Poetry

after Danez Smithon your doorstep, dolled up in new plaid pajamas (yes, the ones with the blue satin trim!) backpack in one hand, the other a fist unfurling with jelly cups or fruit candy.at the time, we only cared for the trappings of adulthood, so in between reruns of Inuyasha & monolid makeup tutorials on …

I want you to remember this where I live program the coordinates into your internal compassembed the the earth’s magnetic field onto your temporal lobe where time and space dwell as electricity shed your armor spell-cast bulletproofmarked with attempts on your lifeand tattoo a map onto your integumentof how to find melearn to navigate the …

Because the road will press a body into the pavement until it is washedin summer storms, I dragged the woodchuck’s rigid body to the shoulder with mullein leaves.We called them lamb’s-ear when we were young. Mammals,milk bred, the blackest soilmeans growth. These were dry and yellowed in the gravel ditch; not the scoop of remnantvalley …

is what you hear the ranger say.Your sneakers trace the snapped-grasshalos of his, a single braid laid like wet bread in the soft dough of his shoulders: They are actually one large system beneath the soil. Hidden but not. What a beautiful way of saying he knows. Or alsoIs. Bundled in the soft safety of …

how often will the same poets write about the leaves change? how many times will we turn on the news to hear of a groundhogs head turning in february?it is groundhog day after allhow often will we hear of cherry blossoms birthing in spring? how many times will we hear of the first snowfall in …

We Contain Landscapes by Patrycja Humienik (Tin House, 2025) To ask questions not to receive answers, but simply for the pleasure and perversity of asking them—this is the endearing stubbornness of We Contain Landscapes, Patrycja Humienik’s debut collection of poems. This book is propelled by an endless curiosity, shimmering throughout its pages like clear springwater …

Marginal Verse by Jamie Silvonek (Game Over Books, 2025) Marginal Verse is Jamie Silvonek’s debut poetry collection, which I had the honor of reading as a galley. I was stunned by Silvonek’s poems — which are vulnerable, evocative, viscerally felt, and demanding. I could feel each image pulsate, each line break shatter. Marginal Verse is …

The naked snow slouched serenely through the crystal-cold canvas of my well-weathered window. The Artist’s sky today was painted battleship gray though brightly lit without shadowing. Frozen in temperature. Frozen in time Frozen in place Handprints on the glass forensic evidence of years spent viewing the outside from within trying to revisit my old world …

The heart is the soul and power – Motivation each artery is connected to nouns – Life each vein is a goal or task – Purpose Every book read evolves new streaks – Darwin  every friend made strength is grown – Strife every love skips a beat – Diagnose Time stops for no one – …

The length of the sojourn is unknown  The link to the world is only a phone My eyes of the world are not my own They are brother, sister, mother I have grown in knowledge, others in earth tones Memories like webs hold like ketones Life is wasted away like a melting snow cone  sweet …