Poetry Foundation & POETRY magazine

#ICYMI The 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry...

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 15:36:02 -0600

#ICYMI The 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellows have a special folio in the December 2018 issue of Poetry! Exciting new work from Safia Elhillo, Hieu Minh Nguyen, sam sax, Natalie Scenters-Zapico, and Paul Tran is available in the print and digital issues, as well as on our website.

[image: A brightly-colored illustration of the five 2018 Fellos around a table, all looking at the viewer or out of the frame. They appear to be very high up, as blue skies and clouds can be seen through large windows behind them. There are several flowers and green plants in the scene, as well as books, bottles, and a candelabra. They appear to be in a modern apartment.]

ICYMI, our new partnership with Manual Cinema in honor of 100...

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 10:40:35 -0600

ICYMI, our new partnership with Manual Cinema in honor of 100 years since the end of World War I is here! Three World War I Poems brings a selection of poems to life with innovative paper puppetry and animation work, each vignette sharing a different experience of “the war to end all wars” from a soldier’s point of view.

[video: Three interwoven vignettes of interpretations of “The Owl” by Edward Thomas, “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, and “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae.]

Go down a rabbit hole with Franny Choi, Danez Smith, and guest...

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 10:00:20 -0500

Go down a rabbit hole with Franny Choi, Danez Smith, and guest Kimiko Hahn on the new episode of VS!

[image: Red background with white text reading, “There are all sorts of ways of exploding things open —Kimiko Hahn, Season 2, Episdoe 12. Bottom right has the VS logo.]

Excerpt from “LISP” by sam sax, one of the 2018 Ruth Lilly and...

Thu, 06 Sep 2018 15:53:23 -0500

Excerpt from “LISP” by sam sax, one of the 2018 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship recipients. Read the complete poem in the September 2018 issue of Poetry magazine.

[image: Text of the poem “LISP”. Features text in a near perfect block, with forward slashes interrupting the text, as if to indicate a line break or motion. Full poem behind link.]

Carol Jago discusses how to make poetry engaging and alive for...

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 10:00:36 -0500

Carol Jago discusses how to make poetry engaging and alive for students on the latest Poetry Off the Shelf podcast. (The Poetry Foundation)

The schedule of this year’s Chicago Poetry Block Party is now...

Mon, 23 Jul 2018 11:38:08 -0500

The schedule of this year’s Chicago Poetry Block Party is now live! If you’re in Chicago, join us for this free celebration of poetry, music, art, and community at Austin Town Hall on Saturday, July 28.

From “To Float in the Space Between” by Terrance Hayes in the...

Fri, 13 Jul 2018 11:09:36 -0500

From “To Float in the Space Between” by Terrance Hayes in the July/August issue of Poetry.

[image: Ink drawings on white lined paper (as if from a notebook) in the segmented style of comic panels, with text from the Etheridge Knight poem “For Langston Hughes.” First image has a series of figures walking in a line across a landscape of varied shapes and textures with the title of the poem handwritten in the sky above them, followed by the line, “Another weaver of black dreams has gone.” Second image is a close portrait of a man or two men across several panels in a background of silhouettes and shapes with some continuing text from the poem, “we sat in June Bug’s pad with the shades drawn/ and the air thick with holy smoke.”]

I didn’t want one child. I wanted a thousand. Because though you...

Thu, 05 Jul 2018 11:00:23 -0500

I didn’t want one child. I wanted a thousand. Because though you may try, you can’t kill all of them. My body couldn’t birth a thousand, so I didn’t even bring one here. I let you have them. One by one, and

—from “Under the Knife” by Krista Franklin in the July/August 2018 issue of Poetry.

[image: An old film photograph, slightly askew and with an off-white border. The image is dark and a little blurry. A young Black girl is turned away from the camera in profile and the white of her shirt and barrettes are illuminated by a camera flash; she is turned away to kiss a Black baby doll in pink pajamas with white polka dots and frills, held out to the girl by somebody out of frame.]

From “Elemental Gratitude” by Eric Gansworth in the June 2018...

Thu, 21 Jun 2018 12:47:43 -0500

From “Elemental Gratitude” by Eric Gansworth in the June 2018 Native Poets issue of Poetry.

[image: First image is a drawing of a round plaque mounted on a stone wall with a fish or an eel curled in a circle and eating its own tail, encircling an image of a purple human figure with concentric red hearts. Below the plaque is a pool of water and a small fire; above it, a lightning storm can be seen through a hole in the wall. Second image is a drawing of two people in profile looking to the right. There are what appears to be atomic or celestial models in the top right and lower left corners. Above the people, a brain is split open down the middle like a geode and a string of steam or smoke connects the two halves. Top right above the brain is text that reads, “The Corpus Callosum allows for communication between the seat of reason and the land of DREAMS.”]

Photographs by Sherwin Bitsui from the June 2018 Native Poets...

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 16:24:15 -0500

Photographs by Sherwin Bitsui from the June 2018 Native Poets issue of Poetry.

[image: Three black-and-white images. First image is a hand with bracelets and cuffs on the wrist holding what appears to be a curved piece of wood above the horizon at the edge of a shore, making it look like a boar hovering above the water. Second image is a triangular object in shadow coming to a point at the sun breaking through clouds. Third image is a person wearing sunglasses sitting in front of a tipi in a chair with one leg crossed over the other.]

“Quilts” by Layli Long Soldier from the June 2018 Native Poets...

Fri, 08 Jun 2018 13:18:26 -0500

“Quilts” by Layli Long Soldier from the June 2018 Native Poets issue of Poetry.

[image: First image is a wide shot of two quilts hanging on a wall, both are in the shape of eight-pointed stars. One quilt’s bottom half is black and the top has one quadrant of white and one red with black and white markings all over and a smaller eight-pointed star in the center (top half yellow and bottom half white); the other quilt is all black and white. Second image is a close up of the color quilt’s center star, revealing that the markings are pressed insects. Third image is a close up of the black quilt, which has an all-black center star with buffalo and shapes around it. Fourth image show that the markings on the black quilt are words, perhaps forming a poem.]

Angel Nafis is paying attention. She talks with VS cohosts Danez...

Wed, 30 May 2018 14:38:52 -0500

Angel Nafis is paying attention. She talks with VS cohosts Danez Smith and Franny Choi about learning to rescale her sight, getting through grad school with some new skills in her pocket, activated charcoal, and her two Franks (Ocean and O’Hara). (The Poetry Foundation)

From “We Build a City” by Kinga Tóth, published in...

Wed, 23 May 2018 12:50:58 -0500

From “We Build a City” by Kinga Tóth, published in the May 2018 issue of Poetry.

[image: White back ground with black text, black line work of arrows, and other sharp shapes, and what appear to be ink spots and smears. First image’s text begins, “HOW THEY COMMUNICATE // HOW THEY PROGRAM,” and the language breaks down from there.]

“Series of Pictures” by Joel Lipman, published in the May 2018...

Wed, 16 May 2018 14:49:29 -0500

“Series of Pictures” by Joel Lipman, published in the May 2018 issue of Poetry.

[image: Yellowing pages of what appears to be a dictionary. The page includes the entries from “incubus” to “knee,” and some of the entries include illustrations. Stamped over the page in blue letters are the words, “SERIES OF PICTURES SHOWN IN QUICK SUCCESSION.” Some of the words have stamped red arrows pointing from them to other words, additional stamped images in other colors, or the illustrations on the page.]

A selection from Dora Malech’s “TEST” in the May 2018 issue of...

Wed, 09 May 2018 10:00:20 -0500

A selection from Dora Malech’s “TEST” in the May 2018 issue of Poetry.

[image: Black line work of varying details and textures on a white background. First segment features block text made of small geometric lines, “AS BABY/ TESTS/ AT BEST/ ABYSS.” Second segment is more spaced out, the text varying between stencil-like outlines and typewriter font. Some stencils letters are bunched together so as to make the words unclear. Clear text reads, “Had no fuel–/I’m/A/Sinner/written off/as a minor note.”]

A selection from Kristen Renee Miller’s “A Billion Things in...

Wed, 02 May 2018 09:48:38 -0500

A selection from Kristen Renee Miller’s “A Billion Things in One,” an erasure of the article “YesJulz, Snapchat Royalty” by Max Berlinger, which appeared in the New York Times on June 30, 2016. Read the full piece in the May 2018 issue of Poetry.

[image: Cream paper with white strips covering up large portions of text, the black font left untouched forming the poem. First segment: “God went/crowdsurfing at Kinfolk 94/clad in/Yeezy Boosts/God floated/overhead/This is for all my ladies/she said.”]

In this startling animation of Muriel Rukeyser’s “Poem (I lived...

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 16:09:49 -0500

In this startling animation of Muriel Rukeyser’s “Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars),” two lives unfold in split screen, one during the tumultuous world events of 1968, the other 50 years later against a new landscape of uncertainty and ever-present digital technology. Created in partnership with Manual Cinema.

[video: A split screen of two women in shadow going about their lives, mirroring each other’s actions. The left panel in yellow tones is set in 1968, the right panel in blue tones is set in 2018. The screen occasionally becomes one in grey tones when shared imagery of protesters, world events, and cultural touchstones that link the two women’s lived experiences.]

In the second installment of Word: Collected Poetry Trace...

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 15:28:28 -0500

In the second installment of Word: Collected Poetry Trace DePass contemplates how poetry can entrap, rather than release, past traumas and hardships. Filmed on location at Kenkeleba House Garden in the East Village.

[[Video: An exploration of the Kenkeleba House Garden, an outdoor green space in New York City filled with sculptures by African-American artists, the film begins by coming through the front gate and panning around to view a person (Trace DePass) sitting in the garden, then at the various installations in it. This happens throughout the film, interspersed with shots of the life happening in the neighborhood outside the garden and Trace interacting with the space. The film returns several times to a realistic metal sculpture of a man standing, his next straining to one side and a more abstract sculpture of a figure made out of metal and blue glass.]]

“Free” by Jaiden, age ten, from the Snow City Arts folio in the...

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 13:55:27 -0500

“Free” by Jaiden, age ten, from the Snow City Arts folio in the April 2018 issue of Poetry magazine.

[image: a vertical black-and-white photostrip, like that from a photobooth, in which each frame pictures a small hand with a hospital bracelet on the wrist spelling out a letter from the word “free” in American Sign Language.]

In case you missed it, the second episode of VS Season Two is a...

Thu, 29 Mar 2018 13:01:42 -0500

In case you missed it, the second episode of VS Season Two is a recording from the AWP live show. Cohost Franny Choi and Danez Smith team up with guests Angel Nafis and Hanif Abdurraqib to take on the audience and what moves them.