Selected Poems from The Undertaker’s Daughter
Terrified at a reading to read / poems about my fears & shames, // a voice in me said: Just / open your mouth. Now // I read about… More
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You
A lot of fault-finding non-Catholics run around saying that Catholics believe the Pope is infallible whenever he speaks. This is untrue. The Pope is infallible on only certain occasions,… More
Good Kings, Bad Kings
One thing I didn’t remember to think about is nothing never happens around here. Some cars drove by, and maybe the drivers looked at me? But they didn’t look… More
Burning Ants
My brother Credence says people who leave are deluding themselves about what’s out there. I just think they’re cowards. Mr. Tofu Scramble says I should go anyway, that it’s… More
Selected Poems of Hester Knibbe
There you sit / in the same skirt in which, waters ago, / you boarded the ship, but the dance / has drained from your feet. More
On Translating Hester Knibbe
There were openly false statements, lies that gave way to truths. There was often a little something indigestible in the poems, something to puzzle over, and this was what… More
On Translating Andrea Tompa
Andrea Tompa's generation had no sultan to fear in distant Constantinople and his pashas, but they did have a Moscow-driven communist dictator and his secret police. No hostile armies… More
Excerpt from Andrea Tompa’s The Hangman’s House
I might make the third act, Juci had said that morning, perhaps she'll make the third act, thought her sister, because they both wanted to see their friend who… More
Stone Upon Stone
Grandfather was supposed to have also started the fire brigade. Before, when someone’s place was on fire people would just run up each with their own bucket of water… More