FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE OF

Poetry magazine

Explore Past Issues
Quote:

I am so alive it gnaws.

. Unquote.
— Nur Turkmani
Poem

From the magazine:Scimitar

By Arthur Sze
Poem

From the magazine:On Humility

By Shara Lessley
Poem

From the magazine:Kalsarikänni

By Michael Bazzett
Totes Poetry. Totes Yours. text on dark green background surrounding a tote with a leaping Pegasus

Recent Features from Poetry

  • A vase made of paper with a red paper flower is surrounded by crumpled up balls of paper in front of a sky blue background.

    Prose from Poetry Magazine

    From the magazine:Ballad-ish: On Common Meter

    By Lindsay Turner

    There’s something fundamental—like a heartbeat or a nursery rhyme—about the beating, ballad-ish quatrain.

  • A vase made of paper with a red paper flower is surrounded by crumpled up balls of paper in front of a sky blue background.

    Prose from Poetry Magazine

    From the magazine:

    Writing Prompt: Ballad

    By Lindsay Turner

    Three options for your own poems.

Hard Feelings Essays

Various expressive faces, in frames, against a pink background.

Prose from Poetry Magazine

From the magazine:On Self-Loathing: My Particular Involvement

By Jameson Fitzpatrick

When, long after puberty had done its work, I was finally able to re-admit my original understanding of myself to myself, I saw my self-loathing in a new light. 

Prose from Poetry Magazine

By Willie Perdomo

I’ve heard it said that if poets are not writing about death, they’re not writing about anything; the same could be said for love. 

Prose from Poetry Magazine

From the magazine:On Shame: In the Realm of Death and Awe

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.

Prose from Poetry Magazine

From the magazine:On Neediness: Midnight Chimes

By Will Harris

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

From the Poetry Magazine Archive

  • Poem

    From the magazine:

    Intelligent Design

    By Vievee Francis
    Shiraishi called upon the great sky cock,
    wanted an explanation, wondered, why
    the echo of form without the wisdom,
    why the bent wit without the timing.
    Wondered, as I have, how a man, bare
    upon the bed may rise as if in praise
    but fail to...
  • Poem

    From the magazine:

    Farewell to Poetry

    By Daniel Ruiz
    I give myself  to the end of  this poem to decide.
    I empty myself, have emptied myself 10,000 times,
    like a lung. I guess that’s a terrible estimate. We breathe a fuckton—
    even when air has skunk taste and texture, as opposed
    to its...

Submissions

Find out how to submit your poetry.

Submit

Newsletter

Sign up for the Poetry Foundation newsletter.

Sign Up

History

Poetry was founded in Chicago by Harriet Monroe in 1912.

More History