See You in January!

American Poets Abroad is taking a break until the new year. Anyone who submitted poetry before November 15 will hear from us eventually. We apologize to those who are patiently awaiting a response–it has been beyond our abilities lately, but we hope to get to you soon. If you submitted after Nov. 15, you either did not consult the “submissions” page or did and sent poems anyway. Sorry, but they will not be considered.

Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a Cool Kwanzaa to everyone!

The Editors

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Pirates

Nothing but eyes. Eyes wrapped tight
In black cloth. Painful eyes
Hard to look at.

Do they make reports
To a pantheon of gods
As we watch from binoculars?

Surely it is some strange call.
They pass the cell phone
And hold minute debates.

Soon they will steal to low decks
And scatter among the freight,
Brandishing kaiser blades.

But for now they are waiting,
Bobbing in their skinny wooden dowels
That rock in the mint tones.

Steven Blythe

Haceta Head Beach

Our stark shadows at the waters edge
wavering on the sand
following maybe leading us
the candor of the ocean at our feet
rushing over an arch
engulfing an ankle
a lifetime, an afternoon.
 
I walk behind you
an old man’s hat on your head
brim cocked towards the sky
your hair braided down your back
pantaloons tucked in
high woolen socks
a woman from the Andes—

Janice D. Rubin

Our New Windmills

Have you seen the windmills recently
Don Quixote?
They have grown,
Giants now if they ever were.
I suppose that is the way of things.
No longer just one in the fields,
Looking to pick a fight.
They have banded together. Dozens. Hundreds.
Sleek and hard-bodied.
They stand, unmoving, in rank and file
Across our wide open spaces,
Never sleeping.
Their red blinking eyes watching us
And arms that never stop swinging
Through the entire night.
How are you supposed to fight something like that?

Daniel Gilmore

From the Editors

It’s the end of August and the end of summer, a slow time in the northern hemisphere and even slower in Italy. After a brief hiatus, American Poets Abroad resumes its semi-regular schedule of publishing. It is semi-regular because we, like you, work for a living. Were we able to dedicate all our time to the necessities of publishing, we would no doubt have a much broader readership. But, as the saying goes, ze ma she’yesh–this is all we’ve got to work with. We would like to thank all the poets who have sent us their work, excuse ourselves for all the poems we still haven’t gotten around to responding to, and encourage others to send their work to us and help us grow. Poets need readers, and readers need poetry. Our submissions guidelnes are here.

Our readers will notice that, slowly but surely, the site is being made more reader-friendly. To replace author pages we have created author categories, found on the right-hand side of the page. An author’s poems should all be accessible by clicking on his or her name on the sidebar. Thus no poems should be lost in the archives.

Welcome back!

The Editors