Poetry Foundation Magazine, Volume 226, Issue #1, April 2025

Poetry Foundation Magazine

by Adrian Matejka (Editor)

Once I learned I could have the last word
I couldn’t stop having it.

Brittany Cavallaro

Genres: Poetry

97 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2025

About the author

Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany but grew up in California and Indiana. He is a graduate of Indiana University and the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His first collection of poems, The Devils Garden, won the 2002 Kinereth Gensler Award from Alice James Books. His second collection, Mixology, was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series and was published by Penguin Books in 2009. Mixology was subsequently nominated for an NAACP Image Award. He is a Cave Canem fellow and is the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry 2010, Crab Orchard Review, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, and Prairie Schooner among other journals and anthologies. He teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where he serves as Poetry Editor for Souwester."

Reviews

[Samuel Smith]

Favorites: "Early Absence," "I'm Like If Mart Oliver Had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder," "From 'Underworlds,'" "What My Uncle's Dead Lovers Left Behind," "Domestic Interior," "what the ghosts of las adelitas say in the afterlife part 1"

[Curtis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A haiku:

Books should have pink covers.
This book does have a pink cover.
Big shock: I read it.

[Alan Zhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

二十
Poets
Are immortal

An incredible issue - I think my favorite so far. Almost every poem in this collection has a line for the reader to keep with them.

Particular favorites: Whitney Koo's "Bevy of Crows"; Nasser Rabah's "Nocturnal Spirits" (tr. Alcalay, Zghal, & Al-Hilli); Yu Li's "Cherry"; Kimberly Johnson's "From 'Underworlds'"; David Hopson's "In August, in the City"; Jane Flett's "Sky Glee"; Paura Rodríguez Leytón's "To You I Attribute My Blood's Torrent" (tr. McAdams)

Rose Zinnia's "I'm Like If Mary Oliver Had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder":
> tbh i'm not even trans i'm a sheaf of blessings that makes a soft noise when you strum it

Shara McCallum's "Domestic Interior":
> Pain enters through an open window
> and you say it is the wind.
>
> It narrows into beams, gutters,
> walls. Still you insist.
>
> It is only a passing storm.

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, poignant collection. Sky Glee is a personal favorite. Give it up for Maxine Hong Kingston everybody!!

“My neighbor is trying to
repair a butterfly’s wing.
Live one day more.” (Kingston)

“Come, sit with me, you old rascal, there’s nothing
doing, we’re so annoyingly alike, to the point of utter tedium.” (Nasser Rabah)

[Bruno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not too crazy about this one, I thought it was fine for the most part. Enjoyed the full color photography and the section about Escaramuza.

[Meghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent issue.