David Kherdian Perhaps it is time to remember ourselves and each other as we were, not warring, but not yet at peace, only…
A Review and an Appreciation by Sam Hamod “The poems have grown out of and were provoked by my experience of aging and memory—from…
Du Fu The city has fallen: only the hills and rivers remain. In Spring the streets were green with grass and trees. Sorrowing…
Santiago So many evenings, there is darkness, but on this evening, the lights of Buenos Aires shine so bright that even the stars become…
R.A. Rycraft Photos fade as memories often do – as this one has. The frigid air of your uncle’s Store House – Sunrise Natural Foods,…
Garrett Hongo after a photograph Billie in a yellow bikini and without the gardenia in her hair, But instead a dark hibiscus, plump…
Martin Burke Harbours. Good to arrive at, better to depart from. I have found such a one in this continent. It said: welcome….
Duff Brenna One of George Orwell’s main concerns with capitalist, fascist, or communist societies was the ruthlessness they showed toward all other forms of…
Sam Hamod Often when I’m introduced to Anglos, people say, “Did you say Hammond or was it Hamon?” I reply, “Hamod, like Mohammed.” In…
Sam Hamod Once upon a time, it seems, during the reign of the first strong president of Pakistan, Ayub Khan– President Khan decided he…
Jorge Luis Borges No one saw him disembark in the unanimous night, no one saw the bamboo canoe sink into the sacred mud, but…
Peyo Yavorov Two beautiful eyes. The soul of a child In two beautiful eyes – music, rays. They don’t want and they don’t promise……
Aleksander Pushkin The flower, very dry and scentless, I see in the forgotten book; And now, with the strangest fancies, Is filled my soul’s…
Czelaw Milosz You ask me how to pray to someone who is not. All I know is that prayer constructs a velvet bridge And…
Assef Lahab Al Jundi يريدُ العلمُ لنا أن نُؤمن بأنّ الخيول والطيور والفراشات جاءت إلى الوجود بانفجار كبير. ولكن ما الذي انفجر؟ من أشعل…
Jack Marshall “Hitler bought off Pius XIII’s Vatican with a tithe from German taxes of one billion. Each year the Pontiff sent birthday…
Sam Hamod His mother said, “ Bu-Abdul, do not cry to me, you are not mine, nor are you your father’s son, you, I…
Shadab Zeest Hashmi My first encounter with the ghazal had to have happened at home where my parents played ghazal LPs on their Phillips record…
At Contemporary World Literature: Journal of the Arts, we believe that great literature is made up of high quality, diverse writing, from around the world. Too often…
Faiz Ahmed Faiz Last Night raat yuuN dil meN terii khoyii hu’ii yaad aayii jaise viiraane meN chupke se bahaar aa jaaye jaise sehraaoN…
Ali Al-Jundi الفقراء ينامون على الأرصفة بلا أى غطاءْ! وتلاحقهم دوريات الشرطة تمنعهم من موت يدهمهم… ويلاحقهم حقد الآباء… يارب العالم ان كنت الهاً…
Kristen Scott When twilight beds down with night the world calms birds hush we nestle together entwined in the lull Kristen Scott has published poetry…
Sam Hamod leaves move more slowly now, there is a brittleness you can smell in the air, changes of colors speak only of that one…