Snakeskin. His collection I Tried (And Other Poems, Too) was published in 2023 by Kelsay Books.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
HOW I LOVE YA, STORMY
you could flush. You talked so fast
the court reporter couldn’t keep up.
You were made out to be rough, a body
made for rough treatment. Then you proved
a slut is a spy in the world of men,
a refugee who threads the mountain pass
through snow, barefoot. She wears
the veil turned inside out
to expose its scarlet lining, floats
her soul upon the ceiling. She is smart
as the whip he asks her to use
on his sorry ass, his little-boy mouth.
She is his punisher, he her power.
They are connected by a belt of gold
in a tug-of-war, an umbilical cord
of blood smeared to dry on paper.
And you weren’t meant to be funny
but couldn’t be stopped
when he and the law were served
official notice of your humor.
Catherine Gonick has published poetry in journals including Live Encounters, Notre Dame Review, Forge, and Beltway Poetry Quarterly, and in anthologies including Support Ukraine, Grabbed, and Rumors, Secrets & Lies: Poems About Pregnancy, Abortion and Choice. She works in a company that slows the rate of global warming through projects that repair and restore the climate.
Monday, May 13, 2024
I’VE SEEN THIS BEFORE
David Shapiro, Who Gained Fame in Poetry and Protest, Dies at 77: A renowned member of the New York School of poets, he also found accidental notoriety when he was photographed during the 1968 uprising at Columbia University... Mr. Shapiro was just weeks from graduating when another student photographed him when the office of the university’s president, Grayson Kirk, in Low Library was occupied. Shown seated in a high-backed chair behind the administrator’s paper-strewn desk, Mr. Shapiro captured the spirit of a moment, casually smoking one of Mr. Kirk’s cigars while wearing sunglasses and a defiant smirk. —The New York Times, May 10, 2024 |
police demanded we disperse,
warned us we disturbed the peace,
endangered safety, led us away;
meanwhile, eight thousand miles away,
bamboo huts were being torched,
buffaloes and chickens shot,
farmers’ daughters raped,
and military chiefs kept score
with their bloody body counts
repeated nightly on channel 13
before the local weather.
I slowly rock on a cabin porch,
a snoring dog at my feet,
listen as a mockingbird calls
from far across the pond.
Another responds, so near to us
that we both flinch, get up
and enter the cabin, turn on the news,
hear about Gaza, Ukraine.
We watch as New York tents get smashed,
see ziptied children led away.
I join them, rise with my gray hair
in solidarity.
Jerry Krajnak is a Vietnam veteran who later survived forty years in public school classrooms. A Pushcart nominee, his recent work appears in The New Verse News, Autumn Sky Poetry, One Art, Star 82 Review, Rat's Ass Review, and other journals.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
SENATOR UNINFORMED
A U.S. senator calls
the tents set up
at universities
camps for Hamas;
and he says
he supports Israel
and if Hamas
surrenders
and hostages
are released
the war will end.
He adds
that he is
deeply
disappointed
that the President
has paused
some shipments
of heavy weapons
to Israel. Deeply
disappointed
Senator
Fetterman?
That is how
I feel as well
about you.
Your ignorance
resounds. This
is not binary.
Instead
of pledging
allegiance to Israel
come what may,
why don’t you
in turn bow
to the Palestinian
right of return
to homes from which
they have been
expelled since 1948?
Why don’t you cite
the ever smaller
wedge of Palestinian
land, about twenty
percent of what
was assigned
to them in 1948?
Can you manage
to turn your head
around that fact?
Twenty percent?.
One fifth of
a shrinking pie?
And you say,
hard disagree
deeply disappointed.
Mr. Fetterman
pitch your tent
in Gaza. Wait
for food
to be dropped
from the sky
Run and hide
when bombs
fall down
instead.
Indran Amirthanayagam is the translator of Origami: Selected Poems of Manuel Ulacia (Dialogos Books). Mad Hat Press has just published his love song to Haiti: Powèt Nan Pò A (Poet of the Port). Ten Thousand Steps Against the Tyrant (BroadstoneBooks) is a collection of Indran's poems. Recently published is Blue Window (Ventana Azul), translated by Jennifer Rathbun. (Dialogos Books). In 2020, Indran produced a “world" record by publishing three new poetry books written in three languages: The Migrant States (Hanging Loose Press, New York), Sur l'île nostalgique (L’Harmattan, Paris) and Lírica a tiempo (Mesa Redonda, Lima). He edits The Beltway Poetry Quarterly and helps curate Ablucionistas. He hosts the Poetry Channel on YouTube and publishes poetry books with Sara Cahill Marron at Beltway Editions.
Saturday, May 11, 2024
BIRDCAST
World Migratory Bird Day May 11, 2024 BirdCast |
Friday, May 10, 2024
LEAFLET
Imagine yourself old enough
to have survived Operations
Cast Lead and Protective Edge.
Imagine a fellow refugee
videoing flyers drifting
down from a blue sky,
then focusing on you
as you pick up a leaflet
at once a plea for news
about pictured hostages
and an implicit warning
that soon your current shelter
will be demolished by bombs.
Imagine knowing the world
can see what’s happening.
Imagine knowing the world
keeps failing to react.
Imagine your dulled terror,
your bewildered loyalty,
your desperate rage.
Imagine your aimless trek.
Imagine your imagining
there’s somewhere to go
where the flyers
won’t drift down again
to tell you to keep moving.
Imagine the leaflet
as one of the keepsakes
that will give purpose
to your children’s lives.
Thursday, May 09, 2024
HAIKU
A Child’s View of Gaza |
i dream of Gaza
as Gaza was before dreams
were dreams of Gaza
W. Barrett Munn is a graduate of The Institute of Children's Literature. His adult poetry has been published by The New Verse News, Awakenings Review, San Antonio Review, Sequoia Speaks, Copperfield Review Quarterly, and many others.