Hard feelings 9 grey green

Prose from Poetry Magazine

By Elaine Kahn

My writing was not more important to me than my wish to have a family. And this is the well from which much of my shame flowed.

Hard feelings 8 dark blue

Prose from Poetry Magazine

By Will Harris

What other kind of writer puts so much stock in the quasi-religious notion of a calling or a vocation? 

Poem
By Elaine Kahn
In the damp sick
In the dough
In the chewed on chew of faces
of expensive car owner faces
chewed ons of the world:..
Collection
By The Editors
Love is love poetry, by and for LGBTQ+ folks.

Poem of the day

poetry-magazineSaguaros

By Javier Zamora
It was dusk for kilometers and bats in the lavender sky,
like spiders when a fly is caught, began to appear.

And there, not the promised land, but barbwire and barbwire...
Read More
Multiple people reading Poetry magazine, each framed in colorful arched shapes. Red and black text reads. "Special Offer. 5 months of Poetry for $15"

FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE OF

Poetry Magazine

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Explore Past Issues
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I’m almost always lying
In a
poem
quoteLeft
— Dorothea Lasky
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After tonight, what’s left of you is you moving into my
dream
quoteLeft
— Zhang Xian, tr. by Shangyang Fang
quoteRight
Once I learned I could have the last word
I couldn’t stop having
it.
quoteLeft
— Brittany Cavallaro
quoteRight
Diné bizaad is a language of patience and cunning. It is quiet, in the distance, like a coming
storm.
quoteLeft
— Jake Skeets

The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. We work to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry.

Featured Poets

76db2da0538e66d2b419821e4885a4f4d513a634

Alice Notley

1945—2025
Alice Notley was one of America’s greatest poets. She wrote across narrative and epic and genre-bending…. Read More
Multiple people reading Poetry magazine, each framed in colorful arched shapes. Red and black text reads. "Special Offer. 5 months of Poetry for $15"

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