I dream en route from St. Petersburg, Mississippi to St. Louis, Florida. My vampire lovers are precariously situated in a novel by James Hannaham. More numbers of us are vampires than originally thought. All of us. You can tell by the loose and missing skin of our teeth. Our outfits were cut out skimpily in Vs so skimpy the queen who could fly flew away. From all of it. Maybe I am she. They say I am. I want to say I told you so to one of you, in particular. What good does foresight do and who needs it when you are like me, queen vampire who can but doesn't always fly away. Yeah, sometimes I stay, I earn a mouthful and keep it to myself. As I am. As they say I am.
By Rachel Levitsky
From Against Travel/Anti-Voyage
by Rachel Levitsky
translated into French by Pascal Poyet
Published by Pamenar Press (2020)
Rachel Levitsky is the author Under the Sun (Futurepoem, 2003), NEIGHBOR (UDP, 2009) the poetic novella, The Story of My Accident is Ours (Futurepoem, 2013) and numerous chapbooks, recently, Hopefully, The Island, part of an ongoing collaboration with the artist Susan Bee. Levitsky builds and participates in a variety of publishing, collaboration and pedagogical/performative activities, such “Geometries of Recognition” a movement poetry workshop turned super8 film by the poet/filmmaker Stephanie Gray. In 1999 she founded Belladonna* which is now Belladonna* Collaborative. In 2017, she was a resident of LMCC’s Process Space on Governor’s Island where she worked on a project called “Mother of Separation”, a study of language usage and migrant experience in NYC. She is Professor of Writing at Pratt Institute, Naropa University’s Summer Writing Program, and occasionally at lay poetry institutions like Poets House and The Poetry Project in NYC. Her most recent book is the bi-lingual Against Travel/Anti-Voyage with Pascal Poyet, published by Pamenar Press, 2020.
Photo by Lisa Kalloo
Check out the Poetry Travels book list on bookshop.org.
Read previous poems from Poetry Travels:
LIGHT by Vasyl Makhno, translated by Olena Jennings
A MESSAGE FROM THE ISLE OF WIGHT by Wioletta Greg, translated by Maria Jastrzębska and Anna Blasiak
HOME by Nataša Sardžoska, translated by the Author
ONLY THE BEGINNING COUNTS (4) by Jan Baeke, translated by Antoinette Fawcett
*** (RABID WINDS) by Gerður Kristný, translated by Rory McTurk
ANSWER TO THE PRAYERS by Vainius Bakas, translated by Kerry Shawn Keys
AGGRESSOR’S MONOLOGUE by Artūras Valionis, translated by Jura Avizienis
THAT’S ALL by Jurgita Jasponytė, translated by Jura Avizienis
UNTITLED by Linas Umbrasas, translated by Audra Skukauskaitė
FIRST SPRING OF THE WAR by Vytautas Kaziela, translated by Jura Avizienis
A LETTER TO A CHILD by Lina Buidavičiutė, translated by Ada Valaitis
UNTITLED by Aneta Kamińska, translated by Anna Blasiak
TWO LYRICS OF LOVE AND MEMORY by Lina Kostenko, translated by Stephen Komarnyckyj
CROW STUDY by Yuri Andrukhovych, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin
UNTITLED POEM by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin
UNTITLED POEM by Ludmila Khersonsky, translated by Maya Chhabra
UNTITLED POEM by Iryna Vikyrchak
From THE ANDROMEDA NEBULA by Anna Gréki, translated by Souheila Haïmiche and Cristina Viti
TEAPOT by Nurduran Duman, translated by Andrew Wessels
IT’S COMING AGAIN by Michael Strunge, translated by Paul Russell Garrett
REPORT FROM ANOTHER CITY by Marcin Niewirowicz, translated by the Author
INTERIOR by Ana Blandiana, translated by Paul Scott Derrick and Viorica Patea
THIS IS LOVE by Joanna Fligiel, translated by Anna Blasiak
REVELATION IN H&M by Menno Wigman, translated by David Colmer
*** (I WANT TO FOLD THIS DAY) by Inga Pizāne, translated by Jayde Will
THE SIEGE by Marcin Świetlicki, translated by Elżbieta Wójcik-Leese
FISH by Jana Putrle Srdić, translated by Barbara Jurša
THE WELL by Maarja Pärtna, translated by Jayde Will
THE SHADOW by Pentti Saarikoski, translated by Emily Jeremiah and Fleur Jeremiah
A FAREWELL TO MY DEAD CLASS by Irit Amiel, translated by Anna Blasiak and Marta Dziurosz
THE GIRLS IN BERGEN-BELSEN by Nora Gomringer, translated by Annie Rutherford
DECEMBER, by Jaume Subirana, translated by Christopher Whyte
ROSE RED, by Ulrike Almut Sandig, translated by Karen Leeder
*** (I D[R]IPPED MY PEN…) by Mario Martín Gijón, translated by Terence Dooley
WHAT COMES by Magda Cârneci, translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Mădălina Bănucu
TRANSLATION by Justyna Bargielska, translated by Maria Jastrzębska
*** (MY EYES, DENSE NIGHT…) by Gëzim Hajdari, translated by Ian Seed