book excerptise:   a book unexamined is wasted paper

The Poetry of Men's Lives: An International Anthology

Fred Moramarco and Al Zolynas (eds.)

Moramarco, Fred; Al Zolynas (eds.);

The Poetry of Men's Lives: An International Anthology

University of Georgia Press, 2004, 400 pages

ISBN 0820326496, 9780820326498

topics: |  poetry | world | gender | anthology

Book Review


A very global eclectic of the various emotions of manhood, collecting close to three hundred poems, mostly from non-English regions. The global range of experience is particularly appealing - Hungarian Peter Zilahy intertwining his coming of age sexual experiences with the rise and fall of various dictators, Pakistan's Taufiq Rafat reflecting on his forceful circumcision at six, or Egyptian Amal Dunqul's poignant tale of a prostitute searching the hospitals for her brother, missing in war.

More than 250 men poets from across the globe explore questions of manhood, hidden and in the open. Musings include Australian poet Clive James' pre-occupation with "Gabriel Sabatini's sweat" while Bishwabimohan Shreshtha from Nepal worries about his role as breadwinner.

The book is arranged by themes, each further divided by region, so as to bring out the cultural differences in each experience at the same time underlining the shared experience of manhood. The sections are boyhood and youth; views of women; families; cultural, personal and the male identity; men and women; myths and archetypes; spirituality; politics, war, and revolution; sex and sexuality; poets and poetry, artists and art; brothers, friends, mentors, and rivals; work, sports, and games; aging, illness, and death.

On the whole, is generally rewarding on the "where-the-page-falls-open" test. Some of the more extreme selections, such as reveal the Yi Cha's intolerance for his lesbian neighbours, or Clive James's fascination with the sweat of a woman tennis player enliven the poem.

Fred Moramarco, Professor of English at San Diego State University, is the editor Poetry International. Al Zolymas is a professor of English at Alliant International University in San Diego. They are also coeditors of Men of Our Time: An Anthology of Male Poetry in Contemporary America (also published by the University of Georgia Press). [also: review at http://www.southernscribe.com/reviews/poetry/poetrymenslives.htm]


Excerpts


Carlos Drummond de Andrade : Boy Crying in the Night 20

	 			tr. mark strand

In the warm, humid night, noiseless and dead, a boy cries.
His crying behind the wall, the light behind the window
are lost in the shadow of muffled footsteps, of tired voices.
Yet the sound of medicine poured into a spoon can be heard.

A boy cries in the night, behind the wall, across the street,
far away a boy cries, in another city,
in another world, perhaps.

And I see the hand that lifts the spoon while the other holds the head,
and I see the slick thread run down the boy's chin,
and slip into the street, only a thread, and slip through the city.
And nobody else in the world exists but that boy crying. 
		[source:http://culturalbaggage.blogspot.com/2007/06/carlos-drummond-de-andrade.html|culturalbaggage]


Cees Nooteboom (Netherlands): Midday 88

       [tr. Herlinde Spahr and Leonard Nathan]

It takes so little:
An afternoon of burnished hours
that will not fit together
and himself broken up by himself
sitting in various chairs
with almost everywhere a soul or a body.

In one part of the room is night.
In another, time past, vacation and war.
On the ceiling the sea touches the shining beach,
and no hand that controls all this,
no equerry, no computer,
only forever the same self, selfsame he,
someone, somebody scattered,
the uncollected man in converse with himself,
dreaming and thinking
present, invisible.

Someone who was going to eat and sleep later.
Someone with a watch and shoes.
Someone who left.
Someone who was going to leave.

Someone who stayed on for a while.

      Cees Nooteboom (1931-) is a noted Dutch author, known mostly for his
      novels and travel writing, but he likes to think of himself as a poet first
	here he muses on fragmented experiences and what it means to his
	uncollected identity.
Links:
bio:        http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/nooteb.htm
wikipedia:  Cees Nooteboom
poems:      http://netherlands.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=4001


Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Before you came 128


Before you came things were just what they were:
the road precisely a road, the horizon fixed,
the limit of what could be seen,
a glass of wine no more than a glass of wine.

With you the world took on the spectrum
radiating from my heart: your eyes gold
as they open to me, slate the colour
that falls each time I lose all hope.

With your advent roses burst into flame:
you were the artist of dried-up leaves, sorceress
who flicked her wrist to change dust into soot.
You lacquered the night black.

As for the sky, the road, the cup of wine:
one was my tear-drenched shirt,
the other an aching nerve,
the third a mirror that never reflected the same thing.

Now you are here again - stay with me.
This time things will fall into place;
the road can be the road,
the sky nothing but the sky;
the glass of wine, as it should be, the glass of wine.

 	   see also this alternate translation
 	   by Agha Shahid Ali in  bookexcerptise: The rebel's silhouette

Sa'Di Yusuf: A Woman p.138

		tr. Lena Jayyusi and Naomi Shihab Nye

How should I direct my steps to her now?
In which land might I find her, 
on what streets of what city should I ask? 
Suppose I were to locate the path to her house,
even imagining it, 
would I press the doorbell? 
And what would I say?
How would I greet her,,
would I stare into her face,
press the glistening wine of her fingers...
Would I unload
the pain of my years?
Once
twenty years aog
in the air-conditioned train
I kissed her the whole night long...

[Iraqi poet, b. 1943]

Amal Dunqul : Corner 139

		tr. Sharif Elmusa and Thomas G. Ezzy

He sits in the corner, 
writes, as the naked woman...
mingles with the nightclub's patrons,
auctions off her beauty. 
She asks him how the war is going,
and he answers:
"You needn't worry about the treasures of your body,
our country's enemy
is just like us, 
he circumcises males and loves foreign 
imports, just like us, he hates por
and pays for guns and hookers."
She cries. 
He sits in the corner 
as the naked woman passes. 
He invites her to his table.
She can't stay long, she says:
since morning she's been combing army
hospitals, searching for her brother,
whose unit was encircled
across the Suez ('The land
returns, her brother doesn't...)
She has had to earn
the bread in her brother's absence. 
How she will wear again her modest clothes
when he gets back. 
She shows his picture with his children
on a holiday. 
She cries. 

[Egyptian poet]


Peter Zilahy (Hungary, 1970-) : Dictators 272


My bumpy road to sexual maturity was paved with the deaths of Communist
dictators.

My first sexual experience coincided with the death of Mao Zedong: I was
bitten by a girl called Diana in nursery school.

My voice broke when Tito died, and I had my first ejaculation when Brezhnev
went. For three days all they played on the radio was classical music, which
I thought was rather overdoing it; some schools were even closed.

Then for a long time there was nothing. As an experiment, I took a girl to
the movies, but the film was too good, and I got a cramp in my hand. Events
accelerated at high school. There were only a couple of months between the
first kiss and the first frantic fumblings. After Andropov Chernenko quickly
checked out. A few more weeks and it was Enver Hoxha’s turn, but I’d rather
not go into that. I first found out about the G-spot when Ceauescu was
executed. Kim Il Sung cast new light on my broadening horizons. Luckily, the
charges were dropped. Now as for Fidel . . .
	(online source: http://www.zilahy.net/media/excerpts/giraffe_english.pdf)
(this is a different translation, but very close, and perhaps a little
easier, than the one in the book.)


Clive James : Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini 282


Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini
For I know it tastes as pure as Malvern water,
Though laced with bright bubbles like the aqua minerale
That melted the kidney stones of Michelangelo
As sunlight the snow in spring.

Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini
In a green Lycergus cup with a sprig of mint,
But add no sugar -
The bitterness is what I want.
If I craved sweetness I would be asking you to bring me
The tears of Annabel Croft.

I never asked for the wrist-bands of Maria Bueno,
Though their periodic transit of her glowing forehead
Was like watching a bear's tongue lap nectar.
I never asked for the blouse of Francoise Durr,
Who refused point-blank to improve her souffle serve
For fear of overdeveloping her upper arm -
Which indeed remained delicate as a fawn's femur,
As a fern's frond under which cool shadows gather
So that the dew lingers.

Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini
And give me credit for having never before now
Cried out with longing.
Though for all the years since TV acquired colour
To watch Wimbledon for even a single day
Has left me shaking with grief like an ex-smoker
Locked overnight in a cigar factory,
Not once have I let loose as now I do
The parched howl of deprivation,
The croak of need.

Did I ever demand, as I might well have done,
The socks of Tracy Austin?
Did you ever hear me call for the cast-off Pumas
Of Hana Mandlikova?
Think what might have been distilled from these things,
And what a small request it would have seemed -
It would not, after all, have been like asking
For something so intimate as to arouse suspicion
Of mental derangement.
I would not have been calling for Calting Bassett's knickers
Or the tingling, Teddy Tinting B-cup brassiere
Of Andrea Temesvari.

Yet I denied myself.
I have denied myself too long.
If I had been Pat Cash at that great moment
Of triumph, I would have handed back the trophy
Saying take that thing away
And don't let me see it again until
It spills what makes this lawn burst into flower:
Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini.

In the beginning there was Gorgeous Gussie Moran
And even when there was just her it was tough enough
But by now the top hundred boasts at least a dozen knock-outs
Who make it difficult to keep one's tongue
From lolling like a broken roller blind.
Out of deference to Billie-Jean I did my best
To control my male chauvinist urges -
An objectivity made easier to achieve
When Betty Stove came clumping out to play
On a pair of what appeared to be bionic legs
Borrowed from Six Million Dollar Man.

I won't go so far as to say I harbour
Similar reservations about Steffi Graf-
I merely note that her thigh muscles when tense
Look interchangeable with those of Boris Becker
Yet all are agreed that there can be no doubt
About Martina Navratilova:
Since she lent her body to Charles Atlas
The definition of the veins on her right forearm
Looks like the Mississippi river system
Photographed from a satellite,
And though she may unleash a charming smile
When crouching to dance at the ball with Ivan Lendl,
I have always found to admire her yet remain detached
Has been no problem.

But when the rain stops long enough for the true beauties
To come out swinging under the outshone sun
The spectacle is hard for a man to take,
And in the case of this supernally graceful dish
Likened to a panther by slavering sports reportcrs
Who pitiably fail to realise that any panther
With a top-spin forehand line drive like hers
Would be managed personally by Mark McCormack -
I'm obliged to admit defeat.

So let me drink deep from the bitter cup.
Take it to her between any two points of a tie break
That she may shake above it her thick black hair
A nocturne from which the droplets as they fall
Flash like shooting stars -
And as their lustre becomes liqueur
Let the full calyx be repeatedly carried to me.
Until I tell you to stop
Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini.
    (online source: npr: + 1 poem)

	Australian-born poet, longtime resident in UK  (1939-)

Poet Links:
poems:      windows is shutting down (poem on grammar)
bio:        http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/jamesc/jamesc.html
wikipedia : Clive James
interview : Decca Aitkenhead in the guardian

Contents

from http://bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp/guest/cgi-bin/booksea.cgi?ISBN=0820323519

Acknowledgments                                    xvii
Introduction                                       xix

Boyhood and youth

  Asia
    Anzai Hitoshi: New Made                                   2
    Shuja Nawaz: The Initiation                               3

		From the day he could talk, the son asked
		about his father and got no answer. 
		... each year's questions were laid to rest
		like a still-born child, unlamented. 

		Till at fifteen someone slapped his face
		with word of his father's unavenged murder. 
		That night he took out the family rifle,
		received blessings from his mother and left. 

		when the wailing arose from the other
		village, the elders saw the rifle he carried
		and pointed him out as Sherdil Khan's son. 

    Taufiq Rafat: Circumcision                                4

		Having hauled down my pajamas
		they dragged me, all legs and teeth,
		.... [to a barber]
		I did not like his mustachios
		
  Europe
    Mario Benedetti: The Magnet                               5
    Ciaran Berry: Uascan                                      6
    Ussin Kerim: Mother                                       8
    Ivan Matanov: Still l see in front of me                  9
    Valeri Petrov: A Cry from Childhood                       10
    Peter Redgrove: My Fathers Trapdoors                      11
    Jean-Pierre Rosnay: Piazza San Marco                      16
    James Sacré: A Little Boy, I'm Not Sure Anymore           17
  South America
    Carlos Drummond De Andrade: Boy Crying in the Night       20
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Norberto James: I Had No Books                            21
    Mervyn Morris: The Pond                                   22

Families

  Asia
    Nobuo Ayukawa: Sister, I'm Sorry                          24
    Yu Jian: Thank You Father                                 25
    Jayanta Mahapatra: Shadows                                28
    Wang Xiaolong: In Memoriam: Dedicated to My Father        29
  The Middle East
    Yehuda Amichai: A Flock of Sheep near the Airport         30
    Yair Hurvitz: An Autobiographical Moment                  31
    Shaun Levin: With Your Mother in a Cafe                   31
  Europe
    Martin Crucefix: Pieta                                    33
    Michael Donaghy: Inheritance                              35
    Franco Fortini: The Seed                                  36
    Tonino Guerra: Canto Three                                37
    Seamus Heaney: In Memoriam M.K.H.                         38
    Alan Jenkins: Chopsticks                                  38
    Lyubomir Levchev: Cronies                                 40
    Karl Lubomirski: Mother                                   41
    Stein Mehren: Mother, we were a heavy burden              41
    Alexander Shurbanov: Attractions                          42
    Marin Sorescu: Balls and Hoops                            43
    JAN Erik Vold: Thor Heyerdahl's mother                    44
    Andrew Waterman: Birth Day                                45
    Karol Wojtyla: Sister                                     47
    Andrea Zanzotto: From a New Height                        48
  Africa
    Ismael Hurreh: Pardon Me                                  51
  South America
    Narlan Matos-Teixera: My Father's House                   52
  North America
    David Bottoms: Bronchitis                                 53
    Jim Daniels: Falling Bricks                               55
    Philip Levine: Clouds above the Sea                       56
    Walt Mcdonald: Crossing the Road                          57
    W.S. Merwin: Yesterday                                    58
    Leonard Nathan: Circlings                                 60
    Jonas Zdanys: The Angels of Wine                          61
  Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand
    Dimitris Tsaloumas: A Song for My Father                  62
    Dimitris Tsaloumas: Old Snapshot                          63

Identities: cultural, personal, male

  Asia
    Nobuo Ayukawa: Love                                       67
    Xue Di: Nostalgia                                         68
    Sunil Gangopadhyay: From Athens to Cairo                  69
    Liu Kexiang: Choice                                       70
    Harris Khalique: In London                                71
    Kim Kwang-Kyu: Sketch of a fetish                         72
    Fei Ma: A Drunkard                                        73
    A.K. Ramanujan: Self-Portrait                             74
    Suchart Sawadsri: If You Come Close to Me                 74
    Nguyen Quang Thieu: from "Eleven Parts of Feeling"        75
    Tenzin Tsundue: My Tibetanness                            78
    Ko Un: Headmaster Abe                                     79
    Liang Xiaobin: China, I've Lost My Key                    81
  Europe
    Wolfgang Bachler: A Revolt in the Mirror                  82
    Alan Brownjohn: Sonnet of a Gentleman                     83
    Robert Crawford: Masculinity                              84
    Igor Irtenev: Untitled                                    85
    Dmitry Kuzmin: Untitled                                   86
    Michael Longley: Self-Portrait                            87
    Cees Nooteboom: Midday                                    88
    Vittorio Sereni: Each Time That Almost                    89
    Vittorio Sereni: First Fear                               90
    Olafs Stumbrs: Song at a Late Hour                        91
    Husein Tahmiscic: You're Not a Man If You Don't Die       91
    Ulku Tamer: The Dagger                                    92
    John Powell Ward: In the Box                              93
    Hugo Williams: Making Friends with Ties                   95
  Africa
    Frank Aig-Imoukhuede: One Wife for One Man                96
    Dennis Brutus: I Am Alien in Africa and Everywhere        97
    Jonathan Kariara: A Leopard Lives in a Muu Tree           98
    Leseko Rampolekeng: Welcome to the New Consciousness      99
    Léopold Sédar Senghor: Totem                              101
    Ahmed Tidjani-Cissé: Home News                            102
  South America
    Juan Carlos Galeano: Eraser                               103
  Central America and the Caribbean
    A.L. Hendriks: Will the Real Me Please Stand Up?          104
    Evan X Hyde: Super High                                   106
    Derek Walcott: Love after Love                            107
  North America
    Robert Bly: The Man Who Didn't Know What Was His          108
    Philip Dacey: Four Men in a Car                           109
    Pier Giorgio Di Cicco: Male Rage Poem                     110
    Douglas Goetsch: Bachelor Song                            113
    Yusef Komunyakaa: Homo Erectus                            114
    Gary Soto Mexicans: Begin Jogging                         115
  Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand
    Les Murray: Folklore                                      116
    Les Murray: Performance                                   117
    John A. Scott: Man in Petersham                           117
    Luke Icarus Simon: Ravine                                 118
    Russell Soaba: Looking thru Those Eyeholes                119
    Dimitris Tsaloumas: Epilogue                              120

Men and women

  Asia
    Rafiq Azad: Woman: The Eternal                            124
    Sadhu Binning: Revenge                                    125
    Yi Cha: Neighbors                                         127
    	 [despises his lesbian neighbours, thinks of them as 
	 a "waste", but is depressed to find that they despise 
	 men too, calling them "dirty" and "garbage". ]
    Faiz Ahmed Faiz: Before You Came                          128
    Huan Fu: Flower                                           129
			tr. Dominic Cheung

	Give three flowers to a maiden: one on her hair, one on her
	breast, one on her shame. Then, she is very happy to be a
	woman — a dream she once had.  In the dream, sh feared
	bearing horrible fruits.  She is afraid of fruits.  Deep in
	her eyes afire with love, she refuses all fruits, which is a
	pronoun, a substitute of virtue for scandal. 
	[...] 

	a flower on her hair.  A flower on her breast.  A flower on... 
	She again removes the last flower, reconstructing once again the
	entire universe. 

    Hung Hung: A Hymn to Hualien                              129
    Nadir Hussein: A Wedding                                  130
    Takagi Kyozo: How to Cook Women                           131
    Yang Mu: Let the Wind Recite                              132
    Shuntaro Tanikawa: Kiss                                   134
  The Middle East
    Adonis : A Woman and a Man                                135
    Yehuda Amichai: An Ideal Woman                            136
    Abdul Wahab Al-Bayati: Secret of Fire                     137
    Sa 'Di Yusuf: A Woman                                     138
    Amal Dunqul: Corner                                       139
    Salman Masalha: Cage                                      140
    Nizar Qabbani: The Fortune Teller                         140
  Europe
    Radu Andriescu: The Apple                                 142
    Roberto Carifi: Untitled                                  144
    Jose Manuel Del Pino: Doré V                              145
    Arnljot Eggen: He called her his willow                   146
    Kjell Hjern: To My Love                                   147
    Vladimir Holan: Meeting in a Lift                         147
    Vladimir Holan: She Asked You                             148
    Tasos Leivaditis: Eternal Dialogue                        148
    Virgil Mihaiu: The Ultimate Luxury woman                  149
    Czeslaw Milosz: After Paradise                            150
    Pentti Saarikoski: Untitled                               151
    Marin Sorescu: Don Juan (after he'd consumed tons of      152
          lipstick...)
    Mustafa Ziyalan: Night Ride on 21                         153
  Africa
    Chinua Achebe: Love Cycle                                 154
    Ko Jo Laing: I am the freshly dead husband                155
    Taban Lo Liyong: 55                                       157
    Taban Lo Liyong: 60                                       158
  South America
    Antonio Cisneros: Dedicatory (to My wife)                 159
    Carlos Drummond De Andrade: Ballad of Love through the Ages   159
    Oscar Hahn: Good Night Dear                               161
    Oscar Hahn: Little Phantoms                               162
    Oscar Hahn: Candlelight Dinner                            162
    Sergio Kisielewsky: Cough Drops                           163
    Marco Martos: Casti Connubi                               164
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Lord Kitchener: Miss Tourist                              165
    Roberto Fernandez Retamar: A Man and a woman              166
    Jaime Sabines: I Love You at Ten in the Morning           167
  North America
    Leonard Cohen: Suzanne                                    168
    Galway Kinnell: The Perch                                 170
    Charles Simic: At the Cookout                             172
    Quincy Troupe: Change                                     173
    Al Zolynas: Whistling Woman                               174

Myth, archetypes, and spirituality

  Asia
    Chairil Anwar: Heaven                                     176
    Chairil Anwar: At the Mosque                              177
    Tsujii Takashi: Woman Singing                             178
  The Middle East
    Admiel Kosman: Something Hurts                            179
  Europe
    Risto Ahti: The Beloved's Face                            180
    Peter Armstrong: Sunderland Nights                        181
    Mircea Cartarescu: A happy day in my life                 182
    Carlos Edmundo De Ory: Silence                            189
    Herbert Gassner: Fear                                     190
    Primo Levi: Samson                                        191
    Primo Levi: Delilah                                       192
    Harry Martinson: Santa Claus                              192
    Semezdin Mehmedinovic: An Essay                           193
    Peter Reading: Fates of Men                               193
    Mihai Ursachi: A Monologue                                195
  Africa
    Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali: A Voice from the Dead           200
    Al-Munsif Al-Wahaybi: The Desert                          201
  South America
    Juan Carlos Galeano: Tree                                 202
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Jorge Esquinca: Fable of the Hunter                       203
    Evan Jones: Genesis                                       204
    Dennis Scott: Uncle Time                                  206
  North America
    Michael Blumenthal: The Forces                            207
    Stephen Dobyns: Why Fool Around?                          208
    Stephen Dunn: Odysseus's Secret                           209
    Fred Moramarco: Clark Kent, Naked                         211
    Marco Morelli: A Volunteer's Fairy Tale                   211
    Howard White: The Men There Were Then                     214
  Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand
    Peter Skrzynecki: Buddha, Birdbath, Hanging Plant         215

Politics, war, revolution

  Asia
    Kriapur: Men on Fire                                      218
    Shin Kyong-Nim: Yollim Kut Song                           219
    U Sam Oeur: The Loss of My Twins                          221
    Edwin Thumboo: The Exile                                  222
  The Middle East
    Mahmud Darwish: Give Birth to Me Again That I May Know    224
    Mahmud Darwish: On a Canaanite Stone in the Dead Sea      225
    Admiel Kosman: Games                                      230
    Salman Masalha: On Artistic Freedom in the Nationalist Era   231
    Rami Saari: The Only Democracy (in the Middle East)       233
    Tawfiq Zayyad: Here We Will Stay                          234
  Europe
    Toma Longinovic: Glorious Ruins                           235
    Semezdin Mehmedinovic: The Only Dream                     237
    Ucha Sakhltkhutsishvili: Soldiers                         238
    Izet Sarajlic: Untitled                                   239
    Aleksey Shelvakh: Veterans                                240
  Africa
    Kofi Anyidoho: Desert Storm                               241
    Breyten Breytenbach: Eavesdropper                         244
    Frank Chipasula: Manifesto on Ars Poetica                 245
    Lupenga Mphande: I Was Sent For                           246
    Tanure Ojaide: State Executive                            247
    Jorge Rebelo: Poem of a Militant                          249
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Ricardo Castillo: Ode to the Urge                         250
    Fabio Morabito:   Master of an Expanse                    251
    Luis Rogelio Nogueras: A Poem                             252

Sex and Sexuality

  Asia
    Rofel G. Brion: Love Song                                 256
    Sunil Gangopadhyay: Blindfold                             257
    Hung Hung: Helas!                                         258
    George Oommen: A Private Sorrow                           259
    Vikram Seth: Unclaimed                                    260
  Europe
    Alain Bosquet: The Lovers                                 261
    Tonino Guerra: Canto Twenty-Four                          262
    Zbigniew Herbert: Rosy Ear                                263
    Michael Hulse: Concentrating                              265
    Alan Jenkins: Street Life                                 266
    Brendan Kennelly: The Swimmer                             266
    Kemal. Kurt: GYN-astics                                   268
    Henri Michaux: Simplicity                                 269
    Aleksandr Shatalov: Untitled                              270
    Jon Stallworthy: The Source                               271
    Péter Zilahy: Dictators                                   272
  Africa
    Bahadur Tejani: Lines for a Hindi Poet                    273
  South America
    Ricardo Feierstein: Sex                                   275
  North America
    Orlando Ricardo Menes: Sodomy                             276
    Len Roberts: The Problem                                  278
  Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand
    David Eggleton: Bouquet of Dead Flowers                   279
    Jonathan Fisher: Six Part Lust Story                      280
    Clive James: Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini      282
    Luke Icarus Simon: Measuring Apollo                       285

Poets and poetry, Artists and art

  Asia
    Cecil Rajendra: Prince of the Dance   	       	      288
  The Middle East
    Ahmad Shamlu: Poetry That Is Life   	       	      289
    Bishwabimohan Shreshtha: Should I Earn My Daily Bread,    290
	or Should I Write a Poem?  (tr. Michael James Hutt)
  Europe
    Evgeny Bunimovich: Excuse and Explanation          	      293
    Theo Dorgan: The Choice   			       	      295
    Jan Erik Vold: Hokusai the old master, who painted a      296
	wave like nobody ever painted a wave before him
    Zahrad: The Woman Cleaning Lentils                 	      297
    Adam Ziemianin: Heart Attack   		       	      298
  South America
    Nicholas Maré: You can say that the bird as the saying    299
	goes
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Hector Avellan: Declaration of Love to Kurt Cobain        300
  North America
    Agha Shahid Ali: Ghazal   			       	      302
    Virgil Suarez: Duende   			       	      304
    Simon Thompson: All Apologies to L. Cohen          	      305

Brothers, friends, mentors, and rivals

  Asia
    Nobuo Ayukawa: The Last I Heard   		       	      308
  Europe
    Vytautas P. Blozé: Beneath the Stars   	       	      311
    Gudmundur Bodvarsson: Brother   		       	      315
    Tony Curtis: The Eighth Dream   		       	      316
    Snorri Hjartarson: House in Rome   		       	      318
    Hédi Kaddour: Verlaine   			       	      319
    Lyubomir Levchev: Front Line   		       	      320
    Dennis O'driscoll: The Lads   		       	      321
    Donny O'rourke: Algren   			       	      323
    Rafael Pérez Estrada: My Uncle the Levitator       	      324
    Rafael Pérez Estrada: The Unpublished Man          	      326
    James Simmons: The Pleasant joys of Brotherhood    	      327
    Ivan Slamnig: A Sailor   			       	      328
    Kit Wright: Here Come Two Very Old Men   	       	      328
  Africa
    Kofi Awoonor: Songs of Abuse: To Stanislaus the Renegade  329
    Frank Chipasula: My Blood Brother   	       	      330
    Chirikure Chirikure: This Is Where We Laid Him to Rest    331
  South America
    Gonzalo Rojas: The Coast   			       	      333
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Gaspar Aguilera Diaz: Does Anyone Know Where Roque Dalton Spent   334
	His Final Night?
    Antonio Deltoro: Submarine   		       	      335
    Francisco Hernandez: Autograph   		       	      336
  North America
    Charles Bukowski: 3 old men at separate tables     	      337
    Cyril Dabydeen: Hemingway   		       	      338
    Al Pittman: The Echo of the Ax   		       	      340
    Alberto Rios: A Chance Meeting of Two Men          	      341
    Len Roberts: Men's Talk   			       	      342
  Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand
    Les Murray: The Mitchells   		       	      343

Work, sports, and games

  Asia
    Iftikhar Arif: The Twelfth Man   		       	      346
    Moeen Faruqi: The Return   			       	      348
    Alamgir Hashmi: Pro Bono Publico   		       	      349
  Europe
    Kashyap Bhattacharya: The Cricketer   	       	      351
    John Burnside: The Men's Harbour   		       	      353
    Gunter Eich: The Man in the Blue Smock   	       	      355
    Hédi Kaddour: The Bus Driver   		       	      356
    Donny O'rourke: Clockwork   		       	      357
  Africa
    Antonio Jacinto: Letter from a Contract Worker     	      358
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Luis Miguel Aguilar: Memo, Who Loved Motorcycles   	      360
    Evan Jones: The Lament of the Banana Man   	       	      362
  North America
    Robert Francis: The Base Stealer   		       	      363
    Andrew Hudgins: Tools: An Ode   		       	      364
    William Matthews: Cheap Seats, the Cincinnati Gardens,    365
	Professional Basketball, 1959
    Christopher Merrill: A Boy juggling a Soccer Ball         365
    Len Roberts: I Blame It on Him   		       	      367

Aging, illness, and death

  Asia
    Duo Duo: Looking Out from Death   		       	      370
    Nissim Ezekiel: Case Study   		       	      371
    Huan Fu: Don't, Don't   			       	      372
    Kuan Kuan: Autobiography of a Sloppy Sluggard      	      373
    Vikram Seth: Soon   			       	      375
  The Middle East
    Buland Al-Haydari: Old Age   		       	      376
    Ahmad Shamlu: Somber Song   		       	      377
  Europe
    Alain Bosquet: An Old Gentleman   		       	      378
    Alain Bosquet: Celebrities   		       	      379
    Kjell Hjern: On the Growth of Hair in Middle Age   	      380
    Michael Longley: A Flowering   		       	      381
    Henrik Nordbrandt: Old Man in Meditation   	       	      382
  Central America and the Caribbean
    Juan Sobalvarro: I've Seen a Dead Man   	       	      383
  North America
    Raymond Carver: This Morning   		       	      384
    Peter Cooley: Language of Departure   	       	      385
    Sky Gilbert: The Island of Lost Tears   	       	      386
    Steve Kowit: Snapshot   			       	      388
  Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand
    Anthony Lawrence: Goanna   			       	      389
Translators                                        	      391
Credits                                            	      393
Index of Poets                                     	      497
Index of Titles                                    	      413


amitabha mukerjee (mukerjee [at-symbol] gmail) 2011 Sep 03