Adeeba Shahid Talukder

What they call mania

is a mind

brilliant in darkness.


In you, Manhattan blinks.


No one hears your terror

at the East River,

how it beats


its head upon the rocks.


When you dethroned god

you saw the world


too vast, too heavy

to hold, and to learn this


was to learn wrath.

In these white rooms,


no one comes

to mourn your death,


then rebirth.

God, awakeall night:

rest, rest.


You are weary,

and the world turns without you.
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After several nights of sleeplessness and low appetite, I had transcended the realm of the human—become a prophetess, Revolution, God! I left my notebooks near the East River so that they might be discovered and enlighten humanity. My family found me on Roosevelt Island after searching for hours. On the night of the 11th, I was rushed to the hospital—and startled when no one knew my name there.

 Adeeba Shahid Talukder on "January 9, 2008" 
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Please join Poetry Daily editorial board members Kaveh Akbar and Ilya Kaminsky  on Tuesday, November 2 at 7:30pm ET for an intimate online reading and conversation about Akbar’s Pilgrim Bell, his highly anticipated follow-up to Calling a Wolf a Wolf.
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Cover of Nabaneeta Dev Sen's book, Acrobat
Nabaneeta Dev Sen’s Acrobat Reviewed

"The poet’s voice comes through clearly even in translation—it speaks to the reader as it would a friend, very honestly, at times playfully, and never anxiously—in words that feel plainspoken but not austere. This voice describes the poet’s life: of motherhood, loss, and frequently, the mercurial work of making poems."

via LOS ANGELES REVIEW OF BOOKS
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Cover of Li-Young Lee's book, The City in Which I Love You
What Sparks Poetry:
Shara Lessley on Li-Young Lee's "My Father, in Heaven, Is Reading Out Loud"

 
"The more I studied 'My Father, in Heaven...,' the more I appreciated the stanzas’ complexity, pattern-making, and interiority, and how the poem reflected the lyric’s capacity as a communal art. I knew this is what I wanted. Whether I could write anything of dimension was uncertain. But in Lee’s work I discovered textures of energy, music, and intimacy I hoped to emulate—even if I couldn’t predict my effort’s outcome."
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