We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
Dear Noose, Dear Necktie, Dear Cravat,
Salutations, big ship, toiling the dark waters
Of death. Dear Freighter, in whose hold the oily links
Of the anchor’s chain, like snakes, are coiled. Dear Oily
Waters, salve and balm, black disk of ocean across which,
Dark Craft, you creak, loom, until your black gobbles
The horizon up. Dear black firmament and earth,
Ditch of the kicked in. World shut and over,
Mingy and dim. Dear Line, Dear Sinker,
Noose and Hook,
Hello.
Lynn Emanuel is the author of five books of poetry, Hotel Fiesta, The Dig, Then, Suddenly—, Noose and Hook, and, most recently, The Nerve Of It : Poems New and Selected, which was just awarded the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets.
Contributions from readers enable us to provide a public space, free and open, for the discussion of ideas. Join this effort – become a supporting reader today.
Vital reading on politics, literature, and more in your inbox. Sign up for our Weekly Newsletter, Monthly Roundup, and event notifications.
As Roe is struck down by the Supreme Court, we bring together recent and archival essays to assess what is at stake—and how we might move from reproductive rights to reproductive justice.
Theorist Hil Malatino offers a compelling account of the persistent bad feelings with which trans people often struggle—but it comes with fashionable academic hang-ups that need to be reconsidered.
The systems that harm animals go hand in hand with systems that harm humans. Combating them requires inter-species solidarity.
A political and literary forum, independent and nonprofit since 1975. Registered 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more about our mission