Staying Human
new poems for Staying Alive
Published on 1. October 2020
Book
Paperback/Softback
528 pages
978-1-78037-390-4 (ISBN)
Description
Staying Human is the sequel to the Staying Alive trilogy of anthologies which have introduced many thousands of new readers to contemporary poetry. This fourth Bloodaxe world poetry anthology offers poetry lovers an even broader, international selection of 500 more 'real poems for unreal times', with a strong focus on 21st-century poems addressing current issues. The range of poetry here complements that of the first three anthologies: hundreds of thoughtful and passionate poems about living in the modern world; poems that touch the heart, stir the mind and fire the spirit; poems about what makes us human, about love and loss, fear and longing, hurt and wonder; talismanic poems which have become personal survival testaments for many. There's a strong focus on the human side of living in the 21st century in poems from the past two decades relating to migration, oppression, alienation and the individual's struggle to hold on, stay connected and find meaning in an increasingly polarised world. Staying Human also draws on poems suggested by readers because they've been so important in their own lives, as well as many poems which have gone viral after being shared on social media because they speak to our times with such great immediacy. And there are poems from around the world written just recently in response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
Reviews / Votes
These poems distil the human heart as nothing else... Staying Alive celebrates the point of poetry. It's invigorating and makes me proud of being human. -- Jane Campion Staying Alive is a book which leaves those who have read or heard a poem from it feeling less alone and more alive. -- John Berger I love Staying Alive and keep going back to it. Being Alive is just as vivid, strongly present and equally beautifully organised. But this new book feels even more alive - I think it has a heartbeat, or maybe that's my own thrum humming along with the music of these poets. Sitting alone in a room with these poems is to be assured that you are not alone, you are not crazy (or if you are, you're not the only one who thinks this way!) I run home to this book to argue with it, find solace in it, to locate myself in the world again. -- Meryl StreepMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Tyne and Wear
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 136 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
737 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78037-390-4 (9781780373904)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2020
Bloodaxe Books Ltd
€14.49
Available for download
Person
Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books include novels, poetry collections and anthologies, most notably those in Bloodaxe's Staying Alive anthology series: Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004), Being Human (2011), and Staying Human (2020), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation; and three collaborations with Pamela Robertson-Pearce, Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds (2008), and the DVD-books In Person: 30 Poets (2008) and In Person: World Poets (2017). He has published two novels, The End of My Tether (2002), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and The Sheep Who Changed the World (2005). He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry, was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books, and in 2018 was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He also guest-edited a transatlantic all-poetry issue of the American literary journal Ploughshares, the first such issue in its 43-year history. He lives in the Tarset Valley of Northumberland, England.
Content
Neil Astley 17 Introduction
1 Staying human
Tom Leonard 22 Being a Human Being
Patrizia Cavalli 22 'Here I am, I do my bit...'
Goeran Sonnevi 23 'Whose life? you asked'
Fernando Pessoa 24 They Spoke to Me of People, and of Humanity
John Barr 24 Bonsai Master
Audre Lorde 25 A Litany for Survival
Robert Pinsky 26 Samurai Song
Zeina Hashem Beck 27 You Fixed It
Janet Fisher 28 Life and Other Terms
Vincenza Holland 29 Excuse Me
U.A. Fanthorpe 30 A Minor Role
Pippa Little 31 Against Hate
Tatamkhulu Afrika 32 The Woman at the Till
Ellery Akers 33 The Word That Is a Prayer
Danusha Lameris 34 Insha'Allah
David Friedland 35 Blind man
Danusha Lameris 35 Small Kindnesses
Mimi Khalvati 36 Smiles
Mimi Khalvati 37 The Brag
Nikola Madzirov 37 When Someone Goes Away Everything That's Been Done Comes Back
Ellen Bass 38 Gate C22
Naomi Shihab Nye 39 Gate A-4
Fred D'Aguiar 41 Excise
Thomas Kinsella 42 Mirror in February
Charles Simic 42 Mirrors at 4 a.m.
Zhang Zao 43 Mirror
Rachael Boast 44 Desperate Meetings of Hermaphrodites
Werner Aspenstroem 44 You and I and the World
Kaveh Akbar 45 What Use Is Knowing Anything If No One Is Around
Tim Liardet 46 Self-Portrait with Aquarium Octopus Flashing a Mirror
M. Vasalis 47 The IJsselmeer Dam
Stewart Conn 47 Conundrum
Valerio Magrelli 48 Vanishing Point
Richard Siken 49 Landscape with Fruit Rot and Millipede
Marjorie Lot? Gill 50 Gift
Patrizia Cavalli 51 'I'm pretty clear, I'm dying...'
Lawrence Sail 51 Recognition
Tracy K. Smith 52 Nanluoxiang Alley
Dzifa Benson 52 Self Portrait as a Creature of Numbers
Wislawa Szymborska 53 A Contribution to Statistics
Gennady Aygi 55 People
Linda Anderson 56 Sanctuary
Judith Herzberg 56 The Way
Anna Swir 57 The Same Inside
Martin Espada 58 Rednecks
Natalie Diaz 59 The Beauty of a Busted Fruit
Suji Kwock Kim 59 Monologue for an Onion
Nadine Aisha Jassat 60 The Years
Nadine Aisha Jassat 61 Let Me Tell You
Jessica Traynor 62 In Praise of Fixer Women
Marie Howe 63 Magdalene Afterwards
Marie Howe 65 One Day
Tishani Doshi 65 Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods
2 Ten Zillion Things
Mark Strand 68 Lines for Winter
Linda Pastan 68 Imaginary Conversation
Jack Gilbert 69 Failing and Flying
Gillian Clarke 70 Snow
Vladmir Holan 71 Snow
W.N. Herbert 71 Breakfrost
Derek Mahon 72 Rising Late
Michelle O'Sullivan 74 What Was Mistook
Michelle O'Sullivan 74 Lines
John F. Deane 75 The Red Gate
Alison Brackenbury 75 So
Ellen Bass 76 Any Common Desolation
Lisel Mueller 77 In Passing
Leanne O'Sullivan 77 A Healing
Hanny Michaelis 78 'It's terrible...'
John F. Deane 78 The World is Charged
David Butler 79 And Then The Sun Broke Through
William Stafford 80 You Reading This, Be Ready
Hanny Michaelis 80 'Over the years...'
Deryn Rees-Jones 81 Meteor
Tuvia Ruebner 81 Wonder
Blake Morrison 82 Happiness
Jack Underwood 82 Happiness
Ruth Stone 83 Wanting
Mikiro Sasaki 84 Sentiments
David Ferry 84 Lake Water
Randall Jarrell 86 Well Water
Seamus Heaney 87 A Drink of Water
Lani O'Hanlon 87 Going to the Well
Denise Levertov 88 The Fountain
G.F. Dutton 89 The Miraculous Issue
George Szirtes 90 Water
Moya Cannon 91 Introductions
A.E. Stallings 91 Olives
Jan Wagner 92 quince jelly
Louis de Paor 93 Marmalade
Sarah Lindsay 95 If God Made Jam
Craig Arnold 95 Meditation on a Grapefruit
Ales Steger 96 Chocolate
Ales Steger 97 Egg
Thomas Lux 98 Refrigerator, 1957
Connie Bensley 99 Cookery
Mary Rue?e 100 Timberland
Matthew Dickman 101 The World is Too Huge to Grasp
Linda Gregg 102 Let Birds
Imtiaz Dharker 103 Carving
Alice Oswald 104 A Short History of Falling
Aracelis Girmay 105 Ars Poetica
Ruth Sharman 105 Fragments
Carlos Drummond de Andrade 106 The House of Lost Time
Vera Pavlova 107 'If there is something to desire...'
Luis Munoz 107 Leave Poetry
Boris A. Novak 108 Decisions: 11
Carlos Drummond de Andrade 109 Absence
Mairead Byrne 109 Facing the Music
Ruth Sharman 110 Hilltop
Dennis O'Driscoll 110 Nocturne
3 Innocence and experience
Malika Booker 112 Cement
Malika Booker 113 Erasure
Tracey Herd 114 Happy Birthday
Sinead Morrissey 115 Fairground Music
Sharon Olds 116 To Our Miscarried One, Age Thirty Now
Dorothea Lasky 117 The Miscarriage
Fiona Benson 118 Sheep
Derry O'Sullivan 119 Stillborn 1943: Calling Limbo
Deirdre Brennan 120 Born Dead
Noelle Lynskey 121 Still Born
Sandeep Parmar 122 An uncommon language
Aoife Lyall 124 Sounds of that day
Aoife Lyall 125 Ubi Sunt
Catriona Clutterbuck 126 Her Body
Rebecca Goss 126 The Lights
Ciara MacLaverty 127 'That's Quite a Trick If You Can Pull It Off'
Fiona Benson 128 Prayer
Hannah Sullivan 128 from The Sandpit after Rain
Mona Arshi 129 Delivery Room
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 130 Inventory: Recovery Room
Justyna Bargielska 130 Different rose
Zoe Brigley 131 Star / Sun / Snow
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 133 Jigsaw Puzzle
Jack Underwood 133 William
Rebecca Goss 134 Last Poem
Fiona Benson 135 Hide and Seek
Ellen Cranich 136 Blasket Sound
Niall Campbell 137 Night Watch
Niall Campbell 138 February Morning
Liz Berry 138 The Republic of Motherhood
Rebecca Goss 140 My Animal
Fiona Benson 140 Ruins
Moya Cannon 141 Milk
Esther Morgan 142 Latch
Ailbhe Darcy 142 After my son was born
Hollie McNish 143 Embarrassed
Stephanie Norgate 146 Miracle
Lauris Edmond 147 Late song
Peter Sansom 148 Mini Van
Sharon Olds 148 I Cannot Say I Did Not
Katharine Towers 149 Childhood
Lucille Clifton 150 daughters
Jane Clarke 150 The trouble
Brenda Shaughnessy 151 I Wish I Had More Sisters
Ann Gray 153 I wish I had more mothers
Gretchen Marquette 154 Want
Tess Gallagher 155 With Stars
Tess Gallagher 156 I Stop Writing the Poem
Jane Clarke 156 Hers
Naomi Shihab Nye 157 Shoulders
Olivia McCannon 158 New Road
Leanne O'Sullivan 159 My Father Asks Why
Leanne O'Sullivan 160 The Cord
Naomi Shihab Nye 161 Supple Cord
Gwendolyn Brooks 162 a song in the front yard
Tracy K. Smith 162 The World Is Your Beautiful Younger Sister
Penelope Shuttle 163 Outgrown
Carol Ann Duffy 164 Empty Nest
Anna Enquist 165 All at Once
Inua Ellams 165 Swallow Twice
Jacob Sam-La Rose 166 Never
Jacob Sam-La Rose 166 The Other End of the Line
Jericho Brown 168 Prayer of the Backhanded
Jericho Brown 169 As a Human Being
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 170 Tooth
Anne Michaels 172 from Correspondences: a poem
Abigail Parry 176 The Quilt
Sa?ya Sinclair 177 Family Portrait
Pascale Petit 178 My Mother's Love
Pascale Petit 179 Her Harpy Eagle Claws
Pascale Petit 180 My Wolverine
Jacqueline Bishop 181 Snakes
Selima Hill 182 from Grunter
Selima Hill 185 from Sunday Afternoons at the Gravel-pits
Shivanee Ramlochan 188 from The Red Thread Cycle
Zoe Brigley 190 The Eye in the Wall
Nicki Heinen 191 Solent Ward, Royal Free Hospital, 2008
Aria Aber 192 Asylum
Sasha Dugdale 194 Asylum
Sasha Dugdale 195 'Perhaps Akhmatova was right'
Xidu Heshang 196 Fictionalising Her
Tony Hoagland 197 Personal
4 After Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara 200 The Day Lady Died
Rita Dove 201 Canary
John Burnside 201 The Day Etta Died
Clare Pollard 202 The Day Amy Died
Nick Flynn 203 The Day Lou Reed Died
Ian McMillan 205 The Evening of the Day Pavarotti Died
Anjum Hasan 205 The Day No One Died
Frank O'Hara 206 Autobiographia Literaria
Sa?ya Sinclair 207 Autobiography
Geoff Hattersley 208 Frank O'Hara Five, Geoffrey Chaucer Nil
Simon Armitage 208 Poem
Martina Evans 209 I Want to Be like Frank O'Hara
Phoebe Stuckes 210 Kiss me quick
Frank O'Hara 211 Katy
Roger Reeves 211 Someday I'll Love Roger Reeves
Ocean Vuong 212 Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong
Frank O'Hara 213 Why I Am Not a Painter
Maria Barnas 214 Why I Am Not a Painter
Matthew Sweeney 215 My Life as a Painter
Adam Zagajewski 216 Describing Paintings
5 Harmony and discord
John Hegley 218 A Declaration of Need
Robert Wrigley 218 A Lock of Her Hair
Jackie Kay 219 High Land
Marie Howe 220 Low Tide, Late August
Katharine Kilalea 220 You were a bird
Sarah Lindsay 221 The Arms of a Marvelous Squid
Warsan Shire 222 for women who are dif?cult to love
Jericho Brown 223 Colosseum
Jericho Brown 224 Of My Fury
Caroline Bird 225 Marriage of Equals
Joan Larkin 226 Want
Chen Chen 227 Poem in Noisy Mouthfuls
Mary Jean Chan 229 //
Jane Clarke 230 Vows
Miriam Nash 231 Love Song for a Keeper
Seamus Heaney 232 Scaffolding
Valerio Magrelli 232 The Embrace
Vidyan Ravinthiran 233 Aubade
Leanne O'Sullivan 233 Leaving Early
Leanne O'Sullivan 234 Note
Alex Dimitrov 235 Some New Thing
Eavan Boland 236 Lines for a Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary
Hester Knibbe 236 Yes
Dick Davis 237 Uxor Vivamus...
Dick Davis 238 Making a Meal of It
Wendy Cope 239 To My Husband
Wendy Cope 239 One Day
Anne Haverty 240 Objecting to Everything
Elaine Feinstein 242 A Visit
Tara Bergin 242 Wedding Cake Decorations
Ranjit Hoskote 242 Couple
Rebecca Perry 243 Windows
Joan Margarit 244 Love is a place
John Challis 244 The Love
Fleur Adcock 245 Happy Ending
Kei Miller 246 Epilogue
Conor O'Callaghan 246 Kingdom Come
Vona Groarke 247 Ghost Poem
Phoebe Stuckes 248 Gold Hoop Earrings
Phoebe Stuckes 249 Attempt
Cynthia Huntington 250 For Love
Bobby Parker 251 Working Class Voodoo
Melissa Lee-Houghton 252 Love-Smitten Heart
Louis Jenkins 255 Fish Out of Water
Sarah Holland-Batt 255 No End to Images
Patrizia Cavalli 256 'Very simple love that believes in words...'
Natalie Shaw 257 Like when we went to the cinema that time
Dario Jaramillo 258 from Impossible Loves
Dario Jaramillo 258 Mozart on the Motorway
Michael Longley 259 Ceilidh
Derek Mahon 260 Aran
Paddy Bushe 261 The Rolling Wave
Seamus Heaney 262 The Given Note
Gerard Fanning 262 That Note
Seamus Heaney 263 Song
Adam Zagajewski 264 Music Heard with You
Elizabeth Burns 265 Listening to Bach's B Minor Mass in the Kitchen
Lars Gustafsson 266 The silence of the world before Bach
Adam Zagajewski 266 Chaconne
Jane Hirsh?eld 267 Even the Vanishing Housed
Tomas Transtroemer 268 Schubertiana
Tomas Transtroemer 270 Allegro
Gregory Orr 270 To Be Alive
6 Mortal hurt
Tomas Transtroemer 272 The Half-Finished Heaven
Jan Erik Vold 272 The Fact That No Birds Sing
Galway Kinnell 274 Wait
Louise Glueck 275 from Averno
Caroline Bird 276 The End of the Bed
Caroline Bird 277 A Surreal Joke
Ken Babstock 278 As Marginalia in John Clare's The Rural Muse
Lieke Marsman 279 The Following Scan Will Last Less Than a Minute
Lieke Marsman 279 The Following Scan Will Last One Minute
Lieke Marsman 280 The Following Scan Will Last Five Minutes
Jo Shapcott 281 Of Mutability
Ilyse Kusnetz 282 Harbinger
Julie O'Callaghan 283 No Can Do
Wayne Holloway-Smith 284 'the posh mums are boxing in the square...'
Anna Swir 285 My Body Effervesces
Robert Hass 286 A Story About the Body
Max Ritvo 286 Poem to My Litter
Max Ritvo 288 Heaven Is Us Being a Flower Together
Max Ritvo 289 Cachexia
Mark Doty 290 Michael's Dream
Ana Ristovic 291 The Body
Elaine Feinstein 292 Long Life
Ruth Stone 293 The Excuse
Finuala Dowling 294 At eighty-?ve, my mother's mind
Finuala Dowling 295 Widowhood in the dementia ward
Finuala Dowling 295 Birthday in the dementia ward
Judith Herzberg 296 Old Age
Roger McGough 296 The Wrong Beds
Geraldine Mitchell 297 Sneak
Geraldine Mitchell 297 How the Body Remembers
Elise Partridge 298 from The Book of Steve
Menno Wigman 298 Everyone Is Beautiful Today
Michael Longley 299 Age
Thomas Lynch 300 Refusing at Fifty-two to Write Sonnets
Dermot Healy 300 As You Get Older
Mary O'Malley 301 A Lift
James Fenton 302 For Andrew Wood
Vijay Seshadri 303 Bright Copper Kettles
Anne Stevenson 304 Anaesthesia
Elise Partridge 305 Last Days
Michael O'Loughlin 306 In This Life
Zaffar Kunial 308 Prayer
Adil Jussawalla 308 Mother's Ninety-fourth Birthday
Menno Wigman 309 Body, my body
Janet Ayachi 309 Spooning Stars
Matthew Sweeney 310 The Tube
Kerry Hardie 311 Ship of Death
Sara Berkeley Tolchin 312 Burrow Beach
Helen Dunmore 313 My life's stem was cut
Helen Dunmore 314 Hold out your arms
Lorna Goodison 316 My Mother's Sea Chanty
Vicki Feaver 316 You Are Not
Sharon Olds 318 In the Temple Basement
Emily Berry 319 The photo that is most troubling is the one I don't want to show you
Annemarie Austin 320 from Country
Annemarie Austin 320 What My Double Will
Steven Matthews 321 Last Christmas Cracker
Kerry Hardie 322 After My Father Died
Valerie Rouzeau 322 from Vrouz
Bernard O'Donoghue 323 Ter Conatus
Eilean Ni Chuilleanain 324 The Morandi Bridge
Jay Whittaker 325 The call
Jay Whittaker 325 Bed fellow
Ruth Fainlight 326 Oxygen Mask
Ruth Fainlight 327 Somewhere Else Entirely
Elaine Feinstein 328 Beds
Imtiaz Dharker 328 Screen-saver
Imtiaz Dharker 329 Passport photo
Imtiaz Dharker 330 Say his name
Gillian Clarke 330 Honesty
Katie Donovan 331 Off Duty
Eunice de Souza 331 Advice to Women
Ron Koertge 332 Lily
Wislawa Szymborska 332 Cat in an Empty Apartment
Theresa Lola 333 Tailoring Grief
Wislawa Szymborska 334 The Day After - Without Us
Billy Collins 335 Helium
Mary Rue?e 336 Trust Me
Lucie Brock-Boido 337 Soul Keeping Company
Dean Young 338 Street of Sailmakers
Denise Riley 339 Listening for Lost People
Dennis O'Driscoll 340 Then
Julie O'Callaghan 341 Beyond
Julie O'Callaghan 341 Cyber You
Alison Brackenbury 342 All
7 Interesting times
Selina Nwulu 344 We have everything we need
Derek Mahon 345 Insomnia
Colette Bryce 346 Helicopters
Jennifer L. Knox 347 Drones
Colette Bryce 348 Belfast Waking, 6 a.m.
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 349 On Patrick Street
Imtiaz Dharker 350 Flight Radar
Jean Sprackland 351 CCTV
Jasmine Ann Cooray 352 Call Centre Blues
John Cooper Clarke 352 Bed Blocker Blues
David Constantine 354 Pity
Jacob Saenz 355 Sweeping the States
Jane Commane 356 Midlands kids
Sarah Howe 357 On a line by Xu Lizhi
Jeong Ho-seung 358 Death of a Cellphone
Sabeer Haka 358 Politics
Sabeer Haka 359 Mulberries
Paul Farley 359 Hole in the Wall
Zohar Atkins 360 Song of Myself (Apocryphal)
Tim Turnbull 361 Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn
Caitlin Nic Iomhair 363 Praise the Young
Jessica Mookherjee 363 Ursa Minor
Theresa Munoz 364 Be the ?rst to like this
A.E. Stallings 365 Like, the Sestina
8 Roots and routes
Deryn Rees-Jones 368 Home
Nina Bogin 368 Initiation, II
Maura Dooley 369 Dancing at Oakmead Road
Eavan Boland 370 Nocturne
Tom French 371 The Last Light
Peter Sirr 371 from The Rooms
Jane Clarke 374 Who owns the field?
Kirun Kapur 374 Anthem
David Dabydeen 375 Catching Crabs
Ales Debeljak 376 A Letter Home
Stanislaw Baranczak 377 If China
Arundhathi Subramaniam 378 Home
Moniza Alvi 378 And if
Vidyan Ravinthiran 379 Ceylon
Vidyan Ravinthiran 380 My Sri Lankan Family
Daljit Nagra 380 Our Town with the Whole of India
Roger Robinson 382 To His Homeland
Elisabeth Sennitt Clough 382 Potato Season
Mir Mahfuz Ali 383 My Son Waits by the Door
Alberto Rios 384 We Are of a Tribe
Vahni Capildeo 385 Going Nowhere, Getting Somewhere
Imtiaz Dharker 386 Chaudhri Sher Mobarik looks at the loch
Andre Naf?s-Sahely 387 Vanishing Act
Andre Naf?s-Sahely 387 An Island of Strangers
Adam Zagajewski 388 The Three Kings
John Agard 389 Checking Out Me History
Sujata Bhatt 391 A Different History
Karin Karakasli 392 History-Geography
Amir Darwish 393 Where I come from
Imtiaz Dharker 394 Minority
Luis Munoz 395 The Foreigner
Hama Tuma 396 Just a Nobody
Amarjit Chandan 396 In This Country
Keki Daruwalla 397 Migrations
Beata Duncan 399 The Notebook
Mina Gorji 400 Exit
Adam Zagajewski 401 Refugees
Wislawa Szymborska 402 Some People
Bejan Matur 403 Night Spent in the Temple of a Patient God
Bejan Matur 404 The Moon Sucks up Our Grief
Ribka Sibhatu 406 In Lampedusa
Musa Okwonga 408 Hundreds of cockroaches drowned today
Azita Ghahreman 408 The Boat That Brought Me
Carolyn Forche 409 The Boatman
Linda Gregerson 410 from Sleeping Bear
Naomi Shihab Nye 411 Mediterranean Blue
Kimiko Hahn 411 After being asked if I write 'the occasional poem'
Reza Mohammadi 412 Illegal Immigrant
Moniza Alvi 413 Flight
Fadwa Soulieman 414 For Lana Sadiq
Audre Lorde 415 Diaspora
Philip Gross 416 The Displaced Persons Camp
Teresa Samuel Ibrahim 416 Longing
Teresa Samuel Ibrahim 417 The last train across Ariat Bridge
Warsan Shire 418 Conversations about home
Sabeer Haka 420 Home
Gabeba Baderoon 420 I Cannot Myself
9 Empathy and con?ict
Kwame Dawes 422 Land Ho
Edward Baugh 422 A Nineteenth-century Portrait
Kevin Young 423 Reward
Martin Espada 425 How We Could Have Lived or Died This Way
Gwendolyn Brooks 426 We Real Cool
Terrance Hayes 427 The Golden Shovel
Wanda Coleman 429 American Sonnet: 94
Terrance Hayes 429 American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin
Terrance Hayes 430 American Sonnet for the New Year
Patricia Smith 431 That Chile Emmett in the Casket
James Berry 432 Travelling As We Are
James Berry 433 In-a Brixtan Markit
Elizabeth Alexander 434 Smile
Patricia Smith 435 10-Year-Old Shot Three Times, but She's Fine
Jericho Brown 436 Bullet Points
Danez Smith 437 the bullet was a girl
Evie Shockley 438 supply and demand
Dean Bowen 439 mi skin
Kayo Chingonyi 440 The N Word
Natasha Trethewey 441 Flounder
Natasha Trethewey 442 Help, 1968
Hannah Lowe 443 Dance Class
Hannah Lowe 443 Sausages
Rita Dove 444 After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed
Raymond Antrobus 445 Jamaican British
Anthony Anaxagorou 446 Cause
Anthony Anaxagorou 447 Departure Lounge Twenty Seventeen
Claudia Rankine 449 from Citizen
Claudia Rankine 450 from August 4, 2011 / In Memory of Mark Duggan
Roy McFarlane 453 from ...they killed them
Danez Smith 454 dinosaurs in the hood
Thomas McCarthy 456 Slow Food
Imtiaz Dharker 456 A Century Later
Remco Campert 457 Poetry
Leanne O'Sullivan 458 Safe House
Ilya Kaminsky 459 We Lived Happily during the War
Ilya Kaminsky 460 In a Time of Peace
Luis Munoz 461 Breathing
Fatimah Asghar 461 If They Come for Us
Solmaz Sharif 463 Look
Lorraine Mariner 465 Thursday
Chrissy Williams 466 The Burning of the Houses
Ishion Hutchinson 466 The Garden
Major Jackson 468 Selling Out
Jay Bernard 470 Clearing
Jay Bernard 471 +
Jay Bernard 471 -
Roger Robinson 472 Doppelgaenger
Roger Robinson 473 The Portrait Museum
Roger Robinson 474 The Father
Valerio Magrelli 474 The Boundary
Andre Mangeot 475 Bellwether
Deborah Moffatt 475 Eating Thistles
Choman Hardi 476 Dispute Over a Mass Grave
Choman Hardi 477 A Day for Love
Seamus Heaney 478 Chorus from The Cure at Troy
10 The future?
Nick Drake 480 Stranger Thing
Sarah Westcott 481 The Great Paci?c Garbage Patch
Maura Dooley 481 Still Life with Sea Pinks and High Tide
Polly Atkin 482 Colony Collapse Disorder
Frank Baez 483 Exodus
Mikeas Sanchez 484 What Is It Worth?
David Constantine 484 Dominion
Dom Bury 485 The Body's New Weather
Patrick Deeley 486 Two Hundred Million Animals
Patrick Deeley 487 The End of the World
Jack Underwood 487 Alpha Step
Chase Twichell 488 Birdsong
Chase Twichell 489 Herds of Humans
David Tait 490 By Degrees
David Tait 490 The Virus at My Window
Imtiaz Dharker 491 Cranes Lean In
Peter Sirr 492 Ode
Gerda Stevenson 493 Hands
Amit Majmudar 494 An American Nurse Foresees Her Death
Imtiaz Dharker 494 Seen from a Drone, Delhi
Imtiaz Dharker 496 Seen from a Drone, Mumbai
Ruth Padel 497 Still life with a map of the world outside the window
Joshua Bennett 498 Dad Poem
Nick Drake 499 The Future
501 Acknowledgements
510 Index of writers
517 Index of titles and ?rst lines
1 Staying human
Tom Leonard 22 Being a Human Being
Patrizia Cavalli 22 'Here I am, I do my bit...'
Goeran Sonnevi 23 'Whose life? you asked'
Fernando Pessoa 24 They Spoke to Me of People, and of Humanity
John Barr 24 Bonsai Master
Audre Lorde 25 A Litany for Survival
Robert Pinsky 26 Samurai Song
Zeina Hashem Beck 27 You Fixed It
Janet Fisher 28 Life and Other Terms
Vincenza Holland 29 Excuse Me
U.A. Fanthorpe 30 A Minor Role
Pippa Little 31 Against Hate
Tatamkhulu Afrika 32 The Woman at the Till
Ellery Akers 33 The Word That Is a Prayer
Danusha Lameris 34 Insha'Allah
David Friedland 35 Blind man
Danusha Lameris 35 Small Kindnesses
Mimi Khalvati 36 Smiles
Mimi Khalvati 37 The Brag
Nikola Madzirov 37 When Someone Goes Away Everything That's Been Done Comes Back
Ellen Bass 38 Gate C22
Naomi Shihab Nye 39 Gate A-4
Fred D'Aguiar 41 Excise
Thomas Kinsella 42 Mirror in February
Charles Simic 42 Mirrors at 4 a.m.
Zhang Zao 43 Mirror
Rachael Boast 44 Desperate Meetings of Hermaphrodites
Werner Aspenstroem 44 You and I and the World
Kaveh Akbar 45 What Use Is Knowing Anything If No One Is Around
Tim Liardet 46 Self-Portrait with Aquarium Octopus Flashing a Mirror
M. Vasalis 47 The IJsselmeer Dam
Stewart Conn 47 Conundrum
Valerio Magrelli 48 Vanishing Point
Richard Siken 49 Landscape with Fruit Rot and Millipede
Marjorie Lot? Gill 50 Gift
Patrizia Cavalli 51 'I'm pretty clear, I'm dying...'
Lawrence Sail 51 Recognition
Tracy K. Smith 52 Nanluoxiang Alley
Dzifa Benson 52 Self Portrait as a Creature of Numbers
Wislawa Szymborska 53 A Contribution to Statistics
Gennady Aygi 55 People
Linda Anderson 56 Sanctuary
Judith Herzberg 56 The Way
Anna Swir 57 The Same Inside
Martin Espada 58 Rednecks
Natalie Diaz 59 The Beauty of a Busted Fruit
Suji Kwock Kim 59 Monologue for an Onion
Nadine Aisha Jassat 60 The Years
Nadine Aisha Jassat 61 Let Me Tell You
Jessica Traynor 62 In Praise of Fixer Women
Marie Howe 63 Magdalene Afterwards
Marie Howe 65 One Day
Tishani Doshi 65 Girls Are Coming Out of the Woods
2 Ten Zillion Things
Mark Strand 68 Lines for Winter
Linda Pastan 68 Imaginary Conversation
Jack Gilbert 69 Failing and Flying
Gillian Clarke 70 Snow
Vladmir Holan 71 Snow
W.N. Herbert 71 Breakfrost
Derek Mahon 72 Rising Late
Michelle O'Sullivan 74 What Was Mistook
Michelle O'Sullivan 74 Lines
John F. Deane 75 The Red Gate
Alison Brackenbury 75 So
Ellen Bass 76 Any Common Desolation
Lisel Mueller 77 In Passing
Leanne O'Sullivan 77 A Healing
Hanny Michaelis 78 'It's terrible...'
John F. Deane 78 The World is Charged
David Butler 79 And Then The Sun Broke Through
William Stafford 80 You Reading This, Be Ready
Hanny Michaelis 80 'Over the years...'
Deryn Rees-Jones 81 Meteor
Tuvia Ruebner 81 Wonder
Blake Morrison 82 Happiness
Jack Underwood 82 Happiness
Ruth Stone 83 Wanting
Mikiro Sasaki 84 Sentiments
David Ferry 84 Lake Water
Randall Jarrell 86 Well Water
Seamus Heaney 87 A Drink of Water
Lani O'Hanlon 87 Going to the Well
Denise Levertov 88 The Fountain
G.F. Dutton 89 The Miraculous Issue
George Szirtes 90 Water
Moya Cannon 91 Introductions
A.E. Stallings 91 Olives
Jan Wagner 92 quince jelly
Louis de Paor 93 Marmalade
Sarah Lindsay 95 If God Made Jam
Craig Arnold 95 Meditation on a Grapefruit
Ales Steger 96 Chocolate
Ales Steger 97 Egg
Thomas Lux 98 Refrigerator, 1957
Connie Bensley 99 Cookery
Mary Rue?e 100 Timberland
Matthew Dickman 101 The World is Too Huge to Grasp
Linda Gregg 102 Let Birds
Imtiaz Dharker 103 Carving
Alice Oswald 104 A Short History of Falling
Aracelis Girmay 105 Ars Poetica
Ruth Sharman 105 Fragments
Carlos Drummond de Andrade 106 The House of Lost Time
Vera Pavlova 107 'If there is something to desire...'
Luis Munoz 107 Leave Poetry
Boris A. Novak 108 Decisions: 11
Carlos Drummond de Andrade 109 Absence
Mairead Byrne 109 Facing the Music
Ruth Sharman 110 Hilltop
Dennis O'Driscoll 110 Nocturne
3 Innocence and experience
Malika Booker 112 Cement
Malika Booker 113 Erasure
Tracey Herd 114 Happy Birthday
Sinead Morrissey 115 Fairground Music
Sharon Olds 116 To Our Miscarried One, Age Thirty Now
Dorothea Lasky 117 The Miscarriage
Fiona Benson 118 Sheep
Derry O'Sullivan 119 Stillborn 1943: Calling Limbo
Deirdre Brennan 120 Born Dead
Noelle Lynskey 121 Still Born
Sandeep Parmar 122 An uncommon language
Aoife Lyall 124 Sounds of that day
Aoife Lyall 125 Ubi Sunt
Catriona Clutterbuck 126 Her Body
Rebecca Goss 126 The Lights
Ciara MacLaverty 127 'That's Quite a Trick If You Can Pull It Off'
Fiona Benson 128 Prayer
Hannah Sullivan 128 from The Sandpit after Rain
Mona Arshi 129 Delivery Room
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 130 Inventory: Recovery Room
Justyna Bargielska 130 Different rose
Zoe Brigley 131 Star / Sun / Snow
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 133 Jigsaw Puzzle
Jack Underwood 133 William
Rebecca Goss 134 Last Poem
Fiona Benson 135 Hide and Seek
Ellen Cranich 136 Blasket Sound
Niall Campbell 137 Night Watch
Niall Campbell 138 February Morning
Liz Berry 138 The Republic of Motherhood
Rebecca Goss 140 My Animal
Fiona Benson 140 Ruins
Moya Cannon 141 Milk
Esther Morgan 142 Latch
Ailbhe Darcy 142 After my son was born
Hollie McNish 143 Embarrassed
Stephanie Norgate 146 Miracle
Lauris Edmond 147 Late song
Peter Sansom 148 Mini Van
Sharon Olds 148 I Cannot Say I Did Not
Katharine Towers 149 Childhood
Lucille Clifton 150 daughters
Jane Clarke 150 The trouble
Brenda Shaughnessy 151 I Wish I Had More Sisters
Ann Gray 153 I wish I had more mothers
Gretchen Marquette 154 Want
Tess Gallagher 155 With Stars
Tess Gallagher 156 I Stop Writing the Poem
Jane Clarke 156 Hers
Naomi Shihab Nye 157 Shoulders
Olivia McCannon 158 New Road
Leanne O'Sullivan 159 My Father Asks Why
Leanne O'Sullivan 160 The Cord
Naomi Shihab Nye 161 Supple Cord
Gwendolyn Brooks 162 a song in the front yard
Tracy K. Smith 162 The World Is Your Beautiful Younger Sister
Penelope Shuttle 163 Outgrown
Carol Ann Duffy 164 Empty Nest
Anna Enquist 165 All at Once
Inua Ellams 165 Swallow Twice
Jacob Sam-La Rose 166 Never
Jacob Sam-La Rose 166 The Other End of the Line
Jericho Brown 168 Prayer of the Backhanded
Jericho Brown 169 As a Human Being
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 170 Tooth
Anne Michaels 172 from Correspondences: a poem
Abigail Parry 176 The Quilt
Sa?ya Sinclair 177 Family Portrait
Pascale Petit 178 My Mother's Love
Pascale Petit 179 Her Harpy Eagle Claws
Pascale Petit 180 My Wolverine
Jacqueline Bishop 181 Snakes
Selima Hill 182 from Grunter
Selima Hill 185 from Sunday Afternoons at the Gravel-pits
Shivanee Ramlochan 188 from The Red Thread Cycle
Zoe Brigley 190 The Eye in the Wall
Nicki Heinen 191 Solent Ward, Royal Free Hospital, 2008
Aria Aber 192 Asylum
Sasha Dugdale 194 Asylum
Sasha Dugdale 195 'Perhaps Akhmatova was right'
Xidu Heshang 196 Fictionalising Her
Tony Hoagland 197 Personal
4 After Frank O'Hara
Frank O'Hara 200 The Day Lady Died
Rita Dove 201 Canary
John Burnside 201 The Day Etta Died
Clare Pollard 202 The Day Amy Died
Nick Flynn 203 The Day Lou Reed Died
Ian McMillan 205 The Evening of the Day Pavarotti Died
Anjum Hasan 205 The Day No One Died
Frank O'Hara 206 Autobiographia Literaria
Sa?ya Sinclair 207 Autobiography
Geoff Hattersley 208 Frank O'Hara Five, Geoffrey Chaucer Nil
Simon Armitage 208 Poem
Martina Evans 209 I Want to Be like Frank O'Hara
Phoebe Stuckes 210 Kiss me quick
Frank O'Hara 211 Katy
Roger Reeves 211 Someday I'll Love Roger Reeves
Ocean Vuong 212 Someday I'll Love Ocean Vuong
Frank O'Hara 213 Why I Am Not a Painter
Maria Barnas 214 Why I Am Not a Painter
Matthew Sweeney 215 My Life as a Painter
Adam Zagajewski 216 Describing Paintings
5 Harmony and discord
John Hegley 218 A Declaration of Need
Robert Wrigley 218 A Lock of Her Hair
Jackie Kay 219 High Land
Marie Howe 220 Low Tide, Late August
Katharine Kilalea 220 You were a bird
Sarah Lindsay 221 The Arms of a Marvelous Squid
Warsan Shire 222 for women who are dif?cult to love
Jericho Brown 223 Colosseum
Jericho Brown 224 Of My Fury
Caroline Bird 225 Marriage of Equals
Joan Larkin 226 Want
Chen Chen 227 Poem in Noisy Mouthfuls
Mary Jean Chan 229 //
Jane Clarke 230 Vows
Miriam Nash 231 Love Song for a Keeper
Seamus Heaney 232 Scaffolding
Valerio Magrelli 232 The Embrace
Vidyan Ravinthiran 233 Aubade
Leanne O'Sullivan 233 Leaving Early
Leanne O'Sullivan 234 Note
Alex Dimitrov 235 Some New Thing
Eavan Boland 236 Lines for a Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary
Hester Knibbe 236 Yes
Dick Davis 237 Uxor Vivamus...
Dick Davis 238 Making a Meal of It
Wendy Cope 239 To My Husband
Wendy Cope 239 One Day
Anne Haverty 240 Objecting to Everything
Elaine Feinstein 242 A Visit
Tara Bergin 242 Wedding Cake Decorations
Ranjit Hoskote 242 Couple
Rebecca Perry 243 Windows
Joan Margarit 244 Love is a place
John Challis 244 The Love
Fleur Adcock 245 Happy Ending
Kei Miller 246 Epilogue
Conor O'Callaghan 246 Kingdom Come
Vona Groarke 247 Ghost Poem
Phoebe Stuckes 248 Gold Hoop Earrings
Phoebe Stuckes 249 Attempt
Cynthia Huntington 250 For Love
Bobby Parker 251 Working Class Voodoo
Melissa Lee-Houghton 252 Love-Smitten Heart
Louis Jenkins 255 Fish Out of Water
Sarah Holland-Batt 255 No End to Images
Patrizia Cavalli 256 'Very simple love that believes in words...'
Natalie Shaw 257 Like when we went to the cinema that time
Dario Jaramillo 258 from Impossible Loves
Dario Jaramillo 258 Mozart on the Motorway
Michael Longley 259 Ceilidh
Derek Mahon 260 Aran
Paddy Bushe 261 The Rolling Wave
Seamus Heaney 262 The Given Note
Gerard Fanning 262 That Note
Seamus Heaney 263 Song
Adam Zagajewski 264 Music Heard with You
Elizabeth Burns 265 Listening to Bach's B Minor Mass in the Kitchen
Lars Gustafsson 266 The silence of the world before Bach
Adam Zagajewski 266 Chaconne
Jane Hirsh?eld 267 Even the Vanishing Housed
Tomas Transtroemer 268 Schubertiana
Tomas Transtroemer 270 Allegro
Gregory Orr 270 To Be Alive
6 Mortal hurt
Tomas Transtroemer 272 The Half-Finished Heaven
Jan Erik Vold 272 The Fact That No Birds Sing
Galway Kinnell 274 Wait
Louise Glueck 275 from Averno
Caroline Bird 276 The End of the Bed
Caroline Bird 277 A Surreal Joke
Ken Babstock 278 As Marginalia in John Clare's The Rural Muse
Lieke Marsman 279 The Following Scan Will Last Less Than a Minute
Lieke Marsman 279 The Following Scan Will Last One Minute
Lieke Marsman 280 The Following Scan Will Last Five Minutes
Jo Shapcott 281 Of Mutability
Ilyse Kusnetz 282 Harbinger
Julie O'Callaghan 283 No Can Do
Wayne Holloway-Smith 284 'the posh mums are boxing in the square...'
Anna Swir 285 My Body Effervesces
Robert Hass 286 A Story About the Body
Max Ritvo 286 Poem to My Litter
Max Ritvo 288 Heaven Is Us Being a Flower Together
Max Ritvo 289 Cachexia
Mark Doty 290 Michael's Dream
Ana Ristovic 291 The Body
Elaine Feinstein 292 Long Life
Ruth Stone 293 The Excuse
Finuala Dowling 294 At eighty-?ve, my mother's mind
Finuala Dowling 295 Widowhood in the dementia ward
Finuala Dowling 295 Birthday in the dementia ward
Judith Herzberg 296 Old Age
Roger McGough 296 The Wrong Beds
Geraldine Mitchell 297 Sneak
Geraldine Mitchell 297 How the Body Remembers
Elise Partridge 298 from The Book of Steve
Menno Wigman 298 Everyone Is Beautiful Today
Michael Longley 299 Age
Thomas Lynch 300 Refusing at Fifty-two to Write Sonnets
Dermot Healy 300 As You Get Older
Mary O'Malley 301 A Lift
James Fenton 302 For Andrew Wood
Vijay Seshadri 303 Bright Copper Kettles
Anne Stevenson 304 Anaesthesia
Elise Partridge 305 Last Days
Michael O'Loughlin 306 In This Life
Zaffar Kunial 308 Prayer
Adil Jussawalla 308 Mother's Ninety-fourth Birthday
Menno Wigman 309 Body, my body
Janet Ayachi 309 Spooning Stars
Matthew Sweeney 310 The Tube
Kerry Hardie 311 Ship of Death
Sara Berkeley Tolchin 312 Burrow Beach
Helen Dunmore 313 My life's stem was cut
Helen Dunmore 314 Hold out your arms
Lorna Goodison 316 My Mother's Sea Chanty
Vicki Feaver 316 You Are Not
Sharon Olds 318 In the Temple Basement
Emily Berry 319 The photo that is most troubling is the one I don't want to show you
Annemarie Austin 320 from Country
Annemarie Austin 320 What My Double Will
Steven Matthews 321 Last Christmas Cracker
Kerry Hardie 322 After My Father Died
Valerie Rouzeau 322 from Vrouz
Bernard O'Donoghue 323 Ter Conatus
Eilean Ni Chuilleanain 324 The Morandi Bridge
Jay Whittaker 325 The call
Jay Whittaker 325 Bed fellow
Ruth Fainlight 326 Oxygen Mask
Ruth Fainlight 327 Somewhere Else Entirely
Elaine Feinstein 328 Beds
Imtiaz Dharker 328 Screen-saver
Imtiaz Dharker 329 Passport photo
Imtiaz Dharker 330 Say his name
Gillian Clarke 330 Honesty
Katie Donovan 331 Off Duty
Eunice de Souza 331 Advice to Women
Ron Koertge 332 Lily
Wislawa Szymborska 332 Cat in an Empty Apartment
Theresa Lola 333 Tailoring Grief
Wislawa Szymborska 334 The Day After - Without Us
Billy Collins 335 Helium
Mary Rue?e 336 Trust Me
Lucie Brock-Boido 337 Soul Keeping Company
Dean Young 338 Street of Sailmakers
Denise Riley 339 Listening for Lost People
Dennis O'Driscoll 340 Then
Julie O'Callaghan 341 Beyond
Julie O'Callaghan 341 Cyber You
Alison Brackenbury 342 All
7 Interesting times
Selina Nwulu 344 We have everything we need
Derek Mahon 345 Insomnia
Colette Bryce 346 Helicopters
Jennifer L. Knox 347 Drones
Colette Bryce 348 Belfast Waking, 6 a.m.
Doireann Ni Ghriofa 349 On Patrick Street
Imtiaz Dharker 350 Flight Radar
Jean Sprackland 351 CCTV
Jasmine Ann Cooray 352 Call Centre Blues
John Cooper Clarke 352 Bed Blocker Blues
David Constantine 354 Pity
Jacob Saenz 355 Sweeping the States
Jane Commane 356 Midlands kids
Sarah Howe 357 On a line by Xu Lizhi
Jeong Ho-seung 358 Death of a Cellphone
Sabeer Haka 358 Politics
Sabeer Haka 359 Mulberries
Paul Farley 359 Hole in the Wall
Zohar Atkins 360 Song of Myself (Apocryphal)
Tim Turnbull 361 Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn
Caitlin Nic Iomhair 363 Praise the Young
Jessica Mookherjee 363 Ursa Minor
Theresa Munoz 364 Be the ?rst to like this
A.E. Stallings 365 Like, the Sestina
8 Roots and routes
Deryn Rees-Jones 368 Home
Nina Bogin 368 Initiation, II
Maura Dooley 369 Dancing at Oakmead Road
Eavan Boland 370 Nocturne
Tom French 371 The Last Light
Peter Sirr 371 from The Rooms
Jane Clarke 374 Who owns the field?
Kirun Kapur 374 Anthem
David Dabydeen 375 Catching Crabs
Ales Debeljak 376 A Letter Home
Stanislaw Baranczak 377 If China
Arundhathi Subramaniam 378 Home
Moniza Alvi 378 And if
Vidyan Ravinthiran 379 Ceylon
Vidyan Ravinthiran 380 My Sri Lankan Family
Daljit Nagra 380 Our Town with the Whole of India
Roger Robinson 382 To His Homeland
Elisabeth Sennitt Clough 382 Potato Season
Mir Mahfuz Ali 383 My Son Waits by the Door
Alberto Rios 384 We Are of a Tribe
Vahni Capildeo 385 Going Nowhere, Getting Somewhere
Imtiaz Dharker 386 Chaudhri Sher Mobarik looks at the loch
Andre Naf?s-Sahely 387 Vanishing Act
Andre Naf?s-Sahely 387 An Island of Strangers
Adam Zagajewski 388 The Three Kings
John Agard 389 Checking Out Me History
Sujata Bhatt 391 A Different History
Karin Karakasli 392 History-Geography
Amir Darwish 393 Where I come from
Imtiaz Dharker 394 Minority
Luis Munoz 395 The Foreigner
Hama Tuma 396 Just a Nobody
Amarjit Chandan 396 In This Country
Keki Daruwalla 397 Migrations
Beata Duncan 399 The Notebook
Mina Gorji 400 Exit
Adam Zagajewski 401 Refugees
Wislawa Szymborska 402 Some People
Bejan Matur 403 Night Spent in the Temple of a Patient God
Bejan Matur 404 The Moon Sucks up Our Grief
Ribka Sibhatu 406 In Lampedusa
Musa Okwonga 408 Hundreds of cockroaches drowned today
Azita Ghahreman 408 The Boat That Brought Me
Carolyn Forche 409 The Boatman
Linda Gregerson 410 from Sleeping Bear
Naomi Shihab Nye 411 Mediterranean Blue
Kimiko Hahn 411 After being asked if I write 'the occasional poem'
Reza Mohammadi 412 Illegal Immigrant
Moniza Alvi 413 Flight
Fadwa Soulieman 414 For Lana Sadiq
Audre Lorde 415 Diaspora
Philip Gross 416 The Displaced Persons Camp
Teresa Samuel Ibrahim 416 Longing
Teresa Samuel Ibrahim 417 The last train across Ariat Bridge
Warsan Shire 418 Conversations about home
Sabeer Haka 420 Home
Gabeba Baderoon 420 I Cannot Myself
9 Empathy and con?ict
Kwame Dawes 422 Land Ho
Edward Baugh 422 A Nineteenth-century Portrait
Kevin Young 423 Reward
Martin Espada 425 How We Could Have Lived or Died This Way
Gwendolyn Brooks 426 We Real Cool
Terrance Hayes 427 The Golden Shovel
Wanda Coleman 429 American Sonnet: 94
Terrance Hayes 429 American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin
Terrance Hayes 430 American Sonnet for the New Year
Patricia Smith 431 That Chile Emmett in the Casket
James Berry 432 Travelling As We Are
James Berry 433 In-a Brixtan Markit
Elizabeth Alexander 434 Smile
Patricia Smith 435 10-Year-Old Shot Three Times, but She's Fine
Jericho Brown 436 Bullet Points
Danez Smith 437 the bullet was a girl
Evie Shockley 438 supply and demand
Dean Bowen 439 mi skin
Kayo Chingonyi 440 The N Word
Natasha Trethewey 441 Flounder
Natasha Trethewey 442 Help, 1968
Hannah Lowe 443 Dance Class
Hannah Lowe 443 Sausages
Rita Dove 444 After Reading Mickey in the Night Kitchen for the Third Time Before Bed
Raymond Antrobus 445 Jamaican British
Anthony Anaxagorou 446 Cause
Anthony Anaxagorou 447 Departure Lounge Twenty Seventeen
Claudia Rankine 449 from Citizen
Claudia Rankine 450 from August 4, 2011 / In Memory of Mark Duggan
Roy McFarlane 453 from ...they killed them
Danez Smith 454 dinosaurs in the hood
Thomas McCarthy 456 Slow Food
Imtiaz Dharker 456 A Century Later
Remco Campert 457 Poetry
Leanne O'Sullivan 458 Safe House
Ilya Kaminsky 459 We Lived Happily during the War
Ilya Kaminsky 460 In a Time of Peace
Luis Munoz 461 Breathing
Fatimah Asghar 461 If They Come for Us
Solmaz Sharif 463 Look
Lorraine Mariner 465 Thursday
Chrissy Williams 466 The Burning of the Houses
Ishion Hutchinson 466 The Garden
Major Jackson 468 Selling Out
Jay Bernard 470 Clearing
Jay Bernard 471 +
Jay Bernard 471 -
Roger Robinson 472 Doppelgaenger
Roger Robinson 473 The Portrait Museum
Roger Robinson 474 The Father
Valerio Magrelli 474 The Boundary
Andre Mangeot 475 Bellwether
Deborah Moffatt 475 Eating Thistles
Choman Hardi 476 Dispute Over a Mass Grave
Choman Hardi 477 A Day for Love
Seamus Heaney 478 Chorus from The Cure at Troy
10 The future?
Nick Drake 480 Stranger Thing
Sarah Westcott 481 The Great Paci?c Garbage Patch
Maura Dooley 481 Still Life with Sea Pinks and High Tide
Polly Atkin 482 Colony Collapse Disorder
Frank Baez 483 Exodus
Mikeas Sanchez 484 What Is It Worth?
David Constantine 484 Dominion
Dom Bury 485 The Body's New Weather
Patrick Deeley 486 Two Hundred Million Animals
Patrick Deeley 487 The End of the World
Jack Underwood 487 Alpha Step
Chase Twichell 488 Birdsong
Chase Twichell 489 Herds of Humans
David Tait 490 By Degrees
David Tait 490 The Virus at My Window
Imtiaz Dharker 491 Cranes Lean In
Peter Sirr 492 Ode
Gerda Stevenson 493 Hands
Amit Majmudar 494 An American Nurse Foresees Her Death
Imtiaz Dharker 494 Seen from a Drone, Delhi
Imtiaz Dharker 496 Seen from a Drone, Mumbai
Ruth Padel 497 Still life with a map of the world outside the window
Joshua Bennett 498 Dad Poem
Nick Drake 499 The Future
501 Acknowledgements
510 Index of writers
517 Index of titles and ?rst lines