Poetry From Two Lines to Print

Since its print launch in 1993— and now in its current iteration as an online journal— Two Lines has served as a vital forum for the work of emergent literary translators and international writers. It provides a space for previously untranslated poems and short works of fiction, often introducing them to English-language readers before they grow into larger projects and take on lives of their own as books.

Here are three poetry pieces from recent online seasons of Two Lines that have now been published in books by other independent presses. Enjoy the trip down memory lane, and stay tuned for more new work soon— the Spring 2023 season of the journal is less than a month away!

Out in the rain

pulling at one another like a taut washing line, hung like an evening glow.

Gradually emptying a glass of youth

the wind’s

tale. 

I want to make in the sky an opening.

I want to make a sky-sized opening.

I’m so ridiculous.

In the end,

I only made a hole in the ground

That’s the size of myself.

In the deadest of all dead places at the heart

Of the earth, in an empty sleeve, in the untouched dust

Of endless cenacles, each colder than the last

Brought to life by the cooing of doves.