Greg Bem
Greg Bem lived in Seattle for 13 years before moving to Spokane, where he has resided since 2023. He is a community college librarian and union organizer, small press publisher, poet and performer, and book reviewer, among other things. His reviews are linked on his website, and can be found published here in International Examiner as well as in Rain Taxi, North of Oxford, Exacting Clam, and Another Chicago Magazine.
Bilingual poetry collection offers hope within the howl of the machine
As I stare, I can see
a big wheel rolling on the water
(from “Water Lily,” page 4)
A counterpoint to the madness of the contemporary cityscape, Flatfish by...
Xiaoqiong Zheng’s poetry finds beauty amid the phantasmagoria of industrial southern China
That hungry machine, every day eating iron, blueprints
stars, dew, salty sweat, it picks its teeth
and spits out profit, bank notes, nightclubs . . ....
‘Phantom Limbs,’ the first book of poetry by Korean writer Lee Min-ha, explores the...
Phantom Limbs, the first book of poetry by Korean writer Lee Min-ha, explores the hauntings within us all
Your body’s wetland is revealed to be...
Kim Haengsook’s enigmatic lines of poetry resound through repetition of words
Well, that’s that. In the middle of singing an endless song
in the middle of taking an endless nap
there were moments I opened my eyes.
(from...
The poetry in ‘Washing a Myna’ offers a practical surrealism of South Korea
White, round stones were rolling along the waves. I could see far away. There was no sound. Salty water kept coming into my mouth.
—“The...
In ‘Just Like,’ a Korean poet breaks open language
with uncertainty becomes one side
in protest against a thing totally unknowable and
raise arm
suddenly leaf, like tree striving to possess leaves
—“Raise Arm,” Page 44
In Lee...
Mai Der Vang’s latest collection continues the practice of documentary poets
We’ve never met in this existence,
never scuffed our skin to the same
sheet of velvet. A mirror reflects
every unopened door, invitation
to fall...
’36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem’ offers a poetry of transience and transformation...
The moon-made lake.
The memory-made mood
That makes whatever it takes
To make a moon and lake and man who remembers
To compose a unity of self
From a...
In ‘Mirror Nation,’ poet Don Mee Choi pieces together Korea’s violent history
Because of this beauty, this exquisite beauty of our sphere, our halo world.
From “Berlin 30.11.2019,” pg. 78
Don Mee Choi’s latest release is...
‘Phantom Pain Wings’ by experimental feminist poet Kim Hyesoon is thrilling
I fly then stop
I fly then chirp
Inside my made-up world, I can go very far
Not a song
not an echo
but a faraway place where there’s...
