“What does a dead boy talk about? / Who does he love?” In a long and storied tradition of queer longing, Jonathan Carroll spins a tale of Southern yearning with a heartbeat of danger that thumps throughout the poem, effortlessly…
Welcome to LINE LEVEL: Craft Lessons from Poets of Color, a monthly column in which writer, editor, and educator Joanna Acevedo zooms in on an element of craft from the work of BIPOC poets. LINE LEVEL unfolds in three parts:…
“I arrive at the zinfandel-vineyard wedding in a lipstick-pink wrap dress with light jade-green nails. /At the altar, the groom expands his mouth to the size of a small Grecian grotto and swallows the bride.” Jackie Sabbagh uses slight surrealist…
“I am clutching tight to every / pre-bombing, every pre-drug-induced nosedive. / The pre-dawn ghost of my dead cat jamming her head / against my calf in a figure eight, gray ears flattening alternately.” In this poem, Maureen Morris uses…
“These ghosts / gave everything to us, two girls from West Virginia / who were starving for closeness, dead or alive.” Jessica Hammack delivers a poem that makes us want to hold our breath as we weave through the nuances…
“the only constant in our friendship— / she’ll block me on facebook / after we go to a movie / a month or two passes in silence / then an invite for Taiwanese food” This week, Hannah Polinski fearlessly delves into…
Last but not least, we have the third place winner for the 2023 Award for New Poets, selected by guest judge torrin a. greathouse, “Free Museum Day” by Yola Gómez. Please join us in congratulating them on this achievement! “we…
Join us in congratulating the Award for New Poets Second Place winner, Yingqi Sally Lu. Read the wonderful poem, selected by guest judge torrin a. greathouse, “Self-Portrait as Apples to Apples” below. “remember the time when you said you loved…
“Be happy, you remember your mother say / as she waved you goodbye, and immediately / you feel guilty.” Ashish Kumar Singh effortlessly depicts desperation and the search for happiness and love in this vulnerable and unflinching poem. Desperate Acts…
We are thrilled to present the 2023 Award for New Poets first place winner, Ira Goga, selected by guest judge torrin a. greathouse! Here’s what our judge had to say about the winning poem: “Reading ‘Twelve Thousand Pounds of Salt,’…
