and plane trees and metasequoias have shed all their leaves.
Despair is the same thing happening over and over,
the same days like a white noose
slipping around your neck, then loosening.
You go out, hoping to bring back a different version of yourself,
but what comes back is still that same lifeless face.
Nothing ever truly ends—
they only vanish, not perish,
they still exist beyond your field of vision.
Nor do things ever truly happen—
they are feints, meaningless gestures,
irregularly shaped clutter, piled in a cold, empty backstage.
You want to move to another room to live,
but the part of you that can’t die is always in another
identical room, sitting there in the dark,
staying up all night, not speaking,
waiting for you to enter, to see him,
and facing each other in silence.
Black River
The deep black river seems to have stopped flowing
within it lie inverted palaces
it never freezes, even in winter
on its snow-white banks,
no footprints of man or beast dare approach its silence
this is the finest way, leading to other silences
and oblivion
The Last Moment
— Written on the Day of Completing the Translation of Helen Vendler’s Poetic Essays
A page rustles, for a little while
like a face in the desert hesitating
then melting away
a man steps onto another path in the woods
A murder without a target is perfect
as a stranger in native clothes
holding a key or a sword
crushed berries smearing the stones
The universe falls silent again
as if waiting for his decision
whether it is still time to choose to vanish
in the white steam trailing the summer mountaintop
to listen once more to the echo of nobody
Ma Yongbo was born in 1964, Ph.D, representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry, and a leading scholar in Anglo-American poetry. He is the founder of polyphonic writing and objectified poetics. He is also the first translator to introduce British and American postmodern poetry into Chinese.
He has published over eighty original works and translations since 1986 including nine poetry collections. He focused on translating and teaching Anglo-American poetry and prose, including the work of Dickinson, Whitman, Stevens, Pound, Amy Lowell, Williams, Ashbery and Rosanna Warren. He published a complete translation of Moby Dick, which has sold over 600,000 copies. He teaches at Nanjing University of Science and Technology. The Collected Poems of Ma Yongbo (four volumes, Eastern Publishing Centre, 2024) composed of 1178 poems celebrating 40 years of writing poetry.
Forgetting about stocks and politics and the economy
Forgetting about being at work or on time
And need to go mad and become alive
I’ve been trying not to be crazy, but
The crazy days and moments call for me
And seduce me like the voluptuous walk
Of a cat,
I do not want to go back to the mad days,
I suffered myself greatly
Or do I?
A World Without
I’ve been thinking there was no women
In the world,
And how could that be,
Just a thought a feeling i had,
And it depressed me,
To wake up and all the women gone,
And the world was left to the men,
And I became so depressed,
Could men, like me, go on without women?
That’s terrible thought to have
The world might collapse right now
And the men would go on doing all kinds of manly shit
And doing it well, like they have
But i was thinking of the world without ladies and girls
And it just didn’t seem worth it
And lots of men would go crazy slowly,
A whole world without poetry, music and dance,
Just the hard tough stuff
We were left with
And suddenly like i did not want to be here
Or anywhere
I Must Stop
Thinking that I am better than others
I must stop thinking my pain is more valid
I must quit thinking I should be rich and famous and handsome
I must quit thinking that certain jobs below me
I must quit thinking I am deserving
That I am smarter than others and that I know better
Where do these feelings come from?
My stupendous ego
Playing upon a boat of isolation
No one is onboard in the sea
As the cold calm water goes go
Without beginning.
A Strong Man
I want to be a strong man
Someone benching five hundred pounds. Looking like a bodybuilder
Someone running the 40 in four seconds. Running like man cheetah
Some one running marathons regularly, incredible stamina
Someone makes important decisions, like a CEO. Affecting so many lives. With towers on his back
I wanted to be a strong man
I felt like a strong man for a day maybe two
Or maybe it was a year or two
Maybe I was around 32
I remember lifting 50 bags at work,
Just tossing the around like nothing
And drinking beer after work. Feeling strong and manly
And thinking that i would always feel that way,
The winter winds nipped my nose
At 46 I don’t feel like it anymore. My
Knees ache just thinking of lifting that 50 pound bag
Wanting is so soft
But reality is so hard.
Just Want to be Loved
And you write and think and publish and study and write
Thinking of perfect poems and perfect thoughts
You want to be loved and celebrated
And praised and showed the good time
And have people interviews and ask me questions
Just to feel important in the world and share
Little insights with people who dig my stuff
Feeling like Henry Miller or Ernest Hemingway
And have people say that is really good,
And how did you come up with that,
What inspired you do or say that
I’ll buy your book, and you give a reading here
Will pay you
I guess most writers feel this way,
And the others, can hardly care
At all
Damion Hamilton is from St. Louis MO. His poems have appeared in Chiron Review, Poesy Magazine, Zygote In My Coffee, Red Fez, The Camel Saloon and many others. He writes poetry, stories and novels. He has written several books. Available here. He can be found on twitter here.
GRACIELA NOEMI VILLAVERDE is a writer and poet from Concepción del Uruguay (Entre Rios) Argentina, based in Buenos Aires She graduated in letters and is the author of seven books of poetry, awarded several times worldwide. She works as the World Manager of Educational and Social Projects of the Hispanic World Union of Writers and is the UHE World Honorary President of the same institution Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. She is the Commissioner of Honor in the executive cabinet IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS DIVISION, of the UNACCC SOUTH AMERICA ARGENTINA CHAPTER.
The festival, one of the main events of the international art market, presents works of modern and contemporary art in over 280 leading galleries proven in the world.
The summer sun illuminates the beautiful landscapes of Switzerland.
While I was walking through these landscapes with pleasure, I was thinking about how long our journey to Basel would take us.
What passages, from beauty to beauty, from Lugano to Luzerno.
Indeed, it seems to me, as they say, a beautiful dream with open eyes.
How beautifully the hand of man has worked together with the generosity of nature and in this way, in this place, they have built a true paradise.
My thought goes far.
Being amazed by these beauties, which impress me and that with my words I cannot describe them properly.
And what an opportunity and art exists, for every person and every nation, if this valuable experience in the transformation of the environment which resembles heaven on earth, here in Switzerland. That they can use it, and that everyone can practice it in their own place, in the care and protection of nature and at the same time for the benefit of their health.
Arrival in Basel
After a five-hour journey,
we arrive in Basel.
And here is the Rhine River, not only offering us amazing beauty but a memory and journey with the old European history.
In the beautiful and ancient Basel.
An indescribable pleasure for this place,.
And not only for its beauties, but also for the fact that Basel welcomes us with open arms and envelops us with the warmth of the most beautiful and important activities not only for Switzerland but also for the whole of Europe.
Before us lies majestic and all dressed in red, the square in front of the building, where the song festival – Eurovision 2025 took place
The square in front of the Basel fair is in fact the most magnificent platform that can be offered to art at Art Basel.
And who can use it better than the internationally renowned painter, who has repeatedly freed herself from the limitations of the classical canvas to claim entire spaces as a canvas for her colorful excesses?
Now Katharina Grosse has transformed the fairground into a large painting.
In doing so, she included the entire square, including the fountain and the surrounding architecture, in her work.
The German painter has long been considered a star.
And she is practically destined for this great commission, which is given to an artist every year for the days of the Art Basel fair.
The Swiss press writes about her and her fame has already spread throughout Europe and the whole world.
Switzerland is ahead in all arts.
It constantly organizes exhibitions to help talents, in supporting and encouraging them as well as displaying the products of the hands of the youngest, the oldest and the most famous artists.
Truly a model to be taken as an example by all European countries and why not the world.
An excellent job in giving the right value to those works that really have value.
The first day
Crowds of people flowed like a river in front of the festival building.
Others climbed the stairs to the palace of culture, where the exhibition titled Arte-Basel had opened.
An exhibition service employee greeted us in Italian and with her warmth and talented hospitality, offered us all the necessary information about ARTE-BASEL 2025.
Second day in Basel
Already amazed by the exhibited works.
We move from one pavilion to another. We take photos.
Thousands of square meters have been made available for the exhibition of works by great artists, as well as ample space for the many visitors.
A special commitment and interest from the employees of the municipality of Basel.
They follow every activity, every detail of this exhibition, in help and support of the exhibition employees as well as the artists themselves.
Everything in order and with correctness.
“We like this,” said one of the employees, because with the same dedication these beautiful works of art were created, which are exhibited in all the exhibition pavilions.
Values should be protected only with values.
Works that amaze with their beauty and the messages they carry for the culture and life of people everywhere in the world.
We will see and hear each other in the other visits made by our side, in the following days, in these artistic activities, developed in Switzerland and their importance and values for Europe and the World.
My hands were frozen, and I couldn’t move them. Juliette, you and I are certainly far apart. It’s not just geographical distance, but the way a woman and a man think is far more distant. I don’t know what else to say except that I’m still alive. On the night when the light of the spring stars reaches the bottom of the fountain, all I can do is show you my feelings as they are in the light.
I ate rice from a lacerated bowl. There were days when I was beaten so severely with a baton that I could not get up for days. In a world where nothing is certain, one may continue to search for certainty, and I’m waiting for some kind of signal from you. Juliette, even if it’s just a small rustle of wings, it’s better than feeling uncertain.
I don’t have a past like a worn stone. There is no future like a curtain that harbors the wind. Now I am filled with the image of you. I see you on the wine like freshly squeezed fruit that I have just soaked up at a wealthy gallery. Tonight, from the darkening sky, another clear, cold spring rain will fall.
If you want, I can crystallise those raindrops into starlight on my palm. I want to see the light in your eyes, so that it may shine in the center of Juliette’s black eyes and shine in my own. I am beaten to the ground like a stray dog, with no place to go back to, while dreaming of you. My beloved homeland, Juliette.
