9 Unhook what’s stretchedacross your ribs; part wayswith the memory of silk. Remember how you learnedwhat not to swallow, the drops you hidbeneath your tongue, lusts they taught youhow to threadlike beads on a silver chain. The rage you’ve borne till nowhas readied you for this. Give your heart the room it needs.Leave the comfort […]
Author: Richard Jeffrey Newman
As a poet and essayist, Richard Jeffrey Newman’s work explores the impact of feminism on his life as a man, especially as a survivor of childhood sexual violence. As a co-translator of classical Persian poetry, he writes about the impact of that canon on our contemporary lives. His own books of poetry are, most recently, Words for What Those Men Have Done, (Guernica Editions 2017) and For My Son, A Kind of Prayer (Ghostbird Press in 2016). His translations include The Teller of Tales: Stories from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (Junction Press 2011) and Selections from Saadi’s Gulistan. Newman is on the Board of Directors of Newtown Literary, a Queens, NY-based literary non-profit and curates the First Tuesdays reading series in Jackson Heights, NY. He is Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY, where he also serves as secretary of his faculty union. His website is www.richardjnewman.com.