Saffron City Press

A lonely bird knocks to say hello
Open the window

Is there still a world? Deserted school
parking lot, buttercup lip gloss, unopened,

cold french fries, uncertain future
Hope like rotten lemon juice

An ambulance siren sings
Red and white glitter against

sidewalks Tonight someone dies
alone. A patch of lotus

flowers exude fragrance
Sunrise yellow, tea green, salmon pink

Though some think it dead, the seeds
can germinate for thousands of years

Later the lotus blooms
magnificent in the deepest mud

I pray this poem finds in your darkness,
hands reaching through ghost light

In the remaining space of this postcard
Can we linger to write it as love

(Inspired by the students of my Fairfax High Poetry Workshop)

طائر وحيد يدق ليقول اهلا 
افتح الباب

هل لازال هناك عالم؟
مدرسة مهجورة
موقف سيارات، انبوب زبدة ملمعة الشفاه
غير مفتوح

مقليات فرنسية باردة
مستقبل غير مؤكد
امل مثل عصير الليمون اللتن

صفارة سيارة اسعاف تغني
بريق احمر وابيض
يضيء الارصفة 

هذه الليلة أحد ما توفي وحيدا
رقعة من زهور اللوتس تفوح عطرا

صفراء كبزوغ الشمس، 
خضراء كورق الشاي
وردية كسمك السلمون،

رغم اعتقاد البعض انه ميت،
 الا ان البذور قد تنبت خلال آلاف السنين

بعدها يزهر اللوتس
رائعا في عمق الوحل 

أدعو الله أن تجد هذه القصيدة في ظلامك 
ايادي تصل من خلال ضوء شبح

في المساحة المتبقية من هذه البطاقة
هل يمكننا المد في كتابتها على انها حب؟

مستوحاة من طلاب ورشة عمل فير فاكس للشعر العالي

Tanya (Hyonhye) Ko Hong (고현혜) is an internationally published poet, translator, and cultural-curator who champions bilingual poetry and poets. Weaving together two cultures, Tanya’s poetry gives voice to multiple generations of Korean and Korean-American women. She is the author of five books, including The War Still Within (KYSO Flash Press, 2019), a well-researched and vividly imagined sequence of poems based on the experiences of the Korean “comfort women” who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Her poetry appears in Rattle, Beloit Poetry Journal, WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly (The Feminist Press), the Choson Ilbo, and The Korea Times, among others. She holds an MFA degree from Antioch University, Los Angeles.

In 2024, Tanya was honored by the Saharawi Women’s Forum in Laayoune, Morocco. Tanya’s work has won the Medada Award per l’espressione poetica al Ditët e Naimit International Poetry Festival, Tetovo, the Dritëro Agolli award, at the International Korçare Poetry Festival, Yun Doon-ju Korean-American Literature Award, Ko Won’s 10th Literary Award was a finalist in Frontier’s Chapbook Contest, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poems have been translated into Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Japanese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. In 2015 and 2018, she became the first person to translate and publish Arthur Sze’s poems in Korean. In 2015, her segmented poem, “Comfort Woman,” received an honorable mention from the Women’s National Book Association.

Izza Fartmis is a poet, interpreter, translator and writer who is a native of Casablanca living in Safi. She studied English Literature at Mohammed V University in Rabat. Mrs. Fartmis is a retired English teacher and pedagogical trainer. Izza won the International School Award (ISA) from Hassan II Qualifying School in Safi in 2013. She was the initiator and contributor of a local anthology about Covid-19 including poets and painters of Safi, entitled: ريشة و قلم She is translator of English magazines for Laayoune’s first and second international meeting activities organized by the “forum of the Sahrawi Woman, Development and Democracy”. Izza Fartmis writes in Arabic, French and, mainly, English and has published several books including Fluttering Soul, an English poetry collection, and Together, a collection of essays and short stories on personal experiences for young readers, 2024.