The Common

"But lately even my dreams seem to threaten / our future, swimming back as I awaken: / the enormous, multi-colored snake / that slithered into my house out of nowhere."

Maria Terrona writes about the complexity of cancer treatment in her Issue 31 poem "Safe & Secure Destruction." Read more below!

Safe & Secure Destruction MARIA TE***NE The sign painted on the truck is a phrase / I contemplate under a vine-covered pergola. / You might call this walled city garden / my hermitage—the faint notes / of a live flute…

Has the summer heat driven you into a writing slump? Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to provide inspiration and accountability, delivered right to your inbox. Click the link below to sign up!

Weekly Writes Is Back for the Summer! Join for Motivation and Accountability Does the summer heat have you in a writing slump? We’ve got you covered! Weekly Writes is a ten-week program designed to help you create your own place-based writing, beginning July 13. Weekly…

"I sound the alarm with my gun / shoot sharp and dig latrines"

Denver David Robinson's new translation of Elias Sadaq's poem, "Feltspade," juxtaposes images of queerness and masculinity in a military context. Check it out using the link below!

Feltspade ELIAS SADAQ "I serve out my conscription / sleep in a bunk bed / for four cold months / in the engineer regiment at Skive Garrison / in a room with three other men"

"After a couple more glasses of wine, Mia looks at me and says with a soft, tipsy smile, 'I keep thinking, how lucky it is that your mom gets to meet Mandela in heaven.'”

Zinzi Clemmons parallels South Africa's nuanced history with her personal life in "Freedom." Read it below!

Freedom ZINZI CLEMMONS "I arrive in Johannesburg, South Africa, on December 2, 2013. My father will join me in two weeks, with my brother to follow a week later. In one month, we will unveil my mother’s…

In our latest interview, Preeti Vangani and Jenny Qi speak about process, humor, and Vangani's newest poetry collection, Fifty Mothers.

Mother is a Kind of Holding: Jenny Qi interviews Preeti Vangani PREETI VANGANI With vignettes, I could plumb its narrative arc to become a force propelling the book forward. It also felt haunting yet warm that the mothers kept reappearing throughout the life of this grief. That repetition created a chorus of voices that angers and despairs, yet cradles the....

"My father calls to tell me the news / The lemon tree is dead"

Examining the relationship between growth, rooting, and travel, Ru Freeman's "Ponder Heart" is a must-read poem in Issue 31. Check it out below and be sure to pick up a copy of our latest issue!

Ponder Heart RU FREEMAN My father calls to tell me the news / The lemon tree is dead She was not / meant to live in his tropical island / She’d left her home there in Amalfi / where her pungent…

"I’m going to stay where I am this time, she almost says. I’m learning to work with difficult things. But Arda gets up and starts pulling on his clothes."

Liz DeWolf astonishes our Issue 31's pages with a heartfelt story about a woman grieving a relationship in an unfamiliar environment. Read more on our website!

Ex Situ LIZ DEWOLF From his bag he pulls out one of her sketchbooks and flips it open to a portrait she drew of him in graphite, half his face in shadow. She used to love drawing him, the bold curve…

“To win you back, I wrote in vain / Of a place only the two of us know.”

Dylan Carpenter's “Fantasia” is a featured poem in Issue 31 of The Common. Read it online now!

Fantasia DYLAN CARPENTER To win you back, I wrote in vain / Of a place only the two of us know. // Where snow when it snowed wasn’t snow. / Where rain when it rained wasn’t rain.

"She turned, once more, to that nose story, because what was the Russian literary tradition if not a way within which we understand the world?"

Ever wonder how Gogol applies to back injuries? Read Emily Nemens' fantastic short essay in our brand-new Issue 31, at the link below:

The Back Meets the Nose EMILY NEMENS Unable to run, she walked across reclaimed meadows in her new town, watching hawks dive from the sky. She finished writing a book while sprawled on her belly. She had lost something…

"I only wanted what was familiar, / the shapes that were always / beneath my fingers. / I wanted to learn the contours of my own / voice in our closed compartment."

Read Olena Jenning's beautiful poem "Leaving Lviv" and more from Issue 31 below!

Leaving Lviv OLENA JENNINGS I look out at the morning. / The morning isn’t working. / Light in the station / replaces the sun. / We walk along the platform. / Inside the car, we look at / my reflection / in…