Read A Little Poetry

“and what on earth / and where on earth / and this was happiness / this little ball / of interest beating / inside his chest”  — Paul Hostovsky . . . This poem appeared in Bending the Notes by Paul Hostovsky, published by Main Street Rag, 2008. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I am the rain // and the others all / around you, and the loneliness you love, / and the universe that loves you specifically, maybe”  — Franz Wright . . . This poem appeared in Ill Lit: Selected and New Poems by Franz Wright, published by Oberlin College Press, 1998.

“What kind of world / would let loose / a low orange moon / that shocks you / into being”   — Maggie Nelson . . . This poem appeared in Boston Review, 2015. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I know that / hope is the hardest / love we carry.”  — Jane Hirshfield . . . This poem appeared in The Lives of the Heart by Jane Hirshfield, published by Harper Perennial, 1997. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“You will need to state the reason for your visit. / Don’t say because my parents’ house / still sits empty on a bluff overlooking the sea”  — Lena Khalaf Tuffaha   . . . This poem appeared in Water & Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, published by Red Hen Press, 2017.

“Poetry (here I hear myself loudest) / is the human voice, / and are we not of interest to each other?”  — Elizabeth Alexander . . . This poem appeared in American Sublime by Elizabeth Alexander, published by Graywolf Press, 2005. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I think we all have the power / to do what we must to survive. / One day, I hope to set a table, invite you / to draw up a chair.”  — Tamiko Beyer  . . . This poem appeared in Last Days by Tamiko Beyer, published by Alice James Books, 2021. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I've been waiting / to be in / this hell here / with you;”  — Alice Notley

“is it ever too late? And he thought, mybabymybabymybabymybaby. I thought, please don’t die, look after yourself, let us heal ourselves, let me have some time now,”   — Noorulain Noor  . . . This poem appeared in Muzzle Magazine, 2015. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Every child’s dream, a parent / in each hand, though this child is fifty.”  — Rebecca McClanahan . . . This poem appeared in Deep Light: New and Selected Poems by Rebecca McClanahan, published by Iris Press, 2007. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I know / we’ve had a monsoon // of grieving to do / which is why // I promise to lie / beside you // for as long as you like / or need”  — Patrick Rosal  . . . This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“We sail / a small boat within her heart / and discover another heart,”  — Noah Falck . . . This poem appeared in Exclusions by Noah Falck, published by Tupelo Press, 2020. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Years later, I spend a summer / patrolling a different pool’s edge. I lose / count of how many sons are held / by their fathers;”   — Tariq Luthun . . . This poem appeared in How the Water Holds Me by Tariq Luthun, published by Bull City Press, 2020.

“All the things I had loved up to then / fell away in the long struggle between winter and spring.”  — Sandra Lim . . . This poem appeared in The New Republic, 2020. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Our Black friends, celebrating / with hors d’oeuvres. Our Black children / growing older.”  — Rio Cortez . . . This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, 2022. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Never mind / that the bruise from such a severance / might not heal.”   — Luisa A. Igloria . . . This poem appeared in Missouri Review, 2022. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I wish for the water to melt me. / Maybe then I’ll glisten. The folds in my belly / rivers of gold instead.”  — Saba Keramati  . . . This poem appeared in Self-Mythology by Saba Keramati, published by University of Arkansas Press, 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“The seafloor crawls with evolution, / and I always want the next thing— / that monster in the black-deep.”  — Emily Stoddard  . . . This poem appeared in Menacing Hedge, Summer 2015. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“You do not linger out loud. / You are not in my mouth.”  — Farnaz Fatemi . . . This poem appeared in Sister Tongue by Farnaz Fatemi, published by The Kent State University Press, 2022. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“It's all very necessary, but it's still a lot— / to say I've been good as a mannerism, / to say I haven't as a fact.” — Jon Sands . . . This poem appeared in We Were Not Alone: A Community Building Art Works Anthology, published by Community Building Art Works, 2021.