Poetry leaves a trail. Poems in a Bottle is an ongoing international correspondence between poets triggered by their readings of each other. On this issue: Virna Teixeira and Tracy E. Grinnell.

Edited by Flávia Rocha

Poems in a Bottle photo by Mattox

Poetry leaves a trail. Poems in a Bottle is an ongoing international correspondence between poets triggered by their readings of each other. I quote Edward Hirsch quoting Paul Celan: “A Poem, as a manifestation of language and thus essentially dialogue, can be a message in a bottle, sent out in the—not always greatly hopeful—belief that somewhere and sometime it could wash up on land, on heartland perhaps. Poems in this sense, too, are under way: they are making toward something.”

This is how the messages are sent out to heartland, to find you:

1. Poet A asks Poet B who lives in a different part of the planet to send him or her a poem.
2. Poet A chooses a poem of his or her own to match Poet B’s, and explains the choice.
3. Poems and translations of both poets are published here side by side.
4. The trail continues into the next post with Poet B asking Poet C for a poem.

Poems in a bottle

Virna Teixeira and E. Tracy Grinnell