Poetry – Michigan Quarterly Review

Poetry

War is Always Silent Until It’s Done

Published in Issue 64.2: Spring 2025 You can purchase our Spring issue here Out of the rubble of one war crawls out another.—Warsan Shire They didn’t know then,but when they leftthey packed the warwith themthrown into suitcases,nestled between cardamom and cinnamon,wrapped in shawls like china teacups. Some left their suitcases unpacked.Didn’t know what waswaiting for them.For […]

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Published in Issue 64.2: Spring 2025 You can purchase our Spring issue here Out of the rubble of one war crawls out another.—Warsan Shire They didn’t know then,but when they leftthey packed the warwith themthrown into suitcases,nestled between cardamom and cinnamon,wrapped in shawls like china teacups. Some left their suitcases unpacked.Didn’t know what waswaiting for them.For

Against Taste: On the Craft of Criticism

How does one go about defining bad art? As an instructor of creative writing, in the classroom, in office hours, via email, I diplomatically affirmed one student or another in their appreciation of poets often derided publicly on social media or privately in casual conversation between writers. Instapoets. Stadium poets. Popular poets. Outside of the

Against Taste: On the Craft of Criticism Read More »

How does one go about defining bad art? As an instructor of creative writing, in the classroom, in office hours, via email, I diplomatically affirmed one student or another in their appreciation of poets often derided publicly on social media or privately in casual conversation between writers. Instapoets. Stadium poets. Popular poets. Outside of the

Foreshadow Work

Published in Issue 64.2: Spring 2025 You can purchase our Spring issue here So much of what I’ve learned in therapy I first learned in poetry.They call me a “Dreamer”, but really I’m an insomniacwith night terrors, kept awake by fears of being abandonedby the Dept. of Homeland Security. There were no secure attachmentsI could form

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Published in Issue 64.2: Spring 2025 You can purchase our Spring issue here So much of what I’ve learned in therapy I first learned in poetry.They call me a “Dreamer”, but really I’m an insomniacwith night terrors, kept awake by fears of being abandonedby the Dept. of Homeland Security. There were no secure attachmentsI could form

It’s Safe to Say

Published in Issue 64.2: Spring 2025 You can purchase our Spring issue here what’s inside me is mostly micro–plastics, aggressions, little aperturesinto memories that lock me wordlesswithin my body. I live closer to bonethan flesh when I am in the world,the cliff of my jaw set to defend,unclench only as the bus lurchesup the street to

It’s Safe to Say Read More »

Published in Issue 64.2: Spring 2025 You can purchase our Spring issue here what’s inside me is mostly micro–plastics, aggressions, little aperturesinto memories that lock me wordlesswithin my body. I live closer to bonethan flesh when I am in the world,the cliff of my jaw set to defend,unclench only as the bus lurchesup the street to

Untranslatable Intimacies: A Review of Ann Jäderlund’s Lonespeech

Lonespeech by Ann Jäderlund, translated by Johannes Gröransson. Published by Nightboat Books. May, 2024. 96 pages. $17.95 paperback. Originally published in Swedish in 2019 as Ensamtal by publishing house Albert Bonniers Forlag. It is befitting that as I wrote this review, autocorrect continually asked me to rewrite Lonespeech as two separate words. Ann Jäderlund’s newest

Untranslatable Intimacies: A Review of Ann Jäderlund’s Lonespeech Read More »

Lonespeech by Ann Jäderlund, translated by Johannes Gröransson. Published by Nightboat Books. May, 2024. 96 pages. $17.95 paperback. Originally published in Swedish in 2019 as Ensamtal by publishing house Albert Bonniers Forlag. It is befitting that as I wrote this review, autocorrect continually asked me to rewrite Lonespeech as two separate words. Ann Jäderlund’s newest

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