Although the verb is in the infinitive in Spanish, “raining” in this poem is actively, repeatedly witnessed, and “to rain” doesn’t transmit the same immediacy as the gerund does. In the English translation, nevertheless, I alternate between the gerund and the infinitive forms to capture how, even when conjuring it has become second nature to the speaker, rain(ing) remains curiously elusive and always confined to a certain “[u]ntil then.”
Alejandra Quintana Arocho on "Raining, Outlined" |
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What is Good Political Poetry?
"Sometimes I know it when I see it. Last year, for example, we published two poems by Justin Davis that bitterly exhort the reader to 'dip the poem in oil, occupy a country for it.' Or, more recently, Huda Fakhreddine’s translation of 'I Grant You Refuge' by Heba Abu Nada, a Palestinian poet who was martyred in an Israeli airstrike. It’s impossible not to read these works as deeply politicized, whether by content or context. Other times, I’m struck by political indirectness, the way a poem renders social worlds atmospheric: a kind of dense, violent noise."
via POETS & WRITERS |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Daniela Danz on [Come wilderness into our homes]
With our ever-increasing distance from nature, alongside our excessive extractive practices, the idea of wilderness has become a topos of longing; nevertheless, wilderness still harbors the potential to undo the cultural achievements that are the basis of human civilization. Prior to the Enlightenment, European thought regarded wilderness as a threat, if also a source of fascination; in the Enlightenment’s wake, wilderness was rebranded as an Edenic original condition. |
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2024 Able Muse Contests
Submit Now
WRITE PRIZE (poetry & fiction): $500 each + publication
Final Judges: Hailey Leithauser (poetry), Nina Schuyler (fiction). $15 entry: deadline: March 15, 2024
BOOK AWARD (poetry): $1000 + book publication
Final Judge: Timothy Steele. $25 entry: deadline: March 31, 2024 |
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