Issue 5.2
Spring 2026
David Hadbawnik
Reflection
We have lost the mode of poetry written for the moment, with the immediacy and intimacy of something composed on the spot, as urgent and ephemeral as a conversation between two people who may never see each other again. In this ongoing project, my process was inspired by that of my friend the Poetry Fox, who types poems on demand for people at markets and events, sometimes writing hundreds of short poems without stopping. I begin by using a typewriter to put down initial, impressionistic ideas on a folded half-sheet, then copy those down into a notebook, shaping the text into a sonnet-like form, but still moving fast, without pausing to steer or control them as I go.
Everyone arrives just when they’re supposed to
but there’s no one there at least not who they
were expecting the man who greets them has
nothing behind his eyes they mill around
in the dim corridor of his smile
it may happen there’s an interruption
it will be necessary to poke holes
in the action go running outside to
rummage around in the names scattered there
my hand is enormous she says so huge
I can’t lift it I’m walking a tightrope
that wasn’t here a moment ago but
if I act cool it will seem I’ve lived here
a long time in this room that’s all ablaze
David Hadbawnik is a poet, translator, and medieval scholar. Recent books include a translation of the Aeneid (Shearsman, 2023); an edited volume, Postmodern Poetry and Queer Medievalisms (Medieval Institute Publications, 2022); and a book of poetry, Holy Sonnets to Orpheus and Other Poems (Delete Press, 2018). He currently lives in the Minneapolis area with his wife and family.
David's Book Recommendations
Lew Welch, Ring of Bone
Caroline Bergvall, Meddle English
Diane di Prima, The Poetry Deal
Patience Agbabi, Telling Tales
Antonin Artaud, The New Revelations of Being and
Other Mystical Writings, trans. Peter Valente