Touch the Donkey

Nikki Sheppy: Three new poems

rob mclennan

For many, Calgary poet Nikki Sheppy appeared out of nowhere when she won the 2013 John Lent Poetry-Prose Award, the result of which was published as the limited edition letterpress chapbook, Grrrrlhood: a ludic suite (Kalamalka, 2014).

Recently in Jacket2

Anna Strong Safford & I are editing a book, to be published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2020, in which we present 50 poets writing 1,000 words each in response to 50 poems. Fred Wah on Creeley's "I Know a Man." Rachel Blau DuPlessis on H.D's "Sea Rose." Tyrone Williams on Baraka's "Incident." And also Mónica de la Torre on Erica Baum's "Déjà vu." Reproduced above is Baum's piece (from "Card Catalogues").

Ōoka Makoto: from 'What Is Poetry?'

In 'Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems'

Jerome Rothenberg

Translation from Japanese by Janine Beichman

Bassam Hajjar: poetry, a reading of silence

Huda Fakhreddine

Magritte’s “Not to Be Reproduced” on the cover of Hajjar’s ‘You Shall Survive Me,’ 2001 (a collection of works).

The Lebanese Bassam Hajjar (1955–2009) is a poet and a translator of silence. His poetry reminds us of George Steiner’s famous statement, “when the poet’s word ceases, a great light begins.” Perhaps because he was a dedicated translator, he hesitated and listened well for the charged silence in what he wrote and what he translated.

Touch the Donkey

Nikki Sheppy: Three new poems

50 poets on 50 poems

A book to be published in 2020

Ōoka Makoto: from 'What Is Poetry?'

In 'Beneath the Sleepless Tossing of the Planets: Selected Poems'

Bassam Hajjar: poetry, a reading of silence