Introduction to Mantis 20
Special Retrospective
“And build the new world in your eyes”
— Two Decades of Mantis
This special section of Mantis features the voice of our former editors, who have shared their reflections on what working on Mantis meant to them, along with selections of poems from the issues they edited. As we welcome a new decade for Mantis poetry, we hope you will enjoy this look back at these rediscovered treasures from our past.
Founding Editor
Editor-in-Chief, Mantis 1 – 2
Alive is Everything
Alexis Romay
translated by Zoë Anglesey
Exile Time
A Far Stretch Well Worth the Effort
Poetry Editor, Mantis 1 – 4
Willie’s Clatter
Editor-in-Chief, Mantis 3 – 5
Poetry Editor, Mantis 1 – 2
Shamshad Abdullaev
translated by Vitaly Chernetsky
Summer Heaviness
Editor-in-Chief, Mantis 6 – 7
The Sweet City
Editor-in-Chief, Mantis 8 – 10
Internal Horses
Editor-in-Chief, Mantis 11 – 13
Tawada Yoko
translated by Jeffrey Angles
People Born of Lines
Can Poetry Save the Earth?
Poetry Editor, Mantis 11 – 14
Hello
Luis Rodríguez Rincón
Editor-in-Chief, Mantis 14 – 17
Translation Editor, Mantis 13
Eduardo Chirinos
translated by G.J. Racz
Reloj de Sol and The Lover and Death
Shoshana Olidort
Editor-in-Chief, Mantis 18
Poetry Editor, Mantis 15 – 17
Translation Editor, Mantis 14
Eli Eliahu
translated by Vivian Eden
Even for just one night
The Issue
New Poetry
Untitled
Gretel, Looking Back
Mother, in the Earth
Where Water Channels or Holds
four immersions in two continents
Ford
SMALLER THAN BEFORE
The cold stars are watching
At Gaston Park
Waiting
Self-Portrait as Memory
fɪlɪˌpiːnz
Our Names
Jumpsuit
Specimen Days & Collect
The Corner
Postmodern Poetry
Becoming
Psychorses
Chukwu Zi Anyi Uzo Gi (God Show Us Your Way)
from Tithing, for Colored Girls
Translations
Véronique Tadjo
translated by Alani Hicks-Bartlett
from The First Path
from The Second Path
Alejandra Pizarnik
translated by Lillian Jenner
from Diana’s Tree
Tove Ditlevsen
translated by Michael Favala Goldman and Cynthia Graae
Self-Portrait 2
Yan An
translated by Chen Du and Xisheng Chen
Confucius Must Have Seen the Ocean
Haughty Man
Uchimura Kaho
translated by Jason Beckman and Uchimura Kaho
Nyorai - Amida Buddha
Pedro Calderon de la Barca
translated by Julio Toro San Martin
Two Soliloquies from Life is a Dream
Chiew Ruoh Peng
translated by Yee Heng Yeh
Death is the Tortoise
No Poetry
Ernesto Livorni
translated by Carmine Di Biase
Coffee with Snow
Three Poems
Marina Tsvetaeva
translated by Josie Brody
I like that I’m not sick with love for you
Adela Zamudio
translated by Lynette Yetter
Poet
Balakumaran
translated by Shriram Sivaramakrishnan
from Iron Horses