FATAL MUSIC — SARAH GHAZAL ALI

Favorite Line

“I love most that object which evokes another. How the split fig on my tongue leaks honey, the gummy resin of eternal rivers.”

Craft Magic

• Spare prose poem with each micro-paragraph packed with sharp images.
• Devotion and doubt are handled delicately.
• Goes from the grand and godly to the primordial, deeply personal emotions between child and mother.

Read the full poem in Kenyon Review

Graze in the genocide — Omar Sakr

Favorite Line

“My god the wailing!”

Craft Magic

• Begins from a strong personal note, drawing us into the narrative
• Excellent internal rhyme and rhythm (even though it’s so short!)
• Unapologetically “dramatic". Human emotion is dramatic. Poetry is human emotion.

Read the full poem in Cordite Poetry Review

A Bloody Penchant — Roseline Mgbodichinma,

Favorite Line

“My uterus is a bounty hunter…”

Craft Magic

• Big, bold metaphors
• Becomes almost essayistic in the way it reaches across culture and time
• Surprising use of words like “billowing” and leaps between images that keep the reader hooked

Read the full poem in Isele Magazine

eating cats — Clifton Gachagua

Favorite Line

“…allow a quick lick and goodbye to only surviving kitten…”

Craft Magic

• Lack of capitalization and the prose poem format feels like it is a screenplay beginning "In medias res”
• Each action is described with clinical precision, creating a very unsettling effect
• The ending is the resounding echo of all that has been at the core of the poem from the beginning (the title!)

Read the full poem in Alien Magazine

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