Category: Poetry

In this poem by Kateryna Kalytko, at a time of destruction, the Ukrainian poet marvels at the simplicity and the nobility of language.

In this poem, on a train winding through a burnt world towards longed-for shelter, an adult pleads to a desperate child to hold their teddy, to not cry.

“collapse, rejection, resurrection, / this is what we all longed for, / this broken bread”—Béla Markó, in Anna Bentley’s translation.

A poem by Ukrainian poet Iya Kiva in Katherine E. Young’s translation.

In this poem by Kateryna Kalytko the Ukrainian poet rediscovers words, naming objects as a means of self-preservation, entering a shelter of language.

This poem by Slovak poet Mária Ferenčuchová is a hypnotic meditation on the end and rebirth, a chillingly personal image of intimacy.

A poem by Czech poet Lenka Kuhar Daňhelová in Bob Hýsek’s translation.

A poem by Hungarian poet Lili Hanna Seres, in Timea Sipos’s translation.

The speaker describes the sounds and movement of bugs, birds, and nature, while waiting for war, as if they were impervious to human events.