translated

in the margin note

as throat or gullet, soul—

place in

the windpipe where

breathing grows visible

and the mouth

gulps air,

hatchling

with an open beak,

a swift in mid-flight,

hunger that alights

with no

warning in the grass,

in the psalmist’s

O my soul.

In addition to writing poetry, Barber edits the literary magazine Salamander. She started the bi-annual publication in 1992 as a way of keeping in touch with the work of her contemporaries, and with the desire to give talented, little known writers a forum. It has featured such leading American poets as Jean Valentine and Linda Pastan, and the outstanding short story writer and novelist, Pulitzer Prize winning Jhumpa Lahiri. Its circulation of around 1,000 copies per issue is modest, but Salamander serves as one of the vital unnoticed cells in the American cultural body that keeps literature alive.

Books: The Jewish minimalist

Poet Jennifer Barber presses so much music into so few words.

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