- 114: NO THEME 13with J Toledo & C Tse 113: INVISIBLE WALLSwith A Walker & D Disney 112: TREATwith T Dearborn 111: BABYwith S Deo & L Ferney 110: POP!with Z Frost & B Jessen 109: NO THEME 12with C Maling & N Rhook 108: DEDICATIONwith L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik 107: LIMINALwith B Li 106: OPENwith C Lowe & J Langdon 105: NO THEME 11with E Grills & E Stewart 104: KINwith E Shiosaki 103: AMBLEwith E Gomez and S Gory 102: GAMEwith R Green and J Maxwell 101: NO THEME 10with J Kinsella and J Leanne 100: BROWNFACE with W S Dunn 99: SINGAPOREwith J Ip and A Pang 97 & 98: PROPAGANDAwith M Breeze and S Groth 96: NO THEME IXwith M Gill and J Thayil 95: EARTHwith M Takolander 94: BAYTwith Z Hashem Beck 93: PEACHwith L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong 92: NO THEME VIIIwith C Gaskin 91: MONSTERwith N Curnow 90: AFRICAN DIASPORAwith S Umar 89: DOMESTICwith N Harkin 88: TRANSQUEERwith S Barnes and Q Eades 87: DIFFICULTwith O Schwartz & H Isemonger 86: NO THEME VIIwith L Gorton 85: PHILIPPINESwith Mookie L and S Lua 84: SUBURBIAwith L Brown and N O'Reilly 83: MATHEMATICSwith F Hile 82: LANDwith J Stuart and J Gibian 81: NEW CARIBBEANwith V Lucien 80: NO THEME VIwith J Beveridge 57.1: EKPHRASTICwith C Atherton and P Hetherington 57: CONFESSIONwith K Glastonbury 56: EXPLODE with D Disney 55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUSwith M Chakraborty and K MacCarter 55: FUTURE MACHINES with Bella Li 54: NO THEME V with F Wright and O Sakr 53.0: THE END with P Brown 52.0: TOIL with C Jenkins 51.1: UMAMI with L Davies and Lifted Brow 51.0: TRANSTASMAN with B Cassidy 50.0: NO THEME IV with J Tranter 49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH with M Hall and S Seita 49.0: OBSOLETE with T Ryan 48.1: CANADA with K MacCarter and S Rhodes 48.0: CONSTRAINT with C Wakeling 47.0: COLLABORATION with L Armand and H Lambert 46.1: MELBOURNE with M Farrell 46.0: NO THEME III with F Plunkett 45.0: SILENCE with J Owen 44.0: GONDWANALAND with D Motion 43.1: PUMPKIN with K MacCarter 43.0: MASQUE with A Vickery 42.0: NO THEME II with G Ryan 41.1: RATBAGGERY with D Hose 41.0: TRANSPACIFIC with J Rowe and M Nardone 40.1: INDONESIA with K MacCarter 40.0: INTERLOCUTOR with L Hart 39.1: GIBBERBIRD with S Gory 39.0: JACKPOT! with S Wagan Watson 38.0: SYDNEY with A Lorange 37.1: NEBRASKA with S Whalen 37.0: NO THEME! with A Wearne 36.0: ELECTRONICA with J Jones
Omar Sakr
Speak, Joy: Say the Words
I am a working poet. I spend my days in search and celebration of words, a series of sounds I can weld, if I’m lucky, into insights about being human, and I confess it has never been harder to do so.
Graze in the genocide
My son whose name is radiance Tripped and skinned His little knee. My god the wailing! the wailing in my heart! A blot Of blood, about the size of the sun Or my thumb. It was ages ago. I can …
Leaving Traces of Us: Queer Coming-of-age in Anne Carsons’s Autobiography of Red
Anne Carson’s debut novel Autobiography of Red a coming-of-age narrative rendered in verse, tracing the life of a red winged boy named Geryon.
Posted in ESSAYS
Tagged Anne Carson, Joanne Zou, Ocean Vuong, Omar Sakr
Self-Care
Another death, another love shed into earth, my old body made nude again, a hairy burn in the crowd of unknowable family. My wife and son are behind the rock mound we all plunder to give to the body its …
Posted in 109: NO THEME 12
Tagged Omar Sakr
A Muslim, Christmas
The streets are empty-ish. Ish is for my body, the faithless and lonely. I head toward departure. Long one-eyed spectres hunch over the earth and each tree has around it a darker deeper life. Few shops are open: solitary yellows …
Posted in 101: NO THEME 10
Tagged Omar Sakr
Love Under Capitalism
The new joint around the corner keeps changing its name. I get it. I am afraid of growing old. I can’t afford this face for long, this place for long. I still invite people in. The barista wants to know …
20 Poets, a Free Anthology from Cordite Books
The geographic barriers that can, at times, hinder Australian literature are no longer relevant, and poetry communities around the world must be enlightened by the commanding, demanding and exciting trajectory of contemporary Australian poetics.
Posted in GUNCOTTON
Tagged Alan Loney, Anne Elvey, Autumn Royal, Bonny Cassidy, Broede Carmody, Chris Mann, Claire Nashar, derek motion, Javant Biarujia, Jeanine Leane, Jen Crawford, John Hawke, Kent MacCarter, Kris Hemensley, Matthew Hall, mez breeze, Natalie Harkin, Omar Sakr, Rachael Briggs, Ross Gibson, Tanya Thaweeskulchai, Tony Birch, Zoë Sadokierski
Landscaping
The grass loops long outside my window. Sags into itself. A thousand lithe men bowing in one direction, a lone sunflower here & there draped over their knees. Little slut. I forget to cut them down. It is winter now …
Brothers
My cousin the farmer is laden with death he tells me each morning he checks the chickens while I sleep. The weaklings need killing, so he walks amongst them, dawn-spectre, and takes their lives. It has to be done he …
Posted in 80: NO THEME VI
Tagged Omar Sakr
Introduction to Omar Sakr’s These Wild Houses
Omar Sakr’s These Wild Houses is a complex exploration of identity, an identity exposed in clear yet layered language, a language that takes us to the core of what he has experienced as a ‘queer Muslim Arab Australian from Western Sydney, from a broke and broken family.’
Posted in INTRODUCTIONS
Tagged Alissa Dinallo, Judith Beveridge, Lily Mae Martin, Omar Sakr
NO THEME V Editorial
I must admit that I ventured – no, sauntered – into this guest editing position on feet of clouds. Such a fantastic opportunity to peek behind the curtains of one of Australia’s best and most prolific poetry publications was not to be missed, I thought. In fact, it seemed almost too good to be true.
Posted in ESSAYS
Tagged Fiona Wright, Omar Sakr
6 Poems by Najwan Darwish
Born and raised in Jerusalem, Najwan Darwish has been hailed by the New York Times Book Review as ‘one of the foremost Arabic-language poets of his generation’. Nothing More to Lose, superbly translated by Kareem James Abu-Zeid, is his first …
Posted in TRANSLATIONS
Tagged Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Najwan Darwish, Omar Sakr
Submission to Cordite 54: NO THEME V Open!
Poetry for Cordite 54: NO THEME V is guest-edited by Fiona Wright and Omar Sakr. This issue will be a glorious miscellany – no theme, no rules, no agenda, (no pants?) – a beautiful ambiguity. We want all of the …
Posted in GUNCOTTON
Tagged Fiona Wright, Kent MacCarter, Omar Sakr
Judith Beveridge’s Twelve Highlights from 2014
Throughout 2014, Judith Beveridge selected one poem per month to spotlight in Cordite Poetry Review, and she delivered excellent choices … writing a bit to each selection. We have compiled them all here in one article. Enjoy!
Feature Poem with Judith Beveridge: The H Word
There are many levels of identified pain in Omar Sakr’s poem: deprivation, despair, violence, oppression, shame, mortality, the brutal inevitability of loss and disenfranchisement, yet the poem’s interrogation of these issues is often playful and comic, tender and deftly alert …
Posted in GUNCOTTON
Tagged Judith Beveridge, Monthly Poem Feature, Omar Sakr
