.UNTITLED On the eve of her thirty-seventh birthday Virginia Woolfstarted keeping a diarywhich means she was the same age I am nowwith the First World War ending, literature hadn’t saved anyone,perhaps it simply saves- I still don’t knowdetails of everyday life, books read, stories written, war againperhaps in this world there is only writing and…
We Won’t Go Anywhere! What mainly unites uptowns?The smell of cat urine and cigarette smoke.Now — the curfew and new laws:Look closely at your neighbors to see who is false. What now unites the whole of Ukraine?Freedom, the desire for spring and victory,Peace and kindness, despite the injured knees,Broken windows and tired legs. We are…
Bhanusingher Padabali In the dense flower orchard,The sweet symphony of Shyam’s flute carries her away.My friend, come, drowning all fears,all shame, all inhibitions,Come along, and unite with Him. With the beauty and charm of her calm, blue attireShe carries in her heart the bountiful blossoms of loveIn her doe-eyes, she carries an untainted smile,Come along,…
Life and Legends’ twelfth edition is exceptional in many respects. In this edition, we bring a record number of poets and writers from across the world with a particular focus on Ukrainian poetry of war, resistance, and literature addressing global concerns.
–Translating Serhiy Zhadan is like becoming Serhiy Zhadan. You have to live his poetry in a way to get to its essence, and hear him read his poems before rendering them in your language. This experience can be empowering and intimidating at the same time because Zhadan’s poetry, like a spell, encapsulates space and time…
And When I Made This Final Step And when I made this final stepand fell into the deep pitmy friends stood all around meat the very edge and each was holding an assault riflecarved out of woodand a handful of soilwarm and dry and my pleading did not matter anymorebecause when the oldest one calledevery…
Explosions The sounds fill up the airinto moments when you don’t expect itthough you always feelthat something is about to happenbut stillsounds fill up the roomand the numb question of what that wasechoing from the ceilingand rolling on the floor to the doorssound fills up my headI lean against the door jamband listen listen listento the…
Fellow Poets The poetry will live foreverI tell them into the walkie-talkieon the frequency available only to us –they just smile here is Ihornow he’s a squad leadercleaning his assault riflewith the muse’s feathershe knows he’s just a fang in the jawof the hungry beast here is another Ihorhe used to roll the grass snakes…
Lightbulbs Surprised they have been shouting and pointing fingers for a long timeuntil they realized that’s how death looks like This giant glass-eyed fishwith tombstones instead of scaleswhere did it come fromwas the city inundated by water It’s the worst thing outside todaythis grapefruit sound of the scales touching the window glassthese empty eyes, like…
13.03.2022 to Iryna Shuvalova and Yurii Andrukhovych we are not another year older but the war olderthe number that could describe how much we’ve been through doesn’t even exist||||||||||||||||||| now we are older than our bodies |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| grandparents one war older then us were always sayingthat we were so lucky to be born in a…
Silhouettes You see his speedas he jumps between cars.It is worth that one moment,the incredible beating of the heart.It happens as if in a dream,the purple darkness. In wartime,you can no longer see the silhouettesof your neighborsas they move through their nightly routines.Your own windowsare covered with the duvet. You are more alone,remembering the porcelain…
Relocation As I moved into the first house I ever owned,thousands of Ukrainians migrated to the air.Now they typed memes; now, they roseinto the stratosphere. It was multitasking,some said. Some were walking their dogs,but fingers softened, fists unclenched, letting goof the small spool of the leash. It was spring, then,and no one could own–or grasp–anything.The…
