Poetry Only

This is an issue reserved exclusively for poetry, but we’re breaking the rules to bring you a conversation between Doyali Islam and Anne Michaels. Islam discusses the two-column poem, as well as the variations she creates within this form, including “parallel poems,” “split sonnets,” and “double sonnets.” 

Also in this issue, you will find new work from Alexei Perry Cox, who undresses the sonnet, and tears into the glosa. Ashley Hynd, who works with prose poems and uses them to both create and critique narrative: “there is a story and in the story he sits across the table writing the story about the problem in your bones.” Jessica Woolford demonstrates what control it takes to cascade madly down a page. Marlene Grand Maitre, in her poem “Cocoon,” discusses breath — the held breath, the stolen one.