Issue 4.4

Editorial Introduction

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”

Hazelyn Aroian:

  • “Hemispheres”

Sam Brammell:

  • “Stream of (Self) Consciousness”

Jackson Burgess:

  • ”[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”

Emily D’Emic:

  • "[We were cursed]"

Matt Fallon:

  • “Deadening”

  • “Enter Slurry”

Cal Freeman:

  • “Sepulchral Epigram for Fanny Howe”

  • “Sepulchral Epigram For Lyn Hejinian”

Mads Gordon:

  • “Apalachicola”

  • “AMERICAN FAIRYTALE”

LC Gutierrez:

  • “Self-Portrait as Weed Twisting in the Wind”

Randolph Healy:

  • “Separate Together”

Stephen Kampa:

  • “Those Hard Years”

Mark Kessinger:

  • “Achilles’ Temple”

Adrian Lürssen:

  • “Reading Tristia in Rome”

Andrew McSorley:

  • “Under Scalloped Clouds”

Joe Milazzo:

  • “Synapsid Elegy”

Dustin Miller:

  • “still—”

Ruby Hansen Murray:

  • “I Ask the GPT Why I’m Not Happy Anymore; Or, We Can Write that for You Wholesale”

  • “Sunday Pastoral”

Nora Rawn:

  • "A Poem in the Form of Byron Katie’s The Work After Engaging in Historical Generalizations”

Olof Samuelsson:

  • “Elderflowers”

Fen Song:

  • “lost”

Joshua St. Claire:

  • “Rubedo”

SM Stubbs:

  • “Canticle of Loss”

  • “Geographical Scarcity”

Jake Syersak:

  • “A Reason”

Tiezst Taylor:

  • “House of Cards”

Rodrigo Toscano:

  • “The Hungry”

  • “Another New Orleans Sonnet”

  • “Europa”

Matt Zambito:

  • “Political Corrections”

  • “You’re Probably”

Reviews — writers reading others

J. M. C. Kane reviews Rennie Ament’s Now Appears Twice

Dialogues — two poets in conversation

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