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Category Archive: Poetry

Day-Who-Is-Counting-Anymore: Pandemic Poems by Miriam Schweiger and Solvej Schou

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The poets in this issue remind us that we are still writing, painting, critiquing, thinking, singing and creating. Miriam Schweiger chronicles the new apart-but-together way of life, and Solvej Schou draws from personal and historical events, which parallel today’s.

AFLW July 21, 2020 Apart=Together, DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry

Excerpt: THE POETRY OF STRANGERS by Brian Sonia-Wallace

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In an excerpt from his new collection, Brian Sonia-Wallace writes about the weekend before Mother’s Day at Macy’s from a hired poet’s perspective, capturing complexities of the mother-child relationship as credit cards are swiped.

AFLW July 21, 2020 Apart=Together, DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry

Excerpt: MY NAME IS ROMERO by David A. Romero

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In two poems from his new collection, David A. Romero pays homage to uncles who paint cars and grandfathers who just want more time.

AFLW July 21, 2020 Apart=Together, DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry

Poetry Club: I Am Here, Hear Me

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New works by YA poets on depression, sea cucumbers, millennials and standing up to authority are feisty and unapologetically vulnerable.

AFLW February 29, 2020 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry, Time, Wall of Resistance

‘The Moon Lives in the Lining of Your Skin’: A Poetry Collective

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The moon is a muse for many poets. In this new collective, a collaboration by GetLit players reminds us how the moon is colonized and objectified, a poet pleads to the moon to make him super for a night and a lover bemoans the finality of loss of his woman under a full moon.

AFLW November 15, 2019 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Time

To Our Beloved: L.A. Poets’ Tribute to Toni Morrison

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“As we all continue to collectively mourn Toni Morrison, we also collectively pay tribute to the gifts she gave us. Rest in power and poetry,” writes AFLW Associate Poetry Editor Luivette Resto as she shares poems by Angelina Sáenz, Donny Jackson and Jessica Gallion that celebrate Morrison’s memory, beauty and wisdom.

AFLW August 15, 2019 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry, Time

EXCERPT: LETTERS TO MY CITY by Mike Sonsken

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In his new book of poems and essays, Mike Sonksen explores and examines Los Angeles as well as its people, neighborhoods, culture and history over generations. It’s both an up-close view and one from 35,000 feet floating above the geography and the psychology of the city.

AFLW June 18, 2019 DEPARTMENTS, Excerpt, ISSUES, Poetry, Time

Somewhere There Is a Poem by Gina Loring

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Of African American, Eastern European Jewish and Muscogee Creek Native American descent, Gina Loring alchemizes sociopolitical issues into art. For the final day of National Poetry Month, we are proud to publish her recent works, celebrating multi-ethnic heritage, female empowerment and poetry changing the world.

AFLW April 30, 2019 ISSUES, Poetry, Time, Wall of Resistance

Excerpt: All That Wasted Fruit by Arminé Iknadossian

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Arminé Iknadossian’s latest collection of poetry potently explores the many facets of being a woman, including ambiguity, lover and warrior.

AFLW April 30, 2019 DEPARTMENTS, Excerpt, ISSUES, Poetry, Time, Uncategorized, Wall of Resistance

Scream by Shonda Buchanan

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We begin National Poetry Month with a searing poem written for and read by Shonda Buchanan at our Black Resistance in the Time of Trump event. Her lyrical opening, which she sang, took our breath away and made the room sacred. Her words, full of pain and rage and the truth.

AFLW April 1, 2018 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

BEGIN WITH A FAILED BODY: Q&A With Natalie Graham

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In BEGIN WITH A FAILED BODY, winner of the 2016 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, poet and professor Natalie Graham considers the wounded self trapped between poverty and memory.

AFLW February 1, 2018 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Q&A, Wall of Resistance

Walking in Santiago After Midnight by Aruni Wijesinghe

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They met online on Skype and then in person in Chile. Their connection continued in cyberspace. A tribute to a love outside of time.

AFLW November 16, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Time

Ghazal Between Icons: An Imagined Conversation for Freddie Gray by F. Douglas Brown

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On the two-year anniversary of the death of Freddie Gray, after suffering police brutality, laments by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman.

“The news wraps you in lists, trying to destroy the light of your name,
Waxing moon sliver of light—metaphor for black Baltimore boys?”

AFLW April 19, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, RESISTANCE, Wall of Resistance

Love Lessons From Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Lisa Cheby

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For the 20th anniversary of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” poems from a collection by Lisa Cheby, inspired by the cult-popular TV show, explore grief, power and love.

AFLW March 12, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Making Space by CLS Ferguson

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“Dare me to tell you how long I’ve dreamed of you
We’re a love story written in Sanskrit and Aramaic”

AFLW March 4, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

United States of Love by Arminé Iknadossian

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“On a map, California looks like she’s hugging the continent
and Nevada is leaning in for a deep kiss.
She is tentative, he is a sharp-tongued,
diamond-studded menace, kissing her
and at the same time, pushing her into the ocean.”

AFLW February 28, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

Animal Kingdom by Sonia Greenfield

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“we’re foolish to not recognize
what can happen when we open

our screen doors to a desperate world”

AFLW February 24, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Golden Shower by Martin Ott

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“His urge began in the mythic land of Florida,
where power surges from the steaming swamp.”

AFLW February 20, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

The Cynic and The Lovers: Poems at the Polls by Brian Sonia-Wallace

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“we, in the eye of the storm,
are a love letter, a prayer
that is more assurance than ask.
‘We will be ok,’ we say, we sing, film it,
play it back over and over”

AFLW January 23, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

Poetry Is a Shapeshifter by Linda Ravenswood

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“Poetry … must be tactless, falling down stairs like a toddler,
slipping into ravines like a dancer on high alert,
forgetting the words but remembering the way. Poetry must be.”

AFLW January 23, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

Year in Review: Best Books

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We have been honored to feature an array of tremendous titles from incredibly talented and diverse writers of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Here are some of our favorites published in the year we now leave behind.

AFLW December 31, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Excerpt, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, REAL, UNREAL

The Voice Heard Loudest by Terence Leclere

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A poet’s reflection on fear, written on 11/9, after the dismaying results of the election.

AFLW January 9, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates by Rich Ferguson

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Prose incantations written pre- and post-election by L.A. poet and author Rich Ferguson. All selections part of his collection in progress, “Everything Is Radiant Between the Hates.”

AFLW January 6, 2017 DEPARTMENTS, Excerpt, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

Sayonara, Los Angeles by Andrea Lambert

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“I grieve for Los Angeles
​Left behind me.
I grieve for Obama’s America
​Soon to be gone.”

AFLW December 7, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Letter to L.A., Poetry, Wall of Resistance

The Damage by Sergio A. Ortiz

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In his poems, Sergio A. Ortiz explores a range of roiling emotions post-11/9: feelings of longing and regret, resentment stirring at the emerging depravity, and warnings about remaining silent. But there is also hope in resistance: “Listen to how frozen hurricanes emerge from the dew!”

AFLW December 5, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, Poetry, Wall of Resistance

9/11: The Hole and the Heart by Solvej Schou

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Fifteen years later, we remember 9/11 with a poem written in 2001 in New York by L.A. journalist and musician Solvej Schou, reverberating with the grief, confusion and sadness she felt at the time of the tragedy.

AFLW September 11, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

There’s No Way to Arrange It by Lisa Mecham

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A selection of poems by Lisa Mecham deftly explores the haze of infidelity, deflections that bring us back to ourselves and the anguish of facing a partner’s mental illness.

AFLW July 14, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

In Childhood, I Am Black by Ashaki M. Jackson

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A searing series of narrative prose poems by Ashaki M. Jackson offer observations from her childhood and document the painful commonness of devaluing Black lives.

AFLW July 14, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Excerpt: POSADA by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

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The art of Los Angeles isn’t just in our museums, it’s in our murals, our family’s artifacts and where we take cover, as Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo reveals.

AFLW July 14, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Jacaranda by Lauren Eggert-Crowe

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Lauren Eggert-Crowe disarms us, brings us closer, unveiling heartbreak and beauty.

AFLW July 14, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Who We Say We Are by Marina Muhlfriedel

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Marina Muhlfriedel invites us to shed the past, if just a moment.

AFLW July 31, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

A Balanced Diet by Nikki San Pedro

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The voices in Nikki San Pedro’s poems search for soothing in the chaos of L.A.

AFLW July 21, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Excerpt: TONIGHT, WE FUCK THE TRAILER PARK OUT OF EACH OTHER by C. Russell Price

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Three intense, crafted poems, on love for men and words, from C. Russell Price’s acclaimed new debut, TONIGHT, WE FUCK THE TRAILER PARK OUT OF EACH OTHER.

AFLW July 31, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Excerpt, Poetry

Untethered Starlings in the L.A. Apocalypse by Karen An-hwei Lee

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Karen An-hwei Lee shows us the angels that fly and float through our city. Her assured writing trusts us with the complexities of racism in the judicial system and shows us how far we’ve come and how far we’ll go.

AFLW July 14, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

A Dawn of Dry Cereal by Richard King Perkins II

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Poetry by Richard King Perkins II evokes the hardship of poverty, the beauty of pleasure and the emptiness of a couple out of sync.

AFLW July 28, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Un-Named by Lydia K. Valentine

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Lydia K. Valentine’s pantoum takes us to the spaces between the spaces.

AFLW July 28, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Flying by Edward Ahern

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Ed Ahearn on a child’s wish to fly, and a man’s knowledge of being tethered to earth, for now.

AFLW July 31, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Confiscated Hearts by Rachel Toles

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Rachel Toles’ poetry reaches beyond obligations of intimacy.

AFLW July 31, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Arrival Stories by Mike Sonksen

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Mike Sonksen, aka Mike the Poet, tunes into the heartbeat and history of Los Angeles.

AFLW July 14, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Anniversary by Siobhan Phillips

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“Sometimes you don’t have the touch.
Now the best tenderness is whatever you try
when it’s not enough to say how could you have known.”

AFLW July 31, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Searchlight by Ruth Nolan

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Ruth Nolan shows us the layers of our lives and our loves in a roadtrip across the ocean of the desert.

AFLW July 28, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

Manual Arts High School Blues by Andy Lara

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The prose poetry of Andy Lara captures the sights and sounds of the City of Angels, from the buoyant energy of schoolkids to the shuffle of homeless street scavengers.

AFLW July 28, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

What Contains Us by Joanna Brown

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“When some air’s displaced, other air rushes in. Does one soul’s absence make room for another?”

AFLW July 31, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

3 AM, the Night of the Cast Party, and I Wonder Where You Are by Brad Rose

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Brad Rose shows us to the dark of night and dark of soul in the corners and outskirts of our city. His audio recordings of his readings lend a gritty, raw intimacy to his words.

AFLW July 21, 2016 A/V, DEPARTMENTS, Poetry, SIGHTS/SOUNDS

Summer by Alexis Donkin

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“Cells beget cells
extending into light
drinking photons with the rest
as sugars accumulate
at the ends of buds
ideas rolling into acts
full fruition”

AFLW June 20, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

black-eyed susan by Eleanor Stanton

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“I’m a hot flash, molten gold
drawing your eye up
from poor and rocky soil
to my perky chocolate brown cones

call me gloriosa daisy
but don’t compare me to
that pale cousin of mine
prey of ambivalent lovers”

AFLW April 11, 2016 Poetry

Summer Solstice by Sherilyn Lee

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“The full moon will slip off my shoes.
The longest day of the year will give way.
You nuzzle my nape under luminescence.
You ran your finger along my forehead,
tucked my bangs behind my ear.
Gravity is a force that draws two bodies.
The axis is about to shift.”

AFLW June 20, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

The Personal Assistant Speaks by Sherilyn Lee

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“Los Angeles doesn’t demand your love.
If you don’t understand her, she’ll bow her
head, say ‘Namaste,’ and she’ll rise above.
Not everyone gets her, she’s not bitter.”

AFLW June 17, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, Poetry

For Angels on Motorbikes by Marina Muhlfriedel

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“Couple of mothers, aren’t we?
Just look at us,
still breathing strong,
when we swore there wasn’t a chance.”

AFLW March 27, 2016 Poetry

Inside: Tract Home Take Down by Rachel Sona Reed

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In Rachel Sona Reed’s meditation on history and loss, a neighborhood’s wartime homes are stripped to their bones.

AFLW February 14, 2016 DEPARTMENTS, ISSUES, love/hate, Poetry

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