Poem #114
We listened to Telephone Line through a broken speaker, the keyboard drifted like air, though the electronics hissed with age. We always carried a memento — …
Why poetry is a casualty of the collapse of attention
With thanks to my friend Dan Rattelle , who suggested I go scorched earth more often in public about this topic, I give you the following feature. All errors are of course entirely Dan’s. Poetry “adds to the stock of available reality” (R.P. Blackmur). Whether we read poetry or not depends on how much reality we want…
How to read Middle English and Scots texts in the original
There’s a dream people report having all over the world. Maybe you’ve had it too. It goes something like this: you’re in your own house, everything is as you’re used to, with one exception. There’s a door you’ve never noticed before. Behind it, there’s an whole room full of treasure. …
because everything is.
When Jay shared this poem, in her endlessly-listenable-voice, at our 2026 Poetry Salon, she shared that pregnancy with a toddler and a job (and all the other things) wasn’t allowing much time and space for writing poetry… but there was some comfort in fellow-poets who insisted that it’s all poetry, every littlest…
By: Charles Bukowski
I believe that I love sleep much more than anybody I’ve ever met. I have the ability to sleep for 2 or 3 days and nights. I will go to bed at any given moment. I often confused my girlfriends this way— say it would be about onethirty in the afternoon: “well, I’m going to bed now, I’m going to sleep…” …
on the way to dawn night hesitates, turns back now missing sweet shadow Anne's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
A poem about control
17th of August 2009. 06:27. The knife goes in Deep. Like A punch. Cold; Grating against The Ribcage, My whole body Shuddering. The sound Is difficult to describe As there is so much going on. But if I concentrate, I can hear a crunch, As metal connects With muscle, fat, and tissue, And bone. …
Digging Deep Into Why We Need Poetry
Hello, dear readers. I know the title of this post might sound misleading: it’s not national poetry month (or poetry week, for that matter), but right now, at Laguna Writers, we’re getting deep into poetry. It all began with a wonderful documentary about Mary Oliver, arguably one of the best-known poets in the United…
(English below)
Ongeveer een jaar geleden begon ik aan dit avontuur waarvan ik de omvang noch de intensiteit kon voorzien. Het plan ontstond geleidelijk en leek vrij overzichtelijk: vier reeksen haiku’s schrijven, één voor elk seizoen. Elke ochtend bij zonsopgang zou ik er één publiceren, in het Nederlands - later leek ook een…
TO DO 8/5: -follow the rabbit down the hole -eat the cake and grow very large -cry so much i create a lagoon of tears -endless tea party -fuck with the red queen -remember it’s all just a dream
Daily Haiku: What is on my mind? Thoughts of loved ones lost to time Days that pass me by
“There is a name / for the type of lie I told with my mouth closed.” From “Rock the Boat Is a Song About Strapping” by Brittany Rogers, today’s feature on Queer Poem-A-Day.
Erotic Poetry
The space between us isn’t distance it’s a fuse an interval a truce something deliberate intentioned ———- not hunger more appetite ———- the way dry wood cries for a match air circulates but gets soaked up drawn in transformation enkindled alchemy —————— your cool and slow holding back …
because we do have the choice
To Live I do not dream of tomorrow, Its transient stroll across fresh ink. Where laughter rolls, void of sorrow, And gentle lips do but happiness drink. I do not wish for softer days, Their quiet thoughts set gently down. When dreams breathe pleasant ways, So lips will whisper just tender sounds. …
I'm still weak . A raised voice still startles me, Silence in a crowded room still frightens me, When illness finds me, I still long for my mother as though I'm an infant again, still tethered to her by an invisible umbilical cord, wanting nothing more than to find my way back. I wear courage like borrowed clothing, …
hey thank you @Thorn !💜✨ i love a haiku party!😊 (im gonna a tanka, if thats ok) tag, im it😉 ~ my inspiration walks beside me in your shoes, hand in hand we move together through the endless afternoon, until night falls ~ please join in friends💜 @Chi Emmanuel @Conor @Kreator_K tag, youre it✨
The Writer’s Almanac from Saturday, August 1, 2015 “After the Funeral” by Lisa Erin Robertson from The Orbit of Known Objects . © Sixteen Rivers Press, 2015. ORIGINAL TEXT AND AUDIO - 2015 Today is the birthday of the man who said, “It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.” That’s the novelist…
A review of IF YOU LOVE THAT LADY
I. What is the major voice in American poetry today? What is the popular style? What is that generic contemporary idiom such that, if one would hear with the ears closed, picturing with the aural imagination, they would hear its tone of voice? What would such a voice sound like, and what would it suggest? What would…
& you might never know.
I think some people remember you through their eyes. Not because they sit around thinking about you all day. But because somewhere along the way, you became attached to the things they see. A moon appears unusually large one evening, and before they can fully admire it, a thought arrives first. You. …
Travel the globe by haiku from Haiku Heaven
many an anthem soars into the dark night sky no fear of failure Travel the world by Haiku: “Minimal words, Maximum impact.” At Haiku Heaven, words become footprints - small, deliberate steps towards a visionary and mindful living. Welcome to the Daily Haiku - a space for poets, thinkers, and world-shapers who see…
How to write a poem when the world is on fire
Hello Everyone Before I share this month’s poetry salon with you, a little shop admin: I am grateful to everyone who has purchased artwork from me recently. My ‘lucky dip’ drawing offer, which was available over the past two months, is now closed. I had a small flurry of orders this week so am going to get them sent…
Another small directory of formal poetry works by friends and Substack authors!
For a new and barely-breathing publication, our first directory reached a fair amount of people and helped us find fellow poets to include in this issue! I still believe that we can gather more, and that there are many who just need a little push to get started. Please comment …
By A Woman In Red
At first strange Yet the unbearable lightness Of being: what blinds us, drives us. Drive through us. Such a spontaneous yet devotional fuss. Then, the moment where there's no end. Heartsease and desolation Of destruction by words and thoughts; „I have to be walking shell“ When my body so much wants to yell. …
i don’t smoke, i care for my lungs far too much but my body fails to function when your fingers accidentally touch my knees, so my bones get a little weaker and my skin begs for you and if doctors studied my body, all they’d find is the anatomy of wanting, a million more nerves than they knew existed, …
I refine multiplicity to haiku ___________________ #HaikuFeels (refine)
Where, I ask you, can one read a line like this one? You inspired this odd haiku: The platypus reads philosophy on weekends. Most days, poetry.
“…what counts? How does one count the ways / their lives have intertwined with yours?” From “Body Counts” by William Ward Butler, a playful and moving list poem, featured on Queer Poem-A-Day.
What are your thoughts on counting syllables in haiku? I recently began an exploration into haiku. I’ve gained a great appreciation for the form, and I recognize that Japanese haiku isn’t expressed with attention to syllables. Rather, it’s about capturing the moment with as few words and as much restraint as…
The Writer’s Almanac from Friday, July 31, 2015 “Never give all the heart” by William Butler Yeats . Public Domain. ORIGINAL TEXT AND AUDIO - 2015 Today is the birthday of the woman Teddy Roosevelt once called “the most dangerous woman in America” when she was 87 years old. Mary Harris Jones, or “Mother Jones” …
Let's meet In your dreams tonight, Let me Gaze at you till sunrise. Hold my hand. Let's see those galaxies, Those forgotten stars in space. ✨ Let me Be a verse, I want you to sing. Let me Be a clown to make you smile Oh, I woke up From a dream. You felt like a beautiful dream, My love. …
An essay on my journey into poetry for The White Rabbit Poetry Society's Monday Poet
My name’s Mat, and I’m not a fucking poet. Or the “horror guy.” I’m a storyteller who uses whatever tool is necessary to make you feel something in that moment. Sometimes that tool is horror, occasionally it’s an essay. But there’s something about poetry that hits different. Poetry finds a way to make you stop and…
My writer’s block is just fear of doing a bad job
I always feel like I don’t write enough. I wake up every day wanting to write but often don’t get around to it or struggle to sit down and work if I don’t feel like I have a preexisting idea. In 2021, I wrote thirty-one poems in the thirty-one days of August with my sweet friend Hala Alyan …
came to visit today
A reader of these poems came to visit today. Carla went to the wrong house across the street and I hope she returns. And you do too. Here’s the poem I wrote about the man who lived in the wrong house where Carla went. (It’s from ALL OF US) Ken lives across the street old style pre hip hop you’re in the navy now tattoo …
Let it feel different. Say, I don’t know, sometimes. Take notes.
Word Witch is a Substack Bestseller and a community of Word Witches, like you! This reader-supported publication is dedicated to your creativity, the cycles and seasons, creating prompts, and sharing interviews, conversations, and poems about word witchery. For the full experience and to support this work for others…
Jack Bridge to Ickornshaw
I’m writing this in our tent in the fading light. It’s raining heavily and looks set to continue into tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day. We’ll walk two sections – firstly to Gargrave, passing from the familiar moors into farmland, and the River Aire. After lunch and a breather, we’ll set off to Malham. …
Listen now | A new poem written and recorded by Orna Ross: Coming to the Emperean
On my back, in the dark, given up to night, I lie a fool aground, suckling, yearning, turning in want and will, smothering in the urges of the underneath. Up there, the spangled stars, the moon halfway lit and on the wane, hiding its hollows. And the black beyond. That dark that shades the darkness. …
i know a stream whose source is in the darkness from which the world was born, i know its torrents and its raging, its meandering and its lapping, i know its course that shapes flood plain and mountain and brings down every wall i know its waters that nourish oak and alder by them alone might i be c
i know a stream whose source is in the darkness from which the world was born, i know its torrents and its raging, its meandering and its lapping, i know its course that shapes flood plain and mountain and brings down every wall i know its waters that nourish oak and alder by them alone might i be cleansed …
"What I want is another body under / my hands, for the salt of them / to flood all the walls and wells of me…"
In this edition: Blue Lollypop Ritual by Melissa Leto Issue 53 Heat Issue Highlights Call for writers and artists Hello there! We’re so grateful for your enthusiasm about the Heat Issue ! It’s one of my favorite issues we’ve published in 6 years of KHÔRA, so I love that it’s resonating with so many of you. …
A curation of poems written by the Poetry Outdoors community.
Dear Friends, Each month, I share a collection of poems written during The Meadow, our monthly generative writing circle that weaves together zen teachings and nature poetry. In July, we explored The Art of the Koan, a contemplative riddle or question that is meant to invite us into a state of mindful exploration that…
All that wanting, all that trying, all that reaching for what is already mine.
All that wanting, all that trying, all that reaching for what is already mine. It’s more than a flex to have you, to be so full of wanting and at the same time call you mine. It doesn’t bother me that I’m not the only one who wants you this badly but it is a miracle that I get to have you the way that I do. …
by G. Ziegel
Who have been the most influential writers in your life? The most influential stories/collections? Lorrie Moore –– Who Will Run the Hospital? Laura van den Berg –– I Hold a Wolf by the Ears Elena Ferrante –– The Days of Abandonment Evan S. Connell –– Mrs. Bridge Anna DeForest –– Our Long Marvelous Dying …
This week’s bonus poem is dedicated to our friends, Laura, Carolyn and Dee.
This week’s bonus poem is dedicated to our friends, Laura, Carolyn and Dee. As we all walked through the garden together recently, we came upon a hummingbird moth feeding at the bee balm. I froze, with full-body chills, unable to believe the moth was allowing us to get so close. We all just stood there…
"Is a dead woman good?"
Girl / Guāi 乖 by Jenny Qi In Lisbon I bought boba from a girl who looked twelve, maybe a small fifteen. We speak Mandarin and I hear her obedience. 乖 we praise the child who does what she is told / works the family business / fills out forms her parents can’t read / …
featuring a poem by Danna Faulds
I hope you enjoy this Midweek Pause for Peace. Each Wednesday, I pair an image with a poem—a little something for your heart and your nervous system. —Laura I love Dana Faulds’ poetry. She always encourages me to grow my heart large enough to embrace it all—the horror, the chaos, the beauty, and the love that…
words can hurt, words can bruise, words can ruin lives
Help me turn writing into a career and a community. Pay Sub to support work/productions and create stages, writer workshops and Live series connecting the Stack . Get custom content, chat access, and long-forms back. Paid Subscribe Can’t commit to subbing? Buy me a little something, purchase prints or take a workshop…
Richard Crashaw dreams the not impossible dream
Who e’er she be That not impossible she That shall command my heart and me; Wher e’er she lie, Lock’d up from mortal eye In shady leaves of destiny; Till that ripe birth Of studied fate stand forth And teach her fair steps to our earth; Till that divine Idea take a shrine Of crystal flesh, through which to shine; …
Josephine Johnson
When I was wounded unto death I hid my wound from every eye; I kept my own eyes fiercely dry, And no one knew I choked for breath. But that one hour drained away Life’s reservoirs. When it was done My every store of strength was gone— A touch can make me weep today.
August 26 1st Tuesday Prompt Video
The Right Arm I was three ish when I plunged my arm into the sweet jar for the last bit of clove rock. We kept…
Poem and recording links, craft notes and the final prompt from today’s creative writing session using the work of Maya C. Popa, plus a Forward Prize workshop course and retreats in Galloway
Good morning! We had 45 writers at Marjorie’s Table this morning looking at the poetry of Dr Maya C. Popa. Her latest book If You Love That Lady , was published last month by Norton. As usual, the links to the poems from today’s workshop and our take-away prompt are below for free subscribers, and the link to the…
I wake up, add to my list,
I wake up, add to my list, make my plans, and drive from here to there, longing for the calm when the list is checked off. While this resembles peace, I admit it isn’t peace. Just as putting things in order isn’t harmony. So, why do I keep making lists? Because I live in the world. And though this is …
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump and his fascist regime
Daniel Nathan Terry The Hatching Moon June 10, 2025 Coyote comes to the garden gate when I wake—there he stands silvered in moonlight. Trickster or Sage? Omen to turn back or call to transform? Those who first held this land could never pin him down—Huehuecoyotl. Ancient Drum. Storyteller. Sex-Changer. Shapeshifter …
mined poetry: text by Walter Horatio Pater
Here I present another ‘erasure’ poem, so-called. But considering the source text, two paragraphs from the ‘Conclusion’ of the Victorian writer Walter Pater’s The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (1877), the use of the word ‘erasure’ feels something like a desecration. Who am I to ‘erase’ another writer’s…
Happy Pub Day to Birth Language
“Birth Language is visionary and transcendent, the voice of a master lyricist and storyteller.” —Lee Herrick, California Poet Laureate Aimee Suzara’s second full-length book Birth Language centers on a Filipina-American time traveling through her history, twisted and haunted like the roots of a balete tree. The book…
How smudgIng chalk has helped me find a new wilderness in my heart to visit.
I came into poetry sideways. I didn’t even know I was writing poetry until after I had written around 30 poems. At the time I was working as a community journalist by day and an improv comic by night. Those two skill sets intersected over the quivering fault lines of my heart…and these strange words started pouring…
"Pain points to something very deep within us, and connects us to humanity as a whole. "
Since 2010, in various publications , I’ve interviewed authors—mostly memoirists—about aspects of writing and publishing. Initially I did this for my own edification, as someone who was struggling to find the courage and support to write and publish my memoir …
Plus Aug. 23 creative writing seminar and phone sessions
Bless you, Dear Soul, Today’s reading is a poetic passage from my book, All These Rivers and You Chose Love . Following the reading, you can find details for our next virtual creative writing seminar on August 23 , a mystic, discussion-based experience that will ignite your sacred relationship with your writing. …
By: Charles Bukowski
I believe that I love sleep much more than anybody I’ve ever met. I have the ability to sleep for 2 or 3 days and nights. I will go to bed at any given moment. I often confused my girlfriends this way— say it would be about onethirty in the afternoon: “well, I’m going to bed now, I’m going to sleep…” …
Tania's birthday post
Hello, Beloveds. Poet Jesus here. Today, my holy ghostwriter Tania turns 54. She’s not ashamed to share her age because 1972 just happened to be when I decided to plop her down on Earth, specifically Long Beach, California, without any say on her part. For that reason, I deem it verily ridiculous for people to act…
By Denise Jessup, in collaboration with Sue Mapel
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash On my computer screen, her face is framed by two halos: the first, a brown headscarf; the second, an aura of light from the bedroom window behind her. But the glow is all her own. Eyes shining with kindness, she asks earnestly in accented English, “Deh-neese, how are you?” …
a poem from Desert Orpheus
duende drones effloresced into my sightline — the night before, Sekhmet's blood flooded the xeriscape Desert floor unquenched, high noon ignited my infrared body to appear with you tonight at the M Cave where the feds obliterated Kenny Veach where we'd redshift across the adrenaline darkness …
Thirty-five years after his classic book on soccer hooligans, the former Granta editor speaks with the critic Leo Robson about the so-called “slum sport.”
This month, we’re rolling out a new web series, One Book, which is more or less what it sounds like—an interview with an author about the making of just one of their books, not because that book has just been published (it could be decades old) or is in the news (though we’d be thrilled if it was), but because it is…
Crawling semantics
This review was first published in The Friday Poem . Anaxagorou’s Heritage Aesthetics won the Royal Society of Literary Ondaatje prize in 20223. This audacious collection is an enjoyable, even rollicking read. Heritage Aesthetics is a rhetorical roller-coaster, with genuine surprises of language and imagery on almost…
By Mark Rico
By Mark Rico In 2003, I lived and taught ESL classes in Osaka, Japan. That summer began my love of the Japanese aesthetic, fittingly illustrated by the poetic tradition of haiku. Ever since returning, I’ve tended these slender flames—even when other poetic inclinations were only cold ash. For that reason, it’s my…
poem
Can drug dealers be good people? If you’d met Moe, who’d let me use his scale perched on top of last week's Wall Street Journal to weigh my own eighth in the living room while he made me a mimosa in the kitchen you’d say yes. He’d play smooth jazz, (the kind that didn’t try hard to convince you …
a beautiful friend...
Under the Harvest Moon Under the harvest moon, When the soft silver Drips shimmering Over the garden nights, Death, the gray mocker, Comes and whispers to you As a beautiful friend Who remembers. Under the summer roses When the flagrant crimson Lurks in the dusk Of the wild red leaves, Love, with little hands, …
Dickinson, Gregg, Fraser, Zapruder, Muldoon
About Sean Singer Sean Singer Poetry Sean Singer Editorial Services Subscribe to The Sharpener The paid-subscriber version of The Sharpener includes weekly installments of craft pieces, approaches to writing problems, topics in contemporary publishing for writers, and biographical features on poets I consider…
A recording from Nancy Reddy's live video
This was such a good conversation about craft and form, structuring a collection of poems, writing right through the hard things, and so much more. I didn’t plan it this way, but it felt like the perfect companion to our previous Summer School session, a conversation with Erica Stern about …
Imagine if our kisses were finite...
Matt Layne writes… Back in 2019, as I was fast approaching fifty, there were celebrations everywhere marking the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landing. I realized I had missed humanity’s first steps on the moon by 108 days. That numerical coincidence sent me exploring the numerological significance of 108. I began…
Happy Birthday to Herman Melville and Two Others on this First Day of August
SOME JOY: Herman Melville … born August 1, 1819, in New York City (Above: Portrait of Herman Melville by Fabrizio Lautir .) I found Melville’s photographic portraits were all rather stern with a stony countenance cut ironically into the handsome seafaring author’s face (nautical lexicon already homonymously landing…
[note 2.25]
[film still from Farewell My Concubine ] After he got sick, Richard and I would watch each Gong Li film as they came out— Red Sorghum; Ju Dou; Raise the Red Lantern; The Story of Qiu Ju —one after the other, one every year, a flourish of beauty before China shut it down again. …
Guest post by Zachary Hyde @entishtook
This past month we’ve been reading Tolkien’s translation of Beowulf (if you missed the introduction to this text you can read it in full here )! I’m honored to have this Beowulf deep dive for you all today from Zachary Hyde ( @entishtook on instagram …
Cavafy on Komnenos's piety
In this short poem Cavy muses on how Emperor Manuel Komnenos (1118-80) called for humble religious clothing when he thought death was imminent. Dying in monastic attire was a Byzantine custom, believed to wash away one’s sins of pride and impiety (the historian Niketas Choniates notes that the opulent Manuel had to…
Thoughts on repetiton.
We read about war and wonder where weeping goes. We look for a sign. We are out of rain, so we reach for fire and find the excess startling. We find prayer in the balm of a bird’s flight, teaching us the wind. We find flowers and know they are worthy. We find Darwish’s hymn in the horseman’s heart. …
and other useless gods...
Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law trade hopes and delusions in their prison. HECUBA dreams of her son Palidorus, out at sea, that he will return and restore Troy to glory. Her mind can't comprehend there's nothing left. ANDROMACHE prays her little son is still alive. She knows her husband Hector is gone. 'He of…
July Zoom Link
Revision and Re-envision (Zoom invitation link at the bottom) We have a rare unicorn occurrence this month — our writers are also poets. As if this weird pairing couldn’t get better. From Appalachian Elegy by bell hooks: Appalachian Elegy (Sections 1-6) By bell hooks 1. hear them cry the long dead the long gone …
August edition
Dear Friends, I’m wishing you all a very kind start to August. I’m currently in Philadelphia teaching for the CWCxHFU residency, which means I get to be in poetry mode 24/7 (at the expense of all logistical matters). I also get to witness writers improve their work in real time, which is extraordinarily gratifying. …
Inside the poem you know by heart, there is a hidden door, and it was left unlocked for you
Sometimes the tallying starts on its own. Whose garden looked better. Whose children call more often. Whose name was mentioned at the convention, while yours went unnoticed. We keep such a record and hide it. Except for one man. 400 years ago, one summer, when the theaters were closed and his luck had run out, he…
On the Intersection of Art-Making and Grief
Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. I miss you like hell. - Edna St. Vincent Millay I did not come seeking the subject of grief; it found me, as grief will. …
Read "Before I Die" here!
Kathy Nelson BEFORE I DIE Some great uncle passed it down, that curio, that heirloom, that tour de force— seamless wooden links lifted from the branch, whole, already interlocking, as if by magic, with nothing but a pocketknife. Let me be that whittled willow chain I lost. Let me be that blue bird I gave away, the one …
Or, How to Divide a Body
Crow News: Two more weeks for Issue 64. Then it’s yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. This ship sails because of our sailors who trim their wind-given words, but now that harbor is in sight, the closer we get to the shore the farther away arrival seems. For God’s sake, Noah, are we there yet!! …
☀️ "Something happens in that moment when ..." + more goodies
The Raft Weekly is the Saturday “goody bag” for the online community of author Phyllis Cole-Dai. Ride the river of a creative life, buoyed by her latest writings as well as nudges for your own expressive practice, boosts of curated poetry and music, and more. Give yourself a boost. Hop aboard The Raft. ☀️ I …
BY TRACY SCHLAPP
Confined in space and time, a mental state of my own design. Submerged in the love from within. Inside this container of mine. Amir’Whadi Hassan , “This Container of Mine” Our bodies contain it all — the thoughts, the blood, the guts, the memories and pain, the articulation of our ancestors, the genetic material of…
with prompts inspired by some of my favorite Anne Sexton lines
I have a serious fetish for collected works. The various collected works of poets like Jorie Graham, Lucille Clifton, June Jordan, Ursula Le Guin and Patrick Rosal are some of my favorites. I have read and returned to The Complete Poems of Anne Sexton …
Some holiday reading from some favourite poets
Thanks for reading Pinks from Some Flowers Soon ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts. I’m about to be on holiday for a week, so this edition of Pinks is a round-up of reading to keep you out of mischief until mid-August. Last year, in the post above, I wrote about my admiration for the essays of one of my…
Annie Fisher review 'Forgetfulness' by Ian Seed (Shearsman, 2026).
Tenants This betrayal does not mean my promise did not exist. You take the key, still there under the stone by the back door. Lost among the lumber we turn defenceless, make a search of the room again. A fly’s flickering against the window testifies to its dream of elsewhere. In dim light …
From Ginosko Literary Journal #36
when you’re strange After Jim Morrison (James Douglas Morrison) like me, you’ll call jim up for a chat on his birthday, december 8th, every single year, dead on one minute past midnight, i’ve never missed a year yet and i call him up now, even though i’m a bit down and not real …
The winning poem and shortlisted selection for JULY 2026 Poem of the Month Competition.
This article features the winning and shortlisted poems from July’s Poem of the Month. THE WINNING POEM Nuns Bernadette Lynch This month's Poem of the Month, Nuns by Bernadette Lynch, is a litany; nuns with boys' names and saints' names and dogs' names, nuns drinking doubles at dawn, nuns in Lamborghinis, until the…
It was always more than traveling.... a poem
“I’ve Been Away” is a new poem I am writing to remind me of how blessed I am by family and friends. May we never forget the people God places in our lives. To me, though, it is about so much more than traveling. It is about pilgrimage, our relationships with each other, sharing grief and joy, and the loveliness of…
Live Friday Morning Meditations with the Mindfulness Initiative at AU
Live Poetry Meditations since January 2022 Every Friday from 9-9:30 am Eastern Time: Join us on Zoom Beloved community, I’m so pleased to announce that our meditations will resume on Friday, August 28 at 9 am Eastern Time. Please join at your leisure—cameras on or off, though please stay muted to preserve the quiet…
Beautiful readership of ‘Catching Shower Flowers’
Beautiful readership of ‘Catching Shower Flowers’ I have a story I want to share. A recent story that reminded me of a line I wrote several years ago, preserved inside a much larger poem: I was tired, and God believed me. There are places where tiredness must be argued well. Where one is required to sing a tired song…
$atire
I want to be an influencer, oh god I feel it in my clit, I want to take a pic and be a bitch and get shit for free and not deserve any of it. I want to be an influencer, I want fake friends and fake tits, I want all my high school friends foaming at the mouth when they see my follower count. I want to be an…
'Terelinck may as well be a word-wizard' - Jack Anthony
‘Terelinck places great emphasis on preserving the authenticity of the epiphany — which is unpredictable by nature, non-linear, and varied in its themes and gravity.’ Scroll down to read Jack Anthony’s full review of Small Epiphanies by David Terelinck (Calanthe Press, 2024). …
Or, how to read Shakespeare's humor.
It’s no secret that, sometimes, Shakespeare’s humor just doesn’t land. In fact, I can’t remember a time I ever actually laughed at a Shakespeare play: that is, until I saw them performed on stage. And that’s because much of Shakespeare’s humor gets lost amongst his Early Modern English and Elizabethan social context…
two from Stanzas for Indiscreet Music
BED-SONG Congratulations! For today you've come of age—yet I am curious to know what vulgar tongue has beat me to the drum & licked each hair clean off your every toe— nay, your entire foot! Some 'Shire scum, no doubt—but who am I to whistleblow? I railed against all idiots who've read …
Watch now | Five Secrets to Unforgettable Titles
A great title isn’t just a label—it’s the reader’s first invitation into your poem. In this workshop, we explored how titles can create tension, establish context, deepen meaning, and continue working long after the final line. Through examples from contemporary poetry and actionable revision exercises, you’ll learn…
Plus, Last Chance to Register for Structure & Surprise, Starting Today!
Quick Reminder Structure & Surprise: Writing Poems That Move, starts today at 2 pm, PST/ 5 pm, EST. All workshops are recorded, so you can study with us in real-time, or on your own time. You can register for this 6-week workshop by making a donation to our Go Fund Me Campaign here. …
for last night’s moon
Between deep cornfields grasping in tandem the gone sun, and power-lines sloping to hold the weight of twilight—waxing gibbous moon.
Dawn McGuire wins for “Mule.” Four honorable mentions selected from a shortlist of 51.
Leila Chatti has selected the winner of the inaugural LemonLight Prize 2026. Dawn McGuire , for her poem “Mule.” Leila’s citation, in full: “What drew me to this poem is its honest, plain-stated tenderness. I admire a poem that says what it means, that doesn’t try to obscure its truths. This poem sings with the…
Summer's Rush
Plants. Smoke. Swimming. Watermelon. Cherries. AC. Beach. Sand. Time making everything a blur. In the garden fussing with hoses after sunset, drenching the new trees, pretending the future exists. Sitting in a strip of shade when the rest of the yard is scorched. The cat eats grass. A rabbit lives under the sage. Each…
an ode to reservation boys
Run, Kid Wearing supermarket shoes and old clothes, we sprinted through the reservation dirt and drank cold water through a garden hose when the dust made deserts of our throats. In summertime, we removed our T-shirts, climbed the trees, and shouted dirty jokes from pine to pine. One day, a branch broke …
whole in the soul
A weekly newsletter on what I’ve written, read, and otherwise enjoyed. At the link above, please find “The Noise That Colors Make,” the latest episode of The Invisible College , my literature podcast for paid subscribers. It’s about poet and classicist Anne Carson’s beloved novel in verse Autobiography of Red . 1 …
runner-up in the 2025 Oxford Poetry Prize
VINERY after Henri Cole July in Texarkana, sliced octopus plated in ultraviolet. Black lattice absorbs heat, wreathed in grapes. Vines can be trained to climb structures like dogs learning to swim. The s…
The Japanese Art of Poetry
Wabi Sabi Life brings you creative explorations of the imperfect and unconventional from a Buddhist with a love of Japanese culture. Kotodama is the Japanese belief that mystical, spiritual power dwells in words and names, capable of shaping reality. The notion is that spoken words can influence the environment, body…
it is all of the moments in between.
I hope when death arrives, I’ll know that out of all trillion lives I could have lived, this was the most beautiful. I want to bathe in that realisation, let it consume me. Consume me in the way a lover’s laughter does, when their eyes fold and wrinkle. Wash over me like the many rivers and lakes I waded in. May I…
The moment I’m not cavorting I clap my book shut
What to say when I do not know what. Sometimes words pour, importunate, like it or not. However welcome, such subjection to my subject wearies, its manacles chafe. Does anyone enjoy feeling used? We crave freedom of choice, we claim, but when we possess it, how it weighs. Not knowing “what to say” rapidly unravels…
27 prompts for poetry generation
Wayward: following one's own capricious, wanton, or depraved inclinations : ungovernable - Merriam-Webster Dear friends, I often feel a bit frazzled and disconnected from the page and my inner life during the summer. But this weekend, I had the chance to go on a short retreat in Vermont and there I managed to dive…
I have become a football fan.
I have become a football fan. It wasn’t always like this and I wasn’t always so. In fact, for many years I had absolutely no interest in this game, and all the furore and frenzy built around it, finding it a bit…. intense . Too aggressive. Too divisive. Just too much. Like many others, I could not possibly ignore the…
Don Paterson is over it
I’ve been saying something of farewell – ok, an au revoir ; never say never again – to the sonnet recently. A couple of years ago I switched my allegiance to a sixteen-line form, which has become my new ‘thoughtless default’ for shorter poems. It’s hardly one I can claim to have innovated, and its rules (‘it has…
Edward is team Jacob
Parts of British Columbia are on fire again, and a blanket of smoke has descended upon the lake, perfectly reflecting the fog that has been swallowing my mind. I sit outside, and I try to write. Ants crawl on my leg as though I am already dead, but still looking for a crumb of words, a morsel of language. …
a quick note on the global shortage of f*cks
This morning Luna and I took our morning walk downwind of where the wildfires burn. Smoke tore at my throat and stung my eyes. Luna’s fur was dingy with the soot that hangs thick in the air. Out of curiosity or cussedness or spite, I stared straight at the sun as it rose, a blood red sphere through the haze. …
How slowing down transforms attention into wonder
Frame & Phrase #Margin Notes Over the past year, I’ve noticed something quietly changing in these pages. The prompts have become less about finding inspiration and more about practicing perception. Perhaps that’s inevitable. Inspiration arrives on its own schedule. But perception—the ability to notice deeply, to…
with notes, prompts and poems
Hello, I’m Wendy Pratt; author and poet. I wrote a memoir, The Ghost Lake , about my experience of living on an ancient extinct glacial lake called Paleolake Flixton in North Yorkshire, and how I found my place in a long line of lake ancestry going back to the palaeolithic. I also wrote a poetry collection, …
Rebelling can make for powerful writing... from the LLL archive
Folk tales tend to break all the rules we are taught about how we should write fiction. And yet, for many of us, they continue to wield a strange power over our imaginations. All the elements of folk-tale style and structure signal to us that we are entering a dream-world, where magic can be real and enchantment is…
On February 1961 Amiri Baraka was arrested at the United Nations during a large demonstration protesting the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba.
“we need not climb on the shoulders of our elders to look at their toes” On February 1961, Amiri Baraka was arrested at the United Nations during a large demonstration protesting the assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. Imagine the energy of the room. One of the most powerful African revolutionaries…
July: Sitting in Weeds to Write Things Down
In the July Poetry Party, we read and wrote under the influence of Nina Cassian, Kerry Hardie, Jasmine Cooray, Nancy Campbell, Tracy K. Smith, Joyce Sutphen, Carl Phillips, Nicole Sealey, January Gill O'Neil and Aiyana Masla. Together, we wandered through wildflowers and weeds, inheritance and memory, the recipes we…
M & T talk about prompts, the nature of form, writing process & writing context,
For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS , subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 32 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode: – Order Brian’s book The Optimists! It’s so good! Now give Brian’s book a 5-star r eview! – …
On why structure is never mere decoration — and how when I found the shape of my new book, it almost wrote itself.
Hello, all, Happy Summer! I’m back from a series of gigs and travel that took me away from posting. Looking forward to being here more consistently! June brought me to Provence for a week at the Mediterranean Artist Project with other editors, with a focus on building international connections. Talking to book and…
The Wide Width of my World
This Post is tooo long for some emails, be sure to click the banner so you can enjoy it all. In this newsletter, the last words are always, love always. Not knowing when the Dawn will come, I open every door Emily Dickinson In the garden, against the light, I have to squint. Even under the canopy of a large tree…
POEM-FROM-THE-PERSPECTIVE-OF-A-MAGPIE
Note from Nowhere Girl: Field Notes occasionally arrive from unusual correspondents. This Field Note was telegrammed to me from a magpie. Translated as faithfully as possible.
In case you missed it--Merle Bachman, Eve Grubin, Aviva Dautch
Yesterday’s salon was so moving and substantive. In case you missed it, here is the recording for the special salon on Jewish poetry in the UK. And hope to see you next time! Poet, editor, and curator Aviva Dautch, Merle Bachman, editor of The Selected Poems of A.C. Jacobs. Eve Grubin, poet, scholar, and author of …
What is a poet without her memories? What is a memory without the rememberer? My two poems in the newest issue of Samfiftyfour explore the memories we yearn to forget, and the ones we’d like to carry with us forever. I’d love to read the first poem to you today: “My Memories Need Me to Remember Them”— Share …
It is almost as though your eyes step back, or recuse themselves after they drag you to the flowers that look like a flock of teeny flamingos, wings unlocked for balance, and flash.
It is almost as though your eyes step back, or recuse themselves after they drag you to the flowers that look like a flock of teeny flamingos, wings unlocked for balance, and flash. For it’s the flock’s perfume that puckers your mouth into a kiss, the better to smell this pink fritillary …
with Work by Laurel Ollstein, Elizabeth Yochim, Don Norman, and Esther Chen. Edited by Francesca Lia Block
The Mythology Series by Elizabeth Yochim and Don Norman Table of Contents The Mythology Series by Elizabeth Yochim and Don Norman Except from the play PANDORA! by Laurel Ollstein The Kindly Ones, a critical paper by Esther Chen Lit Angels is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work…
radishes from my garden
radishes from my garden “Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.” ~ Oscar Wilde I have to admit, I thought I had come upon a new idea, but as I searched the stores of thoughts on sonnets, I found the above lines from Oscar Wilde. It should not surprise me that a man who said…
A Poem by Regina Taylor
The Bridge In the vale of her sorrow, where shadows grow deep, Her eyes, pools of emotion, weep forth as she treads, A bridge arching over the stream of forgotten sleep, Where whispers of yesteryear softly her spirit leads. Her countenance, once bright with the bloom of youth’s cheer, …
Sign up for my courses on poetry, essays, and novels on Versed . A single membership will give you access to all present and past courses and the recordings to all live events. In my previous essays on the prospect of a New Renaissance, I identified seven signs of an emerging cultural revival. The fourth sign involves…
Annotation & Author’s Note
Hi, Friend. As promised, here’s a behind-the-scenes look at a poem from my new book, A Suit or a Suitcase , and the poem itself deals with scenes and looking. Today I’m sharing a handwritten annotation of “In Geologic Time, It Happened Just Seconds Ago.” It was first published in The Southern Review …
OP Member Poetry
After Hollie McNish The crow’s feet that marked my eyes in my twenties don’t bother me anymore. Not because they don’t exist, but because they are evidence of being me and they blend with the additional lines that are records of my existence. My mouth parenthesis from smiles after smiles, …
by Bruce Bond
Invention of the Wilderness When a fire pins its banner to the wood, it reveals something of the wilderness no wilderness can know, something locked up in the structure of the branch that longs to flower, as those who would refrain from pleasure long to fissure as their eyelids close. …
poetical diversions in the kitchen
weaving through canebrakes chasing the scent of our sweat bodies grounded in discovery wondering when did we surrender when did we dance in fields was it long ago are we undone now never say that our natural language —love little wild strawberries sweet as a kisscatch a glimpse how the body meets the plant …
Horses, by W.S. Merwin, in The Essential W.S. Merwin, "Writings to an Unfinished Accompaniment"
Horses The silence of a place where there were once horses is a mountain and I have seen by lightning that every mountain once fell from the air ringing like the chime of an iron shoe high on the cloudy slope riders who long ago abandoned sadness leaving its rotting fences and its grapes to fall have entered the pass …
A poem + VO
I painted a picture. Layer upon layer of colour. Each day I add more detail. Ridges and divots. I have covered every inch. From every angle. I have become so familiar with it I see pieces of it everywhere. And I follow them. I can no longer tell where imagination ends and reality begins. …
Erotic Poetry
I hunger for your tight embrace the need for you deep between my thighs sweet, pulse, throat, heartbeat piercing eyes a friction of linen sheets a deluge of sighs fever takes over as the hours drift by bound with silk my endless rise I burn in the calm and it feels like I fly. You are my demise …
...dear lover,
I am a selenophile… someone who loves you, my moon someone who adores you from a distance that never makes my love any smaller someone who waits for the daytime to pass just so she can tell you about her day someone who lingers beneath your light for hours, night after night someone who finds comfort …
lose yourself in fruits and pleasure
i found summer cupped inside a lone fig, velvet skin surrendering beneath my thumb. peaches exhaled their amber perfume, sun-warmed and heavy with forgiveness. pomegranate arils glowed like garnets beneath the sun, waiting to be broken open by you . honey gathered on your lips, nectar bled along the curve …
i know where this is headed before you can even exhale.
“kassandra” is featured in Mythos and Lore by Quillkeepers Press kassandra i can feel the flames before i ever smell smoke see the wreckage before i hear the collision taste the blood before the knife breaks skin everything has its cost; even you i know where this is headed before you can even exhale …
A song about an old friend, unconditional acceptance and safe spaces.
This is my first attempt at writing a song, and it tells a story that’s very close to my heart. Be gentle! At its core, it isn’t about dresses. It isn’t even about friendship alone. It’s about acceptance. It’s about opening your door to someone exactly as they are and giving them one place in the world where they…
Revelations of such proportions
Jubilant Wednesday to you! I’m in a doozy of a space with God. Words in all honesty fail to capture the depths of which I feel I have ended up in with Him. Not even sure I jumped into the deep end, but I’m somewhere in the furthest, deepest spots of His river. …
on the way to dawn night hesitates, turns back now missing sweet shadow Anne's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
In the key of “Blessings” by Jay Parini
I am thankful for the birds— sparrows chattering like old friends, the red-bellied woodpecker scolding an empty feeder. Their hunger gives my hands something to do. For hands that shaped me, even those that bruised. Pain taught me tenderness, the fire I walked through taught me not to burn those I hold close. …
An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Day 342: A TALE of TALL SHADOWS Here in the northern hemisphere we’ve just crossed the midway point between summer solstice and fall equinox. Typically, at this seasonal time of year, I sense a first whiff of crystalline moisture dancing in the air, an incremental shift in temperature and texture. …
August 4, 2026
The sun climbs slower Or maybe we notice more Time thickens softly AYO is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
in the dark where I try to reach you
once had someone stay up all night on LSD met me at work first thing in the morning to tell me he saw everything and how that everything meant he saw it all in me once had someone surprise me with a kiss pleading, why didn’t I find you first? blurry late nights vacant car lot sweat dripping onto the floor …
A Poem for the Miami Vice Pilot
The wheel of a black Ferrari Daytona spins against the asphalt Tubbs and Crockett stare ahead, quiet as kept promises They are going to meet Calderone a man who killed a partner and a brother and would kill them just as easily The wheel spins clockwise drawing them closer to destiny Tubbs feeds his sawed-off shotgun …
imbibe
come deep into the dark of the trees, my sweet love. enter the sacred circle and kneel, your skin stripped bare in the silver light of the blessed moon. rest your heavy head in my gentle hand and drink from my cup. let me pour wine of absinthe and vervain between your open, waiting lips. look to the night sky …
There’s a bright streak of sun throwing itself over the water
There’s a bright streak of sun throwing itself over the water. Nobody tells you how to live, all you can do is stand ankle-deep and shuffle your feet till you have to swim. When your toes can no longer smush the sand, and I’m sorry for worrying you but I didn’t know how to swim until I was out there.
Except from the visionThanks for reading!
Except from the vision Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Kingdom Come This is my unexpected journey to my grave From me to you from beyond my agony ensued An antagonist I pursued ; is it somewhere safe, This road less traveled? Or should I leave things to unravel? …
"Let the night carry on without me, beautiful and bruised."
"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive—to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." — Marcus Aurelius Ripe fruit bends the branch, the evening settles on the shoulder of the earth. The body is tired. The mind is louder than it ought to be. The moon rests her hand on my head. …
While passing through an isolated place,
While passing through an isolated place, I saw my reflection between the trees, I thought of following it, but it was caged , with a lock and lost keys. It was a black cat who once lived in a kind soul's attic, thrown out of the roof with broken ribs and teeth. She shuts her golden eyes after seeing me, …
no but seriously when will it rain
Ah, friends, I’m finding it hard to believe there will ever be an autumn. I can’t picture it at all. This is significantly stupid as we need to have a radiator put back into my workroom/kitchen, and I can’t bring myself to authorise the purchase because I can’t imagine ever, ever wanting a radiator again. Surely not?…
observations of a chronic face-lift scar by the bathroom mirrorwhen Eye saw I: the beaver blade’s best frenemy, Stomach inverse- lurched to capture its fleeing glint.
when Eye saw I: the beaver blade’s best frenemy, Stomach inverse- lurched to capture its fleeing glint. met face madness. Lip drooped and curved, sliced and sculpted. Diabolical. not even jade guasha can fix forget-me-not-bloomed Hanahaki self-prescribed. scalpel rips through flowery lining …
I celebrate getting closer.
I’ve spent my past 4 birthdays alone, in devotion. My birthday is the day my soul made a home in my body. The day I took my first breath. The day consciousness opened its eyes and caught fire in my chest. The day I was given another chance to remember who I am. As the world celebrates getting older, …
On the quiet rituals of loving someone
𝑾𝒂𝒔 𝑰 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝑶𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆? 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒚 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒔, 𝑰 𝒃𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒊𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒊𝒅𝒆; 𝑰 𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒂 𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑾𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒌𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒃𝒖𝒔𝒚 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒖𝒆. …
When you're taught to survive, it can be hard to live
Dear friend, It is quiet, it is oh so quiet. You said it would be; I never quite believed you though. The silence is rather loud, yet comforting. However, I’m not sure what to do with it. My bones, in a continuous cycle of survival, they were never taught to exist. Is this what it feels like? …
And there's nothing to worry about
I hold up a clear quartz to the sun. A crystal eclipse scatters light across my face. Kaleidoscope days, pollen seas, sandy feet and oven nights. Social plans and sun tans, out of stock on all the fans. Hints of far-off daylight on twilight horizons stretch late into night, drives to places new, drives to places old. …
A Poem
Sun sinking in the west. Silt soft between curling toes. A grounding breath. Inward. Steady. Inhaling the serenity of the mountain. Exhaling the steadiness of the Earth. Shafts of sun rays piercing clouds, Cotton candy, lavender Reflections on water. An Ospreys spreading wings. Water sprays from roused feathers, …
i like making art
a piece of cake everybody, every body wants a bite open fridge, finished food rotten fruits frozen peaches and scattered slimy peas highcake cemetery hunters with forks and butterknives under the kitchen light who is the prey? red velvet heart strawberry shortcake stomach butterscotch brain / lemon frosted lungs …
a drizzle of rain - becomes a flood in no time - let the grief move through
a drizzle of rain becomes a flood in no time let the grief move through Anne's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
because we do have the choice
To Live I do not dream of tomorrow, Its transient stroll across fresh ink. Where laughter rolls, void of sorrow, And gentle lips do but happiness drink. I do not wish for softer days, Their quiet thoughts set gently down. When dreams breathe pleasant ways, So lips will whisper just tender sounds. …
the girl of my dreams
the girl of my dreams I close my eyes and try to sleep Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. It’s never what it seems I try to pinch myself awake Reality is better than the dream In my dream, I’m a millionaire I have everything I think i need I can fly and be invisible …
a poem
“i did it” i say to myself again and again like chest compressions. i’ll keep the flowers in cool water so they won’t wilt and die before they’ve been admired; before someone asks if i grew them myself (i did). i should have left them in the garden. ⌛︎ “i did it” i say, to some dead people, some others who are living— …
An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Day 340: WISDOM OF BOUNCING ~ tanka poetry, inspired by Silas & Ayla Reminder to play. Contagious gleeful display of crazy wisdom. Art of falling and flying, remembering we can bounce… ~ Meris Specterman Walton 02 August 2026 Thanks for reading Meris Walton ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Ailbhe Wheatley Mike Hamman GUY COTHRAN Rob Jones
These two poems were originally published in Celtic Song by Impspired. These poems convey the importance of books, myth, poetry, bookshops, and how story conveys truth bringing together both reason and imagination. Included in this post are some pictures from a trip this very day in August of 2025 when I took a bus…
Your daily haiku helping
Sardines and flurry are today’s daily haiku prompt words: as plankton rises a shoal of sardines arrives a feeding flurry full moon over sea a flurry of fishing boats chasing down sardines red wine and fresh bread sardines on the bbq a flurry of tourists …
Sometimes a romantic, lazy Sunday is exactly what the soul needs!
All characters in this story are above the age of 18. I roll over with tired eyes Tapping my phone on the nightstand Sunday 11:56 a.m. The sunlight beams through our cheap shades Our neighbor mows his lawn Cars flash by on the street But She continues to rest peacefully. Just as She should. We have nowhere to be. …
Ringtone remix
Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. (Nothing left to say I still wanna take this chance to tell you something ) Maybe we’re in love in another timeline But I was betting on this one - ours Don’t you know I’ve weighed every light …
August 2, 2026
The light feels heavy As if weighted by the heat Day moves with stillness AYO is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
The clouds were hydrangeas.
The clouds were hydrangeas. If you could run your fingers through them, they would part and merrily disintegrate into formless debris. Their locomotion occurred in varying shades of blue: tenderly violent, an ideal craftwork of mild melancholy and simple pleasure, a showcase of measured delirium that spoke of heaven…
from the green tree-tops - small birds burst like confetti - hurrying the sky
from the green tree-tops small birds burst like confetti hurrying the sky
and just like the flowers, we need rain in order to bloom too
there is a beautiful realization of how sunlight is not the only necessity for a flower to live. throughout the intensity of sunlight, a flower grows by having to capture life from its heat. just like us, they were admired by that endurance. by how essential the light was for growth. …
Two poets. Two strangers. One crossing of souls [Republished]
This poem is a collaboration between Regolith and The stranger . The train moves — through silence, through remembering, and somewhere between breath and reflection, their words find each other. What follows is not a regular dialogue, but a quiet recognition between shadows. …
& you might never know.
I think some people remember you through their eyes. Not because they sit around thinking about you all day. But because somewhere along the way, you became attached to the things they see. A moon appears unusually large one evening, and before they can fully admire it, a thought arrives first. You. …
Your daily haiku helping
Today’s daily haiku prompt words are sail and evergreens: windswept evergreens along the distant shoreline skipper trims their sails evergreens in an easterly spinnakers about to set sail a crew of novice sailers and some evergreens Late posting again today, I was up at 4am to go and see my daughter complete the…
Catch yourself congested with four friends in the car all speaking tongues at the same time,
Catch yourself congested with four friends in the car all speaking tongues at the same time, puffs and blows of divinity when it turns into something that can’t be understood: how to wave off the next hit. Loose lipped autobiographies when everyone starts to ask “-and how have you been?” …
mausoleum
time stands still in my mother’s house. a capsule of perpetual decay festering inside the matted carpet under my bare feet. the smell of rot sinks into my skin. the air don’t even move in this old house. it hangs between her closed eyes and mine like makeshift doors, my old bedsheets nailed to the peeling trim. …
poetry written after reading Mexican poet Octavia Paz
the belly of light that pours from your lips when you speak is a sunstone hot in the flash of the river where salmon flies when eagle finds him and fish becomes sky today drops of silver pink the belly of light falls through bone white clouds we are following a fading echo …
I had aimed to be gentle wind
I had aimed to be gentle wind To the kindness in your eyes Yet they were so discerning I settled as an escarpment Around your speech and breath I guess you could say I was ill prepared For such piercing gaze So I blanketed your heat In our subsequent days Know I strived But also know that longing …
An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Day 339: EMBRACED BY SPACE ~ tanka poetry offering Redwood and two palms, sentries straddling cloudless sky. Floating on my back, I gaze up at vast blue space, rocked in fluid gravity… ~ Meris Specterman Walton 01 August 2026 Thanks for reading Meris Walton ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
August 1, 2026
August arrives warm Holding summer’s steady hand Nothing rushed just yet AYO is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
i don’t smoke, i care for my lungs far too much but my body fails to function when your fingers accidentally touch my knees, so my bones get a little weaker and my skin begs for you and if doctors studied my body, all they’d find is the anatomy of wanting, a million more nerves than they knew existed, …
Today we had the kind of rain / that comes down suddenly, one moment / clouds coalesce on high, then break, / and torrents run across the parched / water-starved earth, worn smooth by fire.
Today we had the kind of rain that comes down suddenly, one moment clouds coalesce on high, then break, and torrents run across the parched water-starved earth, worn smooth by fire. The kind of rain that swallows up your senses, filling sight, sound, scent and touch, till you are one with it. …
time undoes all things the wear and tear of our days life’s exquisite lace e Anne's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Let's meet In your dreams tonight, Let me Gaze at you till sunrise. Hold my hand. Let's see those galaxies, Those forgotten stars in space. ✨ Let me Be a verse, I want you to sing. Let me Be a clown to make you smile Oh, I woke up From a dream. You felt like a beautiful dream, My love. …
An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Day 338: CULTIVATING JOY “Joy is a muscle you build by dancing when you’re inclined to stay in bed.” ~ Andrea Gibson ~ for Beth Sign me up. Strap on my walking shoes. Take me to the forest or to the shore. Tuck me on the trail inside this misty arboreal exhale, beneath redwoods and oak. Reacquaint me with a friend …
Your daily haiku helping
Today’s Daily haiku prompt words are grasshopper and cloud: grasshopper yoga forming the shape of a cloud locust position the Master through the cloud senses “Grasshopper” beneath cloudy skies hiding in the chestnut tree just one grasshopper A little later posting today, thank you for your pacience 🤗 …
July 31, 2026
High summer pauses Now balanced on abundance August waits nearby AYO is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
One Reflection, by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
ONE REFLECTION standing in the garden I gaze into the first sunflower— mirror with a golden frame —rwt
She dared to aim higher,
She dared to aim higher, The sky was her only limit. Her wings widened until they couldn’t fit in the room, As she kept believing and transcribing her inner world Line with line, creating galaxies of metaphors. There, the stars’ glow consisted of her feelings, The planets were gravitating around her thinking, …
sometimes just the clouds magnificent moving beasts bring back the wonder Anne's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
"To look and never feel that you have reached the end of someone’s wonder."
“Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love.” — William Shakespeare I have been thinking about the sweet sorrow of beloved things. How the most cherished objects are never the ones that remain untouched. Love is merely attention made visible. …
My mind
My mind makes me believe, I’m shy It makes me believe I’m a loner Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. My inability to believe in my self Traps me in a make believe world Where I’m the only one that needs help …
An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Day 337: FULL MOON COMMUNION ~ celestial tanka offering What if I don’t grasp? Instead, relaxing my gaze, receive with soft eyes the mystery of darkness, intimacy with moonlight… ~ Meris Specterman Walton 30 July 2026 Thanks for reading Meris Walton ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
July 30, 2026
Late July listens For the faintest hint of change Autumn whispers far AYO is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
unconscious
can you see me in the depths of your dreams? suspended by silk from an oak headboard wearing nothing but the light of the moon and skin-deep traces of faded ink, a road map to pleasure. can you feel me as you gently venture into sleep? trembling skin beneath your hands as you trace the deep curves …
On Love, Doubt, and the Unbearable Weight of Almost
(Inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice) There is a story so old it has forgotten it is a story. It lives now in the body — in the chest, specifically, in that particular contraction that happens when you love someone and fear, all at once, that love itself is the most fragile thing you have ever been asked to…
all these eyes watching
Don't hold out on me no, not on me not me. With this one life I keep you close— keep close. for it to end it must begin, begin again implode and dissipate. All these eyes watching I'll run away with run away— we'll run. I feed off your spiraling emotions. Line my pockets with distaste foul pieces that unfurl …
Your daily haiku helping
Today’s daily haiku prompt words are yarrow and orange: ‘neath an orange tree Chiron teaches Achilles how the yarrow heals an orange sun sets across battle fields of Troy yarrow, steaming blood casting orange hues across a field of yarrow a summer sunset …
thought of this while taking a shit
my dove, my skin, my blood, mine, i am aware that i am not to you what you are to me. i am reminded of that every singular day. i am not angry at you, no, never, never angry at you. the thought of you alone is enough to free me of my shackles. i hope there is some comfort for you in these words i write on this yellow…
On the Resilience of Nature
Resilience isn’t just a human virtue, but rather an inherent trait of nature. A few years ago, I was hiking in the Costa Brava, Spain. As I paused to admire the rocks being hit by the angry waves of the sea, I noticed a striking contrast. The rocks closer to the shore were soft and smooth, while those further away…
A poem and painting inspired by an astral dream.
teal water, mouth, glittery commissure Spirit out, hibiscus arterioles traversing the vitreous ether Black figure, waiting to be withheld in them. Red tongue lulls out. Is it time to run? Before the ghosts of the past catch up to me. Benevolence or violence of the past and its people don’t matter, …
Doe. A Deer.
It's easy to get some haiku in your e-mail. Subscribing does it.
where corrosion tastes sweeter than living with shame
they taught you to hurt with your words— spitting out nails jagged with corrosion as they filled your mouth with an iron infusion, that bitter taste you have when your mouth fills with blood the third time he hit you and then called it love. and you held each wound to that slick, scarlet weight behind fractured bone, …
Hint: It’s not through perfection
Credit: In writing this, I was influenced by Jeremy Baker ’s four-poem cycle in The Process (see below). Like the “death flash” of an incandescent light bulb Our heartache often pains most Right before it finally releases us - But even when we are released The pain doesn’t vanish completely …
EARTHQUAKE IN KUMAMOTO TRILOGY
Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Disclaimer:This piece has nothing to do with earthquakes or Japan R.I.P to the Kumamoto victims and condolences to the family Dedicated to anyone who’s been friendzoned or brotherzoned Jesus still loves you 😂🤣😔 EARTHQUAKE: Interlude …
Love me with all abandon
Love me with all abandon Like a tight rope walker with no safety harness Like every few rockets self-combust And a few good men fall to their deaths for any decent skyscraper Older folks still save it for puppies Teenagers every Saturday night Drag race in bucket seats So ER nurses know us by name …
Poetry about Memory, Aging, and Southern Forests
I’m wrapping up a rare visit with family in Windsor, the rather opposite realm from where I’ve been. The following poems were mostly written during my time away from the North, with the exception of “To Fear To Feel.” The rest will be found in my upcoming book, “ …
the unsolved unresolved anguishing
“Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night. When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had…
An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Day 336: HELD BY OCEAN "You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop." ~ Rumi Whenever I feel adrift amidst personal grief, or a sense of despair about our shared world, I take myself down to the shore. Over and over, day after day, I arrive before sunset and stay until dusk, …
bb., rotten poetry
the air holds countless ghostly wishes i’ve whispered and screamed for a truth i’ve never touched you’re breathing one as you read so please tell me it’s all just figments of rotten bits from an imagination that found the wild and ran too far tell me that i still cry when i break even my own belongings …
The psychology of patience
The psychology of patience Going to fail want to give up If I miss a move I forgive myself Not attached to outcome Stop and look and think Take a breath It is just a game The randomness of life Surprises Cannot predict Quiet reflection To see the pattern Cannot do it but can rearrange to see another pattern …
children of palestine, sudan, congo, syria, yemen, lebanon, kashmir, afghanistan among others
dedication: every child history counted as collateral Thanks for reading writing made me an insomniac ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. blood has dried. and history does not smell like iron or smoke or ash. those were the ingredients only …
Rivertops, by David K. Leff, from II Shore and River (in the Blue Marble Gazetteer)
Rivertops I follow brooks upgradient to heights quite low, sources of flowing water braided of springs, vernal pools, seeps and swamps where streams marry gravity, rush seaward. It’s not so simple as tracing a drop falling on a slope, or seeking moisture sweating from humus, percolating in pockets of sand and gravel, …
July 29, 2026
The day feels complete Before the evening begins Enough accomplished AYO is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
My Mind
My mind My mind makes me believe, I’m shy Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. It makes me believe I’m a loner My inability to believe in my self Traps me in a make believe world Where I’m the only one that needs help …
musings on the fragility of skin
I know you fold inwards, Like the paper-mâché elephant in my room. i. to that unfinished work-of-art i know you fold inwards, like the paper-mâché elephant in my room. i know you hiss like the paper-dove pinned to my ceiling fan. my skin, i know you separate like a paper-cobra— all wide-eyed and undone. …
Ghazal: A lyric poem of independent couplets linked by a repeated refrain and rhyme, traditionally exploring themes of love, longing, loss, or the unattainable.
Glass across the horizon, a mirror, untouched by my breath— You cut against water easily, with no current there. The heron cries, then spreads wings for flight A fleeting glance of blue in sky, how I wish I were there. Hands once warm, now cold beneath the chop Reach out again for what remains uncertain there. …
giants stomp the ground - throwing tantrums, they tremble - their tears wash the land
giants stomp the ground throwing tantrums, they tremble their tears wash the land Anne's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
...still showing up while burning inside
for centuries they have called the sun happy a golden thing, the sign of hope, of warmth, the promise of new beginnings without even asking, if it ever wanted to begin again each morning, the sun drags itself above the horizon, paints the world golden, leaves its sparks all around, pretending that shining …
If someday you wake up
If someday you wake up and don't find me around, have you ever thought what if I'm nowhere to be found? You will never notice until all that's left is you alone, or when you find nobody to text on your phone. You will never notice until someone breaks your heart, a close one you prioritized until they tear you apart. …
a formula for living
the process of respiration: inhale oxygen, metabolize, exhale carbon dioxide - the deeper logic of respiration: receive, transform, release - i repeat: receive, transform, release receive, transform, release - the process of human nourishment: inhale kindness, exhale generosity inhale trust, exhale loyalty …
Yes, I write poetry too. This is a satirical, lyrical poem.
Propaganda Propaganda, propaganda Hey, hey, hey goodbye It’s everywhere, one side and the other. Makes me think of Mother should I trust the government? Propaganda, propaganda hey, hey, hey get high (on propaganda) Snort it smoke it spike it stream it everyone’s hooked on instant information instant gratification …
An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Day 335: TAKING A BIG SIP Her name is Tess. This classic old rose with her delicate fruity-myrrh fragrance is named for the Thomas Hardy novel, Tess of the D’urbervilles. More formally, in the botanical sense, she is known as Ausmove . Still a wee thing in my garden, I adore her. …
A Poem
I reached the forest of old men just as your final, yellow leaf fell down and fluttered where, beneath decaying limbs, we feel again in brief our little springtimes pass into our summer’s lurid growth. In centuries, Tadeusz, we will both be handfuls of this fertile mass of earth, but for a little while …
From my upcoming book, "Dogs Know All Our Secrets: The Poetry and Poetic Prose of a Teacher in Gjoa Haven"
How many times we've collectively said, "I can't, i can't, I can't" Only to toss muddy packsacks on your backs, and take another crack? And then our own weary bodies are to be hauled, face down, breathing in Another stolen hayloft's sweetness... Nuzzled upon your own sweaty back, Not knowing where you want to go: …
the sky outside my window drips from our old leaky faucet I’ve been meaning to fix it these hands forgot how and the clouds engulf sleeping dishes smothering their dreams to be clean, to be… new… again… apologies, where were we? there was a storm coming, that’s right… you knew when; …
A poem I wrote. Can you figure out the hidden meaning?
Collective scrolls lead to words reread. We yell to the Goddess of Script, She answers only to sacrifices made. Her strands are braided with whispers and chimes. Blue-lit eyes, piercing our minds. We ask to summon a lost name. One that lives within a cloud. We arch our backs as we bellow and gasp, And groan. …
July 28, 2026
Sweat proves effort spent Work measured in salt and sun Honesty shines on AYO is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
What I am doing instead of what I should be doing at this coffeeshop.
Crying In a coffeeshop of all places My brain is supposed to be buzzing Ideas flowing New ventures Million dollar dreams While my eyes expose me My truth My longing I can’t plan it away It just comes The tears Flowing down Triggered by words On a paper Why Why can’t I be normal Now Now is not the time to bleed …
A Poem on the Connection and Passion of Mutual Self-pleasure
My lip quivers Staring at my reflection With you behind me I’ve let you down Tonight was the night I pinky promised That was the deal “Not tonight. Tomorrow for sure.” My words from last night They ache in my head Like a migraine Ache like my limbs The one’s I’m furious with The ones that are too sore …
The poem The poem that poem it speaks Of course it speaks they are words It speaks to soul, spirit, sound as Poem you sing to me Resonate sings such a song of hope Words of the poem are sad, bad where is the hope The hope is sound forget words forget It is rhythm that dances like waves that tumble play …
Cosmesis (Overture)
The universe is a fractal fractal fractal [[ h y p e r - n a rr a t i v e ]] [which is to say it is an infinitely self-similar ∞ story object] a fantasy written in matter and motion and T1/\/\3 and s p a c e All things exist as both phenomena within the story and iterations of the story, recursively …
A POV poem.
And you are the second person to write that way. Which is typical of you. I will be the first person to say you are always doing that. She will be the third person in this story. At least by your count. And mine too. The third person says it’s all up to you. But then she’s always saying that, at least when it’s her…
what a beautiful place.
My kink is seeing God in your eyes before you blink like you’re catching fire from the inside. Your pupils dilate and I can feel the entire cosmos in green hues and suddenly I feel like I’m drowning in truth because somewhere inside of you I am too. God split himself in two sets of eyes to experience the surprise …
A poem
This poem was brought to you by a few sources of inspiration. Firstly Alexander Tkachuk and this piece he wrote. This man knows how to use words. Secondly I have had multiple interactions on here lately and over the course of my time on Substack that have really opened my eyes to what people can infer from what I say. …
Tailored faithfully to the outline of my insecurities
I began to feel as though I hated myself from the springtime of my adolescence, When treacherous thoughts would engulf me, when my emotions weighed too heavily, When every response turned into an endless spiral. My own soul seemed to speak in an indecipherable language, …
Erotic Poetry
Vianne: Left Soft Bound: Right Sharp supple, and sanguine the colour of blood and ruddy skin you emanate danger in a way that calls me in asks me to be brave to endure the depths of you enjoy it too whispers like seed, shouts like flame a fire comes at the end of your fruit as you birth, bloom and root into me, …
Jesus, my sweet peace Your presence is my oasis Your love, my well how i long to know more of You more of what You think more of what You feel more of You less of me less of what i think less of what i feel more of You Jesus, my sweet peace clothe me with Your glory until all i see is You Your servant is here …
maybe someday, I'll smile
Maybe someday, I’ll smile I’m drugged, smuggled in a world where reality seems like a planted bug. Where everything is normal and nothing is sacred Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Im digging my own grave and my hands can do no more in. …
"A sentence so beautiful it startles me, until I remember I cannot immediately place it inside your hands."
"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger." - Emily Brönte A sentence so beautiful it startles me, until I remember I cannot immediately place it inside your hands. I want to remember …
Green
the “weeds,” newly mown hints of rosemary, onion yes, green has a scent I can smell it, can you? When you see the mowers on the roadside, slow down and lower your window. Then you will join the ranks of those of us who know what green smells like. Write a haiku about smelling a color. Share it in the comments. …
My words on the complexity of grief
Grief is a state I have come to know all too well. And why I say state is because I believe grief is way more powerful to be considered just an emotion. Grief is a state of being. Something that consumes your entire existence. It consumes your entire life. …
If my hands / could be used / to write a poem / my hands / used / to write / if a poem could write / my hands / can write / the poem / write with my hands / the poem / my father could not / hold the poem / my mother’s hands / could not write / the poem / is my hands / my mother’s / unable to write / a poem / he / …
I'm not quite sure what has gone down the drain, but it wanted to.
Poem Down the drain trickles The water from my mouth as I spit out soap mixed with Vermouth. Any cleansing agent I could use to detox the truth From my tastebuds. The sense of hesitation flows Through porcelain pipes below Blue Crane plumbing staring Back at me. I am imagining The underground tunnel of …
To poem I wrote in 2020 that started it all & taking the month of August off from conversations.
This past week, my dear friend Cami Codell, of Cami Codell Yoga the 3 OMs Podcast , so kindly invited me to be interviewed for her show. In speaking with her, I went back to the origin of this body image work and why I started doing it in the first place. We spoke a lot about the short film I wrote and produced back…
loved this poem when i wrote it on april 18, 2025; it makes me a little sick now.
IF OUR LOVE IS A POEM WORKSHOPPING IS USELESS We’ll start with what works, right? What works: the syntax of it all; the way I arrange my words to fit the shape of your body. We are sometimes, or often, the subjects of each other’s sentences. The beat works too, how our chests rise and fall …
THE MERMAIDS TRILOGY
I)Man She had me, had me he Miss Jill taught me love was rain; mine was an El Niño flood, trying to sink the gold I never had I lacked the gills, the lungs to breathe Still, like a mermaid, I was lost in who I was Respiratory, constantly violating a heart bewitched by a siren How it behaved before the babe, …
A pantoum is a poem made up of four-line stanzas that originated in traditional Malaysian poetry, with the repetition of lines in later stanzas to create an interwoven, echoing pattern.
The mountains keep the sounds of hope dying in their limbs— A last warm embrace before the chill of Hades welcomes us home Like safflowers wait in hulls, white with time And the silver strands I wrap around my fingers. A last warm embrace before the chill of Hades welcomes us home. …
A frantic writing when i felt extremely overwhelmed in a hotel in a strange place.
5/14/23 A name as one could ever be you never fully close your eyes always letting a peak through not comfortable with being alone i guess no one is when i stand outside i always look up and i let the universe become its a person to me in some way like i imagine a god in religions …
It Should Have Been Done A Long Time Ago
Fear and wonder vie for space Thanks for reading Daniel L. French, MD Author! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. In thoughts pierced by your words, “Let’s dance.” Surprise and joy soon erased By well-known phantoms often faced, Their festering wounds I failed to lance. …
On the Beach, by David K. Leff in II Shore & River
On the Beach Note: Oh, yes, please read this one aloud. Loved this line, about the water and the beach. “Its force tugs on my bones, reptilian brain dumbly possessed.” On the Beach Ebb tide, air rich with scents of salted decay, the rot and recycling of life. Sea rushes to shore with rhythmic pulses, …
Everyday at noon i pass by an old woman, searching for pennies on the roadside. She ambles here and there on the streets of all lands, till the noon is replaced by starry night. I sometimes see her returning with fists full of pennies, or sometimes with empty hands. She fumbles her words in the air as i walk by, …
No Whale In Sight The fields of mustard vast enough to acquire height. The lookouts in the crosstrees. Ivory-gulls bracket small imitations of arches. Words only amaze me. The outward ornaments of a turtle-shell. This afternoon is this afternoon. An armless man selling gum near the bus stop his thick stumps …
A Poem A Week: One Year Done
Fifty-two weeks done As I wave to Sisyphus We are still standing * Fired twice, and friends passed My future is uncertain Yet, I carry on * Pressure continues And it presses and crushes And I’m no diamond * I’m tired all the same I wait for just a moment And put on my mask * One year gone, one step forward …
I shared this poem and read it the other day in a video and some of you asked for the written version. Here it is:
Your Little Day So make the most of this, your little day, Your little month, your little year of power; Make laws, demand our language bend your way, And call our ancient boundaries outworn. For women have faced mightier men than you, Men armed with law, with scripture, fist, and throne; …
A poem a day
Ain’t it special? We all one breath away from infinity. How it end and begin again. How you see the smile of those you’ve lost In those you’ve gained Almost like they never left Ain’t it special?
he could never ascend, so he forced an angel to fall.
you were loved by an angel, yet you preferred miracles with clipped wings— and so you plucked her feathers, until ribbons of flesh hung limp from her carved back like an unravelled prayer. you gathered every bloodied plume rolling each between your fingers before scattering them to the wind like dandelion clocks— …
by Romy Taylor
A Poem In My Pen By Romy Taylor 20260728 Is there a poem in my pen tonight? A rhyme that is ready, a verse that is ripe? Is my pen feeling chatty, witty, or wise, Is it pithy, sassy, deep, or quiet? Is there something you wish to say, dear pen? Please let me know how you’d like to begin, …
it’s summer again, and I wonder, how long will it take for another dreadful december, to gnaw at our ribs? the butterfly has crossed past us, with its yellow wings, surrounding us like cobwebs, that melts off like dewdrops— on november’s foggy mornings. yet, we haven’t chased the kitten, or the dragonfly, …
such a still morning - remembering winter white - the long emptiness
such a still morning remembering winter white the long emptiness Anne's Substack is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This poem called “Dunluce Castle” was inspired by experiences with a friend in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 2021. It was my first time in Ireland! We went to Dunluce Castle, other parts of the beautiful County Antrim Coast, The Lamppost Cafe, and different places in Belfast associated with C. S. Lewis. I look back on…
what?
I added it all up the bullet the blade the way the brain surgeon drew on my face a bulbous blue head a Russian crusade surgeons shoot fireworks off in the rain on the top off the parking garage on a break tubes and wires and do you know your name? count backwards from ten …
i was reincarnated as jack kerouac on a moving vessel scuzz adorned the lower deck i called out to woodrow from above “come arrest yourself!” i did my tasks on the solitary voyage alone together bound by orders what’s the date? man the navy, 1944, back back back now to moby dick, i am whaling i am the mast itself …
which may be somewhat redundant
This publication exists because of PAID Subs. A subscription means a lot to me. I’ve written 38 haiku style poems as epigraphs for the chapters of my upcoming novel. Some of them deserve an audience of their own. These all lean on the theme of seasons, which is typical of traditional Japanese haikus—or so I’m told…
poem.
My heart is broken. Thousand pieces lost in dust. Left in the shadow of perfect love. The sea made me sour, the way the sea is made of salt. I still remember your roses, wilting while you slept so sound. Sorry, I wrote this in advance I don’t wanna cry no more. But since I love beginnings, I despise the bitter ends. …
I am a poet, But I can't capture you. I am a singer, But I can't sing your verse. I am a painter, But I can't sketch you. I am a lover, But you can't love me As I do. But my love, I captured you in my eyes. I captured your voice in my ears. I captured your smile in my heart. You will be forever in my heart. …
cut me all the way to my bones
cut me all the way to my bones, and don’t stop there, dig your dagger all the way to my soul, and let the black bleed of my wicked vitality. dig it deeper, till you feel the monsters on your blade, who reside in me, they drink tears with pleasure, they take my brain away. dig your dagger deeper, twist it, better …
was there a truth that i missed through the wired phoneline?
“I believed every word that you read Every glorified tome by the side of your bed When you swore you’d go right Then you went left instead How was I supposed to know? Oh, Did I miss the sign when you’d answer my call? Like if between the lines, did one breath say it all? …
Missing what it never had, breathes in sighs
I dreamed of your aglow eyes last night, I whispered to the moon and she brought, Memories of us in return to my request, Loving you was my most challenging quest. Collecting traces of your legacy in my mind, Storing them in my verses, reunited by the wind, Confessing to the trees, the forest now cries, …
for the mother who became my first wound
A confessional free verse poem which explores the enduring psychological legacy of maternal abuse and memory . Do you still remember my voice after you have fallen asleep, in that state between deep and conscious, when everything beyond the darkness is fading into an inconsequential whisper? …
all i can see is the bruise
it is so easy to remember people by what they are reduced to — their death, their absence, that one time they were cruel in a unique, profound way. the worst thing they ever did. i find it hard to believe a single action can determine the posture of your heart but i do it to you all the time. i forget your laugh. …
poems sunday morning Gulf of Mexico
"I tell you, if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out". —a scribe’s account of Jesus Christ’s response to the joyful noise of the crowd as he passed riding into Jerusalem on a donkey —-—-—-—-—-—-— 1: “your reality is divine” said the rock on Sunday morning no crowd surrounding me preacher warming up far away …
a collection of poetic retrospective journal entries (with voiceover)
TRIGGER WARNING: briefly mentions sexual assault and suicidal ideation. I don’t go into any detail in this piece, but don’t want anyone to be surprised by the mention. july 7th 2007 it’s my 14th birthday. my first boyfriend surprises me with a bouquet and a hand-drawn card and a new tennis racket. …
a poem
let me be gentle with you, i don’t mean for a moment, or only on the days you make loving look effortless, i mean on the mornings when you’ve barely slept, when the world has already asked too much of you before you’ve even left the bed, when your first instinct is still to apologize for things …
the weight in your bones
Sunspots emerald green, purple, blue sun— is it me, or is it you? I always hold the stare just one moment too long. Peach hanging from the tree the sun gets it ready— like me, bruising easily ready before you think— before you can see. Your gaze across the street watching the white lines your feet— never me. …
El Diario de un Lunático #7
The dream of return is one that keeps many refugees, displaced, immigrants, and others going. Regardless of the circumstances, sometimes it’s war, sometimes famine, sometimes a dream of a better life. For me, it was a combination of all that. I will return, alive, or a corpse, but I will return! I wrote it when I was…
this is not goodbye.
people come and go, but i really wish we had stayed. i wish we didn’t need to outgrow ourselves, so we’d forever fit into each other’s shape. because now my palms are vast, and you’re slowly slipping through my hold. but my tongue is still fluent in the tale we promised we'd write until we were old. …
Even my goodbyes have chemistry 🤎
There is a certain kind of feminine power you don’t recognize until you notice people still feeling you long after you’ve gone. I used to think presence was about arrival. The entrance. The perfume. The heels touching the floor. The outfit doing exactly what I paid for it to do. The soft smile before I say hi. …
a poem
Little girl You’ve no friend But your teeth You could never see The trees for the forest The blood for the poppies Fist closed tight around your Milk-wet Love Dripping like cracked egg From the wrecked nest You’d hoped to die in To be alive is to be Wasted A wretched thing Always Going the wrong way Into the dark …
On mountainous, forested roads
On mountainous, forested roads There exist the highwaymen And the protruding deer We fear the former But should attend the latter The mind, such the royal jester Prescribing a third option Slow for the deer Get mobbed by the highwaymen.
Your daily haiku helping
Today’s daily haiku prompts are fireworks and carrot: carrot tops rising from the ground fresh fireworks down in their burrow the rabbits hide from fireworks carrots left alone in the salad bowl carrot, radish, tomatoes a firework display Well that proved to be an interesting prompt combination, testing my early…
"I am proud of you in ways that have nothing to do with triumph. Can you be proud of you?"
"There are darknesses in life and there are lights, and you are one of the lights, the light of all lights." - George Eliot Longing, that old and faithful animal, lifts its head inside my chest. It always knows your name. I am proud of you in ways that have nothing to do with triumph. Can you be proud of you? …
i'm a poet y'all
i hope this reached you with hair in your mouth i hope this reached you with hair in your mouth i hope this reached you with hair in your mouth like i left half my soul inside your house every goodbye grew roots through the floor you dead bolted daylight. i came through the spores …
there’s always another train and in a year, everything will be different again — but i’m not there yet so everybody is moving on and sometimes when i’m in public or in your favourite places, i still pray to find you. yes, you. the girl i was. …
3,000 years ago
I was going to go see ‘The Odyssey’ tonight, but now I’m not (I’ll see it in the coming days, though; it’s now at the local cinema which is 45 seconds from my little flat). in the meantime, I’m really enjoying all the reactions to it online — they’re ranging from love to absolute derision, and sometimes on the same…
1st March 2025, another old poem
Cut, cut, cut. Your absence makes me cut myself Like a new addiction, It replaces my love, Makes my grief valid, Makes your absence easier. But not quite. Lost in my tears And the blade gets closer. The cold tip of it, reminds me of your fingers. You both are the same. Both hurt me Both make me bleed. Both an…
Thoughts from the bargain bin
After searching so long for the Flawless Specimen, I suddenly knew that in the flea market of life We all go "As Is". And we write our own price tags. ~ Mae Govannen Leave a comment
a flower and song
Ivory laden, pristine, an angel draped in oblivion She winced at the bellows of obsidian-clawed butterflies The scowls of the filth eaters; The laments of swamp grass twisted with flowers, As the cries of her daughters echoed. “The eagle descended but the Jaguar remains” In the dark places …
Your voice deserves a life beyond the walls that first heard it.
Have you ever wondered that, except for you, nobody else knows your entire story? People may know bits and pieces, but only you know the full body of it: the deaths and rebirths, the tiny victories so small that no one else notices, yet you do every time you smile at the mirror. Should one share their story? YES. But…
A poem of longing, unrequited young love, and how badly it hurts to see the one you desire with someone else.
I have a confession to make: I have been trying to come up with a poem that would be worthy of my first post on this publication… and all I came up with was frustration and metaphorical crumpled paper... So, I decided that you know what, I’ll give myself 15 minutes to come up with the best poem that I can: no time to…
the first poem I wrote
Millions of tragedies but yours shattered me. Maybe not a tragedy at all? Just a peaceful death. But for me, my world burnt. I was the fire. There was a distance between us, While you lived, The one I couldn't cover. But now maybe there's no distance at all. Maybe you look at me each moment I live, …
To my oldest friend.
It is summer again, and I am once more surrounded by the familiar hum of my hometown. The streets that raised us have remained faithfully untouched by time; the sidewalks remain unchanged, and the same ancient trees still cast their familiar shade each June. Beneath their branches linger the echoes of afternoons long…
A Poem
I feel a little bad for posting so little here in the past month, but I have had some personal matters to attend to and have also been much distracted by reading poems for the September issue of Poems for Persons of Interest . The submission deadline is fast approaching and, whatever I may write to entertain myself, I…
A poem about a woman flirting with a man at a club
Dear readers, Many of you are new to Poetry Pitara. So I want to thank you for giving me an opportunity to entertain you. I have been responding to your comments on the poems and the questions I leave you with at the end of every post. And these discussions have been so meaningful! …
Dear Anne and Emily,
Dear Anne and Emily, You look for signs of life in the sand. Small indentations of movement, breath. Then you dig and dig as Grandma Kathy taught you. You pose next to Grandma with your tools for digging. Emily wears her Middle School Choir shirt. Anne holds a clam in her hand. Next year she will join the…
Breakdown The bus I’ve boarded is filled with passengers whose mouths have just closed after months of singing. Little starfish, or cloves, punctuate above their chins. The driver breathes and shifts heavily on his vinyl seat. The first floating neon sign sputters on. I feel I am a threat, an inappropriate …
Poem 2 from my 3:00 am Erotica Series
you lie down like a pilgrim as I cup your head and pull you in. your lips harvest heaven, excavating blood rubies from my skin. i worship leathery, petal-like texture, tipped with primrose pink. in your eyes, i unbearably sink. IN. darkness escalates, and i enter the void. OUT. your scintillating soul is mine. IN. …
introspection
this is the first real poem i ever wrote from my soul. i was seventeen and had just dropped out of college after only a year. due to my home life, my mental health pushed past social anxiety and took me to the brink of agoraphobia. i struggled terribly to function day-to-day and exhausted my mind trying to understand…
Who I was, if someone asked Oh dear, when convo end, I hope atleast you'll remember me as The one who was just a friend. Included in the group, yet Just a friend who walked behind. Included in the discussions, yet Just a friend they talked behind. Picnics, pools, the mall, the beach Just a friend left out of reach. …
A little introduction of myself, my poetry journey, and examples of my current poetic work!
Hello everyone and welcome to my new poetry publication, Spicy P Poetry ! Over the last few weeks, I have been really falling in love with poetry of all kinds from so many amazing authors here on Substack! I’ve mentioned it a few times but a big thanks to T. Vale and Dragon Ezme …
When Love Becomes Poetry People often ask me why I write about love so much. The truth is, I don’t think I chose love. I think love chose me. Not simple kind that exists between two people holding hands beneath a sunset, but the one that rearranges your soul. It teaches you things no classroom ever could. The kind…
a new poem by T.F. Burke
Their words are sweet, To cover the poison's bitter taste, Their smiles are deceit, Their favors beg your haste, Before you can see, See right through, Their pernicious lies, And their red flag eyes, While proclaiming the value in you, You're not the fool, They grandstanded their ovations, You're still you, …
May be you never felt what I felt for you, But my eyes always waited for you. You became the person whom I admire the most. You are such a pericious part of my heart. Even willingly, I couldn't apart it. I never wished that you love me like As I did. But I wished that you notice me. …
a Born Battle Ready prompt
Buy me a coffee! If you enjoy my work, buy me a coffee on Kofi my digital tip jar! Falling, Into what I see, Breaking, Traditions that are instinct to me, Betraying, Societal norms ingratiating me, Pretending, To deny the burdens that assimilate me, Destroying, Walls built of placated imagery, Befalling, …
a poem
almost. ❈ like an injured bird— does not understand— and slips through the hands. ❈ almost. ❈ like the daytime—which becomes the nighttime before it’s fulfilled. ❈ almost. ❈ like the echoes latched the door. like a blink— murdered all my dreams. ❈ almost. ❈ my words are stolen from the space between …
A letter to the soul: Channeling what hurts you into what heals you; when weakness becomes strength
I am a poet through and through I pass my mind from me to you Until I die I’ll pour my soul Into the words that make me whole I am a person Flesh and bone Decalcify my heart of stone Lay my darkness down to rest Allow my light the chance to crest From me to you I bare my core So that you might see me more …
a poem
I want them all Every great story, every fairytale all mine I don’t want a best possible future I want the best of all the one without the regrets of the past the lost chances, the goodbyes the one they promised me I’ll have if I listened to my heart and tried my best …
The world sits outside my existence like a country I've never known the language of.
Slowly slipping beyond the reach of everyone. Not knowing I'm alive. The world sits outside my existence like a country I've never known the language of. Vomited words splinter deep buried in the place where I used to stand. Something strangles me with bloodied talons. Doesn't announce itself. Just tightens. …
can you breathe my life back in?
“life is just well-played russian roulette spinning across the yard bringing us to our ends.” bit-by-bit , corner by corner, inky black creeps in. coughing up lake-water and watching memories hit like craters: sticky fingers and popsicles under storm-bitten sky. lung cavity, brittle and in demise …
Do we end in death or simply change?
When we die what do we become, do we cease altogether or do we return to what we were from the beginning. Does the life we have ever end, or do we simply change and grow. I am an apple tree Sometimes i wish that i believed in the hereafter. That when i speak up at the heavens you can hear. …
IYKYK
Credit: I was inspired to write this after listening to some haunting guitar music posted by Jeremy Baker Lyrics by me; music by Suno: I know Everything’s all messed up now And we’re falling apart, so far far you are And I’m so tired, so tired, and so damn sad We’re falling apart …
Typed, not sent.
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published I know it’s sunnier for you - all of this. Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published You cloud the way you see me, Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published Fog how you acted, …
till we meet again
you were the sun to my sky, only way my mornings smiled from the laughter in the fields, to the nights we ran in the wild. . now you’ve left my world grey the sun doesn’t shine anymore i constantly lose track of time searching and screaming for an open door. . the door that would lead me to you, …
The bird was never meant to live underwater, and the fish was never meant to live in the sky.
For a long time, I believed love could answer that question. I thought if two people love each other enough, they would eventually find a place where they both belonged. But maybe the saddest truth is that some questions were never meant to have an answer. …
a poem on dirt, womanhood, and rising
whore and petrichor tarry eyes, lungs, and souls have no right to judge her as she removes her robe to please their inner ghoul who doesn’t stop he cannot stop he has been fed since childhood all goddesses who hold immeasurable power are drawn as terrifying when they might have beauty as electrifying …
My little poem about poetry
Ode to Poetry This is for the poetry that isn’t poetry-- for songs that attach themselves to your soul and don’t let go; songs whose verses make you feel seen, though songs don’t have eyes and you don’t have a soul. This is for Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, and Leonard Cohen; gods in their own right, …
I once penned a poem of merely two lines: “May I indulge in dreams, a moment longer? For it hurts so deeply when I open my eyes.” I had always perceived love as a cruel coincidence, something destined to remain beyond my reach. Yet, after gazing at a single smile of yours for hours on end, I found I no longer…
...where ink meets the soul
the pen I’ve held since I first knew the quiet power words could hold became the keeper of my dreams, its ink more precious than gold I dreamed to be a voice that’s felt, not only read and then forgotten but one that leaves a mark on hearts where silent, fragile hopes awaken to be a poet shaping rhythms …
Not every poem is a confession.
𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑖𝑡'𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐼 𝑑𝑜, 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑡 𝑚𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑦𝑜𝑢. 𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑜𝑛, 𝐿𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑜𝑜𝑛. 𝐼𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒, 𝐵𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑒𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝑊ℎ𝑦 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛'𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑠𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑠 𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑠𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑚, 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑦 𝑗𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑠 …
Erotic Poetry
I fell into love by chance stumbled blind into blaze tempestuous seduction quietly explosive we danced as you lie with me now rest in my arms I feel your weight drop away we fall open kissing like electricity alive desperate for touch not rushing, my cunt cries belly laughs wild warmth my wet ache screams …
A reply poem written to all the people who noticed me.
This is for all of you wonderful people who found my first poem, reached back through the silence, and gave me something I didn't realize I needed so badly: the feeling that someone was listening. Thank you so very much! My Original Poem I had already begun to fold the dream away. Not with anger, not with spectacle, …
Poem 1 of 3:00 am Erotica
i bite your lip. the lightness of your being initiates me. you breathe onto me, devoutly. i close my eyes and i am in the forests i escape to in my mind. trails of vines, pearl canines, consecrated signs. kiss. my tongue on your palate, the way i always want it. a channel of life force energy. love is a hunger pang …
39 poems ago I didn't knew I was gonna fall in love with these words, Cuz I never considered poetry as a part of myself. It felt so foreign, So like a rocket science. But then I met him, Or should I say I fell for him. He became the muse for all my love poems, And for my sad ones? I had enough trauma to fix them. …
Everything felt easy every moment, every breath. Then suddenly, everything changed. Without any sign, without any warning. No signal was given, no shore was found. Everything just kept flowing quietly, like the currents of a river. Whose voice was it? I don’t know. Whose pain was it? I don’t know. …
A poem
Why do you keep the door locked? Are you afraid of what might happen if you let me in? Ignore me if you must. I won’t go quietly. I’ll follow breadcrumbs and meet you at the end. I could’ve been your prodigy. You could’ve had me all to yourself. Put me up on your shelf; your crowning achievement. Are you afraid …
by the black flower
hello beloved before i give you this poem… we live in a world that has decided that emotional openness is a character flaw. that to feel deeply is to be naive. that to love without armor is to be asking for it. that presence, real presence, the kind that costs you something, is either a manipulation tactic or a sign…
An Ode
You pulled the craziest hat trick Your needling shoves and smiling eyes Pulled me out of words What is a boy to do? A coarse cooing laugh shielded me From man’s sprawling infantry Its billion charred pupils Hollowed from banished thought Your love a permanent autumn So haunting we always skipped to spring …
to love is to admire
To love is to admire, to know and to adore. Through all its changes and its forms, to say i know you and i will know you more each day. Moons You are my moon, endlessly i stare at you. Ever changing slightly, always right there. Every day i look and see, a new piece of you i get to find. The wrinkle next to your eye, …
is everything is poetry.
The truth about poetry is the art of noticing. The dust floating. The clouds melting. The empty cemetery. The wind confessing. The light bending. The fear of the ordinary. The truth about poetry is that everything is poetry. Every stranger is a reflection. Every answer becomes a question. Every dream is a confession. …
a poem
it could've been, "when i die young", but thats too heavy, so no if i die young, show him every poem, play the audios of me singing, tell him everything, and assure him i love him most she can have my pink guitar, she knows how to play it- from the heart she can have my vinyls, too in the end, thank you for staying …
maybe you wish you had missed.
A drop in my breath, all in an instant, you let it slip stabbed me in the chest— maybe you wish you had missed. A life acted out in accordance with your demands, your wishes. A body destroyed pieces pulled apart dragged back again a new design a different layout that I can’t bear to look at. Where I couldn’t reach you …
a poem
you chose me first, how? i dont deserve how you look at me, eyes full of love and a mouthful of cheer you say i'm beautiful, but are you sure? i don't deserve your flirty texts, how you smile when i laugh i tell you, "i love you," you always say, "i love you more." how could i ever deserve this? …
More dust than sea
Tears, only tears I weep more dust than sea and grasp for creativity finding only sand that sears I Only Wanted warmth Elusive is my muse who no longer knows my name No clarion call, only the same weight on weight accrues I Only Wanted…you This poem isn’t done yet. I’m sharing it anyway… …
a tribute to a lover and a refusal to let the world harden us
hello beloved. i thought to myself this morning how relentlessly life tries to harden us. perhaps that’s what life has always done. the more your eyes open, the more your heart opens, the more your mind opens, the more the world enters you. beauty arrives, yes, but so does grief, injustice, cruelty, loneliness and the…
rotten poetry
in the center of the page i exist like a ritual in command shredded to a shred of who i am—where i am always halfway in a poem trailing the threshold of something destruction tumbling into the night of nothing fear buffering in the favor-filled stillness where a mind in survival is enough …
A poem in surrender, in cages willingly entered, and in the knot no one can untie
I lost the whole world in you. I want to say this simply before anything else — not as complaint, not as accusation, not as the kind of sentence that asks for an apology. Just — as fact. As the truest thing I have ever had to say about myself. I loved you. And in the loving I lost everything else. …
On the Cost of Talent
Poems speak for the poet. This poem speaks for itself, and the poet speaks for himself. I am THE POET. My verses sweeten the struggles of others, adding melody to pain, fragrance to open wounds. They all enjoy my words— Relate Resonate Reborn to live To experience hardships, dancing. I am THE STRANGER. …
it’s summer now. the ceiling fan has become a permanent soundtrack again, because the afternoons arrive swollen with heat and laziness, because the mangoes in my kitchen are ripening faster than i can eat them. when i step outside, the air feels thick enough to hold in my hands. …
I think yearning is proof of life.
I yearn, proudly. You know what’s funny? Somewhere along the way, yearning became embarrassing. Wanting things became embarrassing. Caring became embarrassing. Being excited became embarrassing. People started acting like the coolest thing you could be was detached. …
you were the black hole that consumed my every essence
i still see the colors in you. in your eyes, in your mouth, in your hair under sunlight. not just in the surface, but in the layers of paint. in the way you look at me and how i see a world in your glance. in the way you think over rainy days, how you resemble them. in the way you think over emotions. …
from someone who looks around for little forms of love.
I think some people love you so gently that if you’re not paying attention, you might miss it entirely. Not because the love is small. Just because it never needed an audience. It exists in strange places. In practical places. In the almost invisible habits people build around you over time. …
One of the things I will not admit to most people who know me is how desperately, deeply, embarrassingly I want to be loved. Not liked, admired or respected, though I want those things too. I mean loved . I want to be loved the way rain loves the ground. I want to be wanted the way a drowning person wants air. I want…
a masterclass in one short poem.
Your sound is faultless pure & round holy almost profound Your sound is your sound true & from within a confession soulful & lovely Poet whose sound is played lost or recorded but hear can you recall that 54 night at the Open Door when you & bird wailed five in the morning some wondrous …
poetry
On the Rocks He did not play god diagnose an exotic disease or scrub in with a nurse in the supply room. He did the most natural thing instead. He broke down. Soon everyone was breaking down. The other doctors, nurses, police, paramedics. I turned the channel. Even the news anchors on Fox were breaking down. …
At Some Point At some point the snake chokes on the bitterness of its own tail.
At Some Point At some point the snake chokes on the bitterness of its own tail. At some point the poet’s face grows lean and gaunt feeding on language and language alone. At some point the floor scored by walking walking walking gives way and the poet falls out into space and the air sings into his ears …
a haze of fruitless causality
a haze of fruitless causality flashes against the silver screen of my mind clouding the rests between notes hastily plucking at the strings impatient to await the conducting hand which with seeming superflouous wand in a flourish gives his flamboyant commands or lightning at midnight wailing sirens in a field …
A Poem Inspired by a Living Stream
For the grossly unaware, my man CORTEZ has a weekly livestream every Monday in which he starts and finishes an original poem . As he describes it, it’s like shitting on camera with a live audience. And much like shitting, the process isn’t always smooth — but we sit until the job is done! And so, he does; and so, he…
A poem of future communions
As I walk through pinewoods unarmed, a family of birds watches carefully expecting weapons where none lie. I have come to reclaim communion and let the pale legions die! But instead of giving welcome, they chirp amongst themselves. Sinners are sorry to be caught, the mother bird tells me. …
quatrains
You don’t remember our life together, the passionate nor the mundane. There are book with missing chapters. But what about Christmas? You must remember Christmas. Wasn't it worth remembering? Didn't the sun kiss you for at least that one day? On the other side of the world I know things are much worse than here. …
erasure no. 014
Woe be unto him whom desire has desired. The prophets of Love lay violent hands, give them egress from all evil. Every desire is a kind of worship. The heart is always giving itself to something, and in time it begins to bear the likeness of what it has chosen to love. Love does not merely condemn evil. It wrests the…
Poem #114
We listened to Telephone Line through a broken speaker, the keyboard drifted like air, though the electronics hissed with age. We always carried a memento — perhaps harsher days were still to come. Look how many echoes we gave to the sky. How hungry we were, on barren ground, beneath a harsh climate, …
Flank Upon Flank Upon Flank
Horses in the earth; the entire world held within a horse’s form, stars upon stars upon stars cord along the oceanic body flank upon flank upon flank, shadows fading in a heap-- the grains of sand vanish in the swell of the sea. The fires of tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, …
a poem
This life asks of us so much This life asks of us so much and so much, so much heaviness we’re asked to bear, but not only—this is the part that’s hardest to remember. Always there is some light flickering round the edges, always just enough to give the shadows form and outline shapes within the dark. Take heart, …
The sun and earth rotate. your head turns on its pivot when you weep.
The sun and earth rotate. your head turns on its pivot when you weep. the warmth drops out of the room, a dark mask pulled tight, slits for the eyes, tongue, and grief. our days slip past, film left unprinted. we move so lightly through it the dead feel ashamed for us. they watch. still, the minutes refuse to coil. …
I just think I think a lot
I just think I think a lot I think myself away to countries like ideas In a world that's only Real to me - I think you into it Moving with the speed of Consciousness. I just think I need not dream To imagine places disintegrating To see thoughts drift away As I float in techni-colour seconds …
A Poem
Rock Me Asleep Rock me baby, rock me asleep, And lullaby my weary eye, I’ve seen the world’s dark haunted deep, I’ve seen the oceans thin and dry; Rock me baby, rock me asleep, Make me promises kisses keep, I’ll slip you words that can’t be true, We’ll dream the dreams that love is due. Rock me baby, rock me asleep, …
with a chance of frogs, a dog, stars, and an octopus
asteroid belt we avoid Mars the left behind crumbs Marjorie Pezzoli - 2.26.26 Awesome to find to this song on Band Camp + two more with the free downloads. Video animation hack- download your IG reel. It was there the song and astronaut were added. …
a poem from Desert Orpheus
duende drones effloresced into my sightline — the night before, Sekhmet's blood flooded the xeriscape Desert floor unquenched, high noon ignited my infrared body to appear with you tonight at the M Cave where the feds obliterated Kenny Veach where we'd redshift across the adrenaline darkness …
Poem
“Music is a Presence” You feel its occasion as a pattern against absence. A hand, held lightly on the back of a neck, yours or anyone's. You are playing. You are played. A current you can feel— so you hop in & it does the rest. The body knows before the fingers. One momentary absolute opens burning, …
Hello friends,
Hello friends, Five pangrams this week. Enjoy! (And if you do, please consider supporting my work by purchasing either my omnibus edition Knit Ink (and Other Poems) or something from my store .) Alternatively, buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi ! A pangram uses every letter of the alphabet at least once. “ …
Rain, rain over deathless skies
Styx Passage Rain, rain over deathless skies. Rain-corrupted orchids, rain Over deathbound trains. Rain over Home, over sink of crows. Rain over lilacs, over boat. Crown of thorns, over Rose, over hope. Christ turns and grins, warmblue Through fog. ~Love, Claire …
Reflections on Faithful Familiarity
Back in June, I had the privilege of attending and leading a workshop for the Cultivate Conference in Greenville, SC. I am so grateful for the opportunity to connect with other writers and creatives of faith there. If you’re familiar with The Way Back to Ourselves ( Kimberly Phinney …
choose to look at it
choose to look at it like it’s something you’ll someday miss… stuff that annoys you things that set your teeth on edge the stupid things that bother you now will be the vanished parts you long for soon nostalgia cooks the good with the bad so that even sour moments taste somehow sweet to a future you… …
Image: Art By Anima
It ends with a steel stick Propped against A limestone wall Its plastic handle Your tight grip Up those stone steps A black sun hat Stops the rays From streaking across Mick’s scarred face Even now The careful mind Worried About ultraviolet light That’s already had its way The black snuck in We watch as children …
I was scared to love you. Terrified. But my heart did it anyway.
I think my heart knew you before I did. Before I knew your name. Before I knew how your voice gets softer when you are tired. Before I knew you would become the person I look for in every room. Some part of me knew you before I knew you. I don’t know how. Hearts just do that sometimes. Maybe my heart just saved a seat…
Noon Sung Son Sings
I was in the patio under the Sun's soliloquy trying to focus on the haunt of heat on skin, an effort to recall uniqueness ( or forceful forget of indifference? ) Diatribelly positioned at the liminal post of human pelt to discern whether perception pure accrues virtue sufficient to persist after the …
a new poem
Taste We’re all listless like Hemingway characters after the war. I’d rather be a mess than lie to people. So don’t take a cab up Broadway, trust me. For the young men in the sun it’s worth a walk though after five… even their adjective’s changing. Alas! Any day now I’ll stop buying flowers at bodegas …
A ghazal I wrote out of fomo. Will be improving.
With time hearts petrify to red stone, don’t waste time praying at your headstone. Old rivers will gloss over your dreams that you lay in, your white bed of stone. Cold hands can hold you, but brace when you reach for flesh and receive instead stone. Go out into the night seeking blood, …
A Simple Impression of the Skin by Nora Iuga
my dear dead one cheer me up I am a frightened puppy dragged from one dream into another where it rains and snows and nobody wants to play with me anymore I watch movies on TV where people dance people make love get drunk so many things that I can't do anymore I take refuge in the brain …
Nocturne No. 13
Do I become the magpie when I take its feather from the ground? And if I claim it as my own may chance be called no accident? So lost in thought and form, I see you emerging out of our early days confessing in the half-light voice ‘I don’t just want you, I want to be you…’ I swear to God, I felt the same— …
[Memory 1 of 3]
Backing away In a slow crawl Staring up Wide-eyed The face The eyes The shock The pain The presence The betrayal The memory Will forever haunt The memory Will forever hurt The memory Is the time I scared My son With my anger By: Trevor Kuether This is poem 1 of 3 in the Memory series. Share …
From Series #060 the radical, open surrender of Ewa Łączkowska meets the deep-earth web of Ana Cristina Caelen shifting from a coat for the lonely to the living pulse of the soil
untitled — Ewa Łączkowska step by step breath after breath I walk on the hot coals of sadness the name I carry with me like a heavy backpack filled with broken porcelain skin cracked from weariness favourable circumstances layer by layer, I peel myself off reaching for the raw meat of heart that is always …
How extraordinary to have survived all of my wrongs.
How extraordinary to have survived all of my wrongs. I arrived here with nothing but myself, the ghost of some long lingering forgotten touch. Sad cicada song, evening-dark bracing for impact. Elm trees in the yard, gnarled hearts drinking memory like promises. No coveting ignorance. No negotiations …
Poem : We were in a place where nothing was the right thing to say. We were stolen flowers from gardens along the moon-bright bay.
We were in a place where nothing was the right thing to say. We were stolen flowers from gardens along the moon-bright bay. You were in the street where nowhere was the right place to be. Just sailors with no more of the world to see. Morning finds your face. Brown butterflies cross the bay. Leave a comment Share
a prayer
The cross I took up when I followed you is getting too heavy now. I want to see the journey through, but I do not know how. So Lord, if I cannot keep up with you and fall to my knees on the way, have mercy upon me when I do: I only kneel to pray.
a poem inspired by a certain waterbear
centuries of hibernation crystallizing in a dried womb nothing can harm a moss-dweller unable to feel— but just as a drop of neptune stirs a waterbear from its slumber so did your pear-shaped tears draw me into their orchard. when the rain subsides will we molt or vitrify? dreaming of a wet resurrection …
It's stitched to my skin.
I wear my tragedy with pride A coat of aching fur topping my skin Buttoned-up devotion closes off my soul With a necklace that buries its pearls on the edge of my ribs The short brown hair you smelled once Is now teasing my waist It's been a while …
The rising sun dispels the dark, As cardinals welcome their old friend. This burst of light, the first to mark Creation’s chance to try again, To find its morning song to sing, A tune that has the pow’r to mend, And usher in an endless spring.
The rising sun dispels the dark, As cardinals welcome their old friend. This burst of light, the first to mark Creation’s chance to try again, To find its morning song to sing, A tune that has the pow’r to mend, And usher in an endless spring. …
two new art-poems
It’s been a fun few weeks seeing my poetry chapbook, LUMINOX: a journey through the blinding dark , sell out its first printing. Poetry is not usually popular, so it’s heartening to see so much interest in idiosyncratic art-poems about birth, death, science, cosmology, doubt, faith, darkness, light, seeking, and…
The Resolution
Scene i Beside the haunted wood. Enter Justina and Rosh. ROSH: The prophet put it in his ear that you were out there with the lad, and since we have no other leads, our prime suspect right now is you. JUSTINA: What motive would I have to kill someone who wore my father’s robes? Tell me the sheriff doesn’t think …
A Ghazal
Today’s poem serves twofold. It’s part of a cassette project I’m working on titled, Respect The Woo. It’s also my participation in an organically grown Substack trend dubbed “Hot Ghazal Summer.” I have a big soft spot for married couples. Especially faithful ones who still woo their spouse, or even speak well of them…
I am breathless in the lowlands
Velesian crimson ringlets packed neatly in towering twilight, you are a cornflower beneath the cedar. The balsamic hask holds me, marinating in the glacial spring with no breath left to spare. The Moon Chapel is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or…
a poem
freehand in the black still-life memories fire through my nerves in strokes of white clack clack clack a conjured cadence these expressions are some of my own seen with my own eyes, some were read gifted from timeless text imagined on my part but still felt like braille under the fingers of my mind …
I have lived between the tides of grief and grace— pulled toward the depths one moment, lifted by light the next. Some days, sorrow arrives like a storm-driven sea, cold and relentless against my shore. Other days, grace finds me quietly— in birdsong, in sunlight on water, in the simple act of carry
I have lived between the tides of grief and grace— pulled toward the depths one moment, lifted by light the next. Some days, sorrow arrives like a storm-driven sea, cold and relentless against my shore. Other days, grace finds me quietly— in birdsong, in sunlight on water, in the simple act of carrying on. …
I just can't seem to kick the habit.
Burgundy blends the night with the day. Laughter breaks the silence. There's murder in the trees. Iterations of light paint geometry. Dusk, in her deep plumage, shudders, a soft ache that spills like rain from a cup. Distance blinds in daylight. Here it weaves intimacy in frayed edges. …
I didn't stop wanting sweetness. I stopped reaching out for it.
Subscribe Mangoes are heavy on the tree, children gathered like a prayer below. Some hurling stones at sweetness, some reaching, climbing, daring the branches. Sticky fingers, stolen bites, laughter spilling like juice on a summer afternoon. I stood by the window, sipping warm tea, …
a poem (of course)
i’m watching smoke listen to rain calcify upward / it’s night this is croatia & a storm hit me hard like a letter read once over & then sank into crickets orchestrate rye fields i’m so allergic : drifting to phantasm / spirits my cigarette i spun it loose & now it unfurls my glowing lips like— sometimes …
Ronald turned his Frisbee over and put in it two tablespoons of water, one of kitty litter and a plastic palm, and now three turtles call Ronald's Frisbee home.
Ronald turned his Frisbee over and put in it two tablespoons of water, one of kitty litter and a plastic palm, and now three turtles call Ronald's Frisbee home.
Prose-Poetry. 170 Words.
“Craving” A casserole, half tin-foil, roots itself to the low glass shelf. Now-black cherries turn in their plastic grave. The compressor hums. Blows air on my feet. I back away. The tile moves with me. Walls step in. The bulb shrinks to a white eye. I turn. The room is cold. Buzzing. …
Essay - 1
I started this blog 15 months ago, and have had a wonderful time sharing my poetry. This post is, obviously, not poetry. I took the leap in 2025 to release what I’d been writing for the prior two years, with the goal of one entry a week to see what might happen. It was a great experience, and I hoped to receive…
Returning from his memorial
Bamboo groves wave Reaching past metal guardrails The heavenly flower that blooms in a hidden place Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies A valediction forbids mourning But if it dies it bears much fruit And so may flights of angels Sing thee to thy rest
a love poem
isn’t it always in this way— having gone out for a cold one and coming home with a wife; being in that place, at that time when all the world conspired against it—that we cry magic? deliverance would be better, though the thought of going out for cold ones now sends greater shivers …
Renga Sequence
clouds gathered in the tea room leave no trace moonless dewdrops line the garden path down night cliffs a sweet wind carries into ink black rustling boughs these scattered leaves a chrysanthemum that nobody cut collecting frost its white face in the weathered mirror peeking sun caught in a net …
Celebrating Fraternity
Image Attribution: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=940473 What does it mean to have a fraternity? For this collection of poems, I wanted to celebrate some of my closest friends. While this list is far from comprehensive, I picked a few of my oldest relationships to highlight. I’ve been…
Time lost by a different measure World evolved in unpredicted design Green amoebas stain golden statues Petrified forests sprout to see the end No more will I wait, my bones will crumble
Time lost by a different measure World evolved in unpredicted design Green amoebas stain golden statues Petrified forests sprout to see the end No more will I wait, my bones will crumble
you were made for flying
cotton candy blue skies when jasmine hushes its ancient scent to sleep whispering dewy psalms soft, in the night. bloomer. a canopy of trees bid you farewell clouds welcome the courage of your beak- inhabit heaven's hem open those wings broad, iridescent, glimmering. take in the black air brave, black swan. …
Watch now | Simulacra and other contrivances
Persistence of vision that illusory fluidity an unceasing spool of transpiring stimuli the splendor of Eurydice for all her spectators to see their eyes crinkling like crystal orbs sobbing, knowing we can never go back to the way that it was for it never was to begin with this vinegar-tinged ephemera …
Poem and Artwork
Glorious urchin. I’m not sure who you are. But I’m captivated by your porcupine face and the inquisition of your eyes. I’ve been searching for something that resembles a dumpster fire. A mindless worm ablaze under a magnifying glass. The cursive hand writing of passionate days. …
Lest we forget
Cobwebs snagged on feather dusters sweeping the blue of the sky clean. ☕ keeps my engine running... Subscribe now Share
A poem about deep cleaning
Empty now. The hangers in my closet. The blouse you like, that skirt you said you hate, tumbling out in some invisible haze less dust than perfume worked through the stitchlines. Sublime: the taste of a needle — in appleflesh, a porcelain chip in swallowed tea — it was a lovely gift, you know. …
A stream of consciousness poem
Modern life is psychosis A steady flatline keeps me going as white noise Motion blurs in peripheral surrealest paintings Reality is surrealist I live in psychosis Is what I think real if nobody else can hear them speaking Noiseless noise My head is crowded but there's no one here Everybody is screaming …
Poem & Statement
Sunlight dies upon dried grass while hawks lord over the steppe searching for mice to steal screaming from the fields That is the way of it That is how the skin drum beats That is how the sheep horn sings Each blade of grass shaking the summer wind howling War is near A shepherd boy sleeps …
Autism was clinically described as a "maternal lack of genuine warmth."
Welcome to my newsletter, Firelight . I’m Heather—a poet, essayist, and autism advocate. I live with my husband and two sons, the older of whom has nonverbal autism. Much of what I write is an effort to advocate for my son by translating our private world for those outside of it. …
Yellow eyes at the surface.
Yellow eyes at the surface. Its scales warm as the sun travels overhead. Light filters through canopy, settling behind the oaks. Their leaves catch the last of the day’s rays. On the hill, lights flicker. Figures emerge. Voices travel across the water, seeping into stillness. Metal clinks. …
(Micro Fiction) A One Hundred Word Story
When we were little, it was all backroads and grasping at foxtails. You played Suicide while I picked seed heads and threw them like darts at your clothes. “We’ve got to get home,” I’d say, and you’d come along, but not before at least one driver cussed us out. …
O
Drunken ramblings poured into the machine, little betrayals of the hand. Forsake the touch, marry the ticking gears. I give myself to you, technology— I lift my face to the glowing glass, peek behind a pane that never quite reflects me, like attic static after late-night HBO. Here it is again, …
i won the blue ribbon eight years in a row.
The Show Pony By Seren Riggs-Davis I'm still the pony at the fair Blue ribbon and all Eight whole years in a row Braided and feathered Fluffed and All puffed up Blush pink paint On my pony cheeks They powdered my nose Fresh shoes nailed In my pony toes I know the drill Fresh out the gates I prance and promenade …
Contemplations #4
A Dream Apart I dream beneath a moonlit night, The air is thin, earth wrapped pale within its light. Behind my eyelids, folding many years, As distant bells give voice to fallen tears, For mem’ries sweet of sorrow, one I knew, Wishing now to see how loved yet grew. Moonlight pours upon this in between, …
Some Haiku, Senryu & Lune
001 Oh full moon as if all this snow came from you 002 On wintry days I also clench my hands - Snow covered branch 003 White seeds fall we harvest the fruit in snowballs 004 High noon sun - Today I can’t melt this snow either 005 Fat birds roosting above unmelting ice. I button my coat 006 Evening winter wind …
2026 winter Haiku Collection
the winter crossroads burned lunar frost of change in the growing soul blood skies blue veins blistering winds sublime mountain mist eccentric phantoms danced the steamy earth chanted the bloody thorns writhed coalescent carrion the soft shadows swarmed frail sun cast over …
Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak
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Demystifying Literature
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Posting the occasional poem and the occasional meditation on that poem. Or, in other words: weekly essays on poetry and more.
Around the Campfire
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Welcome all seekers and travelers!
Welcome to my little campfire. Grab a chair and make a S'more. I know it can be so cold out there in the wild. You are safe here. Can I share a story with you? It's all about how fear is no match for love.
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Catching the clearer thoughts that mostly arrive in the shower and making art with them.
Heavy Meta
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Reading between the lines is my magical power. ✨Home of Girls' School Book Club -- where reading is resistance.
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The Weekly Muse is the ultimate resource to help poets write & publish more poems. Weekly prompts, writing exercises, publishing opportunities, insider tips from editors, & more! Includes FREE Zoom classes with award-winning poets with paid subscription!
Helen Higgins
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Kelly @themiddlepage
Tolkien academia, thoughts on fantasy and medieval stories
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Get out of your head and onto the page! Writing circles and creative prompts for poets, artists, and writers who are ready to take their practice to the next level.
Be Less Careful
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unpacking the bad ideas that steal our joy // creative work & midlife reinvention
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I offer poetry that seeks out the sacred in the ordinary, accompanied by original photography. No politics, no hot takes, just poetry.
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Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented.
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Poetry Is Life
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Each week I share poems, essays, and writing prompts meant to open the heart and nourish the soul.
Postcards from a Poet: Kelli Russell Agodon
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Notes on writing, wonder, and the messy, beautiful art of being human.
man of aran
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man of aran is alan girling of Canada who writes poetry that responds to or is paired with visual creations of all sorts.
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We are a group of experienced poets based near the Scottish east coast. We run online masterclasses, and post here on poetry, poetics and the writing life.
girls that never post
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doing a 30/30 and will be sharing those poems here, along with other regular newsletter things, drafts of essays, book announcements and excerpts, etc!
Hawtorn V. Rabot
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I'm a guy who writes. I was never supposed to. I never really learned how. Somehow, it's become a part of who I am, and I need it. I'm a father, teacher, and somehow, I'm published.
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The Inkwell - Ink & Ribbon Press
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Hilary Layne
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Writing about storytelling and the culture of fiction.
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Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak
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Heavy Meta
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Reading between the lines is my magical power. ✨Home of Girls' School Book Club -- where reading is resistance.
themiddlepage
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Kelly @themiddlepage
Tolkien academia, thoughts on fantasy and medieval stories
Poor Man's Feast
Active: 5 days ago
The James Beard Award-winning narrative journal about the intersection of sustenance, storytelling, and the creative spirit (and sometimes, a recipe).
Under a Fig Tree
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Investigations into deep history, spirituality, and the mythopoetic imagination. Weekly Sunday essays + audio for paid subscribers, monthly essays for all, and free seasonal rituals.
augmented’s journey
Active: 5 days ago
“The Power of Poetry” is a place to show the world your creativity, your imagination and passion for writing.
Meghan O'Rourke's Substack
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Essays about literature, the craft of writing, the body and illness, and other obsessions.
Mosab Abu Toha
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Mosab Abu Toha is a Palestinian poet and writer from Gaza. He won The Pulitzer Prize for commentary and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry.
Around the Campfire
Active: 2 days ago
Welcome all seekers and travelers!
Welcome to my little campfire. Grab a chair and make a S'more. I know it can be so cold out there in the wild. You are safe here. Can I share a story with you? It's all about how fear is no match for love.
Hilary Layne
Active: 6 days ago
Writing about storytelling and the culture of fiction.
The home of The Book Club (more information inside).
You can also find my essays and poetry.
Earth and Verse
Active: 3 days ago
Get out of your head and onto the page! Writing circles and creative prompts for poets, artists, and writers who are ready to take their practice to the next level.
Catching Shower Flowers by Tess Guinery
Active: 1 week ago
Catching the clearer thoughts that mostly arrive in the shower and making art with them.
Ordinary Plots: Meditations on Poems + Verse
Active: 4 days ago
Posting the occasional poem and the occasional meditation on that poem. Or, in other words: weekly essays on poetry and more.
Word Witch
Active: yesterday
Join me (Kate Belew) for weekly rituals, musings, and prompts for the Word Witches, spell casters of language, and creative magic makers. Here, you'll learn how to call upon and cultivate the creative magic within you.
Rabbit Room Poetry
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Poems to delight and ignite, from the Rabbit Room community.
Shaw and Moore
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We are Clare Shaw and Kim Moore - poets, essayists and friends. We share essays and articles about writing and other things which interest us, along with new poetry, writing tips and exercises, live readings and workshops.
Dispatches From the Basement
Active: 1 week ago
I offer poetry that seeks out the sacred in the ordinary, accompanied by original photography. No politics, no hot takes, just poetry.
The Raft
Active: 2 days ago
The online community of author Phyllis Cole-Dai, including The Raft Weekly "goody bag" (Saturdays). Ride the river of a creative life, buoyed by Phyllis's latest writing, nudges for your expressive practice, boosts of curated poetry and music, and more.
Going Solo at the End of the World
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Solo traveler and New York Times bestselling author goes rogue to bring readers a first-person report from the far reaches of the American road.
OP Membership Portal
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Mark Nepo
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With over a million copies sold, Mark Nepo has moved and inspired readers and seekers all over the world. Mark's work is widely accessible and used by many and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.
ONLY POEMS DAILY
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Wake up to a poem every day & slip into a slower, sweeter life.
Poetry Is Life
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Each week I share poems, essays, and writing prompts meant to open the heart and nourish the soul.
melissa broder
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Author of Death Valley, Milk Fed, The Pisces, So Sad Today, Superdoom and Last Sext. NEXT: Empty and Marvelous (Scribner / 2027)
Silly Games to Save the World
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Politics, Philosophy, Poetry, and Silly Games - new ways to wonder WTF just happened
KHÔRA
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Khôra is a dynamic online arts space showcasing the work of polyphonic, multi-genre writers and artists. Each issue features six carefully curated pieces — artwork and writing selected for the way they speak across forms. Every issue is a conversation.
notes on bewilderment
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a chance to work through some ideas about the creative process.
Lit Angels
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An Online Literary Journal Edited by Francesca Lia Block and Linda Davis
They Say Poetry is Dead...
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Claim: poetry is dead.
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Out-of-the-box writing prompts & tips/resources for writing, revising & publishing poetry
girls that never post
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doing a 30/30 and will be sharing those poems here, along with other regular newsletter things, drafts of essays, book announcements and excerpts, etc!
Notes From the Margin with Wendy Pratt
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Author of THE GHOST LAKE (memoir), BLACKBIRD SINGING AT DUSK (poetry). Fellow of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Northern type.
Dispatch from Bewilderness
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Nominated for Best American Essay and Pushcart Prize. Proudly niche since 2006 in posts of 2 minutes or less. A Substack Bestseller. Subscribe FREE as long as Substack allows. No cost. No risk. No obligation.
Kate Clanchy
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Cancellation stories, poems, and teaching from the the UK's most famously cancelled poet teacher. Names named, lines broken, jokes cracked.
Unsolicited Press Newsletter
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Unsolicited Press strives to produce exceptional works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from award-winning authors. Unsolicited Press is based out of Portland, Oregon and focuses on the works of the unsung and underrepresented.
GOOD MORNING PROJECT
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Daily reflections for those with an appetite for literacy—exploring America’s moral crisis, the meaning of life, and the enduring power of literature, history, and the arts.
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What does it mean to be a poet or even a person in the world today? Poet and creativity expert Tresha Faye Haefner interviews fellow poets about their writing, shares her take on their poems, and gives you honest stories about her journey towards poetry.
Demystifying Literature
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Active: 1 week ago
MFA-level guidance to rapidly improve craft, create intentional habits, and finally write the poems only you can write.
Sacred Word with Jaiya John
Active: 2 days ago
Freedom Work. Medicine Words. Books. Creative Life. Sacred Healing.
my secret online diary
Active: yesterday
2002 style online diary, b-sides, close friends story. For real fans only.
the heart of Gaia
Active: 3 months ago
an ecology of miracles.
odes to moon and mycelium,
poems & prayers for soil and stars.
SLEERICKETS Secret Show
Active: 4 days ago
The cooler, dumber half of the SLEERICKETS poetry podcast (www.sleerickets.com).
Seánfhocail
Active: yesterday
Perspectives of an animist herbalist, poet, and priest on things new and old, human and wild
Oxford Poetry’s Substack
Active: 4 days ago
Dispatches from our latest issues and our century’s worth of archives, as well as exclusive new writing by some of today’s leading poets and critics.
The Writer's Journey with Laura Davis
Active: yesterday
A safe, creative sanctuary where people use writing to connect deeply with themselves, their stories, and each other.
Another Shore with David Keplinger
Active: 1 week ago
Recorded meditations with essays on spirituality and literature by poet, professor, and teacher of mindfulness David Keplinger.
Embers & Ink: Creative Doings, Then and Now
Active: yesterday
Sharing my writings, offering reader and author exclusives, and exploring what it means to apply the creative process to everything in life. Fuel your fire, make your mark!
10 poetry notebooks
Active: 2 weeks ago
10 Poetry Notebooks is a weekly poetry and craft publication offering layered prompts, literary reflection, and a thoughtful space for writers committed to the practice of making poems.
SWWIM Every Day
Active: 1 week ago
SWWIM Every Day publishes a poem a day by women writers (she/they).
Lovesick
Active: yesterday
Welcome to Lovesick! This is my newsletter where you’ll find my deepest thoughts — a diarist with fictional bleed. It can get mysterious in here. And steamy ofcourse.
Poet Jesus
Active: 2 days ago
Verse by the Son of Man Himself (Holy Ghostwritten by Tania Runyan)
ponyXpress
Active: 6 days ago
writers & artists who are incarcerated —
published in Portland by Bridgeworks Oregon
Emily Writes Back
Active: 2 days ago
New Yorker cartoonist Emily Sanders Hopkins writes letters to you about VERY important things.
Verse Daily’s Substack
Active: 9 months ago
The largest daily poem anthology... Help us celebrate our 22nd year! ...And so much more!
On Being and Timelessness
Active: 2 days ago
On Being and Timelessness is about literature, translation, and ideas. Topics include how the ancient and the present connect; Jewish poetry and prose; why translation matters; and people who are worth a closer look.
Armand’s Substack: Little Latin and More Greek
Active: 4 days ago
Greek and Latin Classics - poetry, history, and literature - as well as music, psychology, and the meaning of life. From a Professor of Classics at Oxford.
Second Coming Poem-a-Day Series
Active: yesterday
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the president and his fascist regime
Singing the Tune Without the Words
Active: 1 week ago
Finding grace in the ordinary, unsexy parts of life, like reading, walking, and folding the laundry. Sometimes the essays are about the sexy parts, as well.
Asinine Pasiphae
Active: yesterday
“wildly amusing & explicit queer poetry” “with elements of swagger & sex” that “luxuriates in the labor of the real” & “juggles truly absurd comedy & frank body talk with overwhelming tenderness & genuine corporeal joy” by “the best kind of pervert”
Hawtorn V. Rabot
Active: 1 week ago
I'm a guy who writes. I was never supposed to. I never really learned how. Somehow, it's become a part of who I am, and I need it. I'm a father, teacher, and somehow, I'm published.
Nicheless. Thumb Confessions™. Read Too Soon et Pero Too Late.
The In Between
Active: yesterday
The In Between is a place to explore the world from the outside in.
A Becoming
Active: 8 months ago
Throwing sheets over — or giving bodies to — the ghosts that haunt us (on finding language).
Fleeting Temples
Active: 2 months ago
Are we living inside a poem? A place to consider the altars of the ordinary.
Pens and Poison
Active: 3 days ago
Pens and Poison is the literary project of author Liza Libes. Enter a world of literary analyses, cultural critiques, and other hot takes.
The Writing Laboratory
Active: 1 week ago
Where writers teach writers: the friendliest creative writing space around. Come and join Dr Lily Dunn and Zoe Gilbert in this creative experimental space: observations, hypotheses, experiments, chemical reactions. A safe space space to experiment.
Sounds Good!
Active: yesterday
Music, Movies, Books...the good stuff!
This is also the home now to Off The Tracks - a full archive of 11,000 posts on pop culture
Lee D. Gibbs — Dark & Speculative Fiction
Active: yesterday
Speculative, historical, gothic horror rooted in New Jersey. An interconnected universe of Slow Drip novels serialized weekly, plus the growing short fiction anthology, Demons. New here? Start with Leeds Devil or Lost Grounds.
JRB Haiku
Active: yesterday
Husband & father. Reader of fiction and non-fiction. Lover of wisdom. Life long learner. Mediocre haiku poet. Did someone mention wine?
The Art of Being
Active: yesterday
Poetry and essays from my existential uprising. Unravelling on purpose.
Poetry, Art & Life
Active: yesterday
Intelligent Erotic Poetry, Prose & Short Stories. I write stylish, arty smut for adults who want more than just the mechanics of sex.
Salt & Pomegranate
Active: yesterday
Poet, essayist, and novelist-in-progress writing about womanhood, grief, love, desire, identity, and transformation.
Shannon Vanne
Active: yesterday
I'm a writer with years of play by post experience trying out some of my own ideas. Please let me know how I'm doing and any suggestions you might have to help me improve!
A.J.’s Poetry Substack
Active: yesterday
As a follower of Jesus and as a poet, I combine the two to write prophetic poetry, or poetry of encouragement, and so this place is to encourage all who read it. Everything will be free to read as we get started. Not sure where God will lead later.
Poetry by Sam Aureli
Active: yesterday
Writing from the quiet edge, where language meets landscape, and the search for meaning walks beside wind, water, and wild things.
Meris Walton
Active: yesterday
Daily Poetry Offerings: An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Bucky Sinister
Active: 2 days ago
I'm a poet, self-help author, novelist, kettlebell athlete, and pop culture nerd. Likely you know me from one of these descriptions if you're here. Hopefully, I'll share the rest of my world with you.
An unspoken symphony
Active: 2 days ago
If I stab myself with the very pen that I write this with, am I poetic enough?
You Get In Love And Then
Active: 2 days ago
Sometimes I write things for no reason! Sometimes I write things I don’t want to sell to a stranger! Food, books, gossip, poems, home, art, domestic chaos, love. It's fun! You'll like it!
lauren oliver
Active: 2 days ago
poetry, prose, and philosophy from the raw, unfiltered edge of the feminine psyche; a sanctuary for the soul that feels too much and not enough. this is where the shadow meets the light. this is where we remember divinity.
Namra
Active: 2 days ago
i write , For the tender minds and overthinking hearts.💌 And the feeling we struggle to put into words.~
Taro Bahar
Active: 3 days ago
Actor/Writer and general creator 💫 On here, I’ll be writing stories/poems/thoughts and reflections.
The Poetic Pause 🌄
Active: 3 days ago
Poetry, fiction, and somatic meditation to help you move through creative blocks.
Soulful Witness
Active: 3 days ago
Where else can you get: soul challenging poetry and essays from a defrocked pastor, aging senior and a 25+ year recovering addict?
Spicy P Poetry
Active: 4 days ago
Sometimes my poetry will turn you on, sometimes it'll make you cry, and sometimes it'll bring a smile to your face on a shitty day!
Dr. Lunatic Stranger Prescriptions
Active: 4 days ago
A lunatic doctor prescribing revolutionary verses — to shatter chains and heal souls.
Poems for Liberation
Active: 4 days ago
Updrafts - Seeking the Lift Bands of Humor & Meaning. Poetry. Social & Cultural Musings.
Spaces in Between
Active: 4 days ago
Does anyone ever realize life while they live it...every, every minute?
No. Saints and poets maybe...they do some.
Feifei’s Substack
Active: 5 days ago
I ghostwrite Romance Novels, Newsletters, Emails and Social Contents for Founders, brand execs, personal brands, romance authors and literally anyone who wants to build an audience, convert them to sales, or get their story written but just can't write
Cretia Marsha✨
Active: 5 days ago
Leading change by day, writing through life's chaos by heart. Vice President of a nonprofit organization sharing articles, poetry, life lessons, and honest reflections on navigating the mess and meaning of life in real time.
Poetry & Life (Notes from an Old Lesbian)
Active: 6 days ago
Poetry & Life is a weekly dose of perspective by poet Diane Silver. From original poems to writing exercises to experiences designed to blow the fog out of our minds, Poetry & Life seeks to enable us to blossom wherever we're planted.
Carrick Press
Active: 6 days ago
Carrick Press is where stories, stillness, and structure intertwine: a space for those who want to think deeper, feel more, and build something meaningful from the quiet moments in between.
The Deep Waters
Active: 1 week ago
a space where we're not afraid to sink and drown into the deepest and darkest depths
The Haiku Garden
Active: 1 week ago
Making sense of life in 5-7-5 form. Prompts to inspire your own haiku.
Benjamin Sajo
Active: 1 week ago
Hello, I am a Canadian poet. Also, a teacher and music composer--both avenues influencing my current quest. I love with pragmatic optimism, and the Millenial experience through a mythic syntax. My Muses are many: The North, glimmers, and maybe you
Francia McCormack
Active: 1 week ago
A writing, painting, and photography memoir reflecting on inspiration and social consciousness.
Poems for Persons of Interest
Active: 1 week ago
The Substack home of PFPOI, featuring poems and other writing from Editor-in-Chief Alex Rettie
The Quiet Hours
Active: 1 week ago
We spend our lives encountering stories. Some entertain us. Others quietly rearrange the way we see the world. The Quiet Hours is about those encounters.
So It's Come To This
Active: 1 week ago
Fiction and aesthetics from me, Violet, noted literary celebrity.
Continued Conversations with Megan Gill
Active: 1 week ago
Conversations about self-image, self-compassion, and self-acceptance.
No Whale In Sight
Active: 1 week ago
This is Ryan Scott Nance’s premier collection, with poems appearing in Graffit Rag, the diagram, Hinchas de Poesia and Mantis.
Launching June 1, 2026
Romy’s Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Check out my book, The Art of Floundering by clicking on the link https://a.co/d/dUJfAlO
thoughts from a hospital bed
Active: 1 week ago
I write what I rethink.
psychology and modern society short stories / essays
I hope you relate :).
A Room of Someone Else's
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry, books, culture, politics, history, etc. I've been economically displaced from my longtime home & am rebuilding, now with long Covid. My new book, 'Joe Hill Makes His Way into the Castle', is out now with CB Editions. katyevansbush.com
Xicanotl Moreno
Active: 2 weeks ago
From the ancient Mexico that vibrates in time. Look at my collection of buried temples and invisible greatness. The cherished collection of bloody stones from the civilization left from fallen empires and forgotten messiahs.
T.F. Burke watcher of tv
Active: 2 weeks ago
My name is T.F. Burke, author of Waves of Clarity, my poetry collection, but there will be no poetry here!🤯 I want to do something different, TV has always been a huge part of my life! Heck, it basically raised me! Welcome to the fun!
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
Active: 3 weeks ago
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
Lucy.folds.birds
Active: 3 weeks ago
Welcome to this substack, where you can enjoy monthly essays and weekly poems about, death, love, writing and how i learned to be a person :))
You had me at Hello
Active: 3 weeks ago
You are the embodiment of the sun. We all feel the warmth emitted in your presence, we all see the light exude from the cracks on your skin, one day you will too.
Brontë
Active: 3 weeks ago
🖤🥀✨ · Poetry, short stories, random thoughts, books I’m reading, rants, whatever I’m in the mood for · ✨🥀🖤
Amit The Storyteller
Active: 4 weeks ago
Poet . Writer | Poems | Nature Poems | Self-reflections | Self-awareness | Mental Health
My writing help to find my people 💌
Dear beloved
Active: 4 weeks ago
Beloved is my corner to you for honest reflections, inquiries, and my sharings that are raw in this slow work of becoming more tender.
Sounds Good!
Active: yesterday
Music, Movies, Books...the good stuff!
This is also the home now to Off The Tracks - a full archive of 11,000 posts on pop culture
Lee D. Gibbs — Dark & Speculative Fiction
Active: yesterday
Speculative, historical, gothic horror rooted in New Jersey. An interconnected universe of Slow Drip novels serialized weekly, plus the growing short fiction anthology, Demons. New here? Start with Leeds Devil or Lost Grounds.
Word Witch
Active: yesterday
Join me (Kate Belew) for weekly rituals, musings, and prompts for the Word Witches, spell casters of language, and creative magic makers. Here, you'll learn how to call upon and cultivate the creative magic within you.
JRB Haiku
Active: yesterday
Husband & father. Reader of fiction and non-fiction. Lover of wisdom. Life long learner. Mediocre haiku poet. Did someone mention wine?
The Art of Being
Active: yesterday
Poetry and essays from my existential uprising. Unravelling on purpose.
Poetry, Art & Life
Active: yesterday
Intelligent Erotic Poetry, Prose & Short Stories. I write stylish, arty smut for adults who want more than just the mechanics of sex.
Embers & Ink: Creative Doings, Then and Now
Active: yesterday
Sharing my writings, offering reader and author exclusives, and exploring what it means to apply the creative process to everything in life. Fuel your fire, make your mark!
Seánfhocail
Active: yesterday
Perspectives of an animist herbalist, poet, and priest on things new and old, human and wild
Writing Alone and With Others
Active: yesterday
Amherst Writers & Artists' (AWA) core belief is simple: every person is a writer, and every writer deserves a safe environment in which to experiment, learn, and develop craft.
Salt & Pomegranate
Active: yesterday
Poet, essayist, and novelist-in-progress writing about womanhood, grief, love, desire, identity, and transformation.
Lovesick
Active: yesterday
Welcome to Lovesick! This is my newsletter where you’ll find my deepest thoughts — a diarist with fictional bleed. It can get mysterious in here. And steamy ofcourse.
KHÔRA
Active: yesterday
Khôra is a dynamic online arts space showcasing the work of polyphonic, multi-genre writers and artists. Each issue features six carefully curated pieces — artwork and writing selected for the way they speak across forms. Every issue is a conversation.
Poetry Outdoors
Active: yesterday
A poetry community devoted to restoring our relationship to the natural world through poetry, storytelling, and environmental stewardship.
Helen Higgins
Active: yesterday
I write about the erotics of intelligence, the long shadows of lust, modern romance and relationships, and the quiet seductions in literature, longing, and love.
This is creative writing, creative nonfiction, and reflective musings.
The Common Reader
Active: yesterday
Nerdy literature newsletter. Helping you make the most of your reading.
my secret online diary
Active: yesterday
2002 style online diary, b-sides, close friends story. For real fans only.
You Live Your Life as if it's Real (Ray’s Substack)
Active: yesterday
Let there be poetry (mine and others), serialized fiction and satire. Making Vespuccia Great Again is available now in book and chapters here. Auhor's webite: https://raysweatman@carrd.co
Shannon Vanne
Active: yesterday
I'm a writer with years of play by post experience trying out some of my own ideas. Please let me know how I'm doing and any suggestions you might have to help me improve!
A.J.’s Poetry Substack
Active: yesterday
As a follower of Jesus and as a poet, I combine the two to write prophetic poetry, or poetry of encouragement, and so this place is to encourage all who read it. Everything will be free to read as we get started. Not sure where God will lead later.
1455 Literary Arts
Active: yesterday
Nonprofit champion of writers and readers, fostering literary community through events, publications, and storytelling.
Poetry by Sam Aureli
Active: yesterday
Writing from the quiet edge, where language meets landscape, and the search for meaning walks beside wind, water, and wild things.
Remnant and Shadow
Active: yesterday
Poems, essays, and short stories to create transformation and dynamic dialectic centered on the abundance that the gifts of life and art have to offer. Reflections on best practice of education and living well in pursuit of excellence and deep joy.
Poetry Is Life
Active: yesterday
Each week I share poems, essays, and writing prompts meant to open the heart and nourish the soul.
The Writer's Journey with Laura Davis
Active: yesterday
A safe, creative sanctuary where people use writing to connect deeply with themselves, their stories, and each other.
The In Between
Active: yesterday
The In Between is a place to explore the world from the outside in.
Asinine Pasiphae
Active: yesterday
“wildly amusing & explicit queer poetry” “with elements of swagger & sex” that “luxuriates in the labor of the real” & “juggles truly absurd comedy & frank body talk with overwhelming tenderness & genuine corporeal joy” by “the best kind of pervert”
Kate Clanchy
Active: yesterday
Cancellation stories, poems, and teaching from the the UK's most famously cancelled poet teacher. Names named, lines broken, jokes cracked.
The Soul of Rob
Active: yesterday
For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of, and so too, the hand types.
Mark Nepo
Active: yesterday
With over a million copies sold, Mark Nepo has moved and inspired readers and seekers all over the world. Mark's work is widely accessible and used by many and his books have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Meris Walton
Active: yesterday
Daily Poetry Offerings: An invitation to become reacquainted with my voice, reignite my passion for writing, and share what's on my heart.
Second Coming Poem-a-Day Series
Active: yesterday
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by the president and his fascist regime
Messages from The Deep
Active: yesterday
Short stories, poetry, and essays that unravel dark side of human existence in effort to lighten your day. Any and all genres.
Starving Lovers
Active: yesterday
Writing of all kinds (or at leas a few kinds) aiming to keep in mind the powers and limitations of words, as well as those of perception.
Bucky Sinister
Active: 2 days ago
I'm a poet, self-help author, novelist, kettlebell athlete, and pop culture nerd. Likely you know me from one of these descriptions if you're here. Hopefully, I'll share the rest of my world with you.
man of aran
Active: 2 days ago
man of aran is alan girling of Canada who writes poetry that responds to or is paired with visual creations of all sorts.
Amadeusz’s Library
Active: 2 days ago
A raw literary journal blending poetry, myth, and reflection—exploring human fractures, silence, and meaning through an untamed, uncompromising voice. Written by Amadeusz Motyl
An unspoken symphony
Active: 2 days ago
If I stab myself with the very pen that I write this with, am I poetic enough?
Around the Campfire
Active: 2 days ago
Welcome all seekers and travelers!
Welcome to my little campfire. Grab a chair and make a S'more. I know it can be so cold out there in the wild. You are safe here. Can I share a story with you? It's all about how fear is no match for love.
The Great Beyond
Active: 2 days ago
Site of a driven artist looking to become bona fide, this is The Great Beyond - this is where I will make it
On Being and Timelessness
Active: 2 days ago
On Being and Timelessness is about literature, translation, and ideas. Topics include how the ancient and the present connect; Jewish poetry and prose; why translation matters; and people who are worth a closer look.
The Raft
Active: 2 days ago
The online community of author Phyllis Cole-Dai, including The Raft Weekly "goody bag" (Saturdays). Ride the river of a creative life, buoyed by Phyllis's latest writing, nudges for your expressive practice, boosts of curated poetry and music, and more.
You Get In Love And Then
Active: 2 days ago
Sometimes I write things for no reason! Sometimes I write things I don’t want to sell to a stranger! Food, books, gossip, poems, home, art, domestic chaos, love. It's fun! You'll like it!
Emily Writes Back
Active: 2 days ago
New Yorker cartoonist Emily Sanders Hopkins writes letters to you about VERY important things.
Sacred Word with Jaiya John
Active: 2 days ago
Freedom Work. Medicine Words. Books. Creative Life. Sacred Healing.
lauren oliver
Active: 2 days ago
poetry, prose, and philosophy from the raw, unfiltered edge of the feminine psyche; a sanctuary for the soul that feels too much and not enough. this is where the shadow meets the light. this is where we remember divinity.
Waymarkers
Active: 2 days ago
Poetry, fiction, and essays about faith, love, and grace — as well as literature, travel, films, the outdoors, music, and anything else that draws us further up and further in.
Silly Games to Save the World
Active: 2 days ago
Politics, Philosophy, Poetry, and Silly Games - new ways to wonder WTF just happened
Namra
Active: 2 days ago
i write , For the tender minds and overthinking hearts.💌 And the feeling we struggle to put into words.~
Taro Bahar
Active: 3 days ago
Actor/Writer and general creator 💫 On here, I’ll be writing stories/poems/thoughts and reflections.
Marjorie’s Cosmic Gumball Machine
Active: 3 days ago
Weekly Gum Balls, different flavors of haiku, visual poetry, sci-fi short stories, & stuff that catches my eye will drop into your inbox on Mondays. I write into the VOID because that is where stars are born. My posts will always be FREE!
Write Conscious
Active: 3 days ago
Daily podcasts, book clubs, and courses on the best books and authors ever.
The Poetic Pause 🌄
Active: 3 days ago
Poetry, fiction, and somatic meditation to help you move through creative blocks.
Dispatch from Bewilderness
Active: 3 days ago
Nominated for Best American Essay and Pushcart Prize. Proudly niche since 2006 in posts of 2 minutes or less. A Substack Bestseller. Subscribe FREE as long as Substack allows. No cost. No risk. No obligation.
Soulful Witness
Active: 3 days ago
Where else can you get: soul challenging poetry and essays from a defrocked pastor, aging senior and a 25+ year recovering addict?
Lanterns in the Dark
Active: 3 days ago
One poem a week, paired with a light-filled painting or photo. No noise, just poetry and joy. My words can be found at The Rabbit Room, Calla Press, Linebreak, and elsewhere. For grace and beauty!
Fragments of my Mind
Active: 4 days ago
Fragments of my sometimes scattered mind: poetry, diary excerpts, prompts - pieces of my soul.
Spicy P Poetry
Active: 4 days ago
Sometimes my poetry will turn you on, sometimes it'll make you cry, and sometimes it'll bring a smile to your face on a shitty day!
Shine Your Light, Love: Life As Poetry by Amber Michelle
Active: 4 days ago
life as poetry: the art of holistic wellness ~ nourishing heart, mind, body & soul. slow living, motherhood, sustainable living, slow food, self-love, homesteading, homemaking, homeschooling, poetry, business, creativity, mindfulness. seen in Real Simple
The Clayjar Review
Active: 4 days ago
The Clayjar review is a Christian literary journal dedicated to publishing human works housing the presence of God.
Garbage Notes
Active: 4 days ago
from the writer who brought you Scuzzbucket—the original home for dirty realism, grunge lit, creative confessions, speculative fiction, and assorted literary atrocities—comes an even deeper level of personal poetics ... this is ... Garbage Notes
notes on bewilderment
Active: 4 days ago
a chance to work through some ideas about the creative process.
Asuka Hotaru
Active: 4 days ago
Love poems, serial romance, slow kisses, and stories that linger like rain~
Dr. Lunatic Stranger Prescriptions
Active: 4 days ago
A lunatic doctor prescribing revolutionary verses — to shatter chains and heal souls.
Oxford Poetry’s Substack
Active: 4 days ago
Dispatches from our latest issues and our century’s worth of archives, as well as exclusive new writing by some of today’s leading poets and critics.
Poems for Liberation
Active: 4 days ago
Updrafts - Seeking the Lift Bands of Humor & Meaning. Poetry. Social & Cultural Musings.
Spaces in Between
Active: 4 days ago
Does anyone ever realize life while they live it...every, every minute?
No. Saints and poets maybe...they do some.
Stranger Strands
Active: 5 days ago
Poetry, music, fiction and essays; exploring the stranger strands.
Feifei’s Substack
Active: 5 days ago
I ghostwrite Romance Novels, Newsletters, Emails and Social Contents for Founders, brand execs, personal brands, romance authors and literally anyone who wants to build an audience, convert them to sales, or get their story written but just can't write
The Poetry Salon with Tresha Faye Haefner and Friends
Active: 5 days ago
What does it mean to be a poet or even a person in the world today? Poet and creativity expert Tresha Faye Haefner interviews fellow poets about their writing, shares her take on their poems, and gives you honest stories about her journey towards poetry.
Cretia Marsha✨
Active: 5 days ago
Leading change by day, writing through life's chaos by heart. Vice President of a nonprofit organization sharing articles, poetry, life lessons, and honest reflections on navigating the mess and meaning of life in real time.
The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor
Active: 5 days ago
A celebration of poetry and historical interest pieces
A Gentle Quill | CoraLynn 🌿
Active: 6 days ago
Dreamer, poet, mental health warrior, and mom ✍️✨. Navigating the therapeutic balm of poetry, creativity and inner growth and sharing my musings on the entire journey 🌿✨
Hilary Layne
Active: 6 days ago
Writing about storytelling and the culture of fiction.
The home of The Book Club (more information inside).
You can also find my essays and poetry.
Poetry & Life (Notes from an Old Lesbian)
Active: 6 days ago
Poetry & Life is a weekly dose of perspective by poet Diane Silver. From original poems to writing exercises to experiences designed to blow the fog out of our minds, Poetry & Life seeks to enable us to blossom wherever we're planted.
A NEW MOON
Active: 6 days ago
Humphrey ‘Huck’ Astley is a poet from Oxford, UK. His poems have appeared in various journals including Agenda and The London Magazine. He was founding editor of The Crank. 'Poets are queer fish who must be allowed to go their own way.' (Marx)
Carrick Press
Active: 6 days ago
Carrick Press is where stories, stillness, and structure intertwine: a space for those who want to think deeper, feel more, and build something meaningful from the quiet moments in between.
ponyXpress
Active: 6 days ago
writers & artists who are incarcerated —
published in Portland by Bridgeworks Oregon
Ruminations of a Form
Active: 6 days ago
Poetry/Prose with a philosophical, spiritual, and scientific bent.
Themes of consciousness, meaning, suffering, the I, spacetime, experience, the universe of Zen.
A new post every Friday (all poems for now).
The Friday Poem
Active: 6 days ago
Poems, reviews and features. Aiming to publish without fear or favour. Probably unfashionable.
melissa broder
Active: 6 days ago
Author of Death Valley, Milk Fed, The Pisces, So Sad Today, Superdoom and Last Sext. NEXT: Empty and Marvelous (Scribner / 2027)
Going Solo at the End of the World
Active: 1 week ago
Solo traveler and New York Times bestselling author goes rogue to bring readers a first-person report from the far reaches of the American road.
Saccharum
Active: 1 week ago
Follow the mushroom into the rabbit hole of Saccharum and join The Broom's Edge Tribe.
Ginosko Literary Journal
Active: 1 week ago
Ginosko is dedicated to prose, poetry, and creative non-fiction that inspire and challenge. Discover more at www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com
Deborah Rutherford's Behold-Her Beauty
Active: 1 week ago
Once lost, Jesus brought me Home. 🕊️ Writing through the lens of “Broken to Beloved,” I share redemption, beauty & becoming through verse and prose. Is this you? Come on in—there’s a seat at the table for you. 🕯️
The Deep Waters
Active: 1 week ago
a space where we're not afraid to sink and drown into the deepest and darkest depths
The Haiku Garden
Active: 1 week ago
Making sense of life in 5-7-5 form. Prompts to inspire your own haiku.
Catching Shower Flowers by Tess Guinery
Active: 1 week ago
Catching the clearer thoughts that mostly arrive in the shower and making art with them.
Benjamin Sajo
Active: 1 week ago
Hello, I am a Canadian poet. Also, a teacher and music composer--both avenues influencing my current quest. I love with pragmatic optimism, and the Millenial experience through a mythic syntax. My Muses are many: The North, glimmers, and maybe you
Francia McCormack
Active: 1 week ago
A writing, painting, and photography memoir reflecting on inspiration and social consciousness.
SWWIM Every Day
Active: 1 week ago
SWWIM Every Day publishes a poem a day by women writers (she/they).
Lotte Kestner
Active: 1 week ago
Seattle based poet Anna-Lynne Williams, and singer in the bands: Lotte Kestner, Trespassers William, Ormonde
Habibi Means Beloved
Active: 1 week ago
How tenderly we can name our place among each other, affirming our passing existence, one writhing heart of a planet in an otherwise empty universe.
Poems for Persons of Interest
Active: 1 week ago
The Substack home of PFPOI, featuring poems and other writing from Editor-in-Chief Alex Rettie
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Active: 1 week ago
Articles, poems, stories and thoughts by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Everything published here will always remain free to read.
The Quiet Hours
Active: 1 week ago
We spend our lives encountering stories. Some entertain us. Others quietly rearrange the way we see the world. The Quiet Hours is about those encounters.
So It's Come To This
Active: 1 week ago
Fiction and aesthetics from me, Violet, noted literary celebrity.
The Canvas Chronicles
Active: 1 week ago
A living archive from an artist in search of beauty, meaning, softness and a more poetic way of living.
Timeless Muse
Active: 1 week ago
by Yorlene Vega | poetic insights for the curious, tender-hearted, and truth-seeking
Welcome to Poerotica
Active: 1 week ago
Erotic poetry and the creative process behind every dangerous line.
A.J.S(torming)
Active: 1 week ago
a creative space for poetry & prose formed from the catalysts that woke them
King Kat Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
My name is katlego molefe. I am an amateur South African poet. I am here to share my life story through poetry.
The New Verse Newsletter
Active: 1 week ago
Sending newspoems published at TheNewVerse.News every day.
One Poem Only
Active: 1 week ago
I’m Maggie Devers, and each day I’ll read you a poem—nothing more, nothing less. No analysis, no noise—just a little space to listen 🍎
The Light That Remembers
Active: 1 week ago
If this reaches you, you can stay.
A space for poetic and contemplative writing on presence, silence, and the subtle movement of being.
Monica A Leyva
Active: 1 week ago
Original speculative fiction, essays on health politics and institutional power, and poetry about care, memory, and resistance.
Mark Crutchfield
Active: 1 week ago
Writing from the moment before you have words.
Poetry. Prose. And notes on why certain language lands in the body before the mind catches up.
George Brooks' Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
Mythic, uncanny, and emotionally honest poetry by George Brooks — exploring transformation, identity, and the strange places where folklore meets lived experience.
Marinarena Travel & Poetic Deep Dive
Active: 1 week ago
Musings, Observations and Journeys by Marinarena, fellow wanderer and wonderer. File under: blogs, commentaries, listicles, poetry, prose, travel
Continued Conversations with Megan Gill
Active: 1 week ago
Conversations about self-image, self-compassion, and self-acceptance.
April's Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Welcome,
I’m here to spread love and positivity to the world, to let every one know they aren’t alone!
Would you joint me?
absence and other shapes
Active: 1 week ago
poems and reflections inspired by a dual reality of lived & imagined experiences🌛
"it's all that deep" (to me).
Active: 1 week ago
essays on life, love, & everything else they tell you isn't that deep.
Weirdo Poetry with Jason McBride
Active: 1 week ago
An email & snail mail newsletter
that invites you to smell the calm of
an early summer zephyr and to hear
the wonder of singing stars
Blind Eyes Could Blaze
Active: 1 week ago
Wrestling with faith in a postmodern world and seeking Christ among the ruins.
Donavon’s Substack
Active: 1 week ago
I explore life's big questions with simplicity and depth, seeking to edify heart, mind, and soul.
Dream of ElectricScapes
Active: 1 week ago
I am Malrik Raithmoor — The Liturgist. Creator of Liturgicwave: a genre where pain becomes poetry, and story becomes ritual. For heretics, seekers, and saints of rupture. This is not comfort. This is catharsis.© 2026 Malrik Raithmoor | All rights reserved
No Whale In Sight
Active: 1 week ago
This is Ryan Scott Nance’s premier collection, with poems appearing in Graffit Rag, the diagram, Hinchas de Poesia and Mantis.
Launching June 1, 2026
From The Quiet Middle
Active: 1 week ago
Liminal. Still. Present. Aware. Reflective.
A quiet rebellion against noise, speed, and certainty. A space where awareness and attention resist a world that moves too quickly to notice itself. Pause here with me. <3
Eldridge’s Substack
Active: 1 week ago
## Welcome to My Space!
If you are looking for a community rooted in growth, respect, and deep connection, you are exactly where you need to be.
This page is built on three core pillars: **empowerment, respecting others, and loving your family.**
Henry's Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Domestic Mysteries, Dreams, and Memories— A place for poetry, spoken word, short stories, essays, art, and photography.
Raiders of the Lost Arts
Active: 1 week ago
Raiders of the Lost Arts is about rediscovering the great stories of the past and celebrating the literary and theological treasures of antiquity.
Lach Stuff
Active: 1 week ago
Welcome to the organic (no AI), unfettered words, cartoons, radio shows, podcasts, music, songs, and art by Lach. In other words, Lach stuff! Onwards!
The Quantum Model
Active: 1 week ago
A model certified in Neuroscience and Meditation- exploring where the mind meets matter.
Queer Poem-A-Day
Active: 1 week ago
Queer Poem-A-Day is a curated series showcasing one queer poet each weekday, connecting readers to queer poems.
T. Vale ⎹ Fiction for Adults
Active: 1 week ago
T. Vale - character-driven NSFW erotic stories, poetry, and fiction.
Studio Shyama
Active: 1 week ago
Essays, poems, and fragments on memory, the felt, and the unseen. Weekly reflections to inspire, unsettle, and invite conversations.
Devyn Leighton
Active: 1 week ago
Writing on love, loss, and finding home in unexpected places.
Thank you for being here 🖤
Romy’s Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Check out my book, The Art of Floundering by clicking on the link https://a.co/d/dUJfAlO
stephen
Active: 1 week ago
I love writing and wordplay. I also love reading and libraries books readers writers pens pencils paper screens messages and art.
Poetic Inclinations
Active: 1 week ago
Poetic Inclinations publishes poems of memory, landscape, and persistence, often shaped by the shadowed histories and haunted beauty of the Australian goldfields.
Michael A.Horvich-Memoirs,Musings,&More
Active: 1 week ago
I write essays & poetry about life insights & philosophies, the LGBTQ Community, & Dementia/Alzheimer’s Disease. I collect small things and I am a photographer. I will share all on my Substack.
Bee Halton 🇬🇧/🇩🇪
Active: 1 week ago
Human, Bee of all trades, Mistress of none, bilingual (English/German)
Bowie Snodgrass
Active: 1 week ago
The Rev. Bowie Snodgrass is an Episcopal priest, parent, and poet. Rector of Christ Church in Short Hills, NJ. I’m writing poetry with the Gospel of John as my muse, revisiting poems from other periods of my life, and sharing new work.
Rhythm's
Active: 1 week ago
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Whistling to the Boneyard / TC
Active: 1 week ago
Writer, artist, teacher, musician. "Just trying to beat death to the boneyard."
La Rotonde Review
Active: 1 week ago
La Rotonde Review is an online indie literary magazine devoted to passionate poetry and prose poetry, with a timeless sensibility.
Smiling Through the Tears
Active: 1 week ago
I write emotionally uplifting fiction stories that might just make you cry.
Buzzy Johnson
Active: 1 week ago
Entering the Crone Years means stepping into the Archetype of the Wise Woman. With old ancestral patterns broken and some hard lessons learned, I am a Crone who is an encourager, and a fledgling photographer 🐝
Wildwood Writer
Active: 1 week ago
Welcome to the place where my bones speak first.
This is my Substack, where I’ll be laying poems down like open wounds and strange prayers—some polished, some still bleeding. Purchase my poetry books through the link in bio.
Signal Fire by Tyler Knott Gregson
Active: 1 week ago
Signal Fire is a weekly beacon for the seekers, dreamers, and quiet rebels — poetry, essays, and photography by Tyler Knott Gregson. A small fire, lit for you, warmth against the dark.
Lorraine Schuchart
Active: 1 week ago
Brand strategist and storyteller sharing reflections on writing, ethical marketing, purpose, leadership — and how to build a brand that lasts. Founder, Prosper for Purpose, a Certified BCorp | Host, Brand for Good 🎤
imarkanx
Active: 1 week ago
poems from Istvan Markan(imarkanx) -> muses dwell inside my head, whispering words I cannot dispel.
On The Front Porch with Bob and Ralph
Active: 1 week ago
Ralph is a folksy country sage who loves huntin', fixin' stuff up, and walking with the Lord. Bob is a Taoist/Buddhist tree-hugging, liberal, city-boy lawyer-poet who meditates. Their deep friendship produces some wild wisdom.
Transduction - leading transformation
Active: 1 week ago
systems|complexity|cybernetics in public|service|transformation, and stuff...
PREVAIL by Greg Olear
Active: 1 week ago
PREVAIL is a regular column about politics, history, national security, foreign affairs, organized crime, dirty money, global corruption, the fight for democracy—and, on Sundays, poetry and literature.
WritingWithWater
Active: 1 week ago
I am a dreamer, a creator, a lover of life who wants to catch and ride the waves of possibility that emerge beneath the drama and noise of this time.
For Fun And Then Some
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry and prose, sometimes playful, sometimes reflective. Enjoy my poetry book, ILLICIT CROISSANTS AT DAWN, available on Amazon.
What Comes Next?
Active: 1 week ago
Something odd will cross my mind, or a memory will catch me off guard, or my monkey mind will swing from the ceiling fan, or a tiny ant will crawl up the bookcase next to my chair. Then I get curious and curiosity is the first step in an unknown direction
Chi Emmanuel
Active: 1 week ago
Poet. Storyteller. Observer of human fracture and survival. Writing truth in fragments and rhythm.
Rogue Literary Society
Active: 1 week ago
"The new bull of meaning" in literature, poetry, and critical book reviews.
thoughts from a hospital bed
Active: 1 week ago
I write what I rethink.
psychology and modern society short stories / essays
I hope you relate :).
Words From My Heart
Active: 1 week ago
Cultivating, compassion, empathy and kindness with stories and verse (and maybe some humor every once in awhile!)
Lennon Saige B. ☄ ੈ✩‧₊˚ ✿
Active: 1 week ago
Whimsical valedictorian of the earth. Curious savant, unique analytics of the fourth kind. Space, science, literature & more. Come have an existential crisis with me :) (yearning is hard when you’re tired)✨🖤🧡
Poetry Is For The Mornings
Active: 1 week ago
Notes on motherhood, sobriety, desire, film, and the poetry of life.
The New Stylus
Active: 1 week ago
A literary journal specializing in poetry that is well-crafted, transcendent, and full of emotive power.
Writer pilgrim Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Writer Pilgrim is a writer, journalist, poet & teacher who runs podcast Writer Pilgrim Sounds, TINAWW writers workshops in person/online, offers personalised poems, NaPoWriMo host, monthly song title poetry, weekly prompts & social hangout SPAWN.
black
Active: 1 week ago
black is a beginner writer and poet without a heart. i’d rather write my thoughts instead..
Slowing Down with Ryan Pennington
Active: 1 week ago
An ordinary pastor sharing everyday experiences of following Jesus and inviting people into the theological curiosities of my mind.
Against Reduction’s Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Literature, leadership, and systems written without concession.
My Voice. Health. Nature. Love.
Active: 1 week ago
Nature, life, my take on it. Wellness tips, meditation practices, living a joyful life. Think outside the box.
kay genivieve
Active: 1 week ago
musings of a film school graduate that loves esoterica and reverie.
Inner Algorithms
Active: 1 week ago
Words don’t bite, judgment does. Curiosity is my code, swaying between flashes of genius, feminine grace, untamed edge, and Chaplin’s stumble.
words i’ll take to the grave
Active: 1 week ago
An archive of unsent letters, unfinished conversations and everything left unsaid. Poetry, prose, and truths that refused to stay buried. Consider this my paper trail. Sincerely, B 💌
Don Your Cape by Lindsay Sfara
Active: 1 week ago
I write poetry and adult superhero fiction full of self-love and mental health awareness. You'll receive posts with personal reflections, a self-care exercise, poetry, and book updates; all as a call to honor your core values and own your true identity.
Roger Browne
Active: 1 week ago
Did you ever read something in a novel and think no, that's not how it should go. And then dream re-writing it? Maybe it's just my curse. But, it led me to take up fiction writing myself, so there's that. Here to Learn. Share. Connect.
Paul’s Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Once upon a time, I discovered I had many voices in my head and I needed a place to put them—then Substack came along.
"To suggest is to create, to name is to destroy." —Stéphane Mallarmé
Austin's Myth
Active: 1 week ago
Here is where I post poems mostly and other things periodically and continuously with occasional breaks due to travel and block.
Spencer’s Cult of Forbidden Horrors
Active: 1 week ago
Horror. The cosmic and Body kind and anything else I want to write about I guess.
The Writer's Journey
Active: 1 week ago
The Writer's Journey chronicles the ongoing creative projects of author Bradley Ramsey, as well as his personal thoughts on the craft of writing, and exclusive short stories for subscribers.
Lapis Manalis
Active: 1 week ago
I am a Norwegian writer. I write essays and poetry to the world whilst working on my novel away from the world.
bitpunk.fm
Active: 1 week ago
Mostly written and performed poetry exploring the affects of media, war, and time well spent with kids.
she says what she says
Active: 1 week ago
24 y.o. lesbian in deep red south trying to survive white christian supremacy and bigotry and facism just like everyone else; survivor, chronically ill, disabled and trying to improve myself every single day.
A Billet-doux
Active: 1 week ago
A Billet-doux is an online literary commonplace filled with penning of maddening obsessions, keen observations and becoming. part diary, part fever dream.
Things That Don't Suck
Active: 1 week ago
One poet's quest to uncover what shifts when we shift our attention
Dispatches From the Basement
Active: 1 week ago
I offer poetry that seeks out the sacred in the ordinary, accompanied by original photography. No politics, no hot takes, just poetry.
Anthony Signorelli
Active: 1 week ago
Living into the Rapture of Being Alive! Imagination, curiosity, ideas.
Jennifer Hayes
Active: 1 week ago
Writer, Poet, Proud Cat Mom I am currently stepping back into becoming an author after almost two decades away from the path, so I hope you enjoy my new creations as well as some of the buried ones from my past incarnations.
The Unfolding Path
Active: 1 week ago
the playful mystic—sharing my personal journey. I write about spirituality, self-love, how imagination creates reality and the illusion of separation. I empower you to master your inner reality so you can create fulfillment and meaning in your life.
Kae tea aych bea
Active: 1 week ago
a girl in a woman's body. I want to know and experience everything and the sadness I have is that I cannot.
achingsoul
Active: 1 week ago
This space is filled with quiet confessions written in blood and love.
Hawtorn V. Rabot
Active: 1 week ago
I'm a guy who writes. I was never supposed to. I never really learned how. Somehow, it's become a part of who I am, and I need it. I'm a father, teacher, and somehow, I'm published.
Nicheless. Thumb Confessions™. Read Too Soon et Pero Too Late.
Diary Poems
Active: 1 week ago
Verbal snapshots of my daily life or whatever else may be on my mind. Mostly syllabic, occasionally ekphrastic (which is not the same as illustrative).
Gregory Blair - Scribbling Entertainment
Active: 1 week ago
Movie nerd, book lover & theater geek. I also create all of the aforementioned art forms. Weaknesses: chocolate and martinis. And my forename is polysyllabic, dammit! More at: www.gregoryblair.info
Marcus Miranda
Active: 1 week ago
Hi, I'm Marcus. And I only want out of life the opportunity to paint with words.
becoming that girl
Active: 1 week ago
love letters, personal thoughts, story dumps, and the virtual diary of a girl in her twenties starting over and figuring life out, piece by piece.
The Word Emporium
Active: 1 week ago
A curated exploration of beautiful, curious, overlooked words, language reflections, and literary wisdom past and present.
Lyre & Wine
Active: 1 week ago
Fairytales and rhymes to accompany you through the rollercoaster of life, best enjoyed with a strumming lyre and a couple glasses of wine.
Wing Chair Musings
Active: 1 week ago
creative writing + thoughts on writing & publishing + musings on life + craft secrets + poetry + insights into what it's like being an autistic person in the world (& the publishing world) + books + an occasional look at my special interests
Poetic Purpose
Active: 1 week ago
Poetic Updates - A Free Monthly Newsletter
Personal Poetics - For Paid Subscribers
🍵 The Write to Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
Build your creative life. One poem at a time. We provide the prompts!
Scheming Rhymes
Active: 1 week ago
Formal poetry is a beautiful art getting lost in the digital age. Let's write and learn about it to keep it alive!
From the Mountains of the Sun
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry from the Sonoran backcountry. The sun lives here.
Naomi’s Heart
Active: 1 week ago
This blog is for dreamers, romantics, and those seeking healing. May you find what you're looking for. All love and light to you.
Leaf and Lamp with Jared C. Wellman
Active: 1 week ago
Leaf and Lamp explores Tolkien, storytelling, and Christian imagination through essays on sub-creation and original works of poetry, fiction, and art.
The Poetry Posse
Active: 1 week ago
This publication is the collaborative effort of a tribe of poets and voices.
Home Soil
Active: 1 week ago
I write about grief, love, and starting all over again. Blending stories of travel, relationships, and the silly, whimsical moments of life alongside its harder truths. Thank you for being here.
From My Orange Desk
Active: 1 week ago
Essays on the stubborn, luminous work of being human by author Patti Digh.
Tracy's Nordic Light
Active: 1 week ago
A quiet literary space devoted to reading and learning as a way of life—where books, reflection, and the inner life meet. Written from Norway, shaped by decades of reading, and guided by a love of beauty, nature, good light and creative living.
Daniel Kenneth
Active: 1 week ago
I’m a writer sharing my thoughts in plain sight—using words to help readers see the world as I see it. This space is for clear ideas, honest reflection, and perspectives shaped slowly, meant to be read, considered, and carried forward.
Joel Gunderson
Active: 1 week ago
A sommelier in Portland, Oregon who enjoys very good wine and food and engaging theological and literary discussions—preferably with 90’s hip hop playing in the background.
Kelly Trost
Active: 1 week ago
I am a published poet and author of children's stories. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in violin performance music composition from UCSB. Currently, I am primarily involved in the creation of my Poetic Improvisations.
Pathetically Intense
Active: 1 week ago
"I'm so pathetically intense. I just can't be any other way." - Sylvia Plath
Withlove,Dammy🤍🌸
Active: 1 week ago
Welcome to my safe space,
I write..... You read and share your unfiltered thoughtsss too🥹🥹
Denise
Active: 1 week ago
This is where I tell my truth about healing, heartbreak, growth, and learning to love myself more deeply. I write from both the light and the shadow, honoring the full human experience. Through reflections from my own journey.
Mat Does Horror & Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
Mat Does Horror & Poetry is a space to explore the emotional side of literature. Come for the thrill of horror, or the indulgence of casual poetry. Short stories, poems, and essays from a new author, writing between Teams meetings and diaper changes.
Your Ignorance is their Power
Active: 1 week ago
Short stories and serialized novels, across genre boundaries.
Tender Oscillations
Active: 1 week ago
Poems, stories, literature, fiction - not always in that order
Corey Ryan Forrester’s Rants and Such!
Active: 1 week ago
Hello all! On this here Substack I not only write essays and do podcasts, but I have also created my own little world called Chickaluki! Think "Lake Wobegon" but with a southern twist! Subscribe today and become a full fledged citizen of Chickaluki!
Gopher Farm
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry, fiction and memoir coming from Santa Cruz every Sunday. It's free!
Contanam
Active: 1 week ago
Contanam is basically a sandbox for the idea that everything is interconnected. (atp its just poetry and weird ramblings tho tbh)
et marginalia
Active: 1 week ago
Essays and poetry on girlhood, grief, and God, every Wednesday and Sunday.
Ethereal Twilight Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
Horribly in love. ❤️🔥 I write poetry from the cosmic, the ethereal and the grit of cold earth. I live between the aching, yearning, loving and surviving. ❤️🩹
Looking for the Light
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry and prose from a person wanting to live the ordinary days noticing the wonder in it all.
Kevin's Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Writer, reviewer, avid fantasy reader, talking Tolkien and other great novels
A Poem A Week by Anagha Smrithi
Active: 1 week ago
A newsletter about the poetics of everyday life. Weekly poetry, straight to your heart and inbox. By poet and writer, Anagha Smrithi.
David Whyte
Active: 1 week ago
Poems, essays and commentaries as well as insights from my Three Sundays Series.
Kolade Peter
Active: 1 week ago
Helping you grow in faith as I also grown in faith by following the ways of our Lord Jesus Christ, one post at a time. ✝️🙏🏽
Poems by Jonna
Active: 1 week ago
This is a space for poetry that lingers.
I’m Jonna – poet, listener, and seeker of language that holds what’s hard to name.
Here, I share poems shaped by memory, silence, nature, time, dreams, and the quiet ache of being human.
The Poet’s Report
Active: 1 week ago
A weekly report on the state and spirit of the world and the life upon it, through the lens of a poem.
LeeAnn Pickrell ~ Poetry & Prose
Active: 1 week ago
On LeeAnn Pickrell ~ Poetry & Prose I share poems and short essays about this extraordinary ordinary life we're living.
Nicholas Trandahl
Active: 1 week ago
Award-winning Wyoming poet. Simplicity, slow-living, service, goodness, and mountains.
Golden undercurrent
Active: 1 week ago
the deformed uncoordinated, unaesthetic and-illogical banality of things.
poems, essays and mini book reviews.
Brilliantly Dark
Active: 1 week ago
I write...I think...I feel...trying to cope with life with humour. And I'm still trying to understand myself.
Poems & Prayers
Active: 1 week ago
If, like me, you need poetry of faith, doubt & beauty, and if you love verse, Poems & Prayers is for you. Subscribe and receive your free introductory download, A Skeptic's Psalms: 7 Poems for the Thinker's Soul.
Intensely Specific
Active: 1 week ago
A teacher's endless search for purpose in the past, present, and future
She Speaks Softly
Active: 1 week ago
Reflections on identity, personal evolution and metamorphosis from a soft-spoken soul that survived corporate.
Morning News/Evening Notes
Active: 1 week ago
Connecting through books and writing, considering soulfulness--noticing nature and creatures great and small...
Mantras & Coffee
Active: 1 week ago
A newsletter that embodies what I like to create…helping souls explore and chronicle their lives through memoir, journaling, creative writing and other things. Just think about the kind of paperback your life is? Your story matters because you matter.
Sunday Poem + Prompt
Active: 1 week ago
sharing a poem with an accompanying writing prompt every Sunday
In the elements
Active: 1 week ago
A place for wonder and whimsy to flourish in the wind~original poetry, inspiration, creative fuel
The Poetry Federation
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry on events past, present, and whatever is flying at the seat of the imagination with inspiration in the passenger. Experimental musings on the philosophical and surreal on what's already been said and seen because you never run out of words.
The Eminent
Active: 1 week ago
The Timidity of Omnipotent Is The Begining Of Sagacity. Pedagogue|Prodigy|Punditocrat.
Capturing Beauty
Active: 1 week ago
...in photos and words.
From an Australian mum who loves to share.
Compendium: The Kitchen Sink
Active: 1 week ago
Poems, politics, ruminations, memoir and happenings in the garden and kitchen (w/pictures)
Sarah Baker
Active: 1 week ago
I believe in writing, in giving words to those still finding the right ones for themselves.
Tumbleweed Words
Active: 1 week ago
Original poetry and short fiction by David Moran — Pushcart-nominated, internationally published. Minimalist verse and literary prose, written on trains, in bedsits and strange cities across the globe.
The Poetry Moth
Active: 1 week ago
Trisha Leigh Shufelt is an award-winning poet/artist. Her style is confessional poetry with emphasis on nature imagery. She’s authored several poetry books and appeared in many anthologies. You can find her work at thepoetrymoth.com.
The Poetry Moth
Active: 1 week ago
Navigating life through my love of reading and writing poetry while drinking excessive amounts of coffee and overthinking just about everything.
Poems you don't have to be a poet to love
Active: 1 week ago
Poems, literary excerpts, opinionated opinions.
Musings From A Broken Heart
Active: 1 week ago
Theology, poetry, reflections, and restful meditations from a Black man in process
The Poet's Circle
Active: 1 week ago
A welcoming place for the poetry curious to discover and discuss poetry, form, and craft
Poetry & Ponderings with Julia Fehrenbacher
Active: 1 week ago
May this space feel like a poetic pause, like a shelter of kindness, like a deep, nourishing breath in the midst of the noise—a space where, together, we can plant & grow the truest things.
Blackstack
Active: 1 week ago
A corner of Substack for the Black community.
We can call this a little safe hub F.U.B.U.
If you don't check the box for Black on applications, don't click the subscribe button to this publication.
They not like us!
williamphaynes/elliott
Active: 1 week ago
I'm an ancient beat writer trying to find a new audience for my work
Silken Mouli
Active: 1 week ago
Writing to make you laugh, cry, and cum; not necessarily in that order.
Organised Overthinking
Active: 1 week ago
Observations, patterns, and the occasional flawed conclusion.
Sensory Cafe♨️
Active: 1 week ago
Aspiring psychologist using synesthesia to explore human connection across disciplines. Founder of Easy Rococo Community (X & Discord).🛠️Building BookQuest, a gamified reading companion that makes reading active. In crypto since 2021.
My Way Back
Active: 1 week ago
I almost died. Now, I’m finding my way back. Poetry + prose for YOU at the intersection of art, faith, + belonging. Home to Poetry University.
The Fortnightly Review
Active: 1 week ago
The object of THE FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW is to become the organ of the unbiassed expression of many and various minds on topics of general interest in Politics, Literature, Philosophy, Science, and Art.
Caro’s Writing Perspectives
Active: 1 week ago
Unleash your imagination and immerse yourself in a world of captivating stories, heartfelt poems, and more.
Caro’s Writing Perspectives
Active: 1 week ago
Unleash your imagination and immerse yourself in a world of captivating stories, heartfelt poems, and more.
Chaos & Kismet
Active: 1 week ago
the underbelly of poetry, essay and fiction - read for a kick in the chest or a kiss on the lips. OR if you're lucky — both.
The Beauty of Things
Active: 1 week ago
Posts about arts and culture from a classically-minded poet.
Unpsychology Voices
Active: 1 week ago
Unpsychology Voices is the online home of Unpsychology Magazine, in which we explore mind, culture, ecology, psychology and soul. We publish an annual FREE digital anthology of writing, art and creativity of all kinds, and online content on this site.
Crane's Eye View
Active: 1 week ago
Ray Zimmerman's personal Substack includes nature writing and comments on day to day living.
A Carpenter's Point of View in Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
A lifelong carpenter, mostly retired but poetry still whispers to me.
Awaken The Legend Within
Active: 1 week ago
I'm Chad Osinga. Been a sniper, a combat instructor, a broken man, and now a guy just trying to help others find their way. Through my stories, philosophy, and simple practices, we awaken the legend—the God inside you.
holes of beauty in the grit: poetry aloud
Active: 1 week ago
history is in your mouth.
poetry & prose aloud and/or in translation.
The Slower Explorer
Active: 1 week ago
Stories, reflections, and the realities of my life as a retired, minimalist, solo, full-time, slow traveler.
THE EDEN PROJECT
Active: 1 week ago
writing post digital gothic poetry exploring intimacy, obsession, trauma, and identity. I write to disassemble the architecture of human collapse
1000 Ways In
Active: 1 week ago
Philosophical essays & poems on memory, relationships, culture, language and the embodied masculine. Writing to understand myself and others, one way in at a time.
Solarion
Active: 1 week ago
Cat Woodward's poetry Substack. New poems, criticism, writing insights, eclectica.
Twishi Pabreja
Active: 1 week ago
Creativity is my language—through books, poetry, music, mandala art, photography, travel, and public speaking, I express emotions, heal, inspire others, and turn thoughts into meaningful stories and connections.
The Raging Poet
Active: 1 week ago
I write for those, like myself, who have danced with their devils, passed trauma the blame, dressed up their skeletons and know their demons by name.
Jacqueline's Substack
Active: 1 week ago
poetry, short fiction, photography, art, nature, and personal insights | all forms and genres | words, art, and photography my own
The Light Within
Active: 1 week ago
Remember your inner light and find your always accessible peace within. Your thoughts do not define you, and I'm here to share my journey and my poetry with you as you remember who you are. I hope you find some light here.
Confessions of Poetry Witch: Matriarchy, Meters, & Magic
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry, Meters, Matriarchy, & Magic from Annie Finch
Life Over Coffee
Active: 1 week ago
Essays on personal stories, oddities, small mysteries, , culture, media, and history.
Written by someone with many personal stories of triumps, losses, grief, and more.
How to Love the World
Active: 1 week ago
Sharing my poems, stories and art.
This is how I love the world. ♥
A Room of Someone Else's
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry, books, culture, politics, history, etc. I've been economically displaced from my longtime home & am rebuilding, now with long Covid. My new book, 'Joe Hill Makes His Way into the Castle', is out now with CB Editions. katyevansbush.com
Kimberly Unscripted ✨
Active: 1 week ago
"Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart" 💗. On this journey of finding myself again✨ I ❤️ all things journaling/planning, literature, books, travel, history, Victorian era.
Talayah Rose
Active: 1 week ago
A passion for reading and writing literature with a particular focus on academic style essays and poetry <3
Tea for a Druid
Active: 1 week ago
Appreciating nature is understanding our selves.
Always human-created, never artificial intelligence.
Red Paper Poems
Active: 1 week ago
Poems and writings on resistance, grief, magic, ancestry, and creatively coming to grips with the horrors of the world.
The Convulsion Doctrine
Active: 1 week ago
Dark poetry. Feral love letters. Dream logic. Horror stories. Your intrusive thoughts, twisted just right.
Literary Feast: Poetry and Prose
Active: 1 week ago
Poems and prose about beauty hidden in the mundane, the hunger to bear witness, and books that help us taste and see.
Saira The Poet
Active: 1 week ago
Helping others heal through poetry. Sharing the latest in the world of Saira.
Patricia Crow Herlevi Writer
Active: 1 week ago
Literary food from several decades of writing poetry, fiction, and memoirs. And a monthly newsletter for writers.
In no time at all
Active: 1 week ago
A collection of poems on the balance between needing each other and letting go
ATLANTIC SAINTS
Active: 1 week ago
Atlantic Saints is an exercise in pondering life, art, faith, style, and all else worthy.
To Be Livin' Poetry and Prose
Active: 1 week ago
Words! L-O-V-E THEM! You, too?! Join me at the table to share what's on the Menu: poetry, prose, discuss featured writers, and more. Taste the daring to the divine! It'll be YUMMY!!!
Checking In
Active: 1 week ago
If you've caught yourself on autopilot, this was written for you. I share short personal essays about life, trying repeatedly to teach me something. They start with a story and find a thread worth pulling. (Warning: Humor is my coping mechanism.)
North Sea Poets
Active: 1 week ago
We are a group of experienced poets based near the Scottish east coast. We run online masterclasses, and post here on poetry, poetics and the writing life.
A Cinnabar Stone-Leafed Grimoire
Active: 1 week ago
The Alchemico-Hermetic celestial elixir of the true Light which enlightens all men who goeth into the earth.
The Christo-Poetic Goetic of a Cinnabar Stone Grimoire.
Myrrh. Frankincense. Gold.
Night Work: From Mark Gulino
Active: 1 week ago
Burning the midnight oil to bring writing, poetry, and additional content from my desk to yours.
Rose Rivers Writes
Active: 1 week ago
Between worlds, I write — weaving stories of memory, myth, and becoming.
the laurel letters
Active: 1 week ago
thoughts, poems, opinions, musings, writing for the sake of writing, writing for no reason and every reason.
The Beverwyck Review’s Substack
Active: 1 week ago
Stories and poems from the Writers' Critique Group of First Reformed Church in Schenectady, New York
Carah Amelie
Active: 2 weeks ago
This is a place to get a peek inside the poem. I believe the process is just as poetic as the final piece.
Writing from the Ashes
Active: 2 weeks ago
This is a space to experience poetry as prayer, to tend the fertile soils of our grief, and to remember the wildness that lives within us all. Subscribe to receive my poems + writing prompts straight to your inbox.
Xicanotl Moreno
Active: 2 weeks ago
From the ancient Mexico that vibrates in time. Look at my collection of buried temples and invisible greatness. The cherished collection of bloody stones from the civilization left from fallen empires and forgotten messiahs.
A broken tulip by Maaike
Active: 2 weeks ago
Every Thursday, an offering: a lyric essay, a poem or a deep dive into an art piece. Each one a question that hovers like bees around the hive of place and rupture. We'll do our best to follow the questions home.
The Zed Review
Active: 2 weeks ago
Humor, poetry, and rants on being a human, a women and a mother staring into the abyss of the American dream. Writers are Elizabeth Howard, Eric Vajentic, and others.
Pixie’s Substack
Active: 2 weeks ago
Pixie Bruner is a writer, editor, and cervical cancer survivor and patient advocate. Her joints bend backwards due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. She lives in the Event Horizon of Atlanta, GA with her doppelgänger and the most deranged cats.
ley lines to nowhere
Active: 2 weeks ago
just a guy navigating life in his late twenties. I write poems and post about my life experiences from early childhood up to where I'm at now and how one has impacted the other
Seasoned with Salt
Active: 2 weeks ago
A creativity-filled life as a wife and mother, with Christ at the center.
Walking in Circles with Catepa
Active: 2 weeks ago
Travelogue of a part-time mystic on the road with Jesus through labyrinths, geocaching, family, failure and hope.
The Love Café
Active: 2 weeks ago
A space to come together to collaborate, co-create, connect and calm the mind. This is for the literature lovers, the poetry ponderers, and those who are ready to re-discover the sacred power of the heART.
Carnation Lifetime
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poet & grad student writing about gratitude, craft, & everything that catches my eye in Charlottesville, VA.
Newbell Poetry
Active: 2 weeks ago
American poet trying to carve my own path. Lover of books and music. Futurist. Also have a YouTube channel for history: https://www.youtube.com/@westonthehistorian2817
Sarah Reichert
Active: 2 weeks ago
Mother, Writer, Poet, Advocate. Director at Writing Heights, Award-winning novelist, Writing coach, pit bull rescuer, cat servant, hiker, martial artist
This Blessed Plot
Active: 2 weeks ago
Sermons, Teaching Manuscripts, Reflections, Meditations, Prayers, Poems, and Thoughts about Christian Living from Pastor Hardin Crowder.
Paulomi Dutta
Active: 2 weeks ago
Introvert personality who write poetry about ordinary life, longing, love, and so on.. poetry is an art of expression and l enjoy exploring that art
Notes from the Dishwasher Café
Active: 2 weeks ago
A working poet & parent wrangles chaos. Humor as stethoscope, microscope, telescope.
On The Train to Koh-Riley
Active: 2 weeks ago
There's so much awesome stuff out there, haven't you seen it? Cool leaves, strange people, beautiful rocks... I'll write about it, let me share it with you.
The Memorious
Active: 2 weeks ago
An independent literary magazine that showcases moving meditations, forward-thinking fictions, and profound works of poetry.
Stirred, Not Shaken
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poems, stories and photos inspired by what stirs me here in the woods and surrounds of the Salish Sea.
Sincerely Seb Poetry
Active: 2 weeks ago
Sincerely Seb Poetry publishes poems about the world, the more entertaining or bizarre experiences that I have in Slumberland, and the occasional musical composition. Poems include live voice overs by me, Sincerely Seb.
Third Place Poetry
Active: 2 weeks ago
Third Place Poetry is a gathering space that connects people to poetry and people through poetry.
The Midlife Sonnet
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poetry, planted in Midwestern soil, that seeks the beautiful in the ordinary.
Barefoot Poetessa
Active: 2 weeks ago
Wild & true poetry.
My untamed heart in words & visuals. INFJ.
26th Avenue Poet
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poems that greet you with "Hey, look at that."
Created with 100% organic intelligence.
Poetry and Miracles
Active: 2 weeks ago
I write poems, take photographs, and occasionally make art. Always in search of joy.
On Breath and Belonging
Active: 2 weeks ago
Longtime seeker for home and belonging. Gradually finding it here, here in the Earth and on the inward path that reveals that I never left home to begin with.
Gathering the Pieces of Me
Active: 2 weeks ago
A quiet place for remembering and becoming. I’m writing slowly toward what is still unfolding, gathering the parts of myself that grew quiet. For women rediscovering their worth, and the courage to bloom again.
In The Middle
Active: 2 weeks ago
A weekly publication exploring randomly-generated themes, and what it means to be "in the middle," through essays, poetry, and art.
Joshua’s Poetry Substack
Active: 2 weeks ago
Hello and welcome, I'm Josh. I died on January 31st, leaving behind many files of poems, now edited and shared by my beloved fellow writer and fellow substacker @Veronika Bond
AJoyfulPoet
Active: 2 weeks ago
Hi everyone! I’m going to be using this to post my notes app poetry, so enjoy! Some may be drafts or just late night thoughts like a brain dump.
Kyle Ryan
Active: 2 weeks ago
Hey..I’m a husband, dad, and film fan. I love to read about and discuss movies good and bad (especially bad). I may post some of my own from time to time (with an emphasis on horror) that I hope to get better at as I go.
mundane
Active: 2 weeks ago
classic literature fiend and avid overthinker (vote for me for presidency)
Truly & Madly by Madison Morton
Active: 2 weeks ago
growing into yourself, loving deeply without losing yourself, telling the truth even when it’s uncomfortable, and occasionally letting poetry say what prose can’t.
The Monday to Friday Poet by Otilia Jones
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poetry must have been invented on a rainy day.
a small spectacle
Active: 2 weeks ago
Nature poems & short essays about finding wonder, healing & connection.
Adrienne Veronese
Active: 2 weeks ago
Warrior Poet, essayist, podcaster and author of Bring the Wu, Tales of a Drunken Shopping Cart, and The Good, the Bad & the Secret Squirrel.
Laura's Night Stack
Active: 2 weeks ago
Writer, Poet, Former Indie Bookstore Owner (yay for indies), water spirit, breast cancer survivor. Winner of the Stevens Poetry Manuscript Competition, Midwest Book Awards Finalist
the noctuary
Active: 2 weeks ago
thank you for pausing in your whirlwind of a day to find me here. i hope all your tomorrows are infinitely softer than your yesterdays <3
Waving from A Distance
Active: 2 weeks ago
Ghost whisperer channeling my dead grandmother's forgotten, unspoken words.
The World of Ma'Tulu
Active: 2 weeks ago
A worldbuilding exercise with free to use D&D content included
Lexie is writing to remember
Active: 2 weeks ago
I’m Lexie (he/him). I write queer, emotional poetry about the people I almost loved, the ones I still do, and the moments I haven’t lived yet but already feel. Based in Belgium. Still remembering. Still writing.
Lori Anna Conzo
Active: 2 weeks ago
Exploring contrasting perspectives and how faith shapes our connection to nature, to ourselves and to each other.
Sometimes: A Poem Arrives
Active: 2 weeks ago
Classic poems for weather, time, and quiet hours. The iPhone app brings one fitting poem at the right moment.
Bishop of the East Wind
Active: 2 weeks ago
Words like palms pressed together, tethering time to halt times harrowing.
Peregrine Notes
Active: 2 weeks ago
Scribblings and prayers along the road to being reconciled with Time.
my soul cried out
Active: 2 weeks ago
Weekly echoes on spirituality; prayer and poetry formulated in the Divine Pool of Inspiration; and spiritual practices to dust the inner lantern to discover the light of Divine LOVE.
Poetry, Art, and Unseen Things
Active: 2 weeks ago
I share my poetry, prose, and digital drawing. Monthly critique of one poem per month for paid subscribers.
Jess Ray: Pray in the Dark
Active: 2 weeks ago
"Tell the crowd to leave your house, go in and shut the door.
With all your heart, pray in the dark, for miracles and more."
PRAY IN THE DARK is short entries, prayers and poems shared weekly, to inspire readers to pray to God in their own voice.
Pissing In The Press Pool
Active: 2 weeks ago
Weekly poetry and essays from a lucky heartbroke writer trying to get by in the end of times.
Melissa “justME” Ellis
Active: 2 weeks ago
Black Woman Poet, GodMaMa/Auntie Supreme, Brand Ambassador, fitness enthusiast, lover of Blackness, dope ass person. #IAmjustME ❤️🖤💚
Konstantin
Active: 2 weeks ago
I write because silence is sometimes too heavy to carry alone. My poems are about loneliness, love, suffering, nature, and the strange journey of being human. No masks. No monuments. No perfect endings. Just words trying to reach another soul.
Christopher Van Name
Active: 2 weeks ago
Observer. Ponderer. Over thinker. Lucky man. Beneath the cracks that time reveals Still live the dreams that age conceals” -“This Old Clown” CVN Copyright (c) Songbay 03/07/2018
And Other Stories
Active: 2 weeks ago
Like a small cafe where you can kick back and sip a beverage, And Other Stories is a place of creative vagaries where I share my poetry, flash fiction, and serialized novel, Strands.
Rotary Writings
Active: 2 weeks ago
Revolving poems. Like a thousand small combustions powering an engine.
Thy Echoes Of Eden
Active: 2 weeks ago
Finding Eden in the everyday. Devotions from a soul seeking Jesus, through pain, stillness, and peace.
Tiny Avalanches
Active: 2 weeks ago
Creative Writing, Poetry, Essays, Nonfiction and more. Always writing
Three And A Possible
Active: 2 weeks ago
i write poems. i am the author of "how to bloom... and other acts of guerilla warfare."
Mother of Hope
Active: 2 weeks ago
Rambles, sweary rants, stories and poetry on life, love & liberty.
Victoria L Mead
Active: 2 weeks ago
I am a writer from England. I write poetry, fiction and anything else that comes to mind. I can write very dark subjects, and very light subjects. I don't hold back and aim to share my unfiltered thoughts on here in a way I can't on other platforms.
everything is an experiment
Active: 2 weeks ago
rambling inspiration and creative practice from hope amico
the sacred art of becoming HER
Active: 2 weeks ago
Welcome to the Front Porch — a quiet, spacious place for women who cherish beauty, savor simple pleasures, and are drawn to a softer, more sacred way of consciously becoming.
ThePoetGatherer
Active: 2 weeks ago
If you know me already as Kelly Trost, you may be familiar with my Mirror Poems collaborative series. Gathering Poets is what I do. Come, let me gather you and help you find the audience you have been searching for.
The Yellow Table
Active: 2 weeks ago
My personal Substack is where you can read and listen to my newest poems, enjoy my photographs, and read my notes about my writing process.
Aurelia Literary Magazine
Active: 2 weeks ago
Digital magazine for teen writers and artists to share their work!
pHotonic🧿phoEniX
Active: 2 weeks ago
Power Delay Profile ⚡ Parallel Distributed Processing 🤯 Piecewise Deterministic Process 🧭 Passion Driven Prosperity 🏴☠️ Third Helix 🧬 Hex•Agon 💫 "H2O won't kill me. But CO2 might" 🍉 Never attempt to touch the flames. Fan them.
Building A Path
Active: 2 weeks ago
I like to write. I like the way words feel on the page and on the tongue. But more importantly I’m seeking the word as a fulcrum these days. Let’s move this madness together
Poetry Tracks In Snow by Holly Lamond
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poetry that celebrates the beauty of life, nature and love and holds a quiet reverence for the ways hard things shape us. Daily inspiration - the Northwoods of MN and Lake Superior.
Old Improvidence
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poetry and prose about identity, memory, community, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
The Victory Palace Poetry Stack
Active: 2 weeks ago
Counterculture poetry about illusion, power, and spiritual awakening.
The Treasure Collective
Active: 2 weeks ago
Collecting what makes life beautiful. A home for creative dabbling.
T.F. Burke watcher of tv
Active: 2 weeks ago
My name is T.F. Burke, author of Waves of Clarity, my poetry collection, but there will be no poetry here!🤯 I want to do something different, TV has always been a huge part of my life! Heck, it basically raised me! Welcome to the fun!
Notes-app leaked
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poems and stories crammed between shopping lists and a brownie recipe - my notes app
West of the Moon
Active: 2 weeks ago
West of the Moon is a publication of poems, or rather, trifles, written by J.Z Schafer
Life at the Bottom of the Canyon
Active: 2 weeks ago
Thoughts, free-writes, a poem or two, an essay here and there, upcoming book chapter previews. Live, from my little adobe at the bottom of the canyon.
ULM StoryHouse
Active: 2 weeks ago
Emotional Cartographer | Author of The Edges of Me | Developed the Body • Heart • Self™ framework | Deep Thinking Empathic Introvert 🖤
ghost among herbs
Active: 2 weeks ago
I am a tree. More specifically, I’m a tree that writes fiction, poetry, poetic prose, dream and astral travel accounts, imaginal essays, and whatever else comes to mind.
Haley’s Half-Baked Thoughts
Active: 2 weeks ago
A newsletter about—well, anything I have enough motivation to write about. And baked goods.
Soul Notes
Active: 2 weeks ago
I'm Mel Dela! Guiding young minds toward purpose, peace, and personal growth — one step at a time.
The Digital Journey of Becoming an Author
Active: 2 weeks ago
Following August Rose Crothers on her Writing Endeavors
Social Benevolence
Active: 2 weeks ago
Social Benevolence is about bettering ourselves to better the world making us happier and healthier.
Partial Glimmers
Active: 2 weeks ago
Partial Glimmers is the substack of poet & mindful companion Callahan Gobble. He shares poems, meditations, & recommendations weekly.
Your Buddy T-GOB
Active: 2 weeks ago
Partial Glimmers is the substack of poet & mindful companion Callahan Gobble. He shares poems, meditations, & recommendations weekly.
randy heintz
Active: 3 weeks ago
The Circuit Breaker, chain breaker and lightbarer, urban shaman, witness, seer. "I’ve seen the loop, and I’ve packed my bags. Most people are waiting for a storm; I’m teaching the next generation how to navigate the one that’s already here."
The Ghost
Active: 3 weeks ago
On writing and life. Long-form musings on the nature of creativity and the essence of everything. Some poems, too.
Towards Embodied Living by Florence Ukpabi
Active: 3 weeks ago
Creatrix mother writing from the threshold of life, creation, and the body.
For women navigating change and birthing what’s true in life and biz — without bypassing.
Joyce Carol Oates: A Writer's Journal
Active: 3 weeks ago
On writing, living with cats, being a widow, movies, running, my current workshops & what we are reading, books, art, comedy, nature, gardening, friendship, more.
Ricardo Guzman Jr
Active: 3 weeks ago
Writer. Enthusiast of art, lover of literature, and endlessly curious about too many things. I try to bring the fire in my poetry. Scared of heights.
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
Active: 3 weeks ago
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
Lit Angels
Active: 3 weeks ago
An Online Literary Journal Edited by Francesca Lia Block and Linda Davis
𝙴𝚟𝚊𝚗 シ
Active: 3 weeks ago
“Not all those who wander are lost.” -(INFP-T) - 17 ≽(◉˕ ◉ ≼マ —@diamondoo is my Anne 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪
TWBH- The Way Back Home
Active: 3 weeks ago
Long essays on the inner work of recovery, poems from the forthcoming Anthology, and notes from the body of work that is The Way Back Home for readers crossing their own territory, alongside whatever professional care is indicated for them.
Still Here: A Grief Journal in Poetry
Active: 3 weeks ago
How a non-writer learned to grieve, one poem at a time.
Thoughts Across Bostonia
Active: 3 weeks ago
essays & poems; public ponderments, poetry portfolio; climate anxiety, current events, musings of a creative 20-something. Welcome!
Lucy.folds.birds
Active: 3 weeks ago
Welcome to this substack, where you can enjoy monthly essays and weekly poems about, death, love, writing and how i learned to be a person :))
Dabney Baldridge
Active: 3 weeks ago
A busy mom of four who writes from the messiness of life to make beauty out of chaos.
The Cultivated Amateur
Active: 3 weeks ago
"People have been created by God with an aesthetic faculty that demands cultivation." Leland Ryken
"The artist needs to be complemented by the cultivated amateur, who...has some idea what to do with the artist's work." Northrop Frye
Laney's Words Poetry
Active: 3 weeks ago
My name is Laney Mills, a poetic voice in this crazy world. I write love poems, poems about the sea, and poems about all things human. Please join me as I delve into life...Laney
Chloe Yelena Miller, writer and writing teacher
Active: 3 weeks ago
Follow me for posts about writing, books, upcoming events and more! Subscribe for The Writing Jar: Weekly posts in 2026 to help you fill your (metaphorical) jar of writing, revising, submitting and reading all year. Let's write!
small wounds
Active: 3 weeks ago
small wounds is a living poetry project about love, transformation, and what lingers after.
Ept
Active: 3 weeks ago
A slice of Ettie-brain with absolutely zero purpose. Maybe it’s life-affirming? Maybe it’s voyeuristic? Who knows. Certainly not me.
Mourningstar Poetry Substack
Active: 3 weeks ago
A space for poetry rooted in lived experience, where love, desire, memory, and repair are given time.
You had me at Hello
Active: 3 weeks ago
You are the embodiment of the sun. We all feel the warmth emitted in your presence, we all see the light exude from the cracks on your skin, one day you will too.
Rhyme n' Metre
Active: 3 weeks ago
New poetry in classical forms, and the discovery of the English poetic tradition.
Brontë
Active: 3 weeks ago
🖤🥀✨ · Poetry, short stories, random thoughts, books I’m reading, rants, whatever I’m in the mood for · ✨🥀🖤
ozzie and his masks.
Active: 3 weeks ago
the poetry, essays, fiction and plays that circulate the many minds of ozzie.
Bhums.in.between
Active: 3 weeks ago
life, love, and the inner workings of a girl who notices too much
Threadworthi
Active: 3 weeks ago
With voice & purpose, I am a big spirit in a big body taking up big space. I created this account to encourage others to do the same.
Corie Feiner
Active: 3 weeks ago
As a poet, performer, and lover of yoga, I am here to help guide us through the wilderness of our times using the power of poetry and embodied presence. My Substack features poems from my evolving yoga poetry collection A Poem for Every Pose.
Bye Bye Girlboss
Active: 3 weeks ago
The girlboss is dead. Long live the girltoss: a woman unfolding through burnout recovery and unexpected events. The only guarantee is stories.
The Manic Romantic
Active: 3 weeks ago
essays, poetry and prose on love, decay and the stubborn beauty of being a human being
The Slowest Thread
Active: 3 weeks ago
Writing about my creative process as a disabled multidisciplinary artist working in fibre arts, writing, and music, and maybe some deeper dives into other things too.
a warm cup of tea
Active: 3 weeks ago
writing has brought me great comfort, and so i hope my words bring you the same sense of ease. like a warm cup of tea. xx
Jerusa
Active: 3 weeks ago
I am picking up the pen again. What beautiful things may come, I can only imagine.
Firelight
Active: 3 weeks ago
Firelight is a newsletter for anyone tending the embers of hope amid the dark wilds of an earthly life.
Elijah van der Fluit
Active: 3 weeks ago
Lover of film and literature. Aspiring to be a film director and writer. Right now, I want to improve physically, socially, and artistically
Off-Piste on Mount Parnassus
Active: 4 weeks ago
Poems by a pseudonym in San Diego. Special emphasis on repeating forms, sonnets, and verse translations.
Haiku Pause
Active: 4 weeks ago
A free collaborative newsletter showcasing the best of formal haiku on monthly themes. Current editors: Resa Alboher, Sandra Filippelli, Mariya Gusev.
Sentiment in Several Syllables
Active: 4 weeks ago
Writer of poetry, picture books, chapter books, novels and lists. A lot of lists. Here are some of them.
Jude's cup of coffee
Active: 4 weeks ago
“And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love: these are what we stay alive for.”
Amit The Storyteller
Active: 4 weeks ago
Poet . Writer | Poems | Nature Poems | Self-reflections | Self-awareness | Mental Health
My writing help to find my people 💌
dfcarbbaa
Active: 4 weeks ago
All my poems are originally written in English, pls read them in the original format. Thanks
mnemonixART
Active: 4 weeks ago
Part II of artistically explored and inwritten approached in written. Part I was to be seen and forgot. Lost like Loss it was. Burn it. Here is where Love and Existence were expressed as what they are for me. May-be only as and find you in Love.
Alli Bauck
Active: 4 weeks ago
Just like the writings posted here, I too am a work in progress. | Poet, spiritual writer, artist | Coffee/tea drinker, stay-at-home-mom, and redeemed daughter of the King 👑
Luca Faith
Active: 4 weeks ago
I’m a Christian teenage girl who loves reading (especially fantasy or dystopian), writing in those same genres, and blogging abt all bookish things! ✝️📚💗
Bewildering Offspring
Active: 4 weeks ago
Essays, poems and other loose collections of words aiming to smooth out my own rugged investigations into the realities and virtualities of person-hood. Because life is bewildering.
Dear beloved
Active: 4 weeks ago
Beloved is my corner to you for honest reflections, inquiries, and my sharings that are raw in this slow work of becoming more tender.
Singing, each to each
Active: 4 weeks ago
poetry, literature, art, and all the beautiful things through which heart sings to heart
4 Esoteric Eyes Only
Active: 1 month ago
My digital composition book. Original Poems, Articles, Interviews, & more from me, Jahmed Williams.
Pisces Press
Active: 1 month ago
Fair Maiden transcribing the literary and poetic genius of Pisces, the Fish of the Substack Sea.
Sarah Blondin
Active: 1 month ago
Words that bite at the bone and stumble toward understanding, for those seeking stability only the heart can provide.
Thomas Kneeland Poetry
Active: 1 month ago
Poetry is a home, and my hope is that we can see poems as a way of finding home after wandering for so long. Come for the poetry. Stay for humanity.
Reaching Light Together
Active: 1 month ago
Through telling our stories from our hearts, I believe that we can inspire each other on our paths. We can reach for the light together. I self-published a book by this title, and continue to share my poetry and nature photography here.
R. H. Snow’s Deep Thoughts from the Dubble-wide of D00m
Active: 1 month ago
One does not simply write about Texas - one must live it.
Naima’s Den
Active: 1 month ago
Writer and poet. Founder of NH Scribes. Naima’s Den is a quiet space for reflection, creative writing, and honest conversation. A place to pause, reconnect with your voice, and stay awhile.
Carelessly Unfiltered
Active: 1 month ago
My personal Substack where I talk about everything from love, to feminism, to mental health, to living your best life!
Nalani
Active: 1 month ago
we cry unto paper and turn pain to poetry, in a language only the softest of hearts can understand
For Want Of
Active: 1 month ago
My name is Lewis Peterson, I'm a husband, father, writer, poet, and teacher of English Language Arts. For Want Of began as a platform for my music opinions, and has since evolved into a space for my short poems as well.
The Lost Quill
Active: 1 month ago
for all those who thirst for knowledge, whether sporting, philosophical or literary.
Her Rose Diary
Active: 1 month ago
Rose scented poetic reflections & prose on divine love, beauty & Truth, a return to the eternal garden within and the rhythms of the deep Earth.
The Talking Pen
Active: 1 month ago
Stories to warm your heart, sharpen your mind, challenge your thinking, and deepen your faith.
GSK
Active: 1 month ago
the lonely nights hit us the hardest. Its where our mind is most productive. deepest thoughts catered from self empowerments to philosophy/game/5d perspective.
EmberUnsaid
Active: 1 month ago
𝒑𝒐𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔, 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒎 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔. ❀♡
Alias April
Active: 1 month ago
"Flights" is already taken -but I traveled a lot, and I continue to, including falling down the rabbit holes. Thoughts and rants about being on the go and staying put, whatever it means. PS scratch it I have no idea. Not yet.
ylime
Active: 1 month ago
I love sunflowers, concerts, key lime pie, coffee, and smiling at dogs. Seeking joy in life's small moments. Come on this journey to find my way back to myself! 🌻 🧿 🪩
Guerrilla Literature and the Avant-garde
Active: 1 month ago
Scottish-born storyteller in the Carolinas. Writer. Poet. Vampire with a holy heart. Author of Musings of the Teenage Vampire. I feed on curiosity and craft worlds with blood and fire. Join the Kerr Clan, and let's build something unforgettable.
A Crow At The Beach Is Like A Seagull At A Funeral
Active: 1 month ago
What If Poetry Could Change the Way You See the World? This is a space for reflection, healing, and growth. EXCLUSIVE newsletter directly to your inbox. Every Wednesday you will receive a new poem.
Poem of the Week
Active: 1 month ago
A weekly email through I which share my poems that I hope will help you find more beauty, laughter, joy, insight and self-compassion. Thanks for subscribing!
from the open spaces
Active: 1 month ago
Publication announcements, upcoming events, reflections, reading recommendations, and more.
Naomi's Substack: Nature Bowl Haiku
Active: 1 month ago
Frequent postings of my haiku/short poetry inspired by immersing in nature--in the spirit of a nature bowl of things found from time outdoors.
Donald Paul Owens II
Active: 1 month ago
Donald is a poet and carpenter who lives in the forests of PA surrounded by his children and grandchildren. His work is found in Good Work Magazine, Cantus Christi 2020, A Treasury of Psalms and Hymns, and other collections.
The Effusion
Active: 1 month ago
Nature poetry and writing. Searching through the smallest stones of the world.
Rivers of Reflection
Active: 1 month ago
Rivers of Reflection is a collection of my art and poetry, thoughts from my journal, and an invitation for you to join in my journey.
A Matt Starr Reader
Active: 1 month ago
Founder of Dream Baby Press & Writer Relations Producer @ Substack.
Wunderkammer
Active: 1 month ago
Finding a sense of wonder again through writing, art, literature, movies, theater and other curiosities.
The Emergent Spiral
Active: 1 month ago
Drummer, writer and photographer, curating an offering of soul as The Emergent Spiral.
Tayrytespoemansdreams
Active: 1 month ago
I translate the sounds of my heartbeat into words and call it poetry..✍️🏽🍃
Mary Oliver's Drunk Substack
Active: 1 month ago
Bonus french fries (poems! jokes! insider info!) in your inbox
wyn has poems in their head
Active: 1 month ago
25 yo queer brazilian with a lot of love for human creativity
The Maple Moon
Active: 1 month ago
Courtenay Schembri Gray writes from an eldritch womb: ft. poems, plays, diaries, and essays.
Clues, from Lillian
Active: 1 month ago
I'm the kind of person you break your own rules for. I collect secrets, tell stories and find bliss. It's my dharma.
Aporia Flops
Active: 1 month ago
A publication predominantly about failure. Meanderings include miscellaneous writings on cinema, literature and love. Of course, love.
Short Story
Active: 1 month ago
Teaching writer. Mid-life MFA graduate student. Ashley's wife. Childless cat lady with 3 stepsons and 2 dogs. Friend maker. Working-class socialist. Retired spoken word poet. Never not tired. Running 5 minutes late, sorry.
Under the Omnipotence
Active: 1 month ago
A confluence of verse and essays; seeking the green high country.
The Studio Rulam
Active: 1 month ago
Welcome to my creative space! Curation of photography, poetry and floral arts with occasional Gobi tales and European romance, from Sweden.
26 Letters By Noelle Cope
Active: 1 month ago
26 Letters rearranged time and time again to share poems, personal essays, prose and more.
Based in Los Angeles | Made in Telluride
Selected Works
Active: 1 month ago
Selected Works:
A collection of stories, essays & poems.
By Tom S. Mahoney
Chronic Insights
Active: 1 month ago
I'm James, a spoonie with axial spondyloarthritis. I like to write poetry to help me make sense of the absurdity of life with chronic pain. Subscribe for calm, cameraderie and poems. I also created a privacy-focused symptom diary app, Chronic Insights.
Tœf
Active: 1 month ago
Writing what I feel before it consumes me Poetry, Love, Loss, Becoming..... ~Tœf
Whiskey & Flowers
Active: 1 month ago
Whiskey & Flowers is my quiet rebellion—an acceptance of flaws, a celebration of cracks. It's about honoring the rough edges and recognizing beauty not despite our brokenness, but precisely because of it.
Impulses of a poet
Active: 1 month ago
Page of all random thoughts and opinions expressed in form of poetic proses or full fledged poetries.
Wayfarer Magazine
Active: 1 month ago
Since 2011, Wayfarer Magazine has been offering literature, interviews, and art with the intention to inspire our readers and highlight the power for agency and change-making that each individual holds.
Nahthan Paul
Active: 1 month ago
Hi, Nahthan here. I am a writer, artist, and musician from south coast Massachusetts. Welcome to my Substack!
Tethered: An Anthology of Magic
Active: 1 month ago
Tethered is a seasonal anthology by Tamed Wild, sharing stories, poems, essays, and art inspired by magic, myth, and the natural world.
Frontier Verse
Active: 1 month ago
Poetry on grief & loss, anger & violence, fatherhood & childhood, homelessness & addiction, masculinity and more.
Darci Snode
Active: 1 month ago
Living with the sole goal of reflecting, glorifying and serving my God and my Savior. You can find me writing, reading, dreaming, or gazing at the stars ✨
MutantSoul
Active: 1 month ago
I write poems, rhymes mainly to entertain me, hopefully you read my feed.
Molly Sullivan
Active: 1 month ago
come swim in my stream : words on nostalgia, existentialism, mental health, love & more 🦢
Ryka's Most Excellent World :)
Active: 1 month ago
Whenever you are dancing, someone else is dancing, too.
Bloodmagick
Active: 1 month ago
You are the eater of stars. Here is a place where you may delight and despair in all the rhythms of Hell.
The Art of Good Enough
Active: 1 month ago
Gentle words and imperfect practice exploring what it means to cultivate a more loving relationship to ourselves and the world around us. All perfectionists welcome.
JT’s Substack
Active: 1 month ago
I write to forget. Then I surrender again to the vast empty page, fearful of the fresh word. Curious of what I'll discover next.
Thomas Rist Poetry
Active: 2 months ago
I am a published poet who has won and been runner-up in poetry contests. For years I took a break, but then I found another way of being a poet: on Substack. Here I post poems as and when. Subscribe for free / Freedom is poetry.
V. K. Mundy
Active: 2 months ago
I'll write something entertaining here at a later time, so I make a general entreaty for patience.
Serenity
Active: 2 months ago
Unshared thoughts...writing the quiet things we feel but don’t say. Fragments of thoughts, memories, and everything in between.
Reminiscences of an Asian Intellectual
Active: 2 months ago
Life’s journey to come face to face with one’s self through God, time and memory.
The Quiet Hour Poet
Active: 2 months ago
Amateur Poet! Fresh to the game, but have found it is a great to express myself.
Anonymous so my wife doesn't make fun of me 🤣
Casey’s Substack
Active: 2 months ago
Hi, I’m Casey. This is a place for stories, poems, and sentences. Come sit by the river. Pick up what you like and let the rest keep going.
Sapphire Gray
Active: 2 months ago
Pretentious indie pop artist, now with an extra side of pretentious! ♪σ(≧ω≦*) Dumping grounds for poetry + art + photos + writings + all my non-music related shenanigans.
Delphic Archive
Active: 2 months ago
This is an archive of the future / of poetics in their suspended state. There is no single hidden order to discover, only a multiplicity of possible configurations. Each act of reading collapses one into determinate form.
Ashir Intishar Taseen
Active: 2 months ago
I turn silence into words. Conversations that ended, feelings that didn’t, and poetry that lingers… 🖤
diary of a cyberprincess
Active: 2 months ago
A lil bit of everything coming from a third-culture kid with midwest roots. I love everything digital media culture, poetry n word play, fashion, color theory n more. ❤️
Even the Stones
Active: 2 months ago
Ushering saints into the ongoing conversation of creation through poetry, storytelling, and cultural analysis. If we keep silent, even the stones will cry out. So since we've been given a voice, let's employ the gift wisely and wildly.
Gabriela Oliveira
Active: 2 months ago
writing essays and poems for the yearning minds about (queer)ecofeminism, life, love, literature and fiction, and our dying nature.
Off Mic
Active: 2 months ago
Off Mic is a weekly newsletter where creative women come to feel understood. I write about culture, creativity, and everything in between.
Letters on Being
Active: 2 months ago
poetry and essays for people searching for hope in the darkness
Within Change
Active: 2 months ago
Welcome to a life-change journey that begins within. Where awareness and growth become transformation and intention becomes action. Let’s build a meaningful, joyful life by unfolding our potential with curiosity, honesty, courage, and love.
Musings from the Street
Active: 2 months ago
Words from Old Town Winchester and beyond. Upcoming events. Notes I have left on my typewriter. Favorite poetry. Philosophy. Beauty. A little bit of everything.
Who Made The Eyes But I?
Active: 2 months ago
The related Substack account for my poetry blog, featuring regular poetry and articles on Beauty, Christianity, formal poetry, and more. View my personal blog for all of my content!
Phoeby
Active: 2 months ago
I write lyrical fiction that lives between shadows and light—where silence speaks, memory burns, and love leaves scars.
Moonfin
Active: 2 months ago
𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕 ✨️!. 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵 | 𝘈𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘳 | 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵
poem and cat
Active: 2 months ago
poems and illustrations to your inbox every friday (look out for the hidden cat!)
Amethyst's Substack
Active: 2 months ago
I am an indie author that writes fantasy adult novels and poetry.
Carly Booty
Active: 2 months ago
A space for wandering hearts. I share Christian poetry and reflections that explore faith, doubt, and the quiet work of God in our everyday.
Kai
Active: 2 months ago
I’m not a feminist. I’m a misandrist. I don’t want equality, I want revenge.
Pieces Of K The Smacked Edition Newsletter
Active: 2 months ago
Pieces of K: The Smacked Edition is a revamp of my old blog. This time, more Smacked. More poetry, more stories, and behind the scenes of life as ThtSmackedPoet. All glory goes to God.
Forgotten Poets
Active: 2 months ago
A living anthology of short poems and pictures from the late-1800s and early-1900s.
Poet, Interrupted
Active: 2 months ago
Poet, Interrupted is a place for moments when something deeper breaks through the noise of everyday life. These poems are confessions i wouldn’t say out loud, rooted in honesty and self-awareness. If you’ve ever tried to grow from the inside out, welcome!
tiny engines
Active: 2 months ago
Poetry and short stories from Chihuahua, Mexico. Exploring what moves us, what connects us, and the stories we tell ourselves about both.
Eero's Escapades of Doubt and Stuff
Active: 2 months ago
Abstract poetry writing meditations on the brink of alienation: a newfound tomorrow
The Guelph Poet
Active: 3 months ago
Writing toward the beauty of ache. Subscribe to get a free poetry workshop (and pic of my kitten) in your inbox <3
Beverley’s Substack
Active: 3 months ago
My Cinquain Corner -
I write 5-line poems (Cinquains) to capture nature, the seasons, a thought for the day, for my well-being in grief and healing in life.
The ReKindled
Active: 3 months ago
Re-igniting the creative spirit and deepening the creative soul in our increasingly soulless times.
=^Alicat^=
Active: 3 months ago
I am just releasing pieces of my heart to my readers. I want to build a community!
sirin
Active: 3 months ago
this is my attempt at writing a blog. everything i write here is mostly my opinion. nothing more, nothing less.
kevinlawler
Active: 3 months ago
Poems delivered Mondays. Subscribe now for a free PDF of Each Sold Separately, a book of poems from pop culture.
erine ♡
Active: 3 months ago
a slow, honest space for women in their 20s — on becoming, unlearning, healing and finding yourself through journaling, poetry, and the quiet things.
The Pastel Poet
Active: 3 months ago
a dreamy type who loves to write, fantasize through film, and paint with oil pastel. Here you will find my musings, poetry and podcast on living and thriving as a highly sensitive artist.
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin Substack
Active: 3 months ago
My personal Substack which I am calling 'Diary of an Irish Poet'...where I will be releasing new works of poetry and prose pieces. I'm sharing insights into my life and travels as a poet and singer in the world.
Words and Pictures by Pamela Leavey
Active: 3 months ago
Hello Readers! I am a Creative Writer & Photographer. I post my Poetry, Personal and Photo Essays, Daily Affirmations, Quotes of the Day and more, all to Inspire and Enlighten my readers. My posts are digital collages encompassing the world around me.
Poetry $lut
Active: 3 months ago
I am a $lut for living a poetic life. Here you'll witness me raw-dogging the path to liberation through messy expression. Expect poems, reflections, and fragments of my world meant to invite you to awaken, nurture and integrate your inner muse.
theinkspilled
Active: 3 months ago
Writing that lingers, an ink-stained corner for poetry, essays, and incandescent thought. Gothic reflections on literature, philosophy, and psychological inquiry.
The ink is spilled🖋️
Ancestral Whispers
Active: 3 months ago
welcome. this is a space where history and art meet spirituality, and where healing is an act of remembering. i write as a historian, poet, mystic, and scholar.
The Violet Grove
Active: 3 months ago
The mood in the forest—dark romanticism / weird futurity / profligate transcendentalism / quiet rebellion—subscribe for daily poetry and weekly short stories.
Terrific Daily Pieces
Active: 3 months ago
Most mornings I write a poem or a short essay to warm-up my brain. Quantity gets you quality.
Coffee Grounds Publication Co.
Active: 3 months ago
Poetry, Short Stories, Flash Fiction-- Welcome to the Coffee Shop!
OP Membership Portal
Active: 3 months ago
The official membership portal for ONLY POEMS | Join a joyful, creative community
Tori Makes Sense
Active: 3 months ago
sensemaking as in trying to put words&meaning to the clutter in my head&heart. doing that in the form of poetry, essays, short stories, all that jazz
Fleeting Meditations
Active: 4 months ago
Short stories and nature poetry, striving to capture the image of the world.
On Earth
Active: 4 months ago
Writing for poets who drive mail trucks. Saints who wear high heels. Train hoppers on their way to the action. Joke tellers, dreamers, & generous hearts. For writers who put their own flaws in the text. God in the window. Shadows that speak.
Michael Burr
Active: 5 months ago
Learning how to write. My goal is to remain positive while being sincere.
Poems, Prayers, and Ponderings
Active: 5 months ago
Poems, prayers, and ponderings from a man trying to find God in the joys and sorrows of life.
Scogli di Fiume
Active: 5 months ago
Scogli di fiume è il mio nome e la mia condizione: restare dove non dovrei, scrivere versi che resistono alla corrente.
Verse Daily’s Substack
Active: 9 months ago
The largest daily poem anthology... Help us celebrate our 22nd year! ...And so much more!
Depths of Meaningful Thought
Active: 12 months ago
Find clarity and meaning in a complex world. Subscribe to Depths of Meaningful Thought for thought-provoking essays, insightful discussions on current political events, and inspirational poetry.
Wild Take
Active: 1 year ago
Honest meanderings.
Ecopoetry.
Coming out/transitioning.
Cravings.
Reparenting.
Art as ally in healing.
Radical Joy.
Body as truth-teller.
Divorce. Addiction.
Nurturing relationships with the wild.
Multitudinous offerings.
A handful of poems picked by a mouse with a blindfold.
A Collection of Poems
The book contains an original essay not previously published, intentional illustrations by a human graphic designer, nine of Josh's poems, and all thirty-two Bloody Sonnets translations. The digital version is pay-what-you-want. The Bloody Sonnets are of significant cultural importance to Slovakia. Because of this, Josh believes that neither price nor physical distance should be a barrier for these historic poems for peace.
Author’s Substack →Write a poem in the form of an ode, focusing on a singular subject and exploring its qualities and virtues. The prompt references epideictic rhetoric (rhetoric of praise and blame) and provides examples from Max Mendelsohn, Keats, and Neruda to illustrate the form.
A weekly tanka poetry challenge inviting writers to compose a 31-syllable poem in 5-7-5-7-7 form using the prompt word "voracious." Poems are shared in comments for community reading and peer feedback. This is part of an ongoing weekly series.
A poetry prompt inviting writers to compose poems about traditions—personal, familial, cultural, or silly. The post shares an anecdote about Scottish traffic-cone traditions to inspire reflection on both serious and whimsical customs.
An ekphrastic writing prompt inviting readers to spend time describing a childhood photo in detail, focusing on imagery rather than meaning. The prompt includes guidance on shifting point-of-view, finding titles, discovering unexpected similes and metaphors, rearranging sentences, and exploring contrasting imagery (light/shadow, spatial relationships) to reveal poetic meaning.
An ongoing live series centered on poetry and essays, featuring conversational interviews, open mics, live readings, craft discussions, and regular writing prompts. The host will share their own work and creative process, with opportunities for audience suggestions and collaborations.
A seven-line poetry prompt framework designed to help writers connect with the Aquarius Full Moon. Readers fill in blanks with their own lines or draw inspiration from the provided structure, with optional sharing in comments.
A writing prompt based on the Folded Mirror poetry form, which stacks haiku and tanka in a specific pattern (Haiku → Haiku → Tanka → Inverted Tanka → Haiku → Haiku) to create a mirrored structure where the second half reflects the first with new understanding. Readers are invited to write their own Folded Mirror poems.
Create a 'poem stack' by mining a book for evocative words and phrases you love, then stacking them together. Optionally, answer a guiding question like 'How will I find my way?' or 'Who were you in my dreams?' as you build your stack. Share your results in the comments.
A weekly poetry prompt inviting readers to write response poems after Mary Oliver's poem "When Did It Happen?" by answering her questions and exploring a moment when something was set free in their own heart. Readers share completed poems in the comments section each Sunday.
A weekly poetry prompt inspired by Kate Partridge's poem "Petition for Reintroduction." Writers are invited to consider how routine or mundane acts (like signing a petition) might impact the natural world, and optionally use or build from Partridge's line "For me, this has been the ideal" to create a poem that connects human action with nature.
A contemplative poetry prompt inspired by John Ashbery's 'Paradoxes and Oxymorons.' Writers are asked to let the reader's act of reading the poem become the subject of the poem itself, exploring the division between speaker and reader while avoiding pretentiousness and touching on the profound.
Write a short poem (10 lines or less) using Evan Williams' structure as a template. Begin with setting description (moon, forest, parking lot, etc.), introduce a group of characters with the 'we' perspective, then close with 'I' statements. Optional bonus: use the first word of your poem as its title in brackets. Share drafts in comments or on social media tagging neonpajamas and evansquilliams.
A poetry prompt offered free to readers of Kate Clanchy's Substack, suitable for summer writing practice.
A generative poetry prompt inviting readers to accumulate small details and observations (window views, sounds, random Wikipedia entries, weather reports), find connections between them through freewriting, and shape these materials into a poem using provided directions (e.g., featuring two topics, one named and one alluded to, or writing a sonnet).
A writing prompt inviting readers to explore ecopoetry and the contrapuntal form by writing a list of contrasting objects, places, or ideas, creating oxymorons, and weaving them into a poem that either unites opposing forces or lets one prevail.
A poetry prompt inspired by Sasha Dugdale's "Dawn Chorus." Writers are encouraged to compose a poem that departs from standard subject-tone relationships and disrupts reader expectations.
Write poetry inspired by stylized descriptions of bird behaviors from a vintage 1990 Reader's Digest field guide. The author has selected three particularly humorous or fascinating bird write-ups and invites readers to use them as creative inspiration for their own poetry.
Write about an object that belongs to the present moment, then identify and explore the universal human truth it reveals. A guided reflection exercise on balancing contemporary details with timeless emotional meaning.
Three poetry prompts designed to inspire creative practice: Extended Metaphor (write a poem using repeated opening phrases or recast daily life as something else), "It's Not about the Monster" (write a poem where something talked about on the surface actually explores deeper meanings), and Translation (use a foreign-language poem as a creative springboard rather than translating it directly). Readers are invited to share their work in the comments.
Monthly poetry challenge using song titles as inspiration or constraints, held on the first Friday of each month.
A collection of 20+ creative writing prompts suited to essays and poems, covering themes of love, relationships, memory, self-discovery, and introspection. Prompts range from short phrases ("red nails") to reflective questions ("do we meet people for a reason, or is it just an amalgamation of chance encounters?").
Write about something waiting for something you know isn't likely to happen. This take-away prompt follows Marjorie's Table's workshop on Polly Atkin's poetry, suitable for poets or writers exploring lyric and form.
A weekly haiku writing challenge inspired by the theme 'RADIO' and the story of Elvis Costello's famous 1977 SNL performance. Writers are invited to create haiku (17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern) and share in the comments.
A creative writing and art prompt exploring joy through various lenses. Readers are invited to reflect on personal experiences of joy, what makes it grow, and how it manifests, then create a poem, story, photograph, or other artwork capturing or recreating joy. Work may be shared in comments.
Write an instruction poem describing a process, inspired by Ron Padgett's 'How to Be Perfect' and the instruction poetry mode.
A weekly tanka poetry challenge inviting writers to compose a five-line, 31-syllable tanka using the prompt word 'Forbidden.' Submissions are shared in the comments section, with no external publication goal.
Monthly poetry prompt themed around music & dance. Subscribers are invited to submit a poem along the monthly theme to be featured on read poetry's page. This July's theme is music & dance.
A weekly poetry prompt inspired by the author's personal experiences with lightning during summer travel and a music festival. Readers are invited to write poems exploring lightning imagery and share them on Friday.
A comprehensive collection of poetry prompts organized by theme: nostalgic summer imagery, forms and constraints (weather advisories, couplets, declarative sentences, color-based lines), image and metaphor exercises, voice and speaker explorations, reading-based prompts, and sharing/revision exercises. Designed to help poets reconnect with their practice during summer.
A seven-line poem prompt featuring fill-in-the-blank lines designed to help writers connect with Leo Season energy. The framework begins with "The Sun ______" and includes themes of courage, seasonal change, waiting, heat, prayer, and summer.
Write a poem about an in-between moment from your week, focusing on setting and sensory details rather than major events. The prompt encourages asking questions without answering them, and optionally using iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line with alternating stress) or free verse.
Write two poems that share the same title but appear unrelated (or link them via metaphor or associative movement). Inspired by Joshua Bennett's multiple poems titled 'Trash.'
Write a poem that incorporates an interruption—a moment where the poem stutters, repeats, or breaks—that deepens the reader's experience by embodying or reinforcing the poem's subject or themes. The interruption should immerse the reader further into the scene rather than pull them out, and ideally mark a fundamental shift in the poem's meaning.
Write a poem of ten words or less (including title) where the total word count of poem and title combined is an odd number. Bonus points for single-sentence poems and for placing a comma or semicolon at the halfway mark. Share your response in the comments or on social media.
A poetry prompt video that provides a starter poem and guides the writer through creating their own version based on a poem by Franz Wright. The exercise takes 25–50 minutes and requires only an open mind and a notebook or writing surface.
Write a poem or create something that celebrates the repair of what is broken, inspired by the featured poem 'Handyman's Fix' and the theme of small acts of repair in the world.
Create a documentary poem by selecting a current event or issue, gathering quotes from primary sources, and weaving them into your verse. The example demonstrates juxtaposing poetry with interview quotes to explore themes and meaning.
Write a 14-line sonnet or pseudo-sonnet about a reunion (high school, family, friends, or lost-and-found) or any topic of your choice. The only rule is fourteen lines. Share your work in the comments (up to 400 words).
Write a prose-style poem inspired by the Palestinian poet Nasser Rabah's line 'Water Thirsty For Water,' then continue into a new poem. A weekend poetry writing prompt.
A guided poetry writing prompt inviting readers to practice sustained attention and deep perception, moving from observation to wonder. The prompt encourages writers to linger with ordinary images and objects until they reveal extraordinary depth, aligned with the practice of cultivating awe through careful looking.
A writing prompt inviting readers to write about trying—specifically, trying to write about something difficult or unsucceedful. Inspired by Matthew Zapruder's poem "My Inescapable Fate" and its use of anaphora with the first-person "I," readers are encouraged to explore what they have attempted but not yet succeeded in writing about, with freedom to use the first-person pronoun liberally.
Write a poem in approximately 40 words, then rewrite it in about 20 words. Reflect on what the shorter version gains in terms of precision and impact. A hands-on exercise in economical, intentional language use.
Recurring writing prompts offered regularly: Song Title Poetry on the first Friday of each month, and Prompt Station with a writing prompt released every Tuesday. Open to all writers regardless of form or genre.
Write a story, poem, or creative non-fiction piece using exactly 100 words, inspired by the movie "Say Anything" (1989). Share your work in the comments. New prompts drop every third Wednesday of the month.
A weekly haiku prompt challenging writers to create a haiku (5-7-5 syllables) inspired by the theme CHOCOLATE, with an example provided. Writers are invited to share their haikus in the comments.
A weekly poetry prompt inviting writers to explore memories around fruit—eating, harvesting, baking, or sharing—and compose poems with fruit at their core. Poems are shared with the community on Friday.
Write one or more tankas (five-line poems with 31 syllables in a 5-7-5-7-7 pattern) using the word 'erotic.' The prompt emphasizes starting with a concrete scene and ending with a turn, contrast, surprise, or opening. Share your finished tanka in the comments for community reading and potential feature in next week's wrap-up.
Two writing prompts inspired by literary works. The first asks writers to create microfiction or prose poetry about a character or couple moving to or visiting a city filled with bad luck, where place acts as antagonist, ideally in first-person plural. The second prompt invites writers to write about a character or couple dreaming of an imaginary place (like Oz) where they can be themselves or find happiness, with optional prompt words provided.
A seven-line poetry prompt framework designed to connect with the New Moon in Cancer. Writers fill in blanks or draw inspiration from the structure to create a poem exploring themes of cycles, dreams, darkness, and belief.
A year-long weekly poetry prompt series inspired by Mary Oliver's nature poems. Each Sunday, readers receive a Mary Oliver poem, the author's response poem, and a writing prompt to compose their own poem in conversation with Oliver's work, then share it in the comments section.
Write about something that contains a universe of power in a small body—whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or imaginary. Inspired by Thom Gunn's 'Considering The Snail.'
Write a poem inspired by watching a film. The author suggests ekphrastic poetry about a movie (in this case, Chef), using brainstorming questions and note-taking during viewing as prompts. Poems may be submitted to Citizen Cinema 'zine.
A 10-minute free-writing prompt inspired by Julia Fehrenbacher's poem 'More Like the Sun.' Readers choose a line, word, or image from the poem and write continuously without editing, following their pen wherever it leads. The prompt encourages vulnerability, play, and accessing authentic voice.
Write a poem or series of poems using interruption as a generative tool. Suggested approaches include writing in places where you know you'll be interrupted (trains, cafes, waiting rooms) and returning to write episodically in the same location over time, deliberately incorporating the pace and disruption into the poem's structure and the reader's experience.
Write a poem inspired by Danika Stegeman's constraint-based work. The prompt invites readers to adopt a rule (such as excluding a specific letter), write a poem under that constraint, then deliberately break the rule in revision. Participants are encouraged to mirror the structure of Stegeman's poem or another favorite poem, then disrupt it with their own voice. Results can be shared in the comments or on social media by tagging the host.
A collection of seven interconnected writing prompts inspired by contemporary poets, exploring themes of wildflowers, weeds, family inheritance, memory, and sound. Prompts range from 5 to 15 minutes and guide writers through exercises on love letters, addressing a specific person, recipes for planting, family inheritance, soundscapes, weeds, and an extended free-write combining multiple elements.
A weekly three-level writing prompt featuring steampunk genre with the setting of an Atelier (clock shop), a reclusive Clockmaker character grieving a lost love, and a conflict centered on sacrificing a precious memento to decode ancient blueprints. Writers can use one, two, or all three elements and submit for a podcast shout-out.
A two-part timed writing exercise exploring instinct vs. intuition. First, list times you acted from pure instinct (5 minutes), then expand one moment into a scene or poem written in real time with sensory detail and dialogue (15 minutes). Suitable for memoir, fiction, poetry, or essay.
A community poetry collaboration where each reader submits one poetic line or phrase (up to 10 words) praising the day. Submissions will be compiled into different community odes assembled by volunteer Rafters, with all versions shared in the August newsletter.
Write a fifty-word story (fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry) about a descent. Stories must be exactly fifty words with a title that includes the genre; the title does not count toward word count. Responses can be shared in the comments.
Three poetry writing prompts exploring themes of memory, travel, and haunting. Prompts include writing a poem beginning as a list, capturing a summer moment in Italy with emotional resonance, and writing from the perspective of a cursed or haunted object. Readers are invited to share excerpts in the comments.
Write about an experience with nature—in wilderness, at the ocean, or a quiet moment with birds and sky—using sensory-rich language to create a felt image that lets others experience the moment through your words.
A poetry writing prompt exploring absence, silence, and what lies beyond the frame of observation. Writers are invited to study a photograph and write toward what cannot be photographed—unspoken conversations, invisible memories, hidden fears, and unanswered questions. The prompt encourages poets to use the visible world as a doorway into the unseen.
Choose a word with more than one meaning and write 6–8 lines that slowly reveal both meanings without announcing them, exploring how the word can carry two stories at once.
A monthly poetry challenge held on the first Friday of each month, where writers compose poems inspired by song titles.
A poetry prompt inviting readers to write about 'country' in any interpretation: country music, countryside, national pride or embarrassment, patriotism, a specific nation, or places visited or desired. The prompt is inspired by World Cup celebrations and national identity.
Write a poem about something unloved, ordinary, or overlooked—an object most people would discard or ignore. Examples given include parking tickets, old receipts, dead phone batteries, broken umbrellas, or single socks. Share your poem in the comments to inspire the community and explore how ordinary things can be transformed into art.
A collection of twenty poetry prompts for July, exploring themes of grief, memory, summer, solitude, love, and self-discovery. Readers are invited to write and tag the author for feedback.
A writing prompt inviting readers to write a short reflective poem about how they have unfurled or overcome difficult circumstances, inspired by the author's seventh-year cancer survival anniversary.
A weekly haiku writing challenge in the 'House of Haiku' series. Readers are invited to create a haiku (17 syllables in 5-7-5 structure) inspired by the theme of heatwave, with context provided about the 2022 UK record-breaking heatwave. Responses are shared in the comments.
A weekly tanka writing challenge inviting poets to write a single tanka (5-line poem, 31 syllables in 5-7-5-7-7 pattern) using the word 'penetrate' and moving from a tangible opening image to a pivotal turn in perspective. Poets are encouraged to focus on precision, specificity, and the shift in meaning rather than plot.
Monthly themed poetry prompt. For July, the theme is music & dance. Subscribers are invited to write and submit poems matching this theme to be featured on the read poetry page.
A reflective writing prompt inviting readers to explore something they'd rather not admit about themselves. The prompt suggests approaching the topic with humor, irony, whimsy, and absurdity—using metaphor, bizarre imagery, rhyme, or even limericks—to transform shame into play. Suited to poets and creative writers seeking introspection through playful composition.
A creative challenge inviting writers to design and describe an original cryptid or monster from folklore, with flexible format options including short stories, poems, journal entries, field guides, and other creative forms. Participants publish their work on their own Substack and link to it in the comments.
Write a poem incorporating the words "shorn," "dead," and "bliss." Share your response in the comments.
A seven-line poetry prompt designed to help writers connect with the magic of July. Writers fill in blanks across lines beginning with 'The waters,' 'Solar,' 'Reaching,' 'I saw,' 'I waited,' 'I asked,' and 'Listen,' then optionally share their poem in the comments or on social media.
Three creative writing prompts exploring absence in literature: (1) for poets, redact an existing document to play with meaning; (2) for fiction writers, rework dialogue to deepen character resistance and refusal; (3) for critical readers, notice what is absent from a text and how that affects interpretation. Inspired by Sappho fragments and contemporary literature.
Write an 'into the story' poem or vignette inspired by a video for the Civil War novel Brookhaven, and share it with the community. Poems may be featured in Every Day Poems if they're a fit.
A weekly writing prompt inviting readers to write a cento (found poetry form) using lines from Mary Oliver's poem "Nature." Readers compose their own poems by rearranging and borrowing fragments from Oliver's original poem, using only articles and conjunctions of their own words.
A poetry prompt inspired by George Oppen's minimalist approach: write 14-16 short lines or fewer that embrace an object using spare language and sculptural precision, without deep metaphors or complicated imagery.
