Issue 4.4
Note: for the best reading experience of ballast, we highly recommend viewing the journal on a desktop or laptop computer. If reading on a smartphone, the original formatting of the texts may be altered or lost.
Baktash Abtin, translated from the Persian by Bänoo Zan:
“homeland”
“Hemispheres”
“Interior Physics”
”[I’m sorry to report my self-help book]”
Karen Byk, translated from the Spanish by Jordan Lee Schnee:
“GETTING READY TO GO OUT PARTYING IS PERFORMATIVE OF YOUR ANIMAL NATURE”
"[We were cursed]"
“Deadening”
“Enter Slurry”
“Sepulchral Epigram for Fanny Howe”
“Sepulchral Epigram For Lyn Hejinian”
“Apalachicola”
“AMERICAN FAIRYTALE”
“Self-Portrait as Weed Twisting in the Wind”
“Separate Together”
“Those Hard Years”
“Achilles’ Temple”
“Reading Tristia in Rome”
“I Ask the GPT Why I’m Not Happy Anymore; Or, We Can Write that for You Wholesale”
“Sunday Pastoral”
“Synapsid Elegy”
“still—”
“Under Scalloped Clouds”
"A Poem in the Form of Byron Katie’s The Work After Engaging in Historical Generalizations”
“Elderflowers”
“lost”
“Rubedo”
“Canticle of Loss”
“Geographical Scarcity”
“A Reason”
“House of Cards”
“The Hungry”
“Another New Orleans Sonnet”
“Europa”
“Political Corrections”
“You’re Probably”
Reviews — writers reading others
Dialogues — two poets in conversation
Jordan Lee Schnee & Karen Byk
LC Gutierrez & Fen Song
Hazelyn Aroian & Mark Kessinger
Joe Milazzo & Olof Samuelsson
Cover image source: Image from the Met’s open source gallery.
[Falls under fair-use policy for educational and non-commercial purposes.]
Voices — poets reading their own work
Rodrigo Toscano reads “The Hungry,” “Another New Orleans Sonnet,” and “Europa”
Sam Brammell reads “Interior Physics”
Jake Syersak reads “A Reason”