Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

Monday Night

my friend texted me a poem by Rilke,
asked me what I thought about it.
Quintessential Rilke—quintessential

meaning the fifth essence, most pure,
latent in all things, what the heavenly
bodies are made of. I loved the last

few lines: in you, who were
a child once—in you and sent back
two translations of another poem. One

by Snow, one by Bly. I like Bly’s
better though I can’t speak for its fidelity.
I dropped German as soon as I could, only

studied it to be different in a school
where everybody took French or
Italian. Fascists once, or knee-

benders to fascists. I, too, still kneel
and pray—me, un-godded long ago.
I can still say the mass just as I know

the days of the week in German. Heute
ist Montag. Today is Monday, moon day.
I remember how to conjugate the verb

to be: ich bin; du bist; er/sie/es ist.
I am; you are; he/she/it is. I sent
my friend links to Bly and Snow

that same Monday, with my smartphone.
Both translations end with a man
who wrestles an angel again and again

until the sinews and muscles tear,
until finally he/she/it stands down
exhausted, breathing cool air.

Jennifer Martelli (1962-2025) authored four chapbooks and four full-length poetry collections including Psychic Party Under the Bottle Tree (2025, Lily Poetry Review Books) which was longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award and The Queen of Queens (Bordighera Press) which won the Italian American Studies Association Book Award and was shortlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her work has been published in The Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day, Poetry, Best of the Net Anthology, Braving the Body Anthology, Verse Daily, Plume, The Tahoma Literary Review, and elsewhere. She received fellowships from The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Monson Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She served as the poetry co-editor of MER.

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx