THE PLEASURE IS IN THE WORK by Stella Hayes

/ / Published in ISSUE 25


                     Books I put up next to you.

As close as I can without belonging. Gods in awe of other gods.

                     Digging up love as new each time. 

 

                     As I show a willingness to love

You in one lifetime. Rodin’s marble back. 

                     A fragment in my hand.

 

                     How you contract in me. 

This is what I know. I am here alone. 

                     Death is only good at one thing.

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Ukrainian-American poet Stella Hayes is the author of the poetry collection One Strange Country (What Books Press, 2020). She grew up in Brovary, a suburb outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, and in Los Angeles. She earned a creative writing degree at University of Southern California and is a graduate student at NYU studying for an M.F.A. in poetry. Her work has appeared in Poet Lore, Poetry Project’s The Recluse, Stanford’s Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism, and Translation, The Lake, Prelude, Spillway, among others. She’s poetry editor at Washington Square Review.

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ISSUE 25

ISSUE 25
POEMS

EN ROUTE by Suphil Lee Park

TWO POEMS by Alexandra Teague

GHAZAL NO. 2 by M. Cynthia Cheung

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from PSALMS OF LAMENT FOR DIVINE IMPERATIVES by Jennifer Metsker

TWO POEMS by Jimin Seo

THE PLEASURE IS IN THE WORK by Stella Hayes

WHAT ELSE COULD I HAVE DONE by Mikael de Lara Co

FICTION

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TRANSLATION

from RED MELANCHOLIA by Helena Boberg trans. Johannes Goransson (from Swedish)

AND WHAT HAPPENS IF I WANT TO NAME EVERYTHING?, ASKS THE FEMALE DISCIPLE by Mayra Santos-Febres trans. Seth Michelson (from Spanish) 

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[A POEM] by Beatriz Miralles de Imperial trans. Layla Benitez-James (from Spanish)

[UNTITLED 1] by Vladislav Hristov trans. Katarina Stoykova (from Bulgarian) 

FROM NORTH by Baek Sok trans. Jack Jung (from Korean)

WHEN OTHER PEOPLE ARE WRITING POEMS by Oh Kyu-won trans. Jack Jung (from Korean)

TWO POEMS by Ashraf Zhagal trans. Ghada Mourad

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