Poets from across the world come together in New York to read poems on capital cities

Poets Alfred Corn from the United States, Ladan Osman from Somalia, Jonathan Cohen and Indran Amrithanayagam from the United States, ko ko Thett from Myanmar, Lola Koundakjian from Armenia, Denize Lauture from Haiti and Abhay K. from India came together at the prestigious Poets House in New York to read from a blazing new international poetry anthology on the capitals cities of the world edited by poet-diplomat Abhay K. titled CAPITALS on the evening of 5th January.

Poets read their poems on capital cities from the anthology. Alfred Corn read his poem 'Photographs of Old New York' beginning with the line 'They stare into an increate future.

He also read poems of Mimi Khalvati on Tehran, George Szirtes on Budapest and Vijay Seshadri on Paris. Ladan Osman read her poem on Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia and a poem by Kwame Dawes from the anthology. Jonathan Cohen read a poem by Ernesto Cardinal on Managua, capital of Nicaragua, translated by him from Spanish into English and a poem on Lima by the Peruvian poet Veronica Zondek.

Poet ko ko thett read his poem on Naypiwdaw, the newly constructed capital of Myanmar. Armenian poet Lola Koundakjian read her poem titled Yerevan Nights on the capital city of Armenia and a poem on Nicosia by Nora Nadjarian. Haitian poet Denize Lauture read his poem on Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti.

Abhay K. the Indian poet and the editor of the anthology had a conversation with the American poet Burt Kimmelman on the selection, editing process and the making of such an unique and ambitious anthology and read his poems on Delhi, Luanda and Dili from the anthology. He also remembered poets Mark Strand and Inara Cedrins who passed away during the making of the anthology by reading their poems from CAPITALS.

CAPITALS is a lyrical extravaganza with poems on 185 capital cities on the globe spread across all the continents. Poems have been contributed to the anthology by 173 major poets of the world including Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, Pulitzer Prize winner Vijay Seshadri, T.S. Eliot Prize winner George Szirtes among others.

CAPITALS will be formally launched at the Jaipur Literature Festival in India by noted British poet Ruth Padel on 21st January.

The editor of the anthology Abhay K. is an award-winning poet-diplomat and the author of six collections of poetry.