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Category: Poetry
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“The Republic of Poetry,” by Martín Espada, begins, In the republic of poetry,a train full of poetsrolls south in the rainas plum trees rockand horses kick the air,To read the rest, go to poets.orgDon’t you wish we lived in such a republic? Gosh, I love this poem. I came across it while reading around in…
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I’m about two-thirds of the way through the excellent anthology The Best American Poetry 2025 (Terence Winch, editor), and so far Jill McDonough’s “What We Are For” is my favorite poem, winning my heart with its mentions of “Stop & Shop” (a grocery store chain here in the northeast), “turquoise sparkle nails,” “fuzzy baby bee,”…
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Paige Lewis’s poem “I’m Not Faking My Astonishment, Honest,” begins, “Looking out over the cliff, we’re overwhelmed/by a sky that seems to heap danger upon us,” and you can read the rest of it at poets.org. I listened to the accompanying Poem-a-Day audio and laughed at her explanation. The poem does feature an overheard line,…
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Watch the GapA New York found-language poemThe next station is—Nathan, sit down,Jingle bells jingle bells,Jingle all the way,Mommy, that’s my school!This is perfect sweater weather,Shop and save, shop and save, Fifteen dollars for an omelette?I’m sitting on a huge pile of equity,Will you stop? I’m eating,You get to go to this beautiful place,It’s not my…
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Today’s poem is by Adrienne Su, whose book Peach State I read and loved several years ago. “Peaches” begins, A crate of peaches straight from the farmhas to be maintained, or eaten in days.Obvious, but in my family, they went so fast,I never saw the mess that punishes delay. Read the rest online at the…
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CalculationsThe algorithm slips hervideos of smiling monkeys,confused cats, dancing frogs, and dogs speaking of bacon.She glimpses reels bythe Metropolitan Opera,the Freelancers Union, andEncyclopaedia Britannica,but skips ahead toHeart some snakes in wigs,erratic emus, a pig named Bikini,cockatoos flapping to Queen, her pocket-sized theater of the absurd.Deadline unmet, errand not run, andthe room echoes with her laughter.Susan…
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The last poetry project I started was to create poems from newspaper headlines, and after a couple of months, I just couldn’t stand it any more. What’s the Kenny Rogers line? Know when to fold ’em…know when to run? I ran. Poetry and I did not keep steady company over the spring and summer, for…
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Mural by Sara Erenthal, Allen Street, New York, New York. Photo by Susan Thomsen, 2020. Today's bit of poetry goodness is the February 26th, 2025, edition of the New Yorker's Poetry Podcast in which Jericho Brown reads a work by Elizabeth Alexander ("When") and one of his own ("Colosseum.") He tells poetry editor Kevin Young,…
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Definitions Break is a wordThat kicks at the end,With legs of a KSevering ties,Though it beginsWith a buxom, promising B. Break can be rest,Pause measured by coffee,Perhaps in class,Perhaps at the office,A siesta of sortsAs darkness drops in. Break is a verbEmployed against horses,Stomping spirits,Rupturing traditions,Punting friends,Into dangerous orbits. Mend is a wordThat fixes the…
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