Issue 03
Lexicon
If anything remains of our bodies, it will be the syllables of our language, spoken into existence by butchered tongues.
Language is the heartbeat of the human condition. For Issue 03: Lexicon, we are looking for poems that explore one's experience with languages. We highly encourage poems with words, phrases and verses from other languages (of course not just for the sake of it). Issue 03 seeks translations, dictionary entry poems, root analysis poems, and the like.
We want poems of any form as long as it explores some facet of the linguistic experience.
For those from colonized countries, the languages we speak often carry the scar of historical oppression. What does it mean to speak fluently in the language of colonizers?
Especially for bilingual and multilingual poets, what does it mean to look at a bird and conjure four different words for it in your mind? What is the word for love in your language? How often have you heard it spoken?
In the silence between two words, do you hear the music?
Do You Speak Persian? by Kaveh Akbar
I Dream of An English by Meena Kandasamy
From “Glossary of Grief” by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach
Dear White Critic, ،رفيقي في الرحيل by Zeina Hashem Beck
Some songs we like:
to be updated
Butchered Tongue by Hozier
Moopilla Thamizhe Thaaye by AR Rahman and Others
SemMozhi by AR Rahman and Others
Empire Now by Hozier