Many are from the Maldives,
southwest of India, and must begin
collecting shells almost immediately.
The larger one may prefer coconuts.
Survivors move from island to island
hopping over one another and never
looking back. After the typhoons
have had their pick, and the birds of prey
have finished with theirs, the remaining few
must build boats, and in this, of course,
they can have no experience, they build
their boat of palm leaves and vines.
Once the work is completed, they lie down,
thoroughly exhausted and confused,
and a huge wave washes them out to sea.
And that is the last they see of one another.
In their dreams Mama and Papa
are standing on the shore
for what seems like an eternity,
and it is almost always the wrong shore.
from the book HELL, I LOVE EVERYBODY / Ecco Press
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As innocent as a new born, "Where Babies Come From" is a title to instantly put us on alert that something unusual is probably going to happen. And it does, but not until after the usual happens—the babies collect shells, they island hop, they succumb to typhoons and birds of prey, they build boats—it's never easy being a baby—and then we meet their mothers and fathers. Happy Halloween.

Dara Barrois/ Dixon on "Where Babies Come From"
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"Ananda Devi Wins the 2024 Neustadt Prize"

"Robert Con Davis-Undiano, World Literature Today’s executive director, notes that 'it is long overdue for Ananda Devi to receive an international honor of this magnitude. She is deserving, and I hope that this honor will be a springboard to more recognition for her amazing work.'"

via THE NEUSTADT PRIZES
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What Sparks Poetry:
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"'I Have a Vision for My Poems' belongs to a series of Sylvia Plath found poems Nazifa Islam is writing 'to dissect, examine, and explore the bipolar experience.' The poem exemplifies how Islam is using this series to openly connect with a disabled ancestor, which is important because, while various cognitive disabilities have probably existed as long as humans have, the language to frame and see them as distinct embodiments and identities has not."
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