Poem
This is the ever nascent now. I am losing the ability to sit inside the previous, the perilous, the before. The ability to bring it to here. In the before world— you must understand …
A Baker's Dozen
Here are 13 reader haiku from the prompts accompanying Haiku #75 , Haiku #76 , Haiku #77 , and Haiku #78 . Click on these links if you want to see the images. Prompt: Write a haiku about the moon, stars, or space. (Haiku #75) a silver presence ocean wave, and wave, and wave reflections of dreams Kaja Sommer …
🗡️ the grass isn’t greener if it’s littered with soldiers why do we have to grow up when we want to start over when you notice a bright side you must remember the dark the nightingale sings just as sweet as the lark once i’m deep in the dirt the flowers will sprout in my lungs i’ll be part of those better days …
Frank O’Hara
I've got to tell you how I love you always I think of it on grey mornings with death in my mouth the tea is never hot enough then and the cigarette dry the maroon robe chills me I need you and look out the window at the noiseless snow At night on the dock the buses glow like clouds and I am lonely thinking of flutes …
Jim Harrison on Charles Bukowski
Poetry shouldn’t tell us what we already know, though of course it can revive what we think we know. A durable poet, the rarest of all birds, has a unique point of view and the gift of language to express it. The unique point of view can often come from a mental or physical deformity. …
Poem from The Arc of Love
The woman of my dreams has moved into a silent orbit, traversing past my place, to and from work, I imagine, with her pain riding alongside—orbiting me and my pain— so here we go missing each other and confronting our lost ideals. There is no telling how love manifests; doors open and you have to walk through. …
Thanks @SciFiVirteleon, The haikus train is back with the moon shining ——————————— six earths in distance a rock shinning in darkness Spark inspiration ———————————- Anyone can join. Care to join? @C. Xelfaa @xtrole @Jennifer Howard @Thirty Poems @Fragments and the Dark @TheGrimoireVault @Seth R. Mitchell ☕️…
you were the black whole 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. …
The Writer’s Almanac from Friday, June 19, 2015 “In Bed With A Book” by Mona Van Duyn from Near Changes . © Knopf, 1992. ORIGINAL TEXT AND AUDIO - 2015 Today is Juneteenth , also known as “Freedom Day” or “Emancipation Day.” It’s a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. It was on this date in…
Self-referential Fun
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Revisiting John Keats’s existential anxiety
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain, Before high piled books, in charact’ry, Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain; When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live to trace …
grief in waiting
I have a bunch of poems in my drafts folder. Some are new and some are older pieces being re-worked. This particular poem continues to spiral around me, asking to be sat with in a different way, nudging a new line or two into form and letting others go. …
A Poetry Notebook 19/06/26
A little over a year ago I wrote a short piece about Philip Larkin’s ‘The Trees’. I was trying to explain why I don’t find the poem as sweetly poignant as it is sometimes taken to be. Statements like that last one are, of course, a little patronising. Can you really be tricked by a poem? Don’t we take what we like…
A Word to Word copy of my journal Entry at 12:55AM, Monday.
Have you ever been afraid of writing poetry or an article while you are at your home ? Maybe cuz it gives you a sense of connection to all the art haters in your house ? When the shadow of the trees grows so dark that it looks like a little night was born there for a moment with chickenpox of day that pierces through…
With hosts Bradley Ramsey and Stefan Pasek
There are some seriously talented poets on Substack. So many, in fact, that Stefan Pasek and I have decided to feature their work in a new monthly series! That’s right, this recording of our stream from June 18th is the first in a new monthly series where we read and discuss your poems LIVE! We’ll also take…
Poetry brings the reader into the present, whether it was written today or a thousand years ago. You take another human’s words into your mouth; you test them on your tongue; and you enter into an exchange that can only happen now. It’s one way to revolt—for the sake of your sanity—against a world that wants to numb…
Did you ever write a “haiku haiku”? Have some self-referential fun. That’s what #168 is about. Haiku on! https://thehaikugarden.substack.com/p/168
A haiku, for you: Blame the crazy winds, but the door's in your control, close it and find peace.
For a long time, I thought moving on meant becoming untouched. But it’s strange how nothing really passes through us cleanly. People, moments, dreams… they all leave fingerprints in places we don’t always notice at first. In the phrases you use. The songs you love. The way you make a cup of coffee. The advice you…
Launcelot lines 50-82: An Annotated Excerpt
Malcolm Guite, author of Galahad and the Grail , is back to walk us through lines 50-82 of C.S. Lewis’s poem, Launcelot (found in Narrative Poems ) and how Lewis used Arthurian legend to share some of his own lived expeirience in post war England. …
a brief field guide inspired by harold bloom.
dear little voice, this is how to read a poem: “Read these poems to yourself in the middle of the night. Turn on a single lamp and read them while you’re alone in an otherwise dark room or while someone else sleeps next to you. Read them when you’re wide awake in the early morning, fully alert. Say them over to…
Do other people feel in love with someone’s words? Basically a poem about a poem. I fell in love with your lines Through distance, time and space Each written word felt like it was mine Each breath I took felt like a race Your song touched a dusty old attic— A place that romantics call the soul …
A Guide to Building a Dictionary of Your Psyche Through Words, Quotes, and Poetic Fragments
Building your own dictionary of personal symbolism can be a transformative tool for mapping out the landscape of your inner life, and the language behind your aesthetic lineage. Which imagery haunts your art? What themes and concepts recur in your body of work? …
a poem i wrote in a whim: i hope i didn’t leave you scarred and i know that you hope i didn’t leave the fire that had burnt us charred do you have the time to grieve? i called your phone on a tuesday night rang almost to full length of creep your voice was shrill like we just had a fight …
Thanks, @man of aran for inviting me. Here’s my haiku: - ice so sweet so cold the piercing dagger like stare of a lover spurned - @Sara Naseem, @(Haiku Artist), @Andy Thompson Poet I invite you to continue the haiku-chain by starting with my last line.
A Haiku Evolution: The Process
frilly singly viewed flaming red sea together true poppy pleasure Here’s something a little different. Today I’m writing about the thinking process that created Haiku #120. I’ve always been interested in hearing how a writer came up with a “final” product, so I’m hoping this won’t bore you. …
The Writer’s Almanac from Tuesday, June 16, 2015 “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” by William Butler Yeats . Public Domain. ORIGINAL TEXT AND AUDIO - 2015 Today is Bloomsday , and James Joyce fans all over the world are celebrating. It commemorates the day on which the events of his novel Ulysses …
What poets do, you can too.
One day, when she was in her garden, the poet Ruth Stone saw a glimmer of a poem. But she had no way of writing it down so she ran into her kitchen, found a pencil and jotted the lines. She said that she “caught that one by its tail.” When I heard this story, I wanted to give Ruth Stone a butterfly net. All around…
Introducing you to what The Formal Poetry Directorate is all about.
It has been two weeks since we launched this publication, so it is time to actually tell you what our agenda is. We are poets, we are nerds, and we have a plan: to gather our friends in a space where we can all grow together. My name is Brooklyn Crane, and, together with Narcisse Tardif , I give you …
It was my freshman college English class. We were asked to write down our favorite poet, then to share it out loud. I had a pretty limited bank of known poets to draw from. But I had a book of Robert Frost poetry from high school and always liked the poem Blueberries. …
A haiku for gentle souls: Silence within me. Leaves blowing, birds chirping now. Nature's symphony.
From my book All These Rivers and You Chose Love
Bless you, Dear Soul, As we move into and across Solstice, today’s reading is an invitation to witness and embrace “ this thing you call your life” , from my 2023 book, All These Rivers and You Chose Love . I pray the words soothe and supple your heart. …
"I give up on metaphor and simile."
Global Emissions Rose into the Atmosphere like Emissions Rising into the Atmosphere by Chris Watkins after torrin greathouse after Ilya Kaminsky after Pablo Neruda I give up on metaphor and simile. The fish hawk did not fly like a coat hanger on which to drape my grievances, but like a fish hawk. …
Jim Harrison on Charles Bukowski
Poetry shouldn’t tell us what we already know, though of course it can revive what we think we know. A durable poet, the rarest of all birds, has a unique point of view and the gift of language to express it. The unique point of view can often come from a mental or physical deformity. …
Of all the death blows to a text, sentimentality has to be at the top.
Of all the death blows to a text, sentimentality has to be at the top. It’s grandma’s quilt, chamomile tea, gossamer, kittens, a first kiss, or (even worse) the attendant abstractions—joy, hope, and dreams. Thou shalt not be sentimental. Sentimentality is really an indulgence in the exhibition of emotions for their…
Don Paterson on poetry, philosophy and lies
The philosopher Maximilian de Gaynesford gave an excellent presentation with the title ‘What Lies in a Poem’ at the Royal Society of Edinburgh at end of last year, after which the poet and biographer Robert Crawford and I joined him in conversation. This provoked a few thoughts, which I’ll explore here. …
☀️ "Every father is meant to give light" + 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. …
Litha: Poems, prompts, and a ritual to celebrate the longest day!
Poems, prompts, essays, and writing circles that flow with the changing of the seasons. Happy Summer!! This weekend is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, the longest day of the year, also known as Litha in the Pagan Wheel of the Year. Litha is Old English for Midsummer, which has always confused me since…
Surely it was Hollywood...
No doubt you have seen this parlor game at Plough . It got some attention because Emily Wilson chose Tracy Chapman . Over at Washington Review of Books , Steve Larkin was a funny old grump about the whole thing. Of course, one cannot disagree with him that “Homer is the Homer of the Americans.” But I cannot see that…
Pairing a pairing — the Girls’ School Book Club/Summer School crossover!
“There is indeed something delightful about being able to combine obedience and disobedience in the same act.” — Atwood, The Penelopiad “When I left my native place for the first time, I brought with me two artifacts from home that were emblematic of my growing-up life, braided tobacco leaves and the crazy quilt Baba…
the longest running African-American holiday
America’s second Independence Day, to celebrate the end of slavery. Early celebrations consisted of baseball, fishing, and rodeos. African Americans were often prohibited from using public facilities for their celebrations, so instead they were typically held at churches or outdoors near bodies …
Missouri Williams on horses, immaterial and otherwise.
I’ve never much liked horses. The first time I meet my sister-in-law is at the stables, where she keeps an enormous bay stallion with the same name as her brother, my husband. When the two of them were younger, this caused confusion: it was hard to tell which Václav she was talking about; which one, horse or boy, had…
A poem-a-day protest against the threat posed to our democracy by Donald Trump and his fascist regime
Virginia Barrett Ice Reclaimed Ice is a cube that melts with warmth. Ice is a pond to skate on—dangerous if thin. Ice is a glacier, a slow moving river rapidly retreating from climate change. Ice is a domed cap flowing outwards in all directions. Ice is a diminishing floe; where will the polar bears go? …
poet and poet laureate of Texas Amanda Johnston on her new anthology Praise Song for the People, plus next week's Summer School session with Cassie Mannes Murray and so many more poetry resources!
Hello there! Welcome to Be Less Careful , a newsletter about making space for creative practice in a busy life. Today is Juneteenth, and to celebrate, we’re featuring Amanda Johnston , a writer, visual artist, and the 61st Poet Laureate of Texas. In addition to her own creative work, Amanda does so much to create…
BY TRACY SCHLAPP
HAPPY JUNETEENTH We came in hot to our workshops these past two weeks reading more Galway Kinnell , this time the poem Memories of My Father . Written in seven sections, Memories exacts scenes from a life that span generational transitions: father to son, son to father, father to son. As we read the poem, our writers…
captain of my soul...
Invictus Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears …
By Jen Cheng
there was a season of disappointments where supportive friends were hard to find needing a sign, i drove down to Chinatown to play among strangers they don’t know me, they don’t owe me anything they are there for their own M.O. i was there to ask my guides to speak to me …
Driving in dreams
Dear friends, I (Julia) dreamed that my car was careening toward a tree. The brakes wouldn’t work. I could feel my body slipping down from my seat as I attempted with all of my body weight to get them to respond. The car kept going faster and faster, so I opened my door and rolled onto soft grass as I watched my car…
On Being Here
On Being Here No one belongs here more than you, walking beside the newly planted apple orchard, a bluebird twitching its tail feathers at you from the fence post. Once, you felt unwelcome on Earth, would have been too afraid to stop in the middle of a country road to admire the faded hawk painted on a mailbox. …
two by by Henry Ossawa Tanner
Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) was the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. He is known for his landscapes, religious subjects and scenes of everyday life. I learned a little about how to begin on the banjo while writing this poem, though I’ve yet to pick one up. Maybe I should make like a…
with prompts inspired by Lauren Goodwin Slaughter & Mad Libs
This past week, I had the honor of sharing space with Lauren Goodwin Slaughter in the most recent issue of Shenandoah. guest edited beautifully by Samyak Shertok . I first came to know Lauren when she published one of my poems in NELLE , an incredible literary magazine for women, and have admired her and her work for…
Because every body is a beach body
Help me turn writing into a career and a community . Pay Sub to help me produce indie plays, films, fiction and poetry and create stages, writer workshops and Live series connecting the Stack. Get custom content, chat access, and long-forms back. Pay Sub Me Subscribe to follow along with every email/note. …
"Wet hair dries in the warm Norwegian sun..."
In July of 2023 I made a trip with a friend to the far north of Norway to visit my Between Artists collaborator, Damon Falke, at his home in Straumsbutka. We stayed at a local farm inn, and one night walked the 3 miles to Damon’s house for a dinner he made for us. For a few days I immersed myself in a land so foreign…
George Santayana
Slow and reluctant was the long descent, With many farewell pious looks behind, And dumb misgivings where the path might wind, And questionings of nature, as I went. The greener branches that above me bent, The broadening valleys, quieted by mind, To the fair reasons of the Spring inclined …
a poem
A stranger messaged me on LinkedIn describing the poem I’m posting here - ‘Come To Where I’m From’ - as one of the finest poems he knows. Any poet knows that when such a thing happens one’s solitary lifelong walk through the forest is for a blessed moment lit by company. It means more than I can say. So… …
Steven Lovatt reviews 'Vox Wah-Wah' by Hilary Menos (New Walk Editions, 2026)
Spirit in the Sky When the after-party has wound up and Johnny Depp and John Wayne are long gone to the next hot ticket in the next hot town, men with trucks come to break down and take apart the viewing lounge, the steel pole, the 400 kW sound system in a kind of reverse stop-frame animation …
A Story of Superpowers
The Burning Color of Music James (HVR) in regular & Kasu (small wounds) in italic Sub Kasu Sub James First, Tune In! It is written in the holy texts that one day, a man will find sunglasses. When he puts them on, he sees the extraordinary. The young girl with the ballpoint pen wrote it in her visions. Joan of…
Your name is a prayer on my lips, said under my breath, kept in my heart.
Your name is a prayer on my lips, said under my breath, kept in my heart. Your name is an anchor, a lightning strike, a tiny stone I keep in my hand to remind me. In the tent, in the night, in your arms, I feel myself crack open. I can’t believe it’s possible to keep giving you more and more of me. But you find me…
How ordinary objects become vessels for memory and imagination
#Margin Notes I was drawn to the postcards. Not because I could read every word—I couldn’t—but because they had survived. Someone once believed these few lines mattered enough to write, address, stamp, and send. More than a century later, they remain, carrying traces of lives we can only imagine. …
Some thoughts + a truly massive list of suggested reading in footnote 5
Over the last couple of months, I was asked by two different magazines to review two ostensibly quite similar books: Henry Power’s, Homer-Haunted (Bloomsbury) about the afterlife of Homer in English literature and largely in poetry, and Emily Wilson’s Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea …
U & I end war on all fronts, including Lebanon. U & I respect each other’s sovereignty & affairs. U & I achieve the final deal in max.
U & I end war on all fronts, including Lebanon. U & I respect each other’s sovereignty & affairs. U & I achieve the final deal in max. 60 days. U will remove its naval blockade within 30 days. I will allow vessels passage through the Strait of Hormuz. I will be rebuilt with some three hundred billion dollars …
Helen Hunt Jackson and the art of perception
Along Ancona’s hills the shimmering heat, A tropic tide of air with ebb and flow Bathes all the fields of wheat until they glow Like flashing seas of green, which toss and beat Around the vines. The poppies lithe and fleet Seem running, fiery torchmen, to and fro To mark the shore. The farmer does not know …
Responding to one of 60 Speed Poetry Prompts
Today we’re pleased to publish the poem ‘The Contract’ by Alex Campbell , in response to the prompt ‘homesick’ from 60 Speed Poetry Prompts, thanks to Echoes from the Cave Inn. Uplift Poetry is a reader-supported publication. Paid subscriptions are the only way we fund this newsletter. To receive new posts and support…
Poem & Video Performance
Coyote Solstice Our kind neighbor saw a coyote on our block. Yeesh, Coyote, you trickster! Revealing yourself to a white woman but hiding from our house full of Indians—jealous Indians! O, Coyote I want to watch you stealing Christmas packages from our porch. Yeah, yeah, Coyote, all you’re gonna find …
The Whys about Shakespeare that they didn't answer in high school.
We are taught that Shakespeare is a great literary giant. That he is the paragon of English Literature, the standard to which all others after have aspired. Even in university undergraduate English courses, there is a certain predictable framework: the before Shakespeare and the after. …
+ a replay course for Paid Subscribers
Dear Friends, Revision has been on my mind lately. I seem to always be collecting what writers have said about the process, which is part intuition and part acumen, part artistry and part muscle. In CWC, we recently had an exceptional class on revision led by Laure-Anne Bosselaar, who guided us through a series of…
this really is a blessing for any one who lost someone they loved
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons”* A tired man adds up his whole life and reaches for the smallest thing in the house to hold the sum. A spoon you could lose in a drawer. He chose that spoon on purpose. Hold onto the choice, because it turns out to be a gift. …
featuring a poem by Margaret Atwood
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 this poem by Margaret Atwood about what is wrong with our world—the idea that humans own and can control everything. The Moment by Margaret Atwood …
A son’s love isn’t easily shown
The goings and comings of e.e. cummings is no topic to pick if you’re courting glory. Who’s he – e.e. – a poet? Screw it! Our world’s collapsing, who needs poets! A clown, even in his time, with his wording tricks, orthography spattered like a dropped egg, outraging grammar and grammas, nouning verbs, verbing nouns……
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 …
"I wanted to skip to the part where it worked out. The book kept asking me not to."
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 …
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…
What my poem in The Sun taught me about faith
Some poems arrive quickly. Others require a certain amount of faith. When I write my favorite poems, they often carry a particular energy. They hum. They buzz. They feel undeniable—not because I know what will happen to them, but because I know what they mean to me. …
Curated by Karolina Zapal, poetry and hybrid works about birth and birthing. Plus, MER 24 Launch Party II on Tues. 6/16 at 6 EDT.
The (Re)birthing Room Curated by Karolina Zapal The birthing room is a liminal space. It changes us in ways we imagined and never could have imagined. In the room where I gave birth, I hemorrhaged and a midwife dove elbow-deep into my uterus to retrieve a retained placenta. My daughter was born two weeks early on the…
When an undergrad at Cortland State, the veil to the Infinite parted briefly, while I was cresting a hill in spring, and my life as a poet began. There was no way back to what had come before.
When an undergrad at Cortland State, the veil to the Infinite parted briefly, while I was cresting a hill in spring, and my life as a poet began. There was no way back to what had come before. And twelve years later, when I was diagnosed with cancer, the door I had come through to keep that appointment was gone. …
The Summer Solstice
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…
Translation as weave
Crow News: Siddharth Dasgupta, managing editor of TBLM’s Visual Narratives, has a new book of poetry out: Cape Elsewhere ( Red River Press ). Congratulations, Siddharth! The 52 poems in the collection are set in the brave old worlds— Poona, Paris, Calcutta, Isfahan, Bombay, and Istanbul. Fans of his poetry know that…
Your weekly Mary Oliver poem and writing prompt.
Welcome to Dream Work: A Year-Long Writing Journey with Mary Oliver In the spirit of immersing myself deeper in the practice and studying of nature poetry, I am embarking on a year-long writing journey with Mary Oliver, reading a single poem of hers each day and then writing one in response. …
Happy birthday William Butler Yeats — born on 13th of June 1865. The flowers in the painting above are all for him. The poet who, ever since my youth, has occupied a special place in my heart, a burgundy velvet chaise longue inside my soul, by the fire in the hearth, where he can recline and recite his verses, and yet…
this interval of time
A weekly newsletter on what I’ve written, read, and otherwise enjoyed. As seen from the Storygraph review above, you will want to read my recent novel, Major Arcana , as soon as you can, so you can revisit it later to discover how it and you have changed with time, as discussed in the main post below. Major Arcana …
"As Capitalism Gasps for Breath I Watch the Knicks Game" by Yesenia Montilla
(Above: Author, journalist, and activist Steven Thrasher posted this photo on Facebook from New York City after the Knicks won the NBA championship last night. He wrote: “This brother out here with his Singer sewing machine, gifting people a custom embroidery on their jerseys and hats with the name and the date, was…
I recently had the pleasure and honor of speaking with Walt Hunter — senior associate dean at Case Western Reserve University, professor of 20th- and 21st-century literature, poetry editor at The Atlantic, and author of the poetry collection Some Flowers
I recently had the pleasure and honor of speaking with Walt Hunter — senior associate dean at Case Western Reserve University, professor of 20th- and 21st-century literature, poetry editor at The Atlantic , and author of the poetry collection Some Flowers . …
[note 2.20]
[photo: early human couple, out for a stroll] Last week we looked at Ann Carson’s Eros the Bittersweet . Here’s a little more from that: In any act of thinking, the mind must reach across this space between known and unknown, linking one to the other but also keeping visible the difference. It is an erotic space. . …
June: Leaning to the Light
Somehow it’s June, and we are leaning into the light: the long evenings are lingering, there’s a cocktail glass full of Scottish strawberries, one poet is holding a cherry by the stem, it is glistening. There is tenderness in writing a love note to a sister and each of us are composing a Postcard to June …
Thoughts on the intimacy of a city.
It’s a beautiful day the small man said from behind me and I could tell he had a slight limp from the rasp of his boot against the sidewalk and I was slow to look at him because I’ve learned to close my ears against the voices of passersby, which is easier than closing them to my own mind, …
After Joe Brainard
Thanks for reading Some Flowers Soon ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts. I remember the poetry section of the local library, thick plastic jackets over thin paperbacks. I remember, in the snowy churchyard, the villagers who had known the poet. I remember the poet who swapped me a bird’s nest for a book. …
A small lyrical piece.
I sit by the fire, 3 pink camping chairs, 2 blue, one for me and one for lovely you. Are you living your prayers, the ones you prayed long ago? And by living, I’m not asking, if they all came true, I’m asking— are you alive inside the prayers that did and do? Are you holding them in the same way you once begged …
- on love, violence, and the rooms where women are un/made.
In the novel Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, Piranesi is a man who lives in a House that is more like a world than a building, more like a labyrinth than a house. Inside the House, there are oceans, and tides, and birds that come and go, and fish that he catches and eats, and stone statues that he names and that become a…
...a dispatch from bewilderness
I’ve done things I can’t say with people I can’t name in places I can’t describe. That’s because something took my words away. I couldn’t say shower I couldn’t say cup I couldn’t say down I couldn’t say up I couldn’t say itch or cold or hot I couldn’t say please help me put on my socks. …
perhaps we were painted from the same dusk.
We met in the Summer but Autumn is our season. You are as much of me as I am of you; deja vu to the soul. I think our insides are the same hue of marigold. When my reflection bathes in the pool of your eyes, I leave your presence cleaner than I came. You do not sour at my flaws, but rinse me of their stains. And when…
A poem, a blessing: Finding ourselves in God's great rescue story
🕯️Deborah's Behold-Her Beauty Subscribe Giving a voice to the journey from broken to beloved. 🕊️ If this message touches you today, please place a heart in the comments. It’s a small gesture that helps my writing reach more lovely hearts with the hope of Jesus. Hi friend, …
On rehearsing grief, and learning to write an ending that won’t resolve itself.
I didn’t sit down to write about grief this morning. In fact, I thought I had a restraining order against that topic. But as you likely already know, grief is a barefoot ninja. The floorboards didn’t creak. I didn’t hear the door open. Grief snuck up behind me and wrapped her arms around me as I gave my pen a virgin…
"In the rest of my life it is loud and busy and chaotic and I flit from one thing to another in a deeply inefficient way." An interview with Nia Broomhall, the poet behind May's Poem of the Month.
Nia Broomhall won May's Poem of the Month with My Daughter Moves Home . Here is our usual poet interview, delivered on the 10th of each month with the current POTM poet. THE POET Nia Broomhall is a poet and co-Head of English at a comprehensive school. She is Poet in Residence at Painshill Park in Surrey. Her debut…
On old friends and remembering who you've always been
A completely unexpected thing happened to me a few weeks ago— I started writing poetry again. I had flown to upstate New York to visit one of my dearest friends in the world. While we were sitting on his porch with the daffodils just barely blooming that far North, Owen asked me if I had been writing anything new…
The ecofeminist thread that weaves its way through all of my books
Image by Elena Ray Over a decade ago, in If Women Rose Rooted , I wrote about the then-lost or forgotten stories of the divine feminine in Britain and Ireland which deeply connect women to the natural world. Because goddesses and Otherworldly women in our native traditions are not only guardians and protectors of the…
Poem and recording links, craft notes and the final prompt from today’s creative writing session using the work of Fatimah Asghar
Good morning! We had 50 writers at Marjorie’s Table this morning looking at the poetry of Fatimah Asghar. 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 workshop recording for paid subscribers is beyond the paywall below. We …
with horses
My Kingdom for My Innocence I. I can hardly believe this really happened but it did: We two kids, aged somewhere between seven and nine rode borrowed horses down the middle line of a blacktop road in winter. Mine was a pony. Hers was a tall chestnut horse. The serpent offered knowledge. …
Feeling squished?
Hello, Beloveds. Poet Jesus here. Welcome to another installment of Summer Camp with Apostle Paul! My holy ghostwriter Tania includes several ekphrastic poems, or poems that respond to works of art, in her collection Second Sky . She’s especially partial to weird outdoor sculptures, including her friend …
Mine the green pulse from below
Mine the green pulse from below that breaks the concrete and calls down the rains that feed the root that grows toward the golden sun and swells the bud that becomes the blossom that dusted with pollen becomes the fruit we harvest _____________________________________ …
A deep dive into Blake's early prophetic book
The William Blake course is back , with a deep dive into Blake’s underrated and prophetic Book of Thel. This is one of my favorite pieces by Blake, and it has more wisdom on how to ACTIVATE and transcend spiritual narcissism, analysis paralysis, and living an unfulfilled life than not just most poems but also most…
There's a Russian word that appears six times in the first four chapters of Crime and Punishment. No English translator has ever understood it correctly.
It’s no secret that Russian is notoriously difficult to translate into English—and the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky are no exception. Since the first English translation of Crime and Punishment appeared in 1886, over twenty different interpretations of Dostoyevsky’s most famous novel have made their way into the…
We’re looking forward to reading your own poetry as part of our Rabbit Room Poetry Prism Contest—submissions are open through June 30!
Susquehanna River Kingston, PA As children we did risky things— rode bikes without a helmet, hiked through woods full of bears. Danger was our element— popping wheelies, if you could, handle-bar riding, skating across melting ice. Trees were meant for climbing. One day we walked the trestle, …
how stories from the silmarillion helped sam and frodo make it to mordor (and might help you too)
“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo…” This line is the start of one of the most memorable monologues in film history. Delivered powerfully by Sean Astin as Samwise Gamgee at the end of The Two Towers films, this scene is nearly impossible to watch without feeling moved and hopeful. …
We'd like your help
We Want to Build the Best Poetry Resource on the Internet — and We’d Like Your Help Something has been taking shape on our website, and this week it crossed a threshold worth telling you about. The Learn section at Ink & Ribbon Press — what we’ve started calling The Poetry Library …
“I want you in the kitchen” — oh yeah?
“I want you in the kitchen” — oh yeah? You want me in the kitchen, big boy? Me baking a casserole, me with my head in the oven, or me with my pussy flesh spread across the cold marble tabletops. What a dreamy suburban life I live. I tend my red roses along the white picket fence in the morning — far too hot by midday!…
Issue 213
Welcome to June, Muse Readers! In poking around some poetry-related news items, we came across a story in The Guardian about the discovery of a previously unknown poem by the iconic Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. Born in 1898 in Granada, Lorca moved to Madrid in 1919 to focus on his creative writing, and it was…
Poems from the June Workshop
These are poems from the online First Tuesday workshop on the 2nd of June, 2026. Our shared poem was My Blue Hen by Ann Gray. They are outrageously good and very moving. If you were at the workshop and would like to add your poem, go ahead. If you’d like to come to the next workshop, just subscribe. It’s £5. …
Watch now | Season 2, Episode Four of Red Hen Radio is LIVE!
Red Hen Radio shares an enlightening episode with two amazing writers for this latest episode. In today’s episode, the guests share a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation with Red Hen Press publisher Kate Gale. Singer-songwriter and poet Amy Speace & screenwriter and novelist Luke Goebel discuss their new…
A four week course
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, …
How solitude affects the many different characters we see in Tolkien's poetry collection
We’ve been reading Tolkien’s The Adventures of Tom Bombadil this past month for the Year of Tolkien and today we finally get to dive deep into some of these poems! The realm of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil lies within faerie lands and mirror worlds; of dark shadows and piercing light. It’s a realm in which trademark…
a new poem
Unsigned Late May, when heavy green begins to lean in— green churning a deeper green— and bees, fevered, needle haze pulled tight like a sheet of clear plastic across the field. When it dissipates I see the seams— the dandelions that dot the sloped sides of the canal; the ragged lilacs my vision blurs; …
This is about the small details that desire makes it impossible to forget.
There are days when the world looks ordinary. Then there are days when something in us stirs. Suddenly, everything sharpens. Colours deepen. Faces become more interesting. The air feels charged, but nothing obviously external has changed. We have, though. Rather, I should specify, our desire has. …
A post by Holly Holt from AWA’s April Online Write
What have you been doing lately? How many times have you heard this tired question while in the grips of the small talk trap at parties? How many times have you answered with something like, “Oh, I’ve been working, spending time with the family. You know, the usual.” Now, imagine you are a poet: you answer with…
stream my new album, the color of rain
the color of rain is finally pittering and pattering on the world right now. produced by meshell ndegeocello, justin brown, and myself—my sophomore album officially released on all streaming platforms this past friday as an offering and an invitation to contemplate. we made this record to the back drop of civil unrest…
Reflections on BEFORE OLYMPUS, my latest substack series
Listen via audio: I’m not sure how I came to write about the gods. In a revealing interview with music journalist and songwriter Paul Zollo, Leonard Cohen was asked about the art of songwriting. ‘If I knew where good songs came from,’ he said, ‘I would go there more often.’ …
From Ginosko Literary Journal #35
Still Buried In the back of the closet there’s dust and bits of dry mud and cat fur and sand from that day at the beach. It’s winter now, fresh snow running the window ledge, and I’m digging to find my laceless slip-in lined boots. Throwing flimsy runners on top of sandals I chucked there just three months ago. The…
Last week, an ex-boyfriend DM’d me about an excerpt I shared from my upcoming poetry collection, Portrait of a Person Who Pushes Love Away in Fear of Losing It , in which I labeled myself (ehemm…labeled the speaker) “ a serial cheater. ” His message: …
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, …
When a Scot translates Hebrew.
The Scottish-Jewish poet A.C. Jacobs wrote in English and translated from Hebrew; Avraham Ben Yitzhak was born in Poland, and lived for a time in Vienna. Eventually, Ben Yitzhak made his way to Israel and wrote in Hebrew. This kind of travel across languages—and lands—is not unusual in poetry, and it is often the…
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…
It’s the last night of National Poetry Month if you believe in such a thing, and I haven’t shared any of my own with you in a while.
It’s the last night of National Poetry Month if you believe in such a thing, and I haven’t shared any of my own with you in a while. I’ve still been writing nocturnes. Here is tonight’s draft of Nocturne 23, after a foraging walk at dusk this evening. I didn’t collect any food, but I saw lots and made this. Read a…
poem
what they don’t tell you about love is that it can make you go mad even under the best of circumstance if you let it (you were always going to let it) they leave out the parts (misery loves company) where you end up trying to drown yourself in a bath (all a performance, you know very well how to swim) …
The literal is rarely right
Erotic fresco from a house in Pompeii When I see a short English poem I often translate it in my head into Latin or Greek. The other day I composed a Latin elegiac couplet, as if it had been addressed by Catullus to his beloved Lesbia, as follows: …
Live Friday Morning Meditations with the Mindfulness Initiative at AU
Live Poetry Meditations Every Friday from 9-9:30 am Eastern Time: Join us on Zoom Beloved community, Thank you to everyone who joined our sit as we define, through examples from poetry, the steps of The Noble Eightfold Path. Our final live session for the spring ‘26 semester is this Friday, May 1 at 9 am Eastern. …
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 …
from issue 100
TEMPELHOF 30° in the shade and we brave it, this second-to-last summer, the former- family of us, foursquare as a quadrat – Father, Mother, Daughter, Son – foursquare as a Roman atrium. The Protect & Survive government pamphlet – printed but never sent – rings the featureless nuclear family …
I Remember What I Have to do
There will be no moment before the finish. Saving yourself begins immediately. A Winter Prayer Before going to Connecticut, on the phone, my mother told me that she heard a mourning dove outside the window. From New York, I moved toward my own. An overcast morning, with the soft cloudy light, there, on the firesecape…
The Rule of Rocks
I collect rocks. I write about rocks. I love rocks. This morning, rocks are on my mind. I went to Lake Huron over the weekend and brought home twelve large rocks from the shore. They are different colors but they are all smooth, cream, black, grey and brown. Each one is bigger than my hand, some are the size of my…
What Elizabeth Bishop’s drafts can teach us about letting go and just starting.
Hi, all — I’m writing this as war unfolds in Iran, and like many of you, I’ve been glued to the news, caught between dread and the strange guilt of going about ordinary life while something so enormous and unexpected is happening. I almost didn’t send this today. But as you know from reading me, I think the work of…
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. …
Reading by Tim Foley:
Reading by Tim Foley : If you can hear the whales through your glowing foot roots, then stand up. Open your mouth. Let their aria rip through you. Let it pound up and out so the others can find you. Burrrp! Now’s not the time for politeness, my love. We’re staring down mass extinction. We don’t have time to be cool. …
An Erotic Poem (a daily verse that spun beautifully out of control)
Thighs parted The sharp, inviting scent of your cunt Wet lips dripping into my palm, Are like lush dew-soaked Mullein Flexing around my fingers Your mouth’s agape Thick, humid gasps Through teeth bared in primal hunger Scorching the air with your heat And as I breathe you in …
i thought everything was finally getting better
a shiver runs down my spine, my legs and my arms a simple act you didn’t think through enough makes bugs get in my skin crawling your name lights up in my phone for the first time in ages, you cared after having pulled the dagger from my chest and you think there are no consequences?
There's Not Enough Being Done to Protect Kids Like Me
“Time for school!” my mom always yells each morning. I wake up and instantly feel sad. I also feel a little scared, but I keep that inside. I know I have to go. I know I have to learn. I know my parents have to go to work, both of them. I wish we could all be at home together, like on the weekends. …
Poetry by Trisha Leigh Shufelt
As a poet, I get inspiration from everywhere and much of it is from past experiences. They say scent is our strongest form of memory recall. I believe this is true. My sense of smell is almost doglike. I can detect scents almost to their base notes. I can smell rain and snow long before it falls. I can also smell when…
A Father's Day poem about grass and longing
A subscription means a lot to me. My feet are too hot so I take off my shoes, socks too Green grass cool and sharp between my toes Paolo Nutini moaning about new shoes through a Bose bluetooth speaker His lyrics once fit me like a well-worn leather jacket Torn just right, draped over a chair my father never sat in …
I falter in so many ways
I have never once been a good person, Never a good friend, Brother, son, And I definitely never have been a good lover. I falter in so many terrible ways. I forget birthdays, I don't show up to weddings, And I miss funerals of loved ones. I plan the worst dates and still show up late. …
First published on Carolyn Jones's Words In Bloom
Love asks that we risk being the one who reaches, being the one who names it, being the one who needs. What we rarely admit is this: love does not only want our hearts, it wants our hands. It wants us to show up as if the days matter, as if a life can be built from the honest repetition of choosing. Again. Again. …
Don’t know how it is where you live ~ this poet has read that there are places in our world in which people still genuinely care for one another. In America, if you are asked, “How are you?” please do not attempt to answer. It will only confuse and dismay the person who asked you. …
The nineteenth poem in my daily poems series
A small poem that grew from a dream I had. Sometimes we are the ones searching for what has been lost, sometimes we are the ones the storm that scattered what we now cannot find. Sometimes we are both. In the Morning Last night I dreamt of a bird in flight after a storm, in desperate search …
TW for suicidal thoughts, implied/referenced SH, and blood
hey. what? they don’t want you. i know. it’s like he said: no one wants you. i know. you’re not good enough. i know! i know i’m not good enough! i’m never good enough. i know. you should kill yourself. no! yes! no. living is… fucking hard, but… i guess it’s better than death. but you don’t want to be alive. yes i do! …
Watch now | On the last elementary school graduation in a large family — Brian Brodeur’s “Primer”
Hi friends and readers, I initially only intended to post this on Substack Notes, but I guess the video was too unwieldy, so here it is for all my subscribers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My youngest just graduated from elementary school yesterday, so I recited a poem during a walk out in the woods after breakfast. It’s by my friend…
a poem
BOYS LIKE YOU LOVE TO WATCH PRETTY GIRLS CRY LOVE TO MAKE ME THEM ASK WHY, WHY, WHY? LOVE TO WATCH THE VIOLET BRUSING FORM ON THEIR HEARTS AND CHINS YOU SAY GOOD MEN EXIST THEN STOP HITTING ME AND GO FIND THEM HAVE THEM COME SAVE ME YET THEY NEVER SHOW UP DO THEY? KEEP ME UP ALL NIGHT …
The feeling of being left out, or simply just "less".
I’ve never known how people do it so well. Step into a room with great stories to tell. Wealth in number or wealth in friends, I hover at edges and try to pretend. I’m not always lonely whenever I’m alone, It’s just nobody cares, not that nobody knows. It’s the feeling that something got lost on the way, …
A poem
The knocking wind stirs again From shelves of air to darkened glen On greensward floor, a pooling love— And dovetailed in the golden mud Foxglove sings a bloody ledge With deathly calm 'round water's edge. Stirring feet, an Echo greets With sunlight's flying time-bound lease; Fluttering wing slips past a snare …
I want to run wild and free in the middle of the woods where no one can hear me.
I want to run wild and free in the middle of the woods where no one can hear me. I want to disappear into the trees, become transparent, become so still that the world has to slow down and truly look to find me. The little girl inside of me is desperately trying to come home. …
A small town kneels devoutly before its own prejudice and asks God to forgive what it had already decided.
Lord, protect us from children who come from somewhere else. From boys whose grandparents we do not know. From mothers carrying suitcases, silences, old debts, and stories that never passed through community approval. From houses where we do not know who comes and goes. …
As we celebrate June 19, 1865—the day all American people were finally recognized as free—we honor the journey, remember the cost, and acknowledge how much work remains.
As we celebrate Juneteenth, we commemorate June 19, 1865—the day news of emancipation finally reached enslaved Black Americans in Galveston, Texas, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. It is a day of remembrance, resilience, and recognition. …
distance.
Sub Kasu Sub Jeanne distance. by small wounds & Jeanne Vessantra the darkness between suns spills 溢れた pressure tears through mi corazón se disuelve everything bleeds, and drags me 私をarrastra ??? the abyss doesn’t stay still— it shudders crushes sound until nothing answers, all that’s left silence the void isn’t empty …
Oh the places our soul can journey 🪐✨
Some say we’re all that life can be, A lonely world in a silent sea But I look out through stars untold, And see a cosmos bright and bold I think of forests bathed in blue, Of crimson skies and oceans new Of beings shaped by worlds unknown, Each calling distant stars their home No two alike, no single mold, …
Some strengths are not loud, they are simply constant. -- Issue #78
"To be a lantern, not a cure." There are things we carry not because they are heavy, but because we chose to. Not out of obligation. But out of something quieter. A knowing that some people need a presence more than they need an answer. I know what it is to stand beside someone in their hardest season and have nothing…
From The Muse Jar—on the auroras and biracial grief.
I carry history in a body that does not announce it paper skin pale enough to make people comfortable pale enough to make them ask how much? as if blood is a measurement as if grief must come with proof as if my ancestors should have left a darker signature on my face the old stories do not ask to be believed …
An ekphrastic poetry collaboration #2
Hello! Olly von and I are excited to share the second piece in our collection of ekphrastic poetry. Meet the Artist This week’s poem is written from inside the work of New York abstract figurative artist and writer Mickey Roberts . His art captures the nuances of human emotion within playful figures, and his writing…
He's the one who carries the most pain 💔
I smile a lot, Hold myself together, Make jokes and make everyone else smile too. I like a room to be full of joy while I'm in it. It's nice being the funniest in the room. My life is perfect. I have never known pain. Everyone wants me around. It's nothing but sunshine and rainbows on this side. …
A poem
In a strip club somewhere Far away from home, You wish to dance one day, Naked or in some lingerie. . When you expressed your wish, I embraced your thoughts The way they were; after all, That was some kind of a wish. . When you felt I would judge, I quickly embraced you with a hug. I told you that day, …
poem about trying and failing; and still exiting gracefully.
you won’t dance with me no matter the tune, no matter the mood. there’s no rhythm for me no matter the place, no matter the time. what am I to do no matter my words, no matter my all. I glide diminuendo al niente let me fade to rest let me leave no coda. music keeps playing drowning out the pleading pulse of my heart. …
The eighteenth poem in my daily poems series
Today’s poem has come about from another project that I have just started today. I am writing a story (again). I have started countless stories in the past and never managed to finish them. I think that’s why I like poetry - its begun and ended in the same moment, sure you can spend your time refining and editing but…
a werewolf
a werewolf A village where the children sing and the gypsies moan The streets are cold and callus With the fear that nightide brings They say a wolf roams the moors by night And everyone is cursed For the howl is heard like a banshee wail And good folk pray for light They lock the doors and say a prayer …
***** Recorded Reading (0:45): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/w4u01fbatgc9ek4fdie5p/Magical-Day.mp3?rlkey=46wh6c7dw2slcqww6534cd0h5&st=mv2g2sn8&dl=0 ***** Magical Day . If I knew I’d die tomorrow O how glad I’d be today Just to sit this peaceful corner Watch our world go on its way . See the sunshine slanting down …
they are coming.
they are coming. they’re out for blood. my blood. as if enough of that hasn’t been spilled already. they are coming. i can hear them in the hall; in my head. but they’re always in my head. they are coming. i can see their figures through my window, hear their low laughs, smell the stench of their rotting flesh, …
his arms around me
his arms around me tonight and every night I fall asleep in his embrace and let go of all my worries we count the stars above us and he presses a kiss to my forehead I steal a glance at him once then melt into his warmth lying against his chest listening to his heartbeat my eyes grow heavy and close …
i turned 18.... and this is me dealing with it
this is it my last day being a seventeen year old girl i thought id be more sad i thought id be happier funny how im excited for my birthday but becoming an adult? Maybe not so keen but im looking forward to it anyway ive accepted tomorrow im 18 and maybe i shouldnt be sad …
I came to Britain chasing dreams,
I came to Britain chasing dreams, A better life, or so it seemed. More money earned, more doors unlocked, Yet something precious stayed back home. I left behind the streets I knew, The church bells ringing through the blue, The little town where everyone knew my name, …
a poem <333
you kiss me so passionately that I think it's love your flirts turn my stomach upside down, but I know whatever this is, isn't forever. it's just for fun you only comment on my body or how pretty you think I am. for once, tell me you think i'm funny you're charming, and you're tall i'm pretty, and you call me yours …
The Mad Storm
The Mad Storm ( 117th birthday tribute to my eternal love of life, Osamu Dazai) No soul sits nearer, yet none looms so far away, than you, my love, Nestled like a pearl in the oyster's shell. How far is the distance ? As far as my detached connection to the crowd ? Many eyes mimicked your light …
Inspired by both Elizabeth Schmelzenbach (@schmelzp) and by Paul Wittenberger (@paulwittenberger1)
Faith does not leave; it repositions its axis. What feels like absence is often only a quiet shift in the soul’s geometry — a movement of presence into a deeper coordinate. In the Main Neurosurgical Operating Theatre‑void, where walls thin into proportion and silence becomes structure, faith reveals itself as a…
refreshing
The tide moves out from where we swam ice cold salty refreshing massive fish skulls appear vertebrae arch slimy scales glistening against sunshine eyes picked out frozen on the rocky floor the rest devoured some unknown source hold me i protest but give in let the tiny rocks broken shells sting the soles of my feet …
A poem
I devote myself to the anticipation of seeing you No need for a performative moment, no opening yourself up, You need just be and let me absorb your immanence, And how you hold our space in equilibrium, With your silken, dulcet exhalations No, no need for exposition For you live in every room, …
From The Muse Jar—on the ordinary beauty of this world
Why does the light do this to me? why does it come in gold and dusty over the fields and pry my ribs apart like it has somewhere to be inside my chest why does rain on a tin camper roof make me want to call everyone I have ever loved and say do you see it? do you understand? do you know how unbearable it is …
its inevitable…
its inevitable… A short poem… Subscribe I write to you the way one writes the sea, knowing the page will not be read by me, or by the man I was, or hoped to be… I write to whatever is left of me.. You carried me through shifts I can’t recall, the long days bending under a stern paywall, through every sun I watched but…
A poem about how big this all is
It always cracks me up when you mention a band or writer or someone of note, and the other person seems truly baffled they haven’t heard of them. “How”, they ask, “has this happened?” And the answer is always the same: You haven’t listenedweirdly enough; haven’t read widely enough. You haven’t clocked the internet. …
When I die, this is what I hope happens.
I never dreamed of crowns or gold, Or statues standing proud and tall I only hoped my heart would leave, Some trace of love behind it all Through weary halls and hospital light, I held the hands of grief and pain I learned that kindness softly given, Can help a shattered soul remain …
An episode about the person who says he writes for those who truly see him, while simply looking for a better mirror.
@NewsletterNarcissus entered holding a mirror. He was already looking at it. His bio read: I write for the people who truly see me. Pan sighed. “Good. The man who turned the audience into a pond has arrived.” @NewsletterNarcissus smiled at himself. “My readers understand my becoming.” Hera stood. …
When?
Why not now? Dream a little too wild, for the thing may not have the perfect time. It may come and go, quicker than the season. Look around you, there is more amazing things in the world than you could even begin to count, why not add one more. Each thing an act of being true to itself, so be true to yourself. …
The seventeenth poem in my daily poems series
This is not an article about poetic form. Today I just wanted to write a poem and this came out. I have been reflecting, this month especially, on names and words and the power they hold over us and on what is a name after the owner of the noun is gone. The only thing that matters, that truly has meaning is love, true…
Based on a comment posted to a poem by 26thAvenuePoet (Elizabeth)
I never lost my faith; it just found a different address. It packed its small suitcase of mornings, folded the hymns like shirts that no longer fit the weather, and left as quietly as it first arrived, no slamming of the door, no thunder, no dramatic liturgy of departure, just the quiet click of a latch …
The road is dark and treacherous, and danger lurks everywhere.
The road is dark and treacherous, and danger lurks everywhere. You are tired and terrified, stumbling along with no hope. You feel your feet slip on wet stones and your hands fly around to find purchase. Suddenly, you feel arms hold you upright. A thorn snags on our clothes and you feel the hysteria well up in your…
and I have decided that is not something to apologize for
I love him. I need to start there because everything else I could say is just the long way around to that. I love him in a way I cannot reduce to something manageable, cannot fold down into a size that is easier to carry or easier to explain or easier to put away on the days when the weight of it is almost funny —…
Brown eyes.
Brown eyes. I know when they’re trying to lie. I know when they’re hiding grief. I know when they’re holding laughter hostage behind a straight face. Brown eyes are truthful in that sense. Not because they reveal everything, but because they darken with sorrow and soften with love. They hold storms differently. …
this is to my dad and a small capture of just a few minutes on the night everything broke.
The night was slow, or so it seemed, a half‑slurred truth slipped through the seams. A story told in a drunken voice, but your confession was an internal choice. The room stayed still, the walls held tight, yet something shifted in the night. I didn't speak, deep in the trenches of fears, …
A poem about the importance of pain...
Sorrow planted a seed in my heart Despair gifted me a life gone dark Maybe darkness brings a brighter outcome Maybe pain is something we're meant to learn from Embrace the woe, the misery and anguish Endure the torture, discomfort and sting Embrace it all, even if it doesn't feel right …
I love the closeness that comes from knowing your partner so deeply, the little things that bring them pleasure, comfort, and that look in their eyes when they feel completely understood.
I love the closeness that comes from knowing your partner so deeply, the little things that bring them pleasure, comfort, and that look in their eyes when they feel completely understood. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below! I look forward to reading them! And don’t forget to subscribe so you…
poem 013
at an age when my marvelling body began to carve passages through the hedgerow and into the heart of a southern forest i began to carry memories i began to have a past when i met a box turtle and thought so highly of them i ferried them around in a small cart— a feral procession through the middleworld …
i wrote this in one day and it just stuck with me
i do mess up a few times in this recording so please excuse that, its not perfect and i may make changes, but this is what i go so far. (Verse 1) swimming in the depth of the sea i found something i thought belonged to me it swam away into a deep dark cave or was it swept away by a sudden wave (chorus) …
the sadness lost this evening, and that's something, isn't it?
maybe i'm still too much, maybe i'm not enough, maybe im still waiting for your love that stays, instead of counting losses, instead of counting days. but tonight, your name appeared, soft against the blue, and suddenly the darkness had to make some room for you. you asked me something simple, you had no clue at all, …
a poem
you do everything but love me you hear me, see me, want me, feel me, feed me maybe all of that counts but it does not feel like the love they all talk about still, I find comfort in calling your phone even if it’s met with repulsion and indecision I feel safe in your passive actions you never took my pain away …
waiting for the sun to rise again
Am I reborn in the crystals? Are my joints to be rewritten? Am I building something new within my blood and body? Could the pain that I am suffering help me be born again? Life if but a cycle of suffering and joy, one cannot be felt without the other. So in the deepest depths of pain within my bones …
A poem on the hideous glamourization of smoking.
Yeah, there’s not much more than that. I hate smoking. More than that, I HATE that, for the longest time, poets, thinkers and otherwise writing celebrities all have to be linked to such an unhealthy habit. It is an opinionated post, but what are you going to do about it? Poem text. It reeks of ruin in disguise, …
in the widening of the room
It lowers itself into the space between breath quiet already here like something the body remembers I soften- without instruction love I notice it in my ribs how they stop holding so tightly my breathing begins to stay there is a stillness forming it is not empty just held you are here love …
From The Muse Jar on cranberry bogs and insufficient job postings
The job posting said must be comfortable outdoors which is significally insufficient because no one told me about the spiders which feels like the kind of detail you mention before sending a person waist-deep into a flooded field of red berries I was prepared for honest work for mud wet socks for the noble ache …
A reflection on finding quiet in a noisy world
Lately, words come slower— the noise of the world loud, unrelenting, a weight pressing deep against every line I try to shape. Even lighter things, the everyday rhythms, have felt hard to translate into language. Yet I know words are my sanctuary, a quiet shore I return to when all else roars. So I keep showing up, …
We may rise to the top, but nobody is able to stay there forever.
There was a time I reached a lofty place, A fleeting moment shining in the race For two short days I stood where few had been, Then watched it fade like it had never been And as I thought about the years gone by, Of kings and tyrants reaching for the sky I saw a truth repeated through the years: …
Gothic Erotic Poetry
The veil was thin as shred of lace. His shadow wore a lover’s face. Fever crept along her trembling thighs, and slithered where the darkness lay. She drank the wine, she took the curse— and that was it— the great unknown. There stood a silent king of dirt. Unwelcomed guest, the last to come. …
***** Recorded Reading (4:04): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/n1gbsai62qbsb1m5pls2a/Guess-Who-Speaks.mp3?rlkey=lyt7bhpmvifx2rg4yj5vbq0yg&st=y8ahcue4&dl=0 ***** The streetside parking beyond this store’s stretch of parking lot and then foliage strip and sidewalk contains a perfect daytime location for the poet ~…
If my dad were still here, this would have been Mom and Dad's wedding anniversary. It still feels like a celebration in my heart. Happy anniversary Mom!
Joined at the heart, not just the hip. Bound together. Free together. Notes on the mirrors when they wake, of little smiling faces, or names shared in secret. First thing in the morning, they whisper "Is loving." Kisses in the kitchen. They don't know I'm watching. …
TW : Adult Content ( Poem )
They say it’s all fair In love and war, But I don’t agree with that. It’s all fair and square Only in a true friendship. . When my friend sobbed, She kept my hand on her chest. I reached out for her heart, But found her breasts instead. I caressed them Till she started giggling. . There was another friend …
a poem
I didn’t grow up around fireflies, but I saw them once in late springtime in Arkansas in black night sky. Thought they were stars, doubted my eyes when they danced in front of moonlit pines. I saw them again on a summer's eve in Vermont's long dusk, they moved through trees. We talked of nets but let them be. …
Love doesn’t just begin; it also inevitably falls apart. A poem on longing, illusion, and the truths we sense but choose not to see.
It only has to start. A thought that becomes a life. A chord played at the right time, lingering on the fringes of curiosity. A gaze that finds us off guard, piercing through buried desires, chasing away the fear to try. And so it begins… The breaking. The building up just to fall apart. Whether the longing …
a very personal refection
I was always lonely amidst my peers and expressed my true self in the company of adults. an odd little gremlin girl, often daydreaming, curious about the world and scared of it at the same time. I asked why, and was never satisfied with the answer. I was happy and funny and sensitive. my wings were torn when I was…
how does one overcome being drained out?
I used to be quick, I used to be heat, With a rhythm that pounded in time with my feet. I chased every path and life felt so fun, Always looking for battles that had to be won. But the fire has flickered and turned into gray, And the "wanting" has quietly drifted away. Now I’m just a vessel for hours and glass, …
hope you never find this btw :)
mama, I'm tired I've been trying so hard to hold on but I'm getting exhausted. I've got a family. not so healthy, but I've got one. I've got a roof over my head, food thrice a day. but I live ungratefully, wanting to die all the time. I'm not suicidal, I convince myself everyday. …
Jealousy has made a home inside my stomach.
Jealousy has made a home inside my stomach. It twists and turns, a rusted knife carving circles through my gut, every time I hear your name, every time someone mentions him, every time another rumor finds its way to me like a curse I never asked to hear. And still, I keep my composure. …
—
I’m trying to write a poem about your lips— but every line just makes mine ache for the weight of yours I’d tear a thousand pages trying to find the words that rhyme with how they undo me. yet the wanting never dulls, so I write: and if it’s life’s will I’d never get to taste them again— I just hope no other lips …
(a poem about writing about romantic love)
I write of fire as someone who has never been burned. I kindle sparks from scorched pages, from crackling sonnets and trickling pools of ink. I stole embers from those who dared to think that wordy verses could capture the heat of human souls. Since— I do not know how the heart works. Why a warbling, frantic bird, …
Some recent publications and a poem after Ross Gay
This month I’ve had two poems published, which feels surreal. Less than two years ago, I’d submitted an application for a continuing education writing program and fully expected that if I were accepted, it would be to the non-fiction cohort—but no, it was poetry. A genre I knew very little about aside from personal…
translation.
sentimientos 感情 مشاعر not away but closer my body learns before I do time slips out of order a response forms before I understand meaning arrives antes que el lenguaje 言語以前に قبل اللغة vor der Sprache antes da linguagem before language If my words resonate with you, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber…
(A contemporary tale of terror)
It’s a wonder we can all wait in line for cashier number nine at the grocery store, avoiding prolonged eye contact, with half the self-checkout screens papered over with out-of-order signs, and the rest announcing cash-only as persevering hunter-gatherers queue past the freezer aisle pizzas. …
You All Mean the Most to Me
You see the very best in me, I see the same in you. I strive to be the best I’ll be, You do the same thing, too. We work together, as a team, and raise our children right. We watch them grow, with pride we beam, for them I’ll always fight. Our family has grown up together, We’ve often had such fun. …
poem
each alone you and i we are surrounded by the teeming sea of we face after face smiling scowling stormy looks what connects me to you is only this thin strip where our surfaces touch pulling me into you do i matter? do you care? is this moment only because neither you nor i want to be islands? …
How we still talk about what has already ended
We speak as if something is still arriving, but the door has already closed on the sound of your name. The room remembers you more precisely than I do, how you leaned into corners, how your silence gathered like light on the backs of chairs. I have misplaced the moment it ended—not lost, misplaced, …
A poem about protecting your energy
Keep your mouth shut. They keep telling you this. You may not realize it, but sometimes it's true. How do you know the ones whose intentions are for good? You don't, And that's the truth. You went and told Kenny, Because Kenny is your best friend and you think that he loves you. And yes, maybe he really do. …
poems for the lustful (18+)
for the lustful sinners with sticky hands All poems written by me, myself, and I The Bedroom Below you, I feel no shame On top, I feel vulnerable When your breath touches my skin It sends a heat that not even the air can spare I swore to never love you But when you are above me I am yours (from: a bucket of lemons …
a series of my poems in no particular order! most are recent <3
gifted my body is the heaviest weight i have ever lifted as a child my father called me gifted and as a woman i crawl to my room thoughts too heavy to stand i am stuck in a loop even this pen feels too heavy for my hand i try clinging to reason but some things never change with the season …
TW for SH, implied/referenced suicide, and blood
the incidents return, then come the bad thoughts. i lock myself in the bathroom. i do that a lot. i run the water; i can’t be caught. the blade is cool; my skin is hot. one. two. it’s only a few. three. four. it’s all over the floor. five. six. this can’t be fixed. seven. eight. and now it’s too late. nine. ten. …
Hoc praetexit nomine culpam.
To read Part I and II of Match Collector , published together, click here . They are entitled Roberto Carlos Braga and Clarice Lispector , and Notes from Underground. To read Part III, click here . It’s entitled First Year . To read Part IV, click here . It’s called Levers . To read Part V, click here . It’s called …
a poem
srry ik its been a while since I posted poetry here y’all go: Operatic motherfucker new and old Black-green peaks shrouded in azure fog’s touch Sliding forth, the dawn pressing broad kisses to the blue-grey world Birdsong sprouting and bouncing like jazz from fir to oak brush …
on the phrase used to justify why society holds girls at a higher accountability than boys
girls from a young age are taught to be polite, quiet and helpful to be small smaller a perfect little doll to play with, to control and when it hurts, they’re told it’s normal: “boys will be boys” girls don't mature faster, they suffer first get punished sooner blamed younger they are expected to cope earlier …
and this poem weren’t mine
I wish all my memories the sudden breaks between my thoughts were pictures I could burn or I wish they weren’t mine I wish all my hopes when falling to the ground and becoming disappointments were like comets exploding without making a sound or I wish they weren’t mine I wish my inner monologue …
poem about breaking under pressure
They built their whole world on the slope of my back, Then look at me sideways for finding a crack. "You’re stronger than most," is the salt in the wound, As the rafters are creaking and winter is tuned. They pile on the dreams that they failed to achieve, And use my endurance to help them believe, …
Image crafted by Leonardo
Image crafted by Leonardo This song came in the night, not all at once. In fragments, the way dreams leave things behind. I woke several times reaching for my phone to write down a line before it disappeared, then fell back asleep, then woke again with more. By the time morning came I had enough to follow where it was…
a poem
the strings leaves indents on my finger tips like people leave imprints on my soul and words dance in my head the lyrics are carved into my skin of all the nice things i’ve been told the more pain in my hands the prettier the melody my skin was once soft untarnished now made tough the calluses in my chorus …
A poem on the encroaching hand of mortal greed, written in the form of a sestina.
This poem is a response to the changes that have progressively made Substack similar to other platforms that encourage content farming, AI-overuse, and inhumane algorithms. I am not fleeing anymore. If we don’t make a stand on Substack, this will follow us to the ends of the Earth. Poem text. …
A Poem
Arising from the ground. Unsure of what I’m becoming I move forward, through uncertain terrain. Unsure if I can find my way. Life doesn’t stop The waves keep on crashing. till we wind up dead Fire, at last, speaks in the language of becoming. Flames flickering beneath moonlight Wolves howling in the night. …
If I were that poem,
I am, I am the perfect poem. Don’t ask and, Don’t question. If you have the gall, then you may. I have enough courtesy, to end your dismay. After all, This is The perfect poem. I am loved, loved by every soul. From the wicked witches of the west, to knights and kings of north — Evil haunted eyes, sit under my lashes, …
NEW TOWN BLUES
pick a city some place with payphones maybe the midwest pack light what you’re running from is already there touch down, check in put on your walking shoes take to your paces come up the mouth of the metropolis hit the streets and bleed BECOME A PAID SUBSCRIBER FOR LIVE READINGS AND MONTHLY ESSAYS …
Consolidating loose notes and poems about love written and translated the past year
A year ago, I wrote a series of poems in Mandarin for the very first time, then translated them back into English, only to find that I had recovered the tacky sincerity I’d lost in my poetry years ago. It was difficult to write about love for a long time. Everything was too laden with history, with my duty to privacy…
A Poetry from the Auto
When was the last time you sat in an auto That ran on your thoughts? Khayaal. Perhaps not quite “thoughts.” Perhaps a burst of joyful memories, would have been a better translation. Beautiful daydreams, And the ones yet to be made. The tires dance On bubbling rainwater. There is no sense of potholes beneath, …
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘺 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘞𝘢𝘬𝘦...𝘈 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘮
𝘞𝘈𝘙𝘕𝘐𝘕𝘎~ 𝘔𝘢𝘺 𝘏𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵. 𝘋𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨/𝘌𝘵𝘤 "The unexamined life is not worth living." — Socrates "To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all." — Oscar Wilde "Time is the substance I am made of." — Jorge Luis Borges "Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it." …
a free poem for all. plus voiceover, alternate version, and reflection for paid-subscribers.
regenerative i’ve walked across this field many times since i was a child; each time different than the last. i can feel the difference in the grass— once green and lush, those memories; i held on to so much. over time, the field dried up; but i kept walking until the grass turned to trampled hay beneath my feet. …
Perfect child - Broken adult
Hi, so ok, I never wrote anything besides poetry before but basically I’ve been thinking about this theme a lot and i also see it really accuratly represented in Tv although usually people don’t like it cause its not pretty. So… when you are a child and people take you down you grow up pretty messed up right? You can…
A collaborative poem
the gallery of my life is sizeable so many pieces displayed all true works of art on every wall hangs the embraces of past loves with punishments and promises as the colour palette and each decorated with vows found washed up along the soul-dashed shores the centre of the main hall displays domestic scenes …
'Like a ship in the harbor' & This Poem turns 2
Lullaby for Dark Woods I slept in an old greenhouse, phantoms of small snakes in the walls, ghost of a leaning prickly pear over the bed. I slept beneath a green quilt, my name and year of my birth sewn into the corner, talisman against devils of the dark woods. My mother is long black hair. …
And who we were
Here’s what happens. One day, half the places you used to love don’t exist anymore. The tea shop that had been around forever fell through a crack in the cement. The neighbourhood park closed down to prevent loitering. The trees that withstood even the summer were cut down for a four-lane road. The city…
a poem about sex and sleep.
at night, your presence is my peace and your lips are my hunger. every breath begs for you my goddess of the night you lull me toward a sleep as tender as a summer’s eve. our bodies intertwined. rest and love. cheek against mine you are an act of seduction. your body quells the waves that linger from the day. …
I loved you quietly, Like moonlight loves the sea Always reaching, always touching, Yet never truly seen. I memorized your laughter, Collected every smile, And built a home from fleeting moments That only lasted for a while. You spoke my name so kindly, And my heart mistook the sound For something lasting, …
I keep waiting
This began as a haiku chain where the first line was created by Notes from the Hill (thank you!) It struck something in me I hadn’t realized I had been trying to express. It brought me back to a time during the early stages of motherhood where I suffered post partum depression and had a lot of resentment for family…
GIVE US THE NIGHT How did we come so far Only to have it all go wrong Remember wishing on a falling star When the wind and the rain was ours How could you have left me When I needed you just to survive And that last night by the water With your suicidal dreams Was that all that really mattered How did we come so far …
A poem in 3am and the quiet of being wanted
It was almost three in the morning. I know because I watched the hours go — one, then two, then almost three — the way you watch hours go when you are talking to someone who makes time feel like a thing that happens to other people. And I said — because I meant it, because I was trying to be good, to be considerate, …
I was born of earth,
I was born of earth, steady hands, bare feet planted deep where others would have run. The world called me strong long before I knew strength was not a gift, but something I would carry every day. I gather broken things. Lost children. Wounded hearts. Dreams left abandoned on the side of the road. And somehow, …
fumbling or wtv
it’s easy to pretend I don’t want you when we’re so far I try to forget it, your wide eyes and raised brows maybe I’m a liar and everyone can tell especially when somebody says your name I drop to the floor the grin takes over my face I try to play it cool, not call your phone but I want to hear your voice …
the inability to let death embrace you
Author’s note: firstly, i have only been writing poetry since i was around seventeen, and i am now twenty. What i mean by that, and why i start by evoking this, is because i do not consider myself a sort of poetry genius or the Sylvia Plath of the 21st century — i just let the words, the ones stuck in my throat, bleed…
A poem about you...
This isn’t a poem about you This isn’t a poem about how you were my best friend About how we did everything together Then you grew apart I tried to mend the distance But you only grew further away from me Until we were two strangers Who spent their whole lives together Knowing so much about each other …
an innocent prompt for free form poetry by Fiona Bridges gifted me with this line ‘unable to make a plan’ and the thing just got away from me.
an innocent prompt for free form poetry by Fiona Bridges gifted me with this line ‘unable to make a plan’ and the thing just got away from me. Or through me. Unable to make a plan while the ground refuses to stop shaking everything to pieces and confusion. Outside in the street earth ruptures and cracks yaw …
POV: they tell you you HAVE to write a poem
i have to write a poem that’s what i’m here to do but when it’s said like a task my brain goes blank it’s like a curse, a spell someone cast i am now writting a poem but it’s not the one i should i’m suposed to be writting about a person a specific one i only wish i could my hands are controlling me …
a poem
I don’t want you. I want the me you bring. Inject your electric under my skin. Fill me with words until I overflow. Dripping in rhymes from head to toe. It opens me up to a limitless sky. I look up and drink My tongue never dry. Show me the door to the me I become. Why does you existing make me come undone? …
The Poem of June 13
June 13, a thirsty date So hungry, so helpless How sharp your edge is, June, Yet a twin extinction is the cleaner prize. Nymphs toss their garlands at a wink; Cruel, cruel June— The glad petals fall, They fall, they die. Yet hope remains like an unfinished hymn Though this fate of longing is an absolute curse …
a poem
the hurt i am holding onto is verging on cataclysmic. it has ripped through my rib cage, broken it into bits, and laid them before me like fallen barricades. it has scorned my soul and forged a path of violent destruction deep beneath my bones, between my veins, setting ablaze my raging storm of a heart. 𖦹 …
A poem.
The gods in council gathered, Their crowns to him laid down, Who their own spirits fathered And founded their renown. His is that holy footrest That Cherubim give shade, And his their wingèd footstep, Through all that he has made. The poet now is blinded; The prophet's face is veiled. The one of earth reminded; …
(a poem to ask and answer)
I would use myself to curve a question -mark into the dirt to ask you of— Love, if I were a worm? Would you call my wriggling art? Would you call me beautiful? Would you build me a terrarium of decay with leaves and moss and rocks and apple cores and a daily mist, with the whisper that I’m safe? …
the sky can't shine always
the sky can't shine always it has its dark days where the light feels forced and the blue is just a mask the clouds get tired of pretending nothing hurts of holding too much without letting it show so they let go pouring the rain comforting some souls showing their pain and when the thunder grows loud …
Something a little different for you today. I sometimes like to challenge myself to write about topics in a specific format. One format I especially like is the haiku. You know, that 3-line Japanese poem with the 5-7-5 syllable pattern. As I’ve lived my nomadic life for the past almost 4 years, I’ve occasionally…
When Wisdom Meets Woundedness
As prompts go, this was one that grabbed me and I knew I wanted to write something using all the elements of the image. Thank you Ariadne Pautina for something so thought provoking. I had to delve around a bit first on what direction I wanted to take it, and hence, it is probably a few weeks late, but I am happy with…
We have finished the final edits on this next book of poetry. Looking at one poem at a time is difficult enough since each one is a scene stealing, egotistical swine. Dealing with 131 of them is wild.
Undone A poem, by rights, is a messy thing. It is not a scalpel, although it can feel like one. A collection of them is a bushel of chaos and should be opened carefully lest they catch the wind and fly out of sight. I recommend keeping then in a stout satchel with a smartly closing mouth …
The beginnings of writing poetry seriously
As I said in my previous article I have been writing poems on and off for many years but the experience of incarceration was what gave me a real love of writing poetry as a real, intentional art form, a way of expressing myself in an environment that was anything but expressive. …
The following is intended to be a very small contribution to the important poem “ Syntax ” by Paul Wittenberger, Poet (referenced following my sign-off). Share Nature of Friendship Language begins where light cannot reach. Words form the way minerals precipitate in the deep mantle—under pressures that would annihilate…
A poem of reflection
I am (no pun intended), a member of a 365 Poetry Prompt Challenge group on Facebook. In this group we are given a poetry prompt daily. All the prompt responses are collected and a judging panel votes to select the pieces that will end up collated in an anthology. Each anthology supports a different charity while also…
From page to canvas—where poetry becomes image, and memory becomes movement.
There are moments when a poem refuses to stay on the page. It asks for breath. It asks for color. It asks to become something you can stand in front of and feel looking back at you. She Smiled is one of those moments. Originally written in my book Pure …
Some doors only open when you stop waiting for permission. -- Issue #77
"They kept the key. I watched them turn." There are moments in life when you stop waiting for someone to tell you that you are allowed to leave. Not dramatically, not all at once, but quietly, in the spaces between the control, you begin to see what was always yours. …
My collar still holds the scent of burnt cigarettes. I will always leave behind a trace of ash, even in death, when I am no longer, there to hold you, to soothe your wounds with every exhale. And when the world turns to chaos, I hope you'll remember me. the one who gave you their last cigarette when no one else…
Looking for myself.
I lost myself in the darkness On a moonless night Trying to outrun the pain I stumbled through a dense forest Hands out in the black night Missing from my own life I wandered off into hell Without coherent thought A soul forgotten by God Nobody turned out to search Not knowing I was lost My body performed as usual …
June 11 poem
the water in the barrel the leaves are shades of green to sit outside here in the cold, yes I am quite keen the clouds are gently moving in the sky above the bugs, they come to visit me offering a hug the cars go by the roadside making their sweet sounds please drive safe I urge them, stay above the ground
Poetry prompt and poetry writing experience
Join me in mindfulness as I create poetry when I am inspired in nature. My Voice. Health. Nature. Love. is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. It is a beautiful Thursday morning, and today I felt inspired after doing my morning chores…
An embarrassingly sincere love poem to my bed
I wrote a love poem to my bed today. I’m not saying things have gotten out of hand, but I’m also not saying they haven’t. You are the one place that does not ask for explanations. Your sheets, a quiet tide, pull me under without question, away from the sharp light of morning. I lie in your hollow, …
A Quadra-Haiku
I wrote this for a contest some time ago. I didn’t win a prize. But I won because of having the experience of writing a 4-part haiku. I hope you all enjoy it. :) To be born a breeze, Swept into a new chapter, I settle in peace. Young and heated rage, Sins my father gave me burned, Anger, like hot coals. …
a poem for E.B.
Quite often when I shower I think of my sister cousin (though neither of us are women I still treasure you that way). I remember getting into the shower after hours of swimming in the lake and together, as we washed off we took the time to read the brief, direct instruction that the shampoo bottle said: …
that old song plays inside the mind hum along to it, make your way to it, let it fill your ears with unheard sounds for anyone but you__let yourself go with the rhythm of the winding path that takes you deep down inside to a place you once were where it was peaceful & painless__where it all floated
that old song plays inside the mind hum along to it, make your way to it, let it fill your ears with unheard sounds for anyone but you__let yourself go with the rhythm of the winding path that takes you deep down inside to a place you once were where it was peaceful & painless__where it all floated along on …
maybe I wrote it, but you don't get a poem
I write about all of my loves, but you don’t get a poem. You twisted something sincere, into betrayal, into damaged parts, into a version of me I loathe. I keep wondering why it was you, why did you get to see the cleanest version of my love, while you destroyed everything around me? Why did I love most freely …
A Poem
I still can’t write poems for you After all my poems are griefs and half lies And you should never be part of The darkness that I trade off . You deserve the moon when it’s full Not the fragments I stare every night You deserve a song that’s joyful But my poems only rhyme sadness . So I keep you outside my verses …
This is and isn’t a poem about Schrödinger’s Poem
The dead cat which is still alive can only thrive in the box. If lifting the lid is the best thing you did, it is also quite likely the worst. This poem is full of rhymes, they tend to hide - but also they don’t. Erwin Schrödinger was a complicated man — but then again he wasn’t. But one thing that’s never reported …
This is part two of the three poems written on May 17, 2007. These two short poems as, along with That Name were composed while I was processing a breakup. They were never shared or published. I decided to share them here, translated into English and slightly revised, because I can feel the beauty and the…
A Prompt Poem for Poetry Month 2026
For this year’s poetry month in April the wonderful online literary journal, Epistemic Lit , held a one-sentence poem contest. A one-word prompt was shared online each day and participants posted their entries on social media. I started the month strong, but then had a PSC …
Return of the flâneur
In myn herte and in my thought, this ryver is fro henceforth holden for a god! Driving through the rocks like a war god, wooing the sedges like a love goddess, and rushing along like a messenger god. One god, then, or three? Singular or triumvirate, it’s bloody loud: …
When a dear friend sends you a handwritten poem for your birthday
My birthday was in May, so I’m a bit tardy in sharing this birthday poem inside The Poetry Corner . Honestly, it didn’t even occur to me to share it until very recently. One of those early morning a-ha moments, leaning over my journal and coffee mug. You know the kind. …
guess who’s back with a sad poem? hey you, your name bruised the inside of my mouth today. not out of habit more like a note struck by accident. a wrong chord that kept ringing. it hit me while peeling an orange, the bitter spray across my knuckles, and i swear for a moment, the smell was your skin after rain, …
A poem
Scattered dreams unyielding, sing me back to open gates, harrow me through long corridors dimly lit and verging upon the way which leads unto truth and promise. Slow ruin that consumes me, can you teach these lips a grateful song? A song to sing to the fractured sky and the One who weaves us again to melody. …
BIRTHDAY POEM
endurance is a wicked charmer tracking doom and forfeiture to come to the lily to squat on the hardwood in a bright empty room I never loved you more in a California taxi but snowed in Plovdiv between the Black Sea and Philly I knew you weren’t the one the job is the job it’s harder and harder to make it but I manage …
My muse,
My muse, you are like a bird. You should fly, Far from here, not spend your life Caged in the hands; of a poet who only knows how to turn longing into Endless verse.
For people who wondered why I take so long to reply
Someone published Leonard Cohen’s final words in the newspaper. I was busy searching if he said something about clouds. The clouds were where someone was praying in a very tiny temple. Although I could not attest, I tried making everyone hear when the bells knelled. The mountainhead was wearing a coif of snow. I…
a poem
there are not enough letters, in any alphabet, to distill the essence of you. no vocalization can hope to capture your subtle complexity. words are sounds providing meaning only to the ones who have learned to hold those meanings inside. I tried to etch poetry imbued from the memory of your skin resting on mine. …
a poem
words hiding from me like fish from the hook; the bait is just a sharpened blade blatantly ready to cut up each one and neatly arrange their insides on display for you to gawk at with your bulging, scrutinizing eyes. I dip my hands into water and grasp at drops hoping to take the ocean's wisdom for myself, …
this poem was written for fray narte, my favorite local poet
i am made from a frian poem— a sound of the bones drastically falling apart like an old civilization, a defeat, a surrender to a foreign grief way before the gods were hailed; an elaborated heartbreak prophesized by an oracle. i am her words stitched together— the burnt outlines melting into dreamscapes …
A poem from my forthcoming collection
TO ADD MY SOUND TO THE LARGER SOUND I am done counting, too many calories & seconds wasted & then fretted. How many pounds protrude From the nuclear glow of the scale? How many dollars did I give away To my friend when the city threatened To turn off the gas mid-winter? How many dollars did I throw away …
This isn’t a random poem, this is my birthday poem.
Chocolate truffle cake being celebrated in my extremely sleepy eyes, which were meant to be disturbed only for two reasons: someone rushing to the hospital or I don’t know what else for. The one you don’t see on Instagram stories, because I don’t post one. I don’t want you to remember my birthday, …
poem
i wrote all these poems so i can stop thinking about you what’s even the point though when all i do is write them about you i wish you could find yourself then finally, you’ll be able to find me. and i’ll be waiting right here with open arms. my heart wants what it wants and i want you …
A language inherited before it was understood...
What happens when two poets don’t understand each other’s poems? A military man, shaped by law and order, with the strength to carry the world and never break, laying his heart on paper. A girl, shaped by a poem she could never understand, written in a way that covered the complexities of a life …
A Celebration of the three milestones, not necessarily in that order.
IT’S BRAND NEW: WELCOME TO THE INAUGARATION OF THE POETRY SECTION OF MY SUBSTACK PAGE I have been writing poetry for as long as I can remember. My poems are easy to read, do not follow formal poetry conventions, and almost never rhyme. Oftentimes, poems write me. This happens especially with experiences that are…
This is a sister poem to the last one I posted, When Childhood Dreams Still Came True. I want to post it now as an accompaniment to the first poem.
Dedicated to Brayden, My Nephew, Who Has Never Seen This Place Will you take me with you? I want to feel the beat of your heart when you know the kiln for the first time. I want to see the expression in your eyes when your glance becomes something else. Something more. …
my poetry was once all about the sun, warmth and light and pleasant fun. then i learned what it was you had done, and why i always wished I could run. my poetry reeks of your actions now; i cry inside as i take a bow. they don’t understand what i really write about. and they don’t care to find out. …
Five Short Poems
{Introduction} This is my eighth collection of short poems, and I’m glad this has become a regular feature of my account that people seem to enjoy, because I enjoy it too. I probably should have released this article yesterday, but I was hoping some new ideas for poems would grace me before then, but they did not, so…
A poem based off of Tuesday's prompt!
My process This week, I decided to try writing sonnets. And, honestly, as a person who shies well away from rhyme or repeating rhythm, it was fun! I even wrote a few stanzas here and there that I liked. It can be very freeing to limit yourself. …
small wound #57
First Act: colorless.music Second Act: colorless.poetry Poem by Kasu (small wounds) , Voiceover by Sam’s Spaghetti Colorless Sub Kasu Sub Kasu She doesn’t want to cry she doesn’t want to dim her light She wants to come undone She doesn’t want to swallow her words She is tired of silence She doesn’t want to wait to beg …
Em muốn làm mẹ đứa con được tạo thành chỉ từ hai đứa mình, em, nàng: không mượn giống người đàn ông nào cả.
Sự thể với em là vậy: mãnh liệt đến nỗi, em muốn lấy trứng trong dạ nàng và nuôi nấng nó trong dạ mình. Em muốn làm mẹ đứa con được tạo thành chỉ từ hai đứa mình, em, nàng: không mượn giống người đàn ông nào cả. Em muốn xoay vần ma trận của tạo hoá, tạo ra một con người từ tình yêu con người chảy trôi giữa cơ thể …
A poem about the time I when I believed that I didn't deserve love
I told myself many times That I would never fall in love again. Locked my heart in a box, Sealed it with a metal lock, Wrapped it with heavy chains, And threw it into the ocean— To sink to the bottom, Never to be found again. But every single time, Someone shows up, Rocks my world, …
Full disclosure, there may have been a new kind of gummy tried last night which may have resulted in this bizarro thang. Editing it the next day was trip of its own. A nod to Coleridge.
Poetry, Poetry Everywhere Everything has been compared to everything else already. I have nothing more to add but then the periscope goes up just for a quick reconnaissance and there seems to be no end to the things that must be said. I might not see much in my hurried, limited view …
A white expanse— Mountains slumber and snore, Sending snowflakes careening Through air, looking to be Caught and meditated upon For their beauty by a child, Or their fractal symmetry By a mathematician. Mont Blanc clears its throat And coughs up a blizzard— He acts asleep, But I know this is a defiant ‘Get off!’. …
A short poem about the foolishness of falling
Don't say I'm not foolish because we both know I am. I've been foolish. since the day I agreed to take a picture with him. I've been foolish. since the day I stayed up into the early morning just because he was so interesting. I've been foolish. since the moment we shared our art I've been foolish. …
Poem for my fiancée
The sea and the wind have known each other for a while now. I overheard their conversation Tuesday night. They spoke of us. How it’s been a while …if ever… That someone looked at someone The way I look at you. “I truly get it,” said the wind. “Look at the way she smiles.” “How lucky he must feel,” replied the sea, …
Recent Poetry Snippets!
G’day, my Quiet Poets! I’ve mentioned recently that I’ve struggled to write longer poems of late, yet these little snippets keep distracting me from the dullness of the day. For those outside Australia, Melbourne is miserable this time of year—grey and wet. Although we’re a fairly green city, the cement seems to…
Night doesn’t call When I look out the windowIt’s leaking onto the building, The trees, the parking lot, A cat I didn’t notice the timeI just want to flick The light back on Before you walk to your car So I can say somethingThat would shatter me Into a mosaic
That would shatter me Into a mosaic Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published The night turns into dust It’s been all over my hands, Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published My bag, my car— It’s in my head …
a poem that I've been waiting to write for a very long time
I love your curls and your ocean blue eyes you're something new, but you're so perfect I'll love you forever, and ever i'll never leave you, never December till now, till forever you're mine, and I am yours every thought involves you, you're my first thought and my last my sweet promise …
A poem
First appeared in the February 8, 2021 issue of The New Yorker and is included in the collection American Melancholy . Edited and arranged by Robert Friedman in which the poet discovers delicate white-parched bones of a small creature on a Great Lake shore or the desiccated remains of cruder road-kill …
"my poems are just poems" I say as if I didn’t shed a tear as if the tears didn’t blur the ink as if every line didn’t hold my heart those weren't lines written down randomly not words chasing for rhyme alone but feelings finding their meaning never believe me when I repeat "my poems are just poems" …
An imaginative love poem.
For she, Hand drawn love letters mirroring Arabic Calligraphy, Stamped with hibiscus leaves that produce red ink. The way how amphetamine triggers seratonin once ingested, Is the way how she triggers my intrigue. Like vinyasa or reformer pilates, she stretches my imagination. …
A cathartic poem
So weary of this heaviness in my chest The longing, the waiting, the time that I invest The watching, the hoping, a mind that cannot rest Internal battles raging, a useless, bloody quest I cannot bear the mirror, those eyes, they are my foe Convicting me of weakness, self-loathing starts to grow …
Once upon a time, as I was traveling from here to there with my notebook and pen, I came upon a group of itinerant words, gathered around a fire and arguing furiously about where they wanted to go and who they wanted to be. Not wanting to intrude, I hid myself behind a large rock, black as an inkwell, and listened to…
a slam poem
it’s getting bad again. the kind of bad that sits in the back of your throat, thick and quiet, waiting for the sun to go down. i can’t even drink anymore without my mind taking a sharp left turn into that dark place. that familiar, jagged-edge space where every little inconvenience, …
a poem just to write
Once, when I was young and still so full of stars a well-known writer told me: "I write because I must, not out of desire or love of the craft." And I hated it for it. Resented him for it. Held it against him for years up to this very day. But also, now I get it to a degree. I feel the need, and I feel the loathing …
Thank you so much, fellow reading fan. I appreciate you checking out my new piece. This poem was inspired by Emily Dickinson. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below! I look forward to reading them! And don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a post! She leans where daylight breaks in two, …
A chemo pole, a journal, and a bolt of inspiration.
Exactly nine years ago I was one day into my second round of inpatient chemo. Hooked up, looking rough, and not exactly feeling like the picture of inspiration. But Mary Lou had given me a journal called Goal Getter, and every day had a quote. That day’s quote elevated me in an unexpected way and immediately inspired…
A poem on self-destruction in exchange for company.
Don’t we all, at least once, sell ourselves to the fickle and burdensome prospect of being loved? I am sure that many of you— many such as I —have lamented endless decisions and acts of love done in an effort to make a beloved stay. Here’s to us all. Poem text. Arteries hollowed and lain, marrows to burrow within, …
—
I say glow but what I mean is— come here, wreck me with your smile, and make my body reach for you. I say soft but what I mean is— unwrap me like a present, then use all the force necessary to claim me. I say love but what I mean is— kiss me gently, then make me forget the sound of my own name. nina.— so?
a poem on the intimacy of having a crush only you know about
you talk to me i listen with sparkles in my eyes while you talk, i brush my arm against yours, hoping you won’t notice i can’t help but stare into your eyes searching something i don’t even understand if you say something funny i laugh and put my hand on your shoulder for a little longer than usual when we dance, …
A poem
Unveil for me the coal black night, its seams of stars all ripping. Let light pour through wound and rend within the ancient synapses of my mind. May the ground open below these mountain peaks, stones to crumble to fire, to smoke, and gold molten out of cave and tomb shall crown again the cloud scarred sky. …
based on lyrics
In my creative writing class in my senior year, my teacher said, “If you’re ever stuck writing a poem, start with a lyric from your favorite song…just make sure to give them credit.” Well, I am stuck, and my brain is a mess, so I will be doing that for y’all today. Enjoy. ♡ “ Put me in a box Tell me who I am …
A Poem About When I Die
Do you ever think about death, I was asked. Like it was something terrible, something to fear, Like I was only allowed to think about it on “bad” days. As if the thought alone meant I wasn’t okay. Who are you kidding? Of course, I think about when I’ll die, more than I’d like to admit, because I think about all the…
For returns & realizations: Dizzy at dawn you are a broken reliquary your little sticks bones all over the floor. Isn’t it awfully amazing how much more of life is left? You eat of the moon of many bright beads of the wind which carries love-particles of pear blossoms …
a poem on becoming aware of time
I’ve felt particularly drawn to Sonnets and rhyme schemes and reflecting on the past lately. Maybe it’s because spring is bleeding into summer. It’s the time of year again when the days stretch further, when 8 pm rolls around and sunlight is still lingering for one last conversation. I love it when the day sticks. And…
A sensual poem about the climax of sex.
This mountainous love that’s grown to be my addiction has always seemed to lead me down the valley of your thighs. In the depths of that valley, I find the light of the universe and on my lips I taste the sweetness of an apple’s fallen grace. In the folds of our sheets, we find ourselves enmeshed; …
Wisdom of Wendell Berry
Wendell Berry’s “How to Be a Poet” is very meta. It’s a poem about writing poems. It’s also a poem about attention and how to quiet the machinery of ambition, resist the fever of abstraction, and return to the given world with reverence. Berry is plainspoken and profound. He asks the would-be poet, who is also…
It is just my fault..
It is just my fault.. A short poem.. Subscribe How many times can a person rewrite a memory before they become the villain of their own story? To me, the one who stood at the edge of life, I was not dead yet, and so I felt sorry. It was not the time I invested in them, nor the work I spent. …
A glossary on longing
Poetry can be defined as a form of literary art that uses the aesthetic, rhythmic and musical qualities of language to evoke deep emotional responses, imaginative awareness or complex ideas. While Hassan agreed with that, he thought it missed a lot of details. …
***** Recorded Reading (1:17): https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fumi4pudz4wx15ofkg2e7/Touched-by-Poetry.mp3?rlkey=laj1jlj85gug7fjhxvym4ss9v&st=md1bnloo&dl=0 ***** Touched by Poetry . Some of the plainest people That you will ever see Live lives most beautifully blessed By a few lines of poetry . …
A rugby poem.
Welcoming Committee The Song of the Fly-half Saturday’s a rugby day, They all proclaimed with glee. The whistle blew, they kicked away, The ball came straight to me. I wish I had a lemonade And was sitting by the pool. Instead I caught a hand grenade, Was trampled by a mule. O props will eat all day and night …
This is my first song. Some things live in you for years before they find their final form. This song started as a poem I wrote many years ago during a hard season in my marriage. Maybe down the road I will share the story behind its creation, for now it is open for interpretation, so that you may find your own story…
Why write a poem everyday?
Dear child, it’s a gift to not know how the world works. Your shoulders have carried me for eight thousand years. Bill Stafford wrote a poem every day. Then, after he died, Robert Bly took that over from him. Then I picked up the habit from Bly. …
a poem
in case I think of wanting you again though it’s all I think about now remind me that you used to not look at me for days let me stare at your spine pull my heart out like a cavity kiss my wrists then never pick up the phone lay in her bed, dreaming of me I walked home crying in the cold …
because at what point do long conversations become feelings?
I don’t even know when we became close honestly. One minute he was just somebody I noticed sometimes, and then suddenly he was part of my day. Like somehow we always ended up talking, always ended up near each other, always finding something to laugh about. And it never felt forced . That’s probably what got me. …
la poema de la luna
The Moon had had Enough the wind sniveled in breezes thru the palms like fingernails across the early morning soundscapes as the moon danced drunkenly downward, bobbling on the lost horizon of smoke from burnt out dreams that may never return but they will always be the throat …
inspired by Kelly Trost and her poem ‘The Only Poem’ Kelly Trost THE ONLY POEM I asked myself once, ‘How did you write this? ‘I followed the words,’ I answered. ‘Where did they take you?’ ‘They did not take me somewhere, they led me into the heart of this poem.’ ‘And what did you find at the heart of the poem?’ ‘I…
A Poem on the Emptiness of One's Mind
************************************************************************************ Pink Prison Pink are the walls which entrap me. They withhold my freedom within its bounds. Bleak shades of crimson, how they taunt laughter that cuts like clippers to a thorn; my rose bare without the prick “Release me!” I plead. …
A poem of love carried across time and distance by dreams
In Dreams is my latest poem I am pleased to present it to you. This is one of many that I have written at three in the morning because I couldn’t sleep. Everything in that space just feels too real. And then a memory of this person came to me. …
That's the art of poetry.
Madness wants to overtake me Waiting in the dusty road Dreams died in this place Arid and stripped of beauty The devil rides my back Whispering warm breath In the shell of my ear When the skin peels away Blood blooms in flowers On the cracked, dry gravel Giving life to the unconscious It spouts from the dead …
Here’s us, right now, building the poem you didn’t know you were missing the one that’s been circling your chest like a moth at 3 a.m. quiet, patient, finally allowed inside. Share It doesn’t rhyme on command. It’s more like the sound your keys make when you finally find them in the dark …
Richard Crashaw and Robert Frost shaking hands
Fifteen holes for a fence At ten feet spread for every head. The ground was stiff and tense, But we were fresh, and so I said, "Two days of work, or three, I think, We'll end before the moon can wink." So we began to dig With digging irons, spades, and lines, No simple drilling rig, …
From The Muse Jar: On loving someone so much you ache with them
I watch you move through the world like someone carrying water in cupped hands so careful as if one wrong step might spill everything you have spent your whole life trying not to lose I think about them sometimes the younger you and my heart turns animal with grief the you who did not know how much they would have …
a poem
there are thoughts in the water i need to catch them— no. drown in them. no. i need to get away. i’m afraid they’ll spiral down the drain with the rest of me; if i don’t paint with them they’ll condense, they will evaporate. i’m afraid to step out and leave pieces of me behind. i’m afraid of every threshold i cross; …
A collaborative poem
you came like breath on cold glass gone before I could name you a soft lie of presence dressed as forever why do good things slip away? cursory as the first ray of morning light leaving nothing but a lingering aftertaste of nostalgia behind I remember cradling you always holding onto the promise of tomorrow …
𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟, 𝐼 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 💗
𝑆𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟, 𝐼 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑢𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 💗 We walk beneath a sky too wide for coincidence, your hand finding mine “𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒚,” you say softly. “𝑰’𝒎 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕… 𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒛𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔,” I reply, and you smile like you understand more than I said. A sudden wind lifts a few petals …
Iris - Poem nr. 3
Welcome back to Flourish Poetry Club - Poetry paired with flower photography by yours truly.. This week I'm finally sharing a poem I wrote a few weeks ago, one I'd been sitting on because iris are surprisingly hard to come by where I live, only available through special order at my local flower shops. So yesterday I…
I used AI to turn one of my poems into a song. Here’s how the song "Never Enough" turned out. (#6 Sunday Reflection)
I enjoy writing poems, and sometimes I share them here too. Over the past few weeks, I have been inspired to turn some of them into songs with the help of AI. I used Suno to make the songs, and it’s such a handy tool for this kind of thing. Editing and fine tuning the songs afterwards is not so handy though… …
Written by Sparrow. Bio in post!
Bio: I‘m 17 year old writer. I’ve been writing since I was 13. I have a Pinterest account with the account of crystallineconvert named sparrow. I love writing and I love stories. A poem I want to write a beautiful poem. To write a poem I have to go to a quiet place Give life to my words …
Poem 2
This is Poem 2 of a poetry collection. The final count will be between eighteen and twenty-two poems, depending on which ones earn their place by the end. Each poem will be accompanied, two days after it drops, by the drafts that preceded it. …
A poem.
Spirit of fire and of wind, Blow through my heart again. Kindle in me what you send, ‘gainst storm and tempest do me fend. Let not then that flame grow dim, Nor flare and rage as full of sin. Quench my heart and fill my cup; At thy table, let me sup. …
what if it finally found you?
i send my words like a message in a bottle, tossed into the endless blue, each one drifts where the waves will throttle, but none of them reaches you. i write until the silence grows my voice trapped on an empty page i send my poems where no one goes they vanish quietly, stage by stage sometimes i wonder if you feel, …
A poem that I wrote around two years ago
The Moon Of My Sky Her pretty little smiles, and the sparkle in her eyes. Every time she looked, I'd be reminded of everything it took, for me not to hold her when we first met. Someone so precious to have existed in my life— shouldn't it be a sin to watch her die? Alone in her grave, lying as if she were asleep. …
a poem im sorry im dramatic
what curse am i under where i can’t think, of anything, but your words how can i think so much of someone who appeared and vanished so fast you cut deep, maybe too deep now your words, are in my blood they run through my veins i feel them intensely, i think of them immensely, is this how i must reach you now? …
It is the way of all things, I can appreciate that now. Someday, without realizing it, someone will write their last poem. And it won’t be merely their last poem, but the last poem— a final verse from a cursed humanity with no one left alive to read it. A few rhymes scrawled across some papers …
A mother's day poem, plus two more poems and a book-heavy Sharing is Caring
Happy belated Mother's Day to my mum, my mother-in-law and all the other mums who read my little newsletter! What a wild and wonderful journey motherhood is! Motherhood has been my biggest artistic inspiration and I think half (or more!) of my poems are about the different experiences in motherhood. I truly pray that…
A companion poem to Never in Daylight, from Miri’s perspective.
A small companion piece to Never in Daylight , written from Miri’s perspective. If you haven’t read that piece, you can here . In the quiet of night, I learn how to breathe alone. Your name gathers in me like a love I was never meant to hold. I watch you from the edge of a dream— so near and still impossibly far. …
a poem
I fear I shall run madly Not from myself but from this thing that is within me Oh, I cannot be contained by these walls in me And yet I am and cannot escape them or the Burning indigo torrent that sits here The deaths around and shockéd violet fear There are eyes, all around but from within, that leer …
A conversation with my son reminded me that some parts of ourselves never truly leave us.
There are moments in life that arrive quietly but leave a lasting echo. This poem was born from one of those moments — a conversation with my son that forced me to confront the distance between who I am and the parts of myself I unintentionally placed on pause. …
Whittle me down just for fun… A short poem… Subscribe I loved you more than moonlight loves the sun, like restless winds that teach the flowers how to run. We wished upon the falling stars above, while cherry blossoms fell like quiet acts of love. Last night’s dream felt far too real to fade, …
Mirror Roles Poetry Prompt
There was a poet who kept returning to the wound because it was familiar terrain. She wrote herself as ashes, as storms, as abandoned houses, as women waiting at windows for footsteps that never came. And I, the poem, grew tired of watching her confuse suffering for depth. So if I could revise her, …
First poem, unfinished poem, a poem filled with mistakes A flowing poem, a speaking poem, a poem that suffers pain and loss A poem in the clouds, a poem upon the clouds, a poem in the sky, and within that same poem, the earlier poem of clouds again And all these lines, the poem of this very line A shore poem, …
Go and forget me? A poem that means too much to me.
English version: Will you leave again? Go and forget me? In your absence, sorrows fill me up, And I go back to weeping, Complaining to my walls, Remaining imprisoned inside a time gone by. My tears fall, Against my will. My heart beats louder and louder. My hope is broken, My dream is murdered, …
The lessons life teach us are through time alone ⏳
There are some lessons, No map could ever show Some truths the heart must wander through, Before the heart can know You were not late to wisdom, Nor foolish, blind, or weak - You simply could not hear the things, That only time can speak Because becoming takes its toll, And growing asks its price …
Erotic Poetry
Last night, before my head rested. My thoughts of you circulated like smoke in the bedroom light, thoughts that levelled up my arousal like a ball thrown into the water, bobbing back up to the surface, floating till claimed. And I floated the whole damn night, the same, adrift on the still waters of your words. …
I don't want to buy with you the boardwalk sideshows claiming attention.
I don't want to buy with you the boardwalk sideshows claiming attention. I don't want to stop at the man holding payouts in turf patches laying claim to our sight. I want this yellow hollow core to seal itself tight like a beetle encased in plastic will eventually suffocate. The husk is not my concern. …
A Poem
Infinitely I decide, what do I with all this mind and not a soul who’ll understand the language spoken when you’re mad. Mad in love, mad on paper, mad enough to see you later, mad as such, mind forsaken, mad as too much Monday cratered, but knowing I don’t have to think and worry what is in this drink …
Sometimes the door you were afraid to close is the very one that was keeping you from yourself. -- Issue #73
"And in that silence, soft and true, I found the strength to walk from you." There are moments in life when you realise that a door you have been standing at for too long was never meant to stay open. Not because the person on the other side was entirely without worth. But because something in you had grown too large…
I have returned to poet gathering. Let me hear your stanzas, your phrases, your pauses between lines. I am once again listening. And I already love what I hear.
I gathered you to me, those bells in your voice, your knells echoed through me, my music of choice. Each poem, a treasure, so sweet and so fair, a blessing, a pleasure, a song or a prayer. Then mute fell the song of your lyrical muse, and, oh, how I longed to believe and to choose to answer your call …
dilo tsa bati
they say poets are born in the spaces between disaster and desire, that no one writes honestly with a steady heartbeat, that art only crawls out of the body when something inside it is dying. maybe that is why my hands only tremble toward the page when you touch me gently …
How borrowed pain became poetry, and wounds learned the language of healing.
I’m holding again the pain that never belonged to me. It was always yours. But the Lord gave me a heart that feels too deeply, so I chose to turn sorrow into poetry. Maybe beautiful. Maybe bitter. Maybe truth. Maybe only the raw shape of me. I hear the little birds singing, and in their trembling notes …
A monologue about the love that passed through you without ever becoming yours
I should not have confused you with a promise. That was my mistake. I saw you sitting across from the fire, with the laces of your boots half tied, with your hair over your face, with that quietness people have when they have already left before they even stand up. And I thought your quietness was asking for someone…
This poem traveled a long long way to reach you
INSTRUCTION MANUAL FOR READING THIS POEM In a fit of frustration, I tossed this poem out of my window. It clanged against a crushed soda can and lay glinting in the grass. Like a coin. Like a wide gleaming eye in the light of May. A little girl on a bicycle picked it up. She dropped into the pink basket of her…
Erotic Poetry
Each, turn of the page the prose grazes me. A friction to my skin as felt as a 5’o’clock shadow that give’s a rough kiss quality. Grating like gravel underfoot you ground me, like hard fucking, when lovers are present not sex anymore - more raw animal and spirit not romance either, …
Let me carry these poems into my grave, if you could never be mine, then let the echo of you I carved into words Where the ink lies still, stained with blood, be buried with me.
𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒃𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒉𝒚𝒎𝒆 I become poet in your love Wishing to speak what my ink dreamed of. In the orchards of my heart It feels like you are the rose Blooming softly, where the wind blows. Your fragrance lingers , sweet and rare, Painting love’s hue upon the air. For every petal, every sigh, You …
A bad poem is still a poem.
I don’t write poetry often but I do find poetry in the routine— I prepare oatmeal every morning, brew coffee, just a splash of cream. Apply lipstick. Curl my hair. I kiss my dog goodbye and say, See you later, papa. Carry a book in my purse. I know I won’t read it. Overthink. Sit in traffic. Kiss my lover goodnight. …
they need it
Pray for poets, poor old souls, Who trip on sticks and fall in holes, Who task themselves impossibly To fasten clouds to paper trees, So grandiose, they die for words But when they're read, they blush as birds, Who slave to solve infinity With letters less than thirty-three (Inflicted with eternity), …
A poem of letters finding their way home
Words do not come quietly. They come aching, tangled, and loud, until finally, they find their way to each other. The Lyrical Land, a Poem: Writer’s voice is fierce, Letters screaming to be laced, And words longing to be entwined. The moment they find their footing, They play hide and seek — …
TW: mention of different types of abuse.
My offer for Sunday photo promt You started speaking through me before I had the language to refuse it, a shadow stitched with blood from other people’s mouths, dragging behind me against the bluest hour, thick with everything they decided I was. Sixteen, grief already hollowing me out, …
A collection of love poems
A free subscription is all you need to read everything. If you pay, that money gets reinvested here, supporting other Substack writers. I wrote these three poems separately a few years ago and recently spent time revising them, coaxing them forward. In that process, they found each other, the way lovers do — stumbling…
A few of you may have noticed I've been absent from Substack for awhile. I apologize if any of my readers and friends have felt neglected. But I will return as soon as I can. I miss you!
I gathered you to me, those bells in your voice, your knells echoed through me, my music of choice. Each poem, a treasure, so sweet and so fair, a blessing, a pleasure, a song or a prayer. Then mute fell the song of your lyrical muse, and, oh, how I longed to believe and to choose to answer your call …
Every poet I’ve read Wrote their last poem Without knowing it They might have had a suspicion But they didn’t hear The window slamming shut In the back of their apartment either It wasn’t supposed to storm Until tomorrow afternoon, they all said When they saw it closed It was over, just like that One beer …
A poem...
Tomorrow you will have a poem as the sun illuminates the trees and the bowl of soil holding tender the firm you will receive words enough to pull you through. It will chitter happy nothings as you rise from the cavern of sheets. It will make sure your coffee is ready which will be enough. …
I’ve been walking around with my skin too thin So the smallest wind makes me jump And everyone thinks I’m fragile But they don’t see the parts I’ve kept quiet I learned early that saying what you feel is like holding a knife and a flower at the same time petals brushing your eyes Thorns cutting your mind …
Silence came,
Silence came, I feared she would. Sheltering From this torrent of words And cheap talk, Grinding old gears. The very noise of it, The chalk screech of it. Then her knock This mistress of healers This mother of the night, Her smooth hand Slipped into mine And my being Felt tremors of her calm. ———// Hush, hush my love, …
I am the half of man—
I am the half of man— pale orange lanterns their light gushing through smoke— that feigning compassion waning that striving of eyes consumptive— blue ceramic steaming in my hand— a campfire in my loins keeps many generations warm Subscribe for Free Daily Poetry.
The news numbs my fingers.
The news numbs my fingers. I drop my sandwich on my blood spinning afternoon walk and stain the redwood with disgust. On the riverbed floats a wooden shed with the cellar door wide open. I close it. The xylophone in the sky is stupefied by your love spitting revolver avenging Austinites, Splitting xenophobic rhetoric …
I recognize My mother’s knees When I stare in the mirror When I lounge on the couch When I wear a nice dress Her eyes In the photograph My lover took Wondering if she Sees the same When she gets dressed Every morning And hates her eyes and hates her knees Just like me I am the motherless daughter of
I recognize My mother’s knees When I stare in the mirror When I lounge on the couch When I wear a nice dress Her eyes In the photograph My lover took Wondering if she Sees the same When she gets dressed Every morning And hates her eyes and hates her knees Just like me …
Poem #109
The scattered notes strike the walls, imitating the drops of a rain that has just begun. And a cloud resting on a martini coupe — I do not know how it will answer, how it will sing. Whatever motif I wish to write, I wait, so this song will not tear the soft strings apart. Be my brightness, O earth. …
poetry
I’m Only Sleeping The poet writes Before you can sleep you have to pretend you’re sleeping first. Just as the boys are flapping their limbs in an Oscar bid before rolling to a full stop from blasts of water shots to the groin, head and heart. Not to be undone, the terrier Jack flops in the mud on his back …
The Trio: Bence Ádók, Luciana Moroianu, and Rasmus Rosenkrantz
There are some pieces on substack that are not mean for substack. Despite our best intentions, the medium of substack gets the final say. It’s nothing conspiratorial, it’s just media theory. Baseball for example, is a game for the radio. Hockey, is a game for TV. …
My greatest enemy does not lurk in graveyards or wait beneath the moon. It lives within the house of my mind, wandering candlelit corridors, trailing shadows through every room. It knows where the old wounds are buried. It knows which memories still ache when touched. It speaks in familiar voices, w
My greatest enemy does not lurk in graveyards or wait beneath the moon. It lives within the house of my mind, wandering candlelit corridors, trailing shadows through every room. It knows where the old wounds are buried. It knows which memories still ache when touched. It speaks in familiar voices, …
A Poem
The Horn Answers ...so lock your horns with roiling fiends of the deep, And tiptoe lightly through the gates of sleep, Every return is a false turn you’ve taken, As every feigned love is a lover forsaken. Spent too long chasing the red ribbon cape, Snorting and bluffing the illusory shape, …
We still have / that innate fear
As humans We still have that innate fear A survival instinct to continue To be comfortable To seek out the powerful To seek out our protector To stand up for us To say in defiant projection “It will be alright” “I am here for you” We still have that innate delusion As humans By: Trevor Kuether Share …
Fly Them.
Suttree is by far Cormac McCarthy’s most underrated novel, and you could easily argue that it is his best novel. I put it face to face with The Crossing (my favourite novel of all time) and it holds equal weight in most areas, less in some, but even more in others. This is McCarthy’s most literary novel, containing…
From Series #054 the quiet order of @man of aran’s world meets the electronic wiring of new writer @Teàrlach shifting from the sensory disruption of stillness to the updating system of memory
still life with miniature Zen garden (and a line from William Carlos Williams) the grapes are almost gone the strawberries too I’m afraid both delicious so sweet & so cold if you’ll not mind I’m about to slice a wedge from the last lemon and squeeze a few drops with a dash of zest onto the mosses in the rock garden …
(Redux)
Beginning at the top—where this old ring master opens wide his kerbs like arms inviting you to take the part-uncoiled helter-skelter of his half-a-mile— I felt this pull and crossed the darkened threshold. The truth is that I hoped your parents’ place was still along the bank of terraced houses …
Poem
This is the ever nascent now. I am losing the ability to sit inside the previous, the perilous, the before. The ability to bring it to here. In the before world— you must understand the delicate triangular touch of every satisfied slander. So I learn how to use my obedient shadow. I send it elliptically …
Urmuz's Absurd Prose in Translation
The Fuchsiad (Fuchsiada) Yesterday we discovered how to How to destroy the logic bros with lucidly worked buffoonery and with the help of our little avant-garde precursor, Urmuz, today we will read his longest piece, The Fuchsiad (Fuchsiada), yes, the Iliad + Fuchs, which I have translated for you. …
white beads and great stones
Women painted birds on a chain of white beads. A queen of feathers feasted by great stones. Above her, swallows circled, writing their scriptures upon the sky. Dearest daughter, prevail. For every wing that rises testifies to the wind, and every living thing to the hand that formed it. ……. …
some poems to whisper in the dark
I. spring blossoms ~tremble~ like paper (boats) on my tongue nude, unaware II. flowing flush through jade streams the stern of your skin yawns— blind among the sturgeon III. your thin gold chain bound up in wish memories reaches for the links IV. the skin box glows dim within glass, the taste of deceit …
Upon learning David Hockney passed away
Upon learning David Hockney passed away I am reminded I am 49, this year, and all that truly matters in life is love and art. And perhaps our cat, Lowry. The rest of my existence will be spanning time between the two. I befriended a dragonfly today, and Elon Musk became a trillionaire. Share …
Poem - An owl was our witness. Darkness was our friend. Love was already passing us by. Cold skin. A warm kiss. We thought we knew more than the moon and the stars.
An owl was our witness. Darkness was our friend. Love was already passing us by. Cold skin. A warm kiss. We thought we knew more than the moon and the stars. The owl made no sound. We wore poetry instead of clothes, and called it forever. Beside the mountain stream our old hearts drifted away, swirling like leaves …
A Defense
My room is messy. It always has been. I mean always. God must have made it that way. It's no big deal. There are beer cans, but at least they are empty. There is no half eaten food lying around. I can always find the things I need. I would never leave something in a pile on the floor to get ruined destroyed …
I.
i took you home to see all of my old things in the place i once lived and i told you i used to be beautiful. i woke up and made coffee and you stood there in the kitchen all new and alive and my blood stirred beneath skin and i wanted you to see me naked. i wanted my insides splayed out so that you could see the…
I thought my poems were safe resting peacefully in the sand next to me while I drank an Aperol spritz, and bathed in the sun.
I thought my poems were safe resting peacefully in the sand next to me while I drank an Aperol spritz, and bathed in the sun. But cunning waves crept closer and carried my poems out to sea. Bound for the Atlantic, sailing across the Tyrrhenian. As they sailed away, I envied my poems, course charted …
a paraphrase
I have tried to keep from sin— a muzzle on my mouth has been… I have tried to hold my tongue while the wicked were around; I was silent, I was still— I held my peace to no avail. My distress grew worse and worse, my heart so hot it nearly burst; while I mused the fire burned, until to you in prayer I turned. …
Echo When you’re not here, I clap my hands on occasion and listen as the sound dilates into a deeper drumming, and when it returns, I imagine it’s the patter of footsteps of you or our daughters descending the stair. And when you three return to me, you better believe you’ll return to applause.
Echo When you’re not here, I clap my hands on occasion and listen as the sound dilates into a deeper drumming, and when it returns, I imagine it’s the patter of footsteps of you or our daughters descending the stair. And when you three return to me, you better believe you’ll return to applause.
But just two lines....
Today I want to break down Frank O’Hara’s famous poem “Steps.” This is a bite-sized editorial to introduce ideas rather than to deep dive. Some poets will balk at the idea of a scansion breakdown of a free verse poem. Hold my beer. We will largely just focus on the first two lines of the poem. First, read the poem: …
for the living
Last night you left me again and I know it’s just a dream, but my body doesn’t give a damn. My body is an old clerk with ink-stained fingers stamping RETURNED. RETURNED. Your family’s restaurant burned. Florida pulled you like a siren. Your kids hurt, and there’s nothing to do with that except carry it. …
keep history alive
eraser crumbs falling like snow petals missing history ——————————— Ecocide why flowers don’t bloom rounding up white phosphorus rounding down glyphosate decimation burns down to bone white smoke screens silent Spring stays olive trees citrus and banana livestock bee upon bee upon bee …
A soft paid-room ramble on the tiny love stuff that makes tomorrow feel less empty.
After writing You Are the Reason Tomorrow Feels Real , this one line kept sitting there and looking at me. You are the reason my future stopped looking like an empty hallway. And I was like… oh no. That’s the one. That’s the little troublemaker.
it’s supposed to be fun
it’s supposed to be fun this thing called living it’s supposed to be thrills and excitement and winning, giving every moment our full attention, our entire spirit… there are games to play, and conversations to light up your day… there are people to love and help and hold… I don’t want to dwell …
I am fine,
I am fine, Genuinely. I have learnt how to navigate life without your palm in mine. I am healthy And prosperous. I am fine I have learnt to move forward without your map And learnt to look forward to a ceremony you won’t be at. I am fine Truly, … Just don’t show up at my wedding … …
For everyone sitting on the floor next to the spill.
Life has been terrifying lately. Not in a trying-skydiving way. But in the way you spill water on the floor, and sit there, numb, watching your own reflection in it. It might be a reflection of the physical body, but all I could see were metaphysical layers of a person who is exhausted. By the world, the people, the…
Hell's heavy feathers of steel open wings to weigh heaven
Conquest of A Marble Dream - a ghazal in three parts Introduction: Here lies our three ghazals as one, the trinity of instinct, memory and dreaming. We laboured for four months to bring you this collaborative braided poem. The first strand, led by our conqueror-in-chief Bence Adok, draws its instinctual fire from Max…
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…
World Cup Iniciation
World Cup about to initiate my city everyone green clad homogenized I've locked doors hiding anchorite mad maniacal scribe diagrams sprawl connecting : !¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯! |the last remaining ritual---- | | --- but to which God? --hoots Baal | |-----------football----------------------- | | ---soccer-- …
AN EKPHRASTIC POEM FOR FOUR-LEGGED JOY / AN ODE TO THE SPOTTED DOG
MIRROR / IMAGE — a series dedicated to ekphrastic poetry inspired by the Buddhist practice of kan nenbutsu , a practice in which a follower will meditate on and through the image of the Buddha (or fantastic renderings of him). Today’s devotion was inspired by Rasmus Rosenkrantz ’s recent poem To Amuse the Dog …
I string my woes
I string my woes like pearls and stones. Maybe you can wear them when you’re far, far from home. My head hangs low, I drag my heart. Take care when you go that you’re minding your feet. There are snakes in the alleys and rocks in the streets. My head hangs low, I drag my heart . I watch the night …
a poem
All wren-song breaks upon me like the spells enchantresses will weave. Disguising beauty, rhyming veils the tragedy of tales about brave men who sought to bless the earth by strength of arms. By day, the song of curséd birds illuminates a maiden, wearing a ring one of the devil's throng …
A deep dive into Blake's early prophetic book
The William Blake course is back , with a deep dive into Blake’s underrated and prophetic Book of Thel. This is one of my favorite pieces by Blake, and it has more wisdom on how to ACTIVATE and transcend spiritual narcissism, analysis paralysis, and living an unfulfilled life than not just most poems but also most…
longer than a voice note, shorter than a podcast
In Walking Through Central Park I recall poems that have been important to me from memory, while on a morning or evening walk, from the west side to the east side of the park, and back again, anecdotally telling stories about my life in poetry and New York. After this first one, these will be for paid subscribers. …
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 …
a poem
A little mystic But when you think about it, aren’t we all a little mystic? Aren’t we all trying to remember something? Somewhere through the years I lost it, reached for it everywhere not knowing what it is. In childhood we know it, wandering the trees as though beneath their ancient arms …
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 …
A poem about the things we leave behind and the lives they continue living without us
The days don’t pass. They peel. They rot off the calendar. Sunburn. Suicidal little leaves. You’ll quit your vices one by one with the drama of a man tossing grenades into his childhood bedroom. Booze, pills, her each exit a ritual, each goodbye a seizure you survive. You’ll leave someone mid-sentence, watch her mouth …
Hello friends,
ANAGRAM-TRIOLET FOR BYRON (Triolet, Anagrammed Lines) She walks in beauty, like the night (the bleak eye, knit with Luna’s sigh). Beneath hues talking silky white, she walks in beauty, like the night. In haste, blue wakes the inky light, with haunting sky the lakes belie. She walks in beauty — like the night …
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…
930 words. FriendshipAdulthoodEmbarrassmentFailure
“Symphony No. 22 ‘La Complicité’” It’s my twenty-second birthday. I spend a lot of time wondering what a woman’s twenty-second birthday is supposed to be. I think I should feel different by now. Mature. Less embarrassed. There’s supposed to be some severing from the harsh condition of girlhood. There isn’t. …
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
new art-poems, plus a pre-order link to my debut chapbook
I’m always excited to share new art-poems with you all, but I’m even more excited to share that TILT TILT TILT Publishing is releasing my debut chapbook featuring some of my best art-poems and prose poetry! Luminox: a journey through the blinding dark …
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. …
a poem
I judge the men who drink and drink to the point of drowning their brains stupid but everyday I soak in digital noise to the point of poisoning my heart soulless sometimes the smell of books can't compete with 'add to cart' or the allure of voyeristic worry the hum of a computer doesn't stop when it's shut off, …
The Love Songs of Bence Ádók #2
My blood - Jungle Flame Ixora - name of a god men - boys - machine-gunned down light - through their bodies on the other side what remains are the groaning bodies season your jungle summer dusk - black hair - Lips in jungle shade, through the ruby brume, moon …
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. …
poetry : tracing stars / generations & what then
August. Milosz dies under the waning crescent & the moon is silent / new for two nights. Two nights / silent & new : the moon. Then I was born under the waxing quarter. It could have been flawless, although all things seem marred from a certain aspect. However : August that year w/ its two full moons : the first …
Something glints out of the dark/ A silver quarter upturned in break of earth
Storm Warnings Fog radiates cherryhill across Eclectic cemetery stones. Birds Take to air, alarm Bells ringing. Something glints out of the dark. A silver quarter upturned in break Of earth. Wind picks up as if rising from a nap: It stirs in the grass, wary watcher, and then an echo …
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 …
A word is to rot alternately susceptible and impervious. The atmosphere, the climate, the time determine whether to engrave or to emboss, to deface or to defend, such commonplaces.
A word is to rot alternately susceptible and impervious. The atmosphere, the climate, the time determine whether to engrave or to emboss, to deface or to defend, such commonplaces.
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. …
Poem and Statement
A parade of waves strike against the longship bow and wind ragged men dream of the deep leviathans and their maws crushing drowned mariners and selkies beckoning from below to lie with them in Aegir’s halls wet and damp beneath the waters upon they row along the dusk dyed sea and fog spectral, waning sunlight …
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 …
"Sh-luh-kt": lineage, descent, offspring. A poem about the sacrifice it takes to go to the otherworld and the exchange made for matresence in a ritual with Datura.
In the wax filled crescent, the witch mapped her descent into the throat of the earth, through doors that open at the sound of Devil's Trumpet. Moon in Pisces, her eyes glaze over. So it is. Solstice holds her steady— green-eyed huntress, Oh companion, a pulse that draws you forward, unwavering. …
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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The James Beard Award-winning narrative journal about the intersection of sustenance, storytelling, and the creative spirit (and sometimes, a recipe).
Tethered: An Anthology of Magic
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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.
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.
KHÔRA
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Ordinary Plots: Meditations on Poems + Verse
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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 Shower Flowers by Tess Guinery
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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.
Two Sylvias Press' Weekly Muse
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Helen Higgins
Active: 6 days ago
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.
SWWIM Every Day
Active: yesterday
SWWIM Every Day publishes a poem a day by women writers (she/they).
themiddlepage
Active: 2 weeks ago
Kelly @themiddlepage
Tolkien academia, thoughts on fantasy and medieval stories
Earth and Verse
Active: yesterday
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
Active: yesterday
unpacking the bad ideas that steal our joy // creative work & midlife reinvention
Dispatches From the Basement
Active: 3 weeks ago
I offer poetry that seeks out the sacred in the ordinary, accompanied by original photography. No politics, no hot takes, just poetry.
Unsolicited Press Newsletter
Active: yesterday
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.
Dispatch from Bewilderness
Active: 2 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.
Writing Alone and With Others
Active: 4 days ago
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.
Poetry Outdoors
Active: 6 days ago
A poetry community devoted to restoring our relationship to the natural world through poetry, storytelling, and environmental stewardship.
Oxford Poetry’s Substack
Active: 1 month 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 In Between
Active: yesterday
The In Between is a place to explore the world from the outside in.
The Friday Poem
Active: yesterday
Poems, reviews and features. Aiming to publish without fear or favour. Probably unfashionable.
VERVE Poetry Festival
Active: 1 week ago
Birmingham-based poetry org running VERVE Poetry Festival + year-round projects that champion new voices + community. VERVE is a home for poetry that is live, lived, + alive.
10 poetry notebooks
Active: 2 days 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.
Under a Fig Tree
Active: yesterday
Investigations into deep history, spirituality, and the mythopoetic imagination. Weekly Sunday essays + audio for paid subscribers, monthly essays for all, and free seasonal rituals.
1455 Literary Arts
Active: 6 days ago
Nonprofit champion of writers and readers, fostering literary community through events, publications, and storytelling.
Ginosko Literary Journal
Active: 2 weeks ago
Ginosko is dedicated to prose, poetry, and creative non-fiction that inspire and challenge. Discover more at www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com
Crow & Colophon
Active: 5 days ago
Wherein the editors of
hold forth on literature and their magazine.
Poetry Is Life
Active: yesterday
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
Active: 3 weeks ago
Notes on writing, wonder, and the messy, beautiful art of being human.
man of aran
Active: yesterday
man of aran is alan girling of Canada who writes poetry that responds to or is paired with visual creations of all sorts.
North Sea Poets
Active: today
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
Active: 1 week ago
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
Active: yesterday
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 Inkwell - Ink & Ribbon Press
Active: 6 days ago
Ink & Ribbon is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit poetry press and journal devoted to craft, discovery, and the permanence of the printed word.
Hilary Layne
Active: 2 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.
Deborah Rutherford's Behold-Her Beauty
Active: 5 days 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 Raft
Active: today
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
Active: yesterday
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.
Pens and Poison
Active: 5 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.
Remember Why You Are Here
Active: 2 days ago
Podcast, journal and intuitive readings. A sanctuary where our hurt can be held, our wonder can be protected, and our joy can be resurrected.
Write Conscious
Active: 3 days ago
Daily podcasts, book clubs, and courses on the best books and authors ever.
Memoir Land
Active: yesterday
Four verticals edited by Sari Botton: MEMOIR MONDAY, collab w/ Granta, Narratively, The Rumpus, Orion, The Walrus, Electric Lit, LitHub, Oldster; FIRST PERSON SINGULAR original essays; THE LIT LAB interviews + craft; GOODBYE TO ALL THAT, NYC stories.
Unmapped Storylands with Elif Shafak
Active: 6 days ago
Stories, anecdotes, wise proverbs and foolish thoughts, literary musings, insights and conversations centred around my personal, unpublished notebooks
For Dear Life with Maggie Smith
Active: 2 days ago
A newsletter about writing & other things that make this life dear—from the poet, not the dame
Heavy Meta
Active: yesterday
Reading between the lines is my magical power. ✨Home of Girls' School Book Club -- where reading is resistance.
themiddlepage
Active: 2 weeks ago
Kelly @themiddlepage
Tolkien academia, thoughts on fantasy and medieval stories
Poor Man's Feast
Active: 2 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
Active: yesterday
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: 3 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
Active: 1 month ago
Essays about literature, the craft of writing, the body and illness, and other obsessions.
Mosab Abu Toha
Active: 1 month ago
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: 2 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: yesterday
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: 6 days ago
Catching the clearer thoughts that mostly arrive in the shower and making art with them.
Ordinary Plots: Meditations on Poems + Verse
Active: 6 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: 5 days ago
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
Active: 5 days ago
Poems to delight and ignite, from the Rabbit Room community.
Shaw and Moore
Active: 1 week ago
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: 3 weeks 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: today
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
Active: yesterday
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
Active: 2 months ago
The official membership portal for ONLY POEMS | Join a joyful, creative community
Mark Nepo
Active: 2 days ago
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.
Poetry Is Life
Active: yesterday
Each week I share poems, essays, and writing prompts meant to open the heart and nourish the soul.
melissa broder
Active: 1 week ago
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
Active: yesterday
Politics, Philosophy, Poetry, and Silly Games - new ways to wonder WTF just happened
KHÔRA
Active: 4 days ago
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
Active: 6 days ago
a chance to work through some ideas about the creative process.
Lit Angels
Active: 2 days ago
An Online Literary Journal Edited by Francesca Lia Block and Linda Davis
They Say Poetry is Dead...
Active: yesterday
Claim: poetry is dead.
Response: not today!
Subscribe to keep poems alive.
Out-of-the-box writing prompts & tips/resources for writing, revising & publishing poetry
girls that never post
Active: 1 week ago
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
Active: 2 days ago
Author of THE GHOST LAKE (memoir), BLACKBIRD SINGING AT DUSK (poetry). Fellow of the Folger Shakespeare Library. Northern type.
Dispatch from Bewilderness
Active: 2 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.
Kate Clanchy
Active: 1 week ago
Cancellation stories, poems, and teaching from the the UK's most famously cancelled poet teacher. Names named, lines broken, jokes cracked.
Unsolicited Press Newsletter
Active: yesterday
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
Active: today
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.
The Poetry Salon with Tresha Faye Haefner and Friends
Active: yesterday
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
Active: yesterday
Accessible literary content from a University of Oxford PhD student in English Lit
Poetic Purpose
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poetic Updates - A Free Monthly Newsletter
Personal Poetics - For Paid Subscribers
The Poetry Coach with Kelly Grace Thomas
Active: 5 days 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: today
Freedom Work. Medicine Words. Books. Creative Life. Sacred Healing.
my secret online diary
Active: 2 days ago
2002 style online diary, b-sides, close friends story. For real fans only.
the heart of Gaia
Active: 2 months ago
an ecology of miracles.
odes to moon and mycelium,
poems & prayers for soil and stars.
SLEERICKETS Secret Show
Active: 1 week ago
The cooler, dumber half of the SLEERICKETS poetry podcast (www.sleerickets.com).
Seánfhocail
Active: 1 week ago
Perspectives of an animist herbalist, poet, and priest on things new and old, human and wild
Oxford Poetry’s Substack
Active: 1 month 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: today
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 month 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: 4 days ago
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 days 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: yesterday
SWWIM Every Day publishes a poem a day by women writers (she/they).
Lovesick
Active: 1 week ago
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: 4 days ago
Verse by the Son of Man Himself (Holy Ghostwritten by Tania Runyan)
ponyXpress
Active: yesterday
writers & artists who are incarcerated —
published in Portland by Bridgeworks Oregon
Emily Writes Back
Active: 1 week ago
New Yorker cartoonist Emily Sanders Hopkins writes letters to you about VERY important things.
Verse Daily’s Substack
Active: 8 months ago
The largest daily poem anthology... Help us celebrate our 22nd year! ...And so much more!
On Being and Timelessness
Active: 2 weeks 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: 1 month 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: 2 days 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: 2 days ago
“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: yesterday
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: 6 months ago
Throwing sheets over — or giving bodies to — the ghosts that haunt us (on finding language).
Fleeting Temples
Active: 1 month ago
Are we living inside a poem? A place to consider the altars of the ordinary.
Pens and Poison
Active: 5 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.
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Active: today
Articles, poems, stories and thoughts by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Everything published here will always remain free to read.
A Carpenter's Point of View in Poetry
Active: today
A lifelong carpenter, mostly retired but poetry still whispers to me.
T. Vale ⎹ Fiction for Adults
Active: today
T. Vale - character-driven NSFW erotic stories, poetry, and fiction.
Michael A.Horvich-Memoirs,Musings,&More
Active: today
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.
Smiling Through the Tears
Active: today
I write emotionally uplifting fiction stories that might just make you cry.
williamphaynes/elliott
Active: today
I'm an ancient beat writer trying to find a new audience for my work
Soulful Witness
Active: today
Where else can you get: soul challenging poetry and essays from a defrocked pastor, aging senior and a 25+ year recovering addict?
Kolade Peter
Active: today
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. ✝️🙏🏽
Paul’s Substack
Active: today
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
George Brooks' Poetry
Active: today
Mythic, uncanny, and emotionally honest poetry by George Brooks — exploring transformation, identity, and the strange places where folklore meets lived experience.
Sounds Good!
Active: today
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
Roger Browne
Active: today
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.
April's Substack
Active: today
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?
Contanam
Active: yesterday
Contanam is basically a sandbox for the idea that everything is interconnected. (atp its just poetry and weird ramblings tho tbh)
Against Reduction’s Substack
Active: yesterday
Literature, leadership, and systems written without concession.
ATLANTIC SAINTS
Active: yesterday
Atlantic Saints is an exercise in pondering life, art, faith, style, and all else worthy.
Denise
Active: yesterday
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.
Naima’s Den
Active: yesterday
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.
small wounds
Active: yesterday
small wounds is a living poetry project about love, transformation, and what lingers after.
Saira The Poet
Active: yesterday
Helping others heal through poetry. Sharing the latest in the world of Saira.
Devyn Leighton
Active: yesterday
Writing on love, loss, and finding home in unexpected places.
Thank you for being here 🖤
The Art of Being
Active: yesterday
Poetry and essays from my existential uprising. Unravelling on purpose.
imarkanx
Active: yesterday
poems from Istvan Markan(imarkanx) -> muses dwell inside my head, whispering words I cannot dispel.
Your Buddy T-GOB
Active: yesterday
Partial Glimmers is the substack of poet & mindful companion Callahan Gobble. He shares poems, meditations, & recommendations weekly.
GSK
Active: 2 days 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.
Joyce Carol Oates: A Writer's Journal
Active: 2 days 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.
becoming that girl
Active: 2 days 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.
Henry's Substack
Active: 2 days ago
Domestic Mysteries, Dreams, and Memories— A place for poetry, spoken word, short stories, essays, art, and photography.
𝙴𝚟𝚊𝚗 シ
Active: 2 days ago
“Not all those who wander are lost.” -(INFP-T) - 17 ≽(◉˕ ◉ ≼マ —@diamondoo is my Anne 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪
My Voice. Health. Nature. Love.
Active: 2 days ago
Nature, life, my take on it. Wellness tips, meditation practices, living a joyful life. Think outside the box.
ozzie and his masks.
Active: 3 days ago
the poetry, essays, fiction and plays that circulate the many minds of ozzie.
Rose Rivers Writes
Active: 3 days ago
Between worlds, I write — weaving stories of memory, myth, and becoming.
the sacred art of becoming HER
Active: 3 days 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.
et marginalia
Active: 3 days ago
Essays and poetry on girlhood, grief, and God, every Wednesday and Sunday.
Red Paper Poems
Active: 3 days ago
Poems and writings on resistance, grief, magic, ancestry, and creatively coming to grips with the horrors of the world.
Scheming Rhymes
Active: 3 days ago
Formal poetry is a beautiful art getting lost in the digital age. Let's write and learn about it to keep it alive!
Poetry, Art & Life
Active: 3 days ago
Intelligent Erotic Poetry, Prose & Short Stories. I write stylish, arty smut for adults who want more than just the mechanics of sex.
Aurelia Literary Magazine
Active: 3 days ago
Digital magazine for teen writers and artists to share their work!
Kelly Trost
Active: 3 days 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.
Timeless Muse
Active: 4 days ago
by Yorlene Vega | poetic insights for the curious, tender-hearted, and truth-seeking
absence and other shapes
Active: 4 days ago
poems and reflections inspired by a dual reality of lived & imagined experiences🌛
Dr. Lunatic Stranger Prescriptions
Active: 4 days ago
A lunatic doctor prescribing revolutionary verses — to shatter chains and heal souls.
Donavon’s Substack
Active: 4 days ago
I explore life's big questions with simplicity and depth, seeking to edify heart, mind, and soul.
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
Active: 5 days ago
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
ULM StoryHouse
Active: 5 days ago
Emotional Cartographer | Author of The Edges of Me | Developed the Body • Heart • Self™ framework | Deep Thinking Empathic Introvert 🖤
The Poetic Pause 🌄
Active: 5 days ago
Poetry, fiction, and somatic meditation to help you move through creative blocks.
Impulses of a poet
Active: 5 days ago
Page of all random thoughts and opinions expressed in form of poetic proses or full fledged poetries.
Pissing In The Press Pool
Active: 5 days ago
Weekly poetry and essays from a lucky heartbroke writer trying to get by in the end of times.
A Poem A Week by Anagha Smrithi
Active: 6 days ago
A newsletter about the poetics of everyday life. Weekly poetry, straight to your heart and inbox. By poet and writer, Anagha Smrithi.
Brilliantly Dark
Active: 6 days ago
I write...I think...I feel...trying to cope with life with humour. And I'm still trying to understand myself.
randy heintz
Active: 1 week 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 Lost Quill
Active: 1 week ago
for all those who thirst for knowledge, whether sporting, philosophical or literary.
The Slower Explorer
Active: 1 week ago
Stories, reflections, and the realities of my life as a retired, minimalist, solo, full-time, slow traveler.
Victoria L Mead
Active: 1 week 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.
Amit The Storyteller
Active: 1 week ago
Poet . Writer | Poems | Nature Poems | Self-reflections | Self-awareness | Mental Health
My writing help to find my people 💌
The Slowest Thread
Active: 1 week 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.
Lexie is writing to remember
Active: 1 week 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.
Blind Eyes Could Blaze
Active: 1 week ago
Wrestling with faith in a postmodern world and seeking Christ among the ruins.
achingsoul
Active: 1 week ago
This space is filled with quiet confessions written in blood and love.
ThePoetGatherer
Active: 1 week 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.
V. K. Mundy
Active: 1 week ago
I'll write something entertaining here at a later time, so I make a general entreaty for patience.
The Quiet Hour Poet
Active: 2 weeks 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 weeks 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.
4 Esoteric Eyes Only
Active: 2 weeks ago
My digital composition book. Original Poems, Articles, Interviews, & more from me, Jahmed Williams.
Off Mic
Active: 3 weeks ago
Off Mic is a weekly newsletter where creative women come to feel understood. I write about culture, creativity, and everything in between.
The Studio Rulam
Active: 3 weeks ago
Welcome to my creative space! Curation of photography, poetry and floral arts with occasional Gobi tales and European romance, from Sweden.
Within Change
Active: 3 weeks 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.
Who Made The Eyes But I?
Active: 3 weeks 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!
Moonfin
Active: 3 weeks ago
𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕 ✨️!. 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵 | 𝘈𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘳 | 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵
Soul Notes
Active: 1 month ago
I'm Mel Dela! Guiding young minds toward purpose, peace, and personal growth — one step at a time.
theinkspilled
Active: 2 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🖋️
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Active: today
Articles, poems, stories and thoughts by Caitlin Johnstone and Tim Foley. Everything published here will always remain free to read.
A Carpenter's Point of View in Poetry
Active: today
A lifelong carpenter, mostly retired but poetry still whispers to me.
Sacred Word with Jaiya John
Active: today
Freedom Work. Medicine Words. Books. Creative Life. Sacred Healing.
T. Vale ⎹ Fiction for Adults
Active: today
T. Vale - character-driven NSFW erotic stories, poetry, and fiction.
Michael A.Horvich-Memoirs,Musings,&More
Active: today
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.
Smiling Through the Tears
Active: today
I write emotionally uplifting fiction stories that might just make you cry.
The Writer's Journey with Laura Davis
Active: today
A safe, creative sanctuary where people use writing to connect deeply with themselves, their stories, and each other.
williamphaynes/elliott
Active: today
I'm an ancient beat writer trying to find a new audience for my work
Soulful Witness
Active: today
Where else can you get: soul challenging poetry and essays from a defrocked pastor, aging senior and a 25+ year recovering addict?
Kolade Peter
Active: today
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. ✝️🙏🏽
Remnant and Shadow
Active: today
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.
Paul’s Substack
Active: today
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
George Brooks' Poetry
Active: today
Mythic, uncanny, and emotionally honest poetry by George Brooks — exploring transformation, identity, and the strange places where folklore meets lived experience.
The Raft
Active: today
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.
Sounds Good!
Active: today
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
Roger Browne
Active: today
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.
April's Substack
Active: today
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?
The Poetry Salon with Tresha Faye Haefner and Friends
Active: yesterday
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.
The Common Reader
Active: yesterday
Nerdy literature newsletter. Helping you make the most of your reading.
Contanam
Active: yesterday
Contanam is basically a sandbox for the idea that everything is interconnected. (atp its just poetry and weird ramblings tho tbh)
Amadeusz’s Library
Active: yesterday
A raw literary journal blending poetry, myth, and reflection—exploring human fractures, silence, and meaning through an untamed, uncompromising voice. Written by Amadeusz Motyl
Against Reduction’s Substack
Active: yesterday
Literature, leadership, and systems written without concession.
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
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
ATLANTIC SAINTS
Active: yesterday
Atlantic Saints is an exercise in pondering life, art, faith, style, and all else worthy.
Denise
Active: yesterday
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.
bitpunk.fm
Active: yesterday
Mostly written and performed poetry exploring the affects of media, war, and time well spent with kids.
Hawtorn V. Rabot
Active: yesterday
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.
Fragments of my Mind
Active: yesterday
Fragments of my sometimes scattered mind: poetry, diary excerpts, prompts - pieces of my soul.
Naima’s Den
Active: yesterday
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.
small wounds
Active: yesterday
small wounds is a living poetry project about love, transformation, and what lingers after.
Saira The Poet
Active: yesterday
Helping others heal through poetry. Sharing the latest in the world of Saira.
Devyn Leighton
Active: yesterday
Writing on love, loss, and finding home in unexpected places.
Thank you for being here 🖤
ponyXpress
Active: yesterday
writers & artists who are incarcerated —
published in Portland by Bridgeworks Oregon
Ruminations of a Form
Active: yesterday
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 Art of Being
Active: yesterday
Poetry and essays from my existential uprising. Unravelling on purpose.
SWWIM Every Day
Active: yesterday
SWWIM Every Day publishes a poem a day by women writers (she/they).
The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor
Active: yesterday
A celebration of poetry and historical interest pieces
Poetry Is Life
Active: yesterday
Each week I share poems, essays, and writing prompts meant to open the heart and nourish the soul.
imarkanx
Active: yesterday
poems from Istvan Markan(imarkanx) -> muses dwell inside my head, whispering words I cannot dispel.
man of aran
Active: yesterday
man of aran is alan girling of Canada who writes poetry that responds to or is paired with visual creations of all sorts.
The In Between
Active: yesterday
The In Between is a place to explore the world from the outside in.
The Emergent Spiral
Active: yesterday
Drummer, writer and photographer, curating an offering of soul as The Emergent Spiral.
Silly Games to Save the World
Active: yesterday
Politics, Philosophy, Poetry, and Silly Games - new ways to wonder WTF just happened
Your Buddy T-GOB
Active: yesterday
Partial Glimmers is the substack of poet & mindful companion Callahan Gobble. He shares poems, meditations, & recommendations weekly.
The Friday Poem
Active: yesterday
Poems, reviews and features. Aiming to publish without fear or favour. Probably unfashionable.
Going Solo at the End of the World
Active: yesterday
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.
Lit Angels
Active: 2 days ago
An Online Literary Journal Edited by Francesca Lia Block and Linda Davis
The Haiku Garden
Active: 2 days ago
Making sense of life in 5-7-5 form. Prompts to inspire your own haiku.
Messages from The Deep
Active: 2 days ago
Short stories, poetry, and essays that unravel dark side of human existence in effort to lighten your day. Any and all genres.
GSK
Active: 2 days 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.
The Writer's Journey
Active: 2 days 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.
Joyce Carol Oates: A Writer's Journal
Active: 2 days 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.
becoming that girl
Active: 2 days 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.
Dispatch from Bewilderness
Active: 2 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.
Saccharum
Active: 2 days ago
Follow the mushroom into the rabbit hole of Saccharum and join The Broom's Edge Tribe.
Hilary Layne
Active: 2 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.
A NEW MOON
Active: 2 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)
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.
Henry's Substack
Active: 2 days ago
Domestic Mysteries, Dreams, and Memories— A place for poetry, spoken word, short stories, essays, art, and photography.
my secret online diary
Active: 2 days ago
2002 style online diary, b-sides, close friends story. For real fans only.
Asuka Hotaru
Active: 2 days ago
Love poems, serial romance, slow kisses, and stories that linger like rain~
𝙴𝚟𝚊𝚗 シ
Active: 2 days ago
“Not all those who wander are lost.” -(INFP-T) - 17 ≽(◉˕ ◉ ≼マ —@diamondoo is my Anne 𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪
Mark Nepo
Active: 2 days ago
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.
My Voice. Health. Nature. Love.
Active: 2 days ago
Nature, life, my take on it. Wellness tips, meditation practices, living a joyful life. Think outside the box.
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.
Asinine Pasiphae
Active: 2 days ago
“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”
ozzie and his masks.
Active: 3 days ago
the poetry, essays, fiction and plays that circulate the many minds of ozzie.
Rose Rivers Writes
Active: 3 days ago
Between worlds, I write — weaving stories of memory, myth, and becoming.
the sacred art of becoming HER
Active: 3 days 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.
et marginalia
Active: 3 days ago
Essays and poetry on girlhood, grief, and God, every Wednesday and Sunday.
Red Paper Poems
Active: 3 days ago
Poems and writings on resistance, grief, magic, ancestry, and creatively coming to grips with the horrors of the world.
Scheming Rhymes
Active: 3 days ago
Formal poetry is a beautiful art getting lost in the digital age. Let's write and learn about it to keep it alive!
Lyre & Wine
Active: 3 days ago
Fairytales and rhymes to accompany you through the rollercoaster of life, best enjoyed with a strumming lyre and a couple glasses of wine.
A Crow At The Beach Is Like A Seagull At A Funeral
Active: 3 days 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.
Poetic Inclinations
Active: 3 days ago
Poetic Inclinations publishes poems of memory, landscape, and persistence, often shaped by the shadowed histories and haunted beauty of the Australian goldfields.
Poetry, Art & Life
Active: 3 days ago
Intelligent Erotic Poetry, Prose & Short Stories. I write stylish, arty smut for adults who want more than just the mechanics of sex.
Write Conscious
Active: 3 days ago
Daily podcasts, book clubs, and courses on the best books and authors ever.
Starving Lovers
Active: 3 days ago
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.
Aurelia Literary Magazine
Active: 3 days ago
Digital magazine for teen writers and artists to share their work!
kay genivieve
Active: 3 days ago
musings of a film school graduate that loves esoterica and reverie.
Kelly Trost
Active: 3 days 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.
Poetry, Art, and Unseen Things
Active: 4 days ago
I share my poetry, prose, and digital drawing. Monthly critique of one poem per month for paid subscribers.
Welcome to Poerotica
Active: 4 days ago
Erotic poetry and the creative process behind every dangerous line.
Ethereal Twilight Poetry
Active: 4 days 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. ❤️🩹
Timeless Muse
Active: 4 days ago
by Yorlene Vega | poetic insights for the curious, tender-hearted, and truth-seeking
Joshua’s Poetry Substack
Active: 4 days 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
Reaching Light Together
Active: 4 days 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.
Haley’s Half-Baked Thoughts
Active: 4 days ago
A newsletter about—well, anything I have enough motivation to write about. And baked goods.
The New Verse Newsletter
Active: 4 days ago
Sending newspoems published at TheNewVerse.News every day.
Rotary Writings
Active: 4 days ago
Revolving poems. Like a thousand small combustions powering an engine.
Inner Algorithms
Active: 4 days ago
Words don’t bite, judgment does. Curiosity is my code, swaying between flashes of genius, feminine grace, untamed edge, and Chaplin’s stumble.
The Quantum Model
Active: 4 days ago
A model certified in Neuroscience and Meditation- exploring where the mind meets matter.
absence and other shapes
Active: 4 days ago
poems and reflections inspired by a dual reality of lived & imagined experiences🌛
Habibi Means Beloved
Active: 4 days 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.
Lach Stuff
Active: 4 days 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!
Life Over Coffee
Active: 4 days 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.
Poetry Is For The Mornings
Active: 4 days ago
Notes on motherhood, sobriety, desire, film, and the poetry of life.
Pixie’s Substack
Active: 4 days 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.
Dr. Lunatic Stranger Prescriptions
Active: 4 days ago
A lunatic doctor prescribing revolutionary verses — to shatter chains and heal souls.
Lotte Kestner
Active: 4 days ago
Seattle based poet Anna-Lynne Williams, and singer in the bands: Lotte Kestner, Trespassers William, Ormonde
Haiku Pause
Active: 4 days ago
A free collaborative newsletter showcasing the best of formal haiku on monthly themes. Current editors: Resa Alboher, Sandra Filippelli, Mariya Gusev.
Donavon’s Substack
Active: 4 days ago
I explore life's big questions with simplicity and depth, seeking to edify heart, mind, and soul.
everything is an experiment
Active: 4 days ago
rambling inspiration and creative practice from hope amico
One Poem Only
Active: 4 days 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 🍎
From My Orange Desk
Active: 4 days ago
Essays on the stubborn, luminous work of being human by author Patti Digh.
The Midlife Sonnet
Active: 4 days ago
Poetry, planted in Midwestern soil, that seeks the beautiful in the ordinary.
Life at the Bottom of the Canyon
Active: 4 days 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.
La Rotonde Review
Active: 4 days ago
La Rotonde Review is an online indie literary magazine devoted to passionate poetry and prose poetry, with a timeless sensibility.
Weirdo Poetry with Jason McBride
Active: 4 days 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
Rhythm's
Active: 4 days ago
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PREVAIL by Greg Olear
Active: 4 days 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.
KHÔRA
Active: 4 days ago
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.
Chi Emmanuel
Active: 4 days ago
Poet. Storyteller. Observer of human fracture and survival. Writing truth in fragments and rhythm.
David Whyte
Active: 4 days ago
Poems, essays and commentaries as well as insights from my Three Sundays Series.
Whiskey & Flowers
Active: 4 days 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.
Rogue Literary Society
Active: 4 days ago
"The new bull of meaning" in literature, poetry, and critical book reviews.
Writer pilgrim Substack
Active: 4 days 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.
Building A Path
Active: 4 days 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
Patricia Crow Herlevi Writer
Active: 4 days ago
Literary food from several decades of writing poetry, fiction, and memoirs. And a monthly newsletter for writers.
Poetry and Miracles
Active: 5 days ago
I write poems, take photographs, and occasionally make art. Always in search of joy.
Deborah Rutherford's Behold-Her Beauty
Active: 5 days 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. 🕯️
Mantras & Coffee
Active: 5 days 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.
Lorraine Schuchart
Active: 5 days 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 🎤
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
Active: 5 days ago
Postcards, poems and random thoughts by Sotiria
1000 Ways In
Active: 5 days 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.
Things That Don't Suck
Active: 5 days ago
One poet's quest to uncover what shifts when we shift our attention
West of the Moon
Active: 5 days ago
West of the Moon is a publication of poems, or rather, trifles, written by J.Z Schafer
ULM StoryHouse
Active: 5 days ago
Emotional Cartographer | Author of The Edges of Me | Developed the Body • Heart • Self™ framework | Deep Thinking Empathic Introvert 🖤
Diary Poems
Active: 5 days 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).
Marjorie’s Cosmic Gumball Machine
Active: 5 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!
The Poetic Pause 🌄
Active: 5 days ago
Poetry, fiction, and somatic meditation to help you move through creative blocks.
An unspoken symphony
Active: 5 days ago
If I stab myself with the very pen that I write this with, am I poetic enough?
Word Witch
Active: 5 days ago
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.
Impulses of a poet
Active: 5 days ago
Page of all random thoughts and opinions expressed in form of poetic proses or full fledged poetries.
Pissing In The Press Pool
Active: 5 days ago
Weekly poetry and essays from a lucky heartbroke writer trying to get by in the end of times.
Chloe Yelena Miller, writer and writing teacher
Active: 5 days 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!
Poems you don't have to be a poet to love
Active: 5 days ago
Poems, literary excerpts, opinionated opinions.
THE EDEN PROJECT
Active: 5 days ago
writing post digital gothic poetry exploring intimacy, obsession, trauma, and identity. I write to disassemble the architecture of human collapse
The Yellow Table
Active: 5 days 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.
Tracy's Nordic Light
Active: 5 days 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.
The Word Emporium
Active: 5 days ago
A curated exploration of beautiful, curious, overlooked words, language reflections, and literary wisdom past and present.
The New Stylus
Active: 5 days ago
A literary journal specializing in poetry that is well-crafted, transcendent, and full of emotive power.
Marinarena Travel & Poetic Deep Dive
Active: 5 days ago
Musings, Observations and Journeys by Marinarena, fellow wanderer and wonderer. File under: blogs, commentaries, listicles, poetry, prose, travel
Stranger Strands
Active: 5 days ago
Poetry, music, fiction and essays; exploring the stranger strands.
Joel Gunderson
Active: 6 days 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.
Poetry Outdoors
Active: 6 days ago
A poetry community devoted to restoring our relationship to the natural world through poetry, storytelling, and environmental stewardship.
Austin's Myth
Active: 6 days ago
Here is where I post poems mostly and other things periodically and continuously with occasional breaks due to travel and block.
Jacqueline's Substack
Active: 6 days ago
poetry, short fiction, photography, art, nature, and personal insights | all forms and genres | words, art, and photography my own
Thoughts Across Bostonia
Active: 6 days ago
essays & poems; public ponderments, poetry portfolio; climate anxiety, current events, musings of a creative 20-something. Welcome!
A Poem A Week by Anagha Smrithi
Active: 6 days ago
A newsletter about the poetics of everyday life. Weekly poetry, straight to your heart and inbox. By poet and writer, Anagha Smrithi.
Wayfarer Magazine
Active: 6 days 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.
Poems by Jonna
Active: 6 days 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.
Brilliantly Dark
Active: 6 days ago
I write...I think...I feel...trying to cope with life with humour. And I'm still trying to understand myself.
The Manic Romantic
Active: 6 days ago
essays, poetry and prose on love, decay and the stubborn beauty of being a human being
Waving from A Distance
Active: 6 days ago
Ghost whisperer channeling my dead grandmother's forgotten, unspoken words.
She Speaks Softly
Active: 6 days ago
Reflections on identity, personal evolution and metamorphosis from a soft-spoken soul that survived corporate.
Sunday Poem + Prompt
Active: 6 days ago
sharing a poem with an accompanying writing prompt every Sunday
In the elements
Active: 6 days ago
A place for wonder and whimsy to flourish in the wind~original poetry, inspiration, creative fuel
Helen Higgins
Active: 6 days ago
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 Poetry Federation
Active: 6 days 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.
Compendium: The Kitchen Sink
Active: 6 days ago
Poems, politics, ruminations, memoir and happenings in the garden and kitchen (w/pictures)
For Fun And Then Some
Active: 6 days ago
Poetry and prose, sometimes playful, sometimes reflective. Enjoy my poetry book, ILLICIT CROISSANTS AT DAWN, available on Amazon.
Sarah Baker
Active: 6 days ago
I believe in writing, in giving words to those still finding the right ones for themselves.
Musings From A Broken Heart
Active: 6 days ago
Theology, poetry, reflections, and restful meditations from a Black man in process
holes of beauty in the grit: poetry aloud
Active: 6 days ago
history is in your mouth.
poetry & prose aloud and/or in translation.
Donald Paul Owens II
Active: 6 days 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 Poet's Circle
Active: 6 days ago
A welcoming place for the poetry curious to discover and discuss poetry, form, and craft
Poetry & Ponderings with Julia Fehrenbacher
Active: 6 days 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.
Organised Overthinking
Active: 6 days ago
Observations, patterns, and the occasional flawed conclusion.
Catching Shower Flowers by Tess Guinery
Active: 6 days ago
Catching the clearer thoughts that mostly arrive in the shower and making art with them.
Carah Amelie
Active: 1 week ago
This is a place to get a peek inside the poem. I believe the process is just as poetic as the final piece.
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
randy heintz
Active: 1 week 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."
Kyle Ryan
Active: 1 week 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.
The Lost Quill
Active: 1 week ago
for all those who thirst for knowledge, whether sporting, philosophical or literary.
Garbage Notes
Active: 1 week 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-app leaked
Active: 1 week ago
Poems and stories crammed between shopping lists and a brownie recipe - my notes app
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.
Lovesick
Active: 1 week ago
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.
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.
Off-Piste on Mount Parnassus
Active: 1 week ago
Poems by a pseudonym in San Diego. Special emphasis on repeating forms, sonnets, and verse translations.
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.
Caro’s Writing Perspectives
Active: 1 week ago
Unleash your imagination and immerse yourself in a world of captivating stories, heartfelt poems, and more.
Laney's Words Poetry
Active: 1 week 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
Sincerely Seb Poetry
Active: 1 week 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.
Clues, from Lillian
Active: 1 week 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.
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!
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.
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
The Slower Explorer
Active: 1 week ago
Stories, reflections, and the realities of my life as a retired, minimalist, solo, full-time, slow traveler.
Nahthan Paul
Active: 1 week ago
Hi, Nahthan here. I am a writer, artist, and musician from south coast Massachusetts. Welcome to my Substack!
Adrienne Veronese
Active: 1 week 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.
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.
Tœf
Active: 1 week ago
Writing what I feel before it consumes me Poetry, Love, Loss, Becoming..... ~Tœf
Victoria L Mead
Active: 1 week 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.
a small spectacle
Active: 1 week ago
Nature poems & short essays about finding wonder, healing & connection.
How to Love the World
Active: 1 week ago
Sharing my poems, stories and art.
This is how I love the world. ♥
Tethered: An Anthology of Magic
Active: 1 week ago
Tethered is a seasonal anthology by Tamed Wild, sharing stories, poems, essays, and art inspired by magic, myth, and the natural world.
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.
The Cultivated Amateur
Active: 1 week 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
Tea for a Druid
Active: 1 week ago
Appreciating nature is understanding our selves.
Always human-created, never artificial intelligence.
Still Here: A Grief Journal in Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
How a non-writer learned to grieve, one poem at a time.
In no time at all
Active: 1 week ago
A collection of poems on the balance between needing each other and letting go
The Digital Journey of Becoming an Author
Active: 1 week ago
Following August Rose Crothers on her Writing Endeavors
Rivers of Reflection
Active: 1 week 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.
From the Mountains of the Sun
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry from the Sonoran backcountry. The sun lives here.
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!!!
Amit The Storyteller
Active: 1 week ago
Poet . Writer | Poems | Nature Poems | Self-reflections | Self-awareness | Mental Health
My writing help to find my people 💌
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!
Frontier Verse
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry on grief & loss, anger & violence, fatherhood & childhood, homelessness & addiction, masculinity and more.
Ept
Active: 1 week ago
A slice of Ettie-brain with absolutely zero purpose. Maybe it’s life-affirming? Maybe it’s voyeuristic? Who knows. Certainly not me.
The Ghost
Active: 1 week ago
On writing and life. Long-form musings on the nature of creativity and the essence of everything. Some poems, too.
The Convulsion Doctrine
Active: 1 week ago
Dark poetry. Feral love letters. Dream logic. Horror stories. Your intrusive thoughts, twisted just right.
The Soul of Rob
Active: 1 week ago
For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of, and so too, the hand types.
The Maple Moon
Active: 1 week ago
Courtenay Schembri Gray writes from an eldritch womb: ft. poems, plays, diaries, and essays.
Notes from the Dishwasher Café
Active: 1 week ago
A working poet & parent wrangles chaos. Humor as stethoscope, microscope, telescope.
TWBH- The Way Back Home
Active: 1 week 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.
Writing from the Ashes
Active: 1 week 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.
Darci Snode
Active: 1 week 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 ✨
Seánfhocail
Active: 1 week ago
Perspectives of an animist herbalist, poet, and priest on things new and old, human and wild
26th Avenue Poet
Active: 1 week ago
Poems that greet you with "Hey, look at that."
Created with 100% organic intelligence.
Alli Bauck
Active: 1 week 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 👑
Third Place Poetry
Active: 1 week ago
Third Place Poetry is a gathering space that connects people to poetry and people through poetry.
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.
On Breath and Belonging
Active: 1 week 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.
Pisces Press
Active: 1 week ago
Fair Maiden transcribing the literary and poetic genius of Pisces, the Fish of the Substack Sea.
In The Middle
Active: 1 week ago
A weekly publication exploring randomly-generated themes, and what it means to be "in the middle," through essays, poetry, and art.
The Love Café
Active: 1 week 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.
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.
On The Train to Koh-Riley
Active: 1 week 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.
Naomi's Substack: Nature Bowl Haiku
Active: 1 week 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.
Emily Writes Back
Active: 1 week ago
New Yorker cartoonist Emily Sanders Hopkins writes letters to you about VERY important things.
The Slowest Thread
Active: 1 week 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.
Poetry by Sam Aureli
Active: 1 week ago
Writing from the quiet edge, where language meets landscape, and the search for meaning walks beside wind, water, and wild things.
Jerusa
Active: 1 week ago
I am picking up the pen again. What beautiful things may come, I can only imagine.
Molly Sullivan
Active: 1 week ago
come swim in my stream : words on nostalgia, existentialism, mental health, love & more 🦢
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.
Lexie is writing to remember
Active: 1 week 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.
The Monday to Friday Poet by Otilia Jones
Active: 1 week ago
Poetry must have been invented on a rainy day.
Wunderkammer
Active: 1 week ago
Finding a sense of wonder again through writing, art, literature, movies, theater and other curiosities.
Blind Eyes Could Blaze
Active: 1 week ago
Wrestling with faith in a postmodern world and seeking Christ among the ruins.
Bishop of the East Wind
Active: 1 week ago
Words like palms pressed together, tethering time to halt times harrowing.
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.
mnemonixART
Active: 1 week 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.
Monica A Leyva
Active: 1 week ago
Original speculative fiction, essays on health politics and institutional power, and poetry about care, memory, and resistance.
Towards Embodied Living by Florence Ukpabi
Active: 1 week 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.
achingsoul
Active: 1 week ago
This space is filled with quiet confessions written in blood and love.
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.
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.
Ryka's Most Excellent World :)
Active: 1 week ago
Whenever you are dancing, someone else is dancing, too.
Bloodmagick
Active: 1 week ago
You are the eater of stars. Here is a place where you may delight and despair in all the rhythms of Hell.
lauren oliver
Active: 1 week 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.
Poetry Tracks In Snow by Holly Lamond
Active: 1 week 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.
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.
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.
The Art of Good Enough
Active: 1 week 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 week 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: 1 week 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.
ThePoetGatherer
Active: 1 week 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.
melissa broder
Active: 1 week ago
Author of Death Valley, Milk Fed, The Pisces, So Sad Today, Superdoom and Last Sext. NEXT: Empty and Marvelous (Scribner / 2027)
Paulomi Dutta
Active: 1 week 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
V. K. Mundy
Active: 1 week ago
I'll write something entertaining here at a later time, so I make a general entreaty for patience.
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.
Talayah Rose
Active: 2 weeks ago
A passion for reading and writing literature with a particular focus on academic style essays and poetry <3
Caro’s Writing Perspectives
Active: 2 weeks ago
Unleash your imagination and immerse yourself in a world of captivating stories, heartfelt poems, and more.
EmberUnsaid
Active: 2 weeks ago
𝒑𝒐𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒔, 𝒎𝒐𝒔𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒍𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒎 𝒊𝒈𝒏𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔. ❀♡
A.J.S(torming)
Active: 2 weeks ago
a creative space for poetry & prose formed from the catalysts that woke them
Lapis Manalis
Active: 2 weeks ago
I am a Norwegian writer. I write essays and poetry to the world whilst working on my novel away from the world.
Bowie Snodgrass
Active: 2 weeks 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.
The World We Are
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poems--first drafts, super-old ones, and everything in-between.
The Memorious
Active: 2 weeks ago
An independent literary magazine that showcases moving meditations, forward-thinking fictions, and profound works of poetry.
Old Improvidence
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poetry and prose about identity, memory, community, and whatever else I feel like writing about.
Ginosko Literary Journal
Active: 2 weeks ago
Ginosko is dedicated to prose, poetry, and creative non-fiction that inspire and challenge. Discover more at www.ginoskoliteraryjournal.com
Serenity
Active: 2 weeks ago
Unshared thoughts...writing the quiet things we feel but don’t say. Fragments of thoughts, memories, and everything in between.
Peregrine Notes
Active: 2 weeks ago
Scribblings and prayers along the road to being reconciled with Time.
Melissa “justME” Ellis
Active: 2 weeks ago
Black Woman Poet, GodMaMa/Auntie Supreme, Brand Ambassador, fitness enthusiast, lover of Blackness, dope ass person. #IAmjustME ❤️🖤💚
Carelessly Unfiltered
Active: 2 weeks ago
My personal Substack where I talk about everything from love, to feminism, to mental health, to living your best life!
Reminiscences of an Asian Intellectual
Active: 2 weeks ago
Life’s journey to come face to face with one’s self through God, time and memory.
The Quiet Hour Poet
Active: 2 weeks 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 weeks 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.
Night Work: From Mark Gulino
Active: 2 weeks ago
Burning the midnight oil to bring writing, poetry, and additional content from my desk to yours.
Sapphire Gray
Active: 2 weeks 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.
4 Esoteric Eyes Only
Active: 2 weeks ago
My digital composition book. Original Poems, Articles, Interviews, & more from me, Jahmed Williams.
Naomi’s Heart
Active: 2 weeks 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.
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.
Delphic Archive
Active: 2 weeks 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 weeks ago
I turn silence into words. Conversations that ended, feelings that didn’t, and poetry that lingers… 🖤
Alias April
Active: 2 weeks 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.
Bye Bye Girlboss
Active: 2 weeks ago
The girlboss is dead. Long live the girltoss: a woman unfolding through burnout recovery and unexpected events. The only guarantee is stories.
Lennon Saige B. ☄ ੈ✩‧₊˚ ✿
Active: 2 weeks 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)✨🖤🧡
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."
Rhyme n' Metre
Active: 2 weeks ago
New poetry in classical forms, and the discovery of the English poetic tradition.
diary of a cyberprincess
Active: 2 weeks 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. ❤️
Whistling to the Boneyard / TC
Active: 2 weeks ago
Writer, artist, teacher, musician. "Just trying to beat death to the boneyard."
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.
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
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.
Even the Stones
Active: 2 weeks 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.
Bhums.in.between
Active: 2 weeks ago
life, love, and the inner workings of a girl who notices too much
The Talking Pen
Active: 2 weeks ago
Stories to warm your heart, sharpen your mind, challenge your thinking, and deepen your faith.
Nicholas Trandahl
Active: 2 weeks ago
Award-winning Wyoming poet. Simplicity, slow-living, service, goodness, and mountains.
My Way Back
Active: 2 weeks 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.
Poetic Purpose
Active: 2 weeks ago
Poetic Updates - A Free Monthly Newsletter
Personal Poetics - For Paid Subscribers
The Great Beyond
Active: 2 weeks ago
Site of a driven artist looking to become bona fide, this is The Great Beyond - this is where I will make it
Gabriela Oliveira
Active: 2 weeks ago
writing essays and poems for the yearning minds about (queer)ecofeminism, life, love, literature and fiction, and our dying nature.
Sentiment in Several Syllables
Active: 3 weeks ago
Writer of poetry, picture books, chapter books, novels and lists. A lot of lists. Here are some of them.
Sarah Blondin
Active: 3 weeks ago
Words that bite at the bone and stumble toward understanding, for those seeking stability only the heart can provide.
Off Mic
Active: 3 weeks ago
Off Mic is a weekly newsletter where creative women come to feel understood. I write about culture, creativity, and everything in between.
Dispatches From the Basement
Active: 3 weeks ago
I offer poetry that seeks out the sacred in the ordinary, accompanied by original photography. No politics, no hot takes, just poetry.
The Studio Rulam
Active: 3 weeks ago
Welcome to my creative space! Curation of photography, poetry and floral arts with occasional Gobi tales and European romance, from Sweden.
Newbell Poetry
Active: 3 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
Singing, each to each
Active: 3 weeks ago
poetry, literature, art, and all the beautiful things through which heart sings to heart
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.
The Victory Palace Poetry Stack
Active: 3 weeks ago
Counterculture poetry about illusion, power, and spiritual awakening.
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
Within Change
Active: 3 weeks 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.
The Treasure Collective
Active: 3 weeks ago
Collecting what makes life beautiful. A home for creative dabbling.
Dabney Baldridge
Active: 3 weeks ago
A busy mom of four who writes from the messiness of life to make beauty out of chaos.
Musings from the Street
Active: 3 weeks 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: 3 weeks 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: 3 weeks ago
I write lyrical fiction that lives between shadows and light—where silence speaks, memory burns, and love leaves scars.
Moonfin
Active: 3 weeks ago
𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒐𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒄 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒊𝒕 ✨️!. 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵 | 𝘈𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘳 | 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵
Tayrytespoemansdreams
Active: 4 weeks ago
I translate the sounds of my heartbeat into words and call it poetry..✍️🏽🍃
Wildwood Writer
Active: 4 weeks 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.
poem and cat
Active: 4 weeks ago
poems and illustrations to your inbox every friday (look out for the hidden cat!)
Amethyst's Substack
Active: 1 month ago
I am an indie author that writes fantasy adult novels and poetry.
Chaos & Kismet
Active: 1 month 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.
Carly Booty
Active: 1 month 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: 1 month 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: 1 month 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.
Tender Oscillations
Active: 1 month ago
Poems, stories, literature, fiction - not always in that order
Soul Notes
Active: 1 month ago
I'm Mel Dela! Guiding young minds toward purpose, peace, and personal growth — one step at a time.
Forgotten Poets
Active: 1 month ago
A living anthology of short poems and pictures from the late-1800s and early-1900s.
Poet, Interrupted
Active: 1 month 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!
Stirred, Not Shaken
Active: 1 month ago
Poems, stories and photos inspired by what stirs me here in the woods and surrounds of the Salish Sea.
tiny engines
Active: 1 month ago
Poetry and short stories from Chihuahua, Mexico. Exploring what moves us, what connects us, and the stories we tell ourselves about both.
A Matt Starr Reader
Active: 1 month ago
Founder of Dream Baby Press & Writer Relations Producer @ Substack.
Corie Feiner
Active: 1 month 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.
Confessions of Poetry Witch: Matriarchy, Meters, & Magic
Active: 1 month ago
Poetry, Meters, Matriarchy, & Magic from Annie Finch
from the open spaces
Active: 1 month ago
Publication announcements, upcoming events, reflections, reading recommendations, and more.
Eero's Escapades of Doubt and Stuff
Active: 1 month ago
Abstract poetry writing meditations on the brink of alienation: a newfound tomorrow
The Guelph Poet
Active: 1 month ago
Writing toward the beauty of ache. Subscribe to get a free poetry workshop (and pic of my kitten) in your inbox <3
Mary Oliver's Drunk Substack
Active: 1 month ago
Bonus french fries (poems! jokes! insider info!) in your inbox
The ReKindled
Active: 1 month ago
Re-igniting the creative spirit and deepening the creative soul in our increasingly soulless times.
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.
=^Alicat^=
Active: 1 month ago
I am just releasing pieces of my heart to my readers. I want to build a community!
sirin
Active: 1 month ago
this is my attempt at writing a blog. everything i write here is mostly my opinion. nothing more, nothing less.
The Effusion
Active: 1 month ago
Nature poetry and writing. Searching through the smallest stones of the world.
kevinlawler
Active: 1 month ago
Poems delivered Mondays. Subscribe now for a free PDF of Each Sold Separately, a book of poems from pop culture.
erine ♡
Active: 1 month 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: 1 month 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.
Oxford Poetry’s Substack
Active: 1 month 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.
Lanterns in the Dark
Active: 1 month 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!
Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin Substack
Active: 1 month 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.
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.
Bewildering Offspring
Active: 1 month 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.
Words and Pictures by Pamela Leavey
Active: 1 month 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: 2 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: 2 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: 2 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: 2 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: 2 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: 2 months ago
Poetry, Short Stories, Flash Fiction-- Welcome to the Coffee Shop!
OP Membership Portal
Active: 2 months ago
The official membership portal for ONLY POEMS | Join a joyful, creative community
Tori Makes Sense
Active: 2 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: 2 months ago
Short stories and nature poetry, striving to capture the image of the world.
Short Story
Active: 2 months 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.
the laurel letters
Active: 2 months ago
thoughts, poems, opinions, musings, writing for the sake of writing, writing for no reason and every reason.
Carnation Lifetime
Active: 2 months ago
Poet & grad student writing about gratitude, craft, & everything that catches my eye in Charlottesville, VA.
On Earth
Active: 3 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: 3 months ago
Learning how to write. My goal is to remain positive while being sincere.
Poems, Prayers, and Ponderings
Active: 3 months ago
Poems, prayers, and ponderings from a man trying to find God in the joys and sorrows of life.
Scogli di Fiume
Active: 4 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: 8 months ago
The largest daily poem anthology... Help us celebrate our 22nd year! ...And so much more!
Depths of Meaningful Thought
Active: 10 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.
Reach into the dark and see what bites back.
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 →Writing prompts exploring the color green and its meanings—from natural tranquility to political activism. Suited to poems, nonfiction, and short stories. Includes reflective questions about what green means to the writer.
A two-day poetry challenge with two prompts (one word-based, one art-based) posted Friday and Saturday mornings on Substack Notes and Instagram. Writers submit poems of any length or form privately to the host, with selected entries featured in a roundup post afterward. No experience required.
Write a poem that animates an animal's perspective, specifically exploring how an animal might express want, desire, or longing. The prompt invites poets to move beyond factual narration and create a persona for the animal, exploring what enacting this feeling might reveal about human worries, fears, desires, and grace.
A seven-line poetry prompt framework designed to help writers connect with the Summer Solstice through guided line-starters. Writers fill in the blanks or draw inspiration from the framework, with an example poem provided by the author.
Write a 16-line poem incorporating four monthly prompt words (Dusty, Creed, Bring, Clock). Poems are published in The Monthly Poet's monthly Gallery alongside work from other participants.
Write a backstory poem or vignette bringing a character to life, inspired by a sample from Otherside. Share your work with the community; selected pieces may be featured in Every Day Poems.
Adopt a confident and authoritative voice to guide the reader through a strange, impossible, or nonsensical activity. Use the instructional form to sneak up on something real—the steps don't matter so much as that they convey an authentic feeling. Let absurdity and deadpan authority create unexpected emotional resonance.
A writing prompt inspired by the idea that "anything can be everything." Writers are invited to identify a small or overlooked detail in a photograph or artwork (such as a shadow, a freckle, or a background element) and write a poem treating that detail as the most important and all-encompassing element, exploring it with imaginative certainty.
Write a poem in the comments using the words "concrete," "watercolor", and "huckleberry."
A weekly poetry prompt inspired by Kendel Hippolyte's poem "Advice to a Young Poet." Readers are invited to focus on a part of the poem they like and write their own poem using those lines as reference, then share their work in the comments.
Weekly poetry prompt inspired by Mary Oliver's 'Don't Worry': write a four-line poem offering words of encouragement that you need to hear yourself but also wish to offer others, incorporating the phrase 'Don't Worry' somewhere within it. Share your poem in the comments by June 21st.
Write a prose poem about a character who dies repeatedly, ages in reverse, or is unable to die. The challenge is to compress a long timespan (100 years, one century, or a lifetime) into minimal words—100 words, one paragraph, or one stanza. Share your work by commenting on the post or tagging the author on social media.
A three-level writing prompt featuring eco-fiction as the genre, with customizable elements: the Putrid Delta (a contaminated setting), the Bookworm (a knowledge-driven character), and Knowledge Versus Experience (a thematic conflict). Writers can use one, two, or all three elements and are encouraged to blend eco-fiction with other genres like sci-fi or horror. Maximum 3,000 words.
Write exactly 100 words (no more, no less, excluding title) in response to a movie-title prompt. This month's prompt is 'Misery.' Open to stories, poems, or creative non-fiction in any genre. Pieces are due by June 17, 2026.
Monthly writing prompts included in the Meadow subscription, with nature-based activities and reflections on zen teachings. Prompts explore themes like turning toward beauty, interconnectedness, and the wisdom of flowers.
Write a poem that relies heavily on one of the senses to detail a memory. May be written in verse or prose poem form.
Submit a word, memory, smell, or any source of inspiration to The Muse Jar, and Devyn Leighton will randomly select submissions to write poems about. This is an ongoing daily poetry-writing project where readers contribute prompts.
A poetry writing exercise where writers create a list of 10 words, select five, and draft a poem connecting them in a meaningful way. Readers are invited to share their selected words and creative choices in the comments.
A poetry prompt inviting writers to explore cyclical themes and returns in their own lives. The prompt suggests writing about something that has come full circle—a place revisited, a relationship changed over time, a recurring question, or a memory revealing something new. Includes optional craft approaches (recurring images, time periods, shifts in meaning, cyclical structures, repetition) and constraints to deepen the work.
Write about a single moment lasting less than one minute, staying within that moment without explaining the larger story. Focus on sensory details and trust the reader to understand the significance.
Write a romantic flash fiction piece or poem in the voice of a historical figure, inspired by Marjorie Thomson's poem 'Bonnie's Final Poem to Clyde.' Keep it brief but convey dramatic urgency, employing simplicity and juxtaposition.
Create a haiku (17 syllables in 5-7-5 format) inspired by the theme of SUMMER and share it in the comments. The post provides historical context about the Summer of Love and an example haiku to spark inspiration.
Write a poem in response to Mary Oliver's 'Nothing is Too Small to be Wondered About' by focusing on a form of life smaller than humans, exploring what you know or don't know about its life, and weaving in a universal lesson about living.
A collection of 20 creative writing prompts from ANIMAL magazine designed to inspire poetry, fiction, art, and creative nonfiction. Readers are invited to interpret the prompts freely, start anywhere, and share their creations on social media or submit to the magazine.
Five original writing prompts exploring the theme of "Scope" across diverse scenarios: telescopes and Mars colonization, plant-emotion translation apps, kaleidoscope shape poetry, sniper perspective narratives, and Martian astrology. Each prompt includes a suggested collaborative writing partner type.
Submit a poem on the theme of community for a chance to be featured on read poetry's weekly Poem of the Week section. Submissions are accepted via direct message on Substack.
A writing prompt celebrating honesty and storytelling under the New Moon in Gemini. Writers are invited to channel Gemini's truth-telling energy and tell a story or write a poem that explores the truth of a new chapter beginning in their lives, optionally inspired by Maurice Sendak's opening line from Where the Wild Things Are.
A seven-line poetry prompt designed to help writers connect with the new moon in Gemini. Writers fill in blanks across lines titled 'Chapter,' 'Storyteller,' 'Summer,' 'Beginning,' 'There is,' 'Across,' and 'Ink' to create their own poem.
A poetry prompt inspired by a Japanese poem about twilight and new beginnings, paired with a ritual and sample poem to guide writers.
Write a poem consisting primarily of a list of items, with an emphasis on surprise and dynamic shifts in scope, tone, subject, or abstraction. The poem should move beyond simple enumeration to achieve emotional elevation, poignance, or recognition through accumulation, rhythm, and unexpected turns.
A guided writing prompt inviting readers to explore a relationship containing emotional complexity and contradiction. Writers are asked to recall moments, feel into the emotions, observe how feelings soften or transform, and notice what emerges on the page—whether poem, rant, or ode. The prompt emphasizes open-handed curiosity, acceptance of multiple feelings, and honoring whatever the writing process reveals.
Write a poem exploring alternate realities for someone (yourself or another person), comparing and contrasting possibilities between two selves, and concluding with a prediction in the final lines, inspired by Manuel Becerra's poem and the Emily Dickinson Museum.
A weekly poetry prompt inviting writers to compose dynamic list poems. The post references this prompt from Sheetghost Poetry and invites readers to give it a try, suitable for poets exploring structured list-based composition.
A fifty-word story writing exercise about an uncanny tree. Writers may submit fiction, creative nonfiction, or poetry, with exact word count required. Responses can be shared in the comments or read to join the community.
A poetry prompt inviting readers to write poems from the perspective of Wizard of Oz characters or from an opposite stance, with flexible form. Includes an alternative Goal Guidance exercise: write a to-do list for an Oz character in three minutes, then use their answers to guide a personal weekly goal.
A nonfiction prompt asking writers to reflect on their experience stepping away from writing and returning to the page. Writers may respond in the form of personal essays, poems, short videos, comic strips, or other creative formats, sharing their own journey with writer's block, life interruptions, or creative dry spells.
Create ten couplets of outdoor/nature observations (while walking or browsing parks/photography), then narrow to five and arrange them. Title should begin with 'You.' Image-focused, avoid grammar/punctuation. Optional companion piece from scrapped lines. Share in comments or on social media tagging neonpajamas and Noah Falck.
Write the worst poem possible by selecting a topic from a list you create, titling your poem with those words, and composing without judgment or self-criticism. The goal is to bypass perfectionism and discover unexpected value in uninhibited writing.
A freewriting prompt inviting readers to randomly select a word or phrase from a favorite book by closing their eyes and pointing to a page, then write freely in any form (fiction, poetry, non-fiction, essay, or wisdom) following the prompting words and their heart. Optional sharing in comments; no external publication goal.
Optional poetry writing prompt using three theme words from Dr. Janice K Jones: "innocence," "courage," and "rebirth." Participants are invited to write poetry inspired by these words and share their work at the open mic event, or keep writing private. The prompt builds on previous seasons' cumulative theme words.
Three poetry prompts from Rabbit Room Poetry's Director of Content: Prompt #1 asks writers to produce one precise, concrete image inspired by Imagist poetry; Prompt #2 invites poetry in dialogue with the Bible; Prompt #3 explores humanity's role as sub-creators engaging with God's creation.
A Deep Image poetry prompt inspired by C.S. Lewis and Annie Finch, guiding writers to take a walk, journal observations, and transform concrete imagery into surrealist-adjacent poetry grounded in reality. The month's theme explores how landscape and surroundings become pools of imagery that reflect emotional states.
Write a poem, story, or memoir slice about a character noticing the beauty of a tender moment in an otherwise challenging life. The prompt draws inspiration from Dorianne Laux's 'On the Back Porch' and invites writers to capture a feeling of hard-won peace, with optional prompt words: glass, wing, floating, lint, promise, berries.
A prompt inviting readers to share which poems about anxiety resonate with their experience in the comments, and to recommend poems the author may have missed.
A weekend poetry prompt inspired by Egyptian poet Ahmed Douma's poem 'Zaytouna.' Writers are invited to explore the effect(s) that things have on us or our environment without needing language to convey their characteristics, and to reflect on what impacts their world with wisdom without saying a word. Responses can be shared in the chat or comments.
The Muse Jar is an ongoing project where readers submit words, memories, scents, or other inspirations, and the author randomly selects some to write poems about. Readers can submit items to be featured in future poems.
Write a story or poem inspired by a sad-looking motel sign. Readers are invited to imagine who stays at the Beauty Rest motel and why, exploring character and setting through creative fiction or verse.
A writing prompt inspired by the 'Poetry of Presence' event: write lines using the structure 'today, i won't (fill in the blank)' to explore saying no, setting boundaries, and celebrating what you're letting go of.
A monthly song-title poetry challenge where writers find garage songs or artists, create a medley of song titles, and arrange them into a poem using only the song titles (with optional clarification of attribution). Participants share their work in the comments, on Notes, or on their own posts.
Ecopoets' Corner is an ongoing community writing group for ecopoetry. Members engage with reading suggestions, writing prompts, and discussion of environmental themes and poetic strategies. Participants write in response to prompts and may share drafts or discuss their creative process.
Weekly haiku writing challenge: create a haiku (17 syllables in 5-7-5 format) inspired by the prompt theme 'STARS.' Writers share their compositions in the comments. This week's inspiration stems from the anniversary of Star Trek's final episode and the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Write a poem about leaving behind something society expects you to do, be, or perform. Share your poem in the comments for community feedback and support.
A weekly poetry prompt inviting writers to compose a poem about encountering an unexpected moment of holiness while alone in the world, inspired by Mary Oliver's poem "Drifting." Participants are invited to share their poems in the comments section by the following Sunday.
A collection of 25 poetry prompts for June designed to stretch imagination and explore new perspectives. Prompts range from evocative phrases like "Dissolve into the light" and "Meet me at the shoreline" to thematic explorations like "Sketching sorrow" and "The shape of joy." Readers are invited to write flexibly, adapt the prompts, and share results in comments or tag the author.
A seven-line poetry prompt framework designed to help writers connect with the magic of June and summer through guided lines about memory, seasons, and waiting. Writers can fill in the blanks or draw inspiration from the framework, and are invited to share their responses in comments or on Instagram.
A poetry prompt inviting readers to write a "sum of your life" poem inspired by the science fiction release Otherside. Poems may be shared with the community and selected pieces may be featured in Every Day Poems.
Write a poem that hinges on a transitive metaphor—a structure where three distinct but related things connect through comparison (A=B, B=C, therefore A=C). The prompt encourages writers to observe comparisons in daily life or generate them systematically, then explore surprising oblique relationships between similar things to create emotionally resonant poetry.
Write a personal snapshot in Dorothea Grossman's economical style, using as few lines as possible for impact. Consider incorporating a version of the phrase 'generous death' from Grossman's poem.
Write a poem to your 13-year-old self. The form doesn't matter; share your poetry in the comments. Use the Goal Guidance exercise as a starting point: identify one realistic goal your inner child would value, then let sensory preferences (taste, feel, touch, smell, see, hear) guide a simple goal to pursue this week.
Write a seven-line poem using the exact punctuation sequence from Zachary Schomburg's "Finger Moon" (! ? ! . . , .). The topic is open-ended; writers can create moon poetry or approach any subject, but must follow the specified end punctuation for each line.
Write a poem beginning with a simple statement of what you are observing in the first person (e.g., 'I am watching...'), then follow where the poem wants to go. The prompt draws from W.S. Merwin's approach to simple, powerful openings and encourages writers to trust the scaffolding of initial observation even if those lines are later deleted.
A month-long poetry challenge where writers create poems using only song titles (unmodified) from their favorite artists. Today is the final day, themed on endings and last things. Writers share their poems in the comments and engage with the community by reading and commenting on others' work.
Write a haiku about fog (or create something else involving fog in the spirit of a haiku), embracing the characteristics of contemporary English-language haiku—nature-based, present-tense, spare language, 5-7-5 syllable structure. The prompt encourages mindful play and happy imperfection in the wabi sabi spirit.
Write a microfiction story or prose poem (150 words or less) exploring an imaginary relationship with an iconic figure, alive or dead, with a personal connection. The piece should prioritize emotional sense over logical sense, incorporating oddly personal details and optional prompt words (gossamer, slant, dome, electricity, dappled, damp, harsh, peppermint).
A five-week writing prompt series inviting writers to explore themes of freedom, presence, and spontaneous creativity. Week 1 prompt asks writers to reflect on a summer memory when they felt absolutely free and to write about that experience without editing until after completion. Participants share responses in the community for writerly camaraderie and feedback.
Writing prompts formatted as phone wallpapers/lockscreens to inspire poetry. Designed to provide creative prompts when picking up your phone, encouraging writers to compose new poems or journal.
Write a poem that includes an animal and its behavior in the body of the piece, and/or experiment with short, concise lines for setting mood.
A month-long poetry writing challenge where participants create poems using only song titles as lines. Daily letter assignments guide selection of artists (one artist per day in alphabetical order), with themes like 'summer hit songs' and other variations. Participants can share poems in comments or as newsletter posts and receive community feedback.
A reflective writing prompt inviting readers to write 4–6 lines beginning with "I didn't expect this to affect me, but…" as an exercise in exploring emotional honesty and personal connection to poetry.
A writing prompt inviting readers to explore confinement and liberation in response to Maya Angelou's legacy. Writers are asked to examine what tried to confine them (expectations, wounds, family stories, illness, stereotypes, fear) and let their poem move from constraint toward self-recognition, carrying both bruise and breakthrough.
A month-long poetry challenge for May 2026 where writers create poems using only song titles from a chosen artist, organized alphabetically by letter. Each day features a letter assignment, and writers are invited to share their poems in the comments and read others' work. The challenge celebrates music and community engagement.
A month-long poetry prompt calendar with 30 daily writing prompts for June. Prompts include exercises on form (litanies, ekphrasis, contrapuntals, ditties, odes), craft techniques (consonance, assonance, alliteration, slant rhyme), thematic explorations (grief, mental health, memory, nature, identity), and readings from established poets like Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, and others. Suited to poets of all levels.
A writing prompt inviting poets to explore an ordinary ritual or repeated gesture that carries hidden emotional weight. The prompt encourages close attention to physical details (textures, gestures, sounds, light) and the emotional meaning emerging gradually through concrete imagery, with structured constraints around emotional restraint and physical specificity.
A nature-inspired writing prompt inviting readers to write a poem or story inspired by botanical symbolism and magical herbs studied throughout May. Writers may optionally use a forbidden word list to increase creative challenge, or alternatively write using all those words. Submissions shared in comments have a chance to be featured in the Brown Study Booklet literary magazine.
A weekly word-capture writing exercise: spend 2 minutes listing words for things you see around you, then optionally use those words in figurative language exercises (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, allusion) or in a poem or story about the topic 'I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU FORGOT'.
Write about the end of forever—whether something you thought would last forever has ended, will end, or some other formulation of this theme. This prompt emerged from Marjorie's Table's live workshop on Ishion Hutchinson's poetry.
A month-long poetry challenge in May where writers compose poems using only song titles as lines, one artist per day in alphabetical order. Poems can be shared in comments or as separate posts; community feedback and reading others' work is encouraged.
A weekly haiku writing challenge inviting readers to create a 17-syllable poem (5-7-5 structure) inspired by the theme 'PLANE.' Participants can share their haikus in the comments for community feedback and engagement.
A month-long poetry challenge where writers create poems using only song titles from a single artist per day. Each day in May focuses on a different letter of the alphabet, with participants selecting an artist and composing poems (sonnets, stanzas, or other forms) using only that artist's song titles without modification. Writers share their work in the comments community.
A writing prompt inspired by films about characters who insist their made-up scenarios are real. Writers choose from seven scenario starters (a person in love with an inanimate object, a child with a stuffed animal, belief in time travel, magical powers, animal identity, ghost communication, or conspiracy theories) and develop a short story, essay, poem, or work-in-progress.
Submit a poem aligned with the monthly theme of 'change' (May's theme is 'Transformation & Escape') for consideration to be featured on the read poetry page. Open to subscribers.
A month-long poetry writing challenge where participants write poems using only song titles from artists of their choice, organized by letter of the alphabet (one artist per day). Participants can write in any poetic form and are encouraged to share their work in the comments and read others' contributions.
Write a 15-line poem about a small memory you haven't yet written about, withholding the central fact until near the end where a single image, measurement, or noun reveals the anagnorisis and makes the whole poem turn. Keep your voice level and let the reader move through the poem as you moved through the moment.
A seven-line poetry prompt framework designed to help writers connect with the Full Moon in Sagittarius. The prompt uses fill-in-the-blank lines and thematic keywords (fire, wildness, illumination, wisdom, yearning) to guide the creation of a poem. No external publication required.
A picture prompt inviting writers to compose a poem, short story, or freewrite based on a provided image. Writers are encouraged to spend at least 7 minutes on the exercise and may optionally share their work in the comments.
Write a poem using the 'due to the loss of' formula inspired by L.L. Barkat's poem 'Due to the Loss of Field Roast Artisan Grain Sausage.' The monthly theme is motherhood. Share your poem in the comments.
Write a poem about the circumstances of a birth—confine your literal description to the birth itself, but let your figurative description express or imply the world that comes after, the world of whatever or whoever is being born. Inspired by Patricia Smith's persona-driven approach to depicting birth from multiple perspectives.
Write a poem in conversation with Van Gogh's painting "Wheat Field with Crows," imagining the artist's final weeks, the landscape as a portrait of grief, or your own interpretation of the work. Share your poem in the comments by May 31st.
A weekly poetry prompt inspired by Brenda Hillman's experimental work. Writers are invited to create poetry that uses form, formatting, punctuation, space, and symbols to distill experience on the page and create tangible effects through visual arrangement.
A daily poetry-writing challenge for the month of June, inspired by prompts and submissions to The Muse Jar project. The author aims to write one poem per day throughout June, drawing on themes of love, grief, trauma, and human connection.
Submit a word, memory, smell, image, line, question, or any spark of inspiration to the Muse Jar. The author will randomly select submissions and write poems inspired by them. Free to submit, with optional donations.
Write eight lines of poetry in response to eight starter prompts about time, then arrange them into a pantoum (a 16-line form using repeated lines in a specific pattern). Optional sharing in comments. No external publication goal; for the reader's own creative practice.
Choose one emotion and one animal, connect them (e.g., 'the rodent of desire'), give the emotional animal a final quote, then work backward stacking sentences to the beginning. Share your result in comments or on social media tagging neonpajamas and/or Lesle Lewis.
Submit a word, wish, emoji, or any prompt of your choice, and the author will write a poem in response. Free to submit; donations and paid subscribers are prioritized. Open throughout June 2026 with a goal of one poem per day.
A month-long poetry challenge where writers create poems using only song titles from a single artist, organized alphabetically by letter. Writers share poems in comments or as posts, with community interaction and feedback.
A writing prompt asking readers to recall a dream and answer structured questions about its central goal, stakes, obstacles, emotional tone, and ending. Writers are then invited to compose a story, poem, or play based on their dream and share the result in the comments.
A month-long poetry challenge for May where writers create poems using only song titles from a single artist per day. Each day features a different letter of the alphabet, and writers are invited to share their poems in the comments community. Friendships and reader engagement are encouraged.
Write a short poem (ideally 4 lines or fewer) exploring your own relationship with poetry, optionally inspired by Mirza Ghalib's 'About My Poems.' The prompt invites playful self-reflection and wordplay, with the option to write freely without constraints.
A month-long poetry writing challenge where poets create poems using only song titles from a single artist per day, with each day assigned a letter of the alphabet. Writers share their work in comments and build community through reading and commenting on others' poems.
Write about an emotion without naming the emotion itself, using only imagery, objects, movement, or sound to let the reader feel it on their own.
A weekly writing prompt challenging writers to create a grimdark fairy tale that is also cozy, without losing darker elements. Responses are shared in the comments for a possible shout-out in the following week's episode.
A month-long daily poetry challenge during May where writers compose poems using only song titles from a single artist, with a different starting letter assigned each day (A-Z and beyond). Writers may post poems in comments or as separate posts, can write multiple poems for different artists, and are encouraged to engage with others' work and build community.
Monthly poetry prompt released on the first Friday of each month, inviting writers to create poems inspired by song titles.
A month-long poetry writing challenge where participants compose poems using only song titles from a single artist, organized alphabetically by letter. Writers may post multiple poems using different artists per letter, and are encouraged to share their work and engage with the community.
Write about what you can see when lying sleepless, or the act of crawling into bed and falling asleep immediately. This takeaway prompt follows a live workshop examining poetry by Daniel Sluman.
A 100-word micro-fiction writing challenge inspired by the 1992 film Unforgiven. Writers compose a story, poem, or creative non-fiction piece using exactly 100 words and share it in the comments. Part of a monthly series where each prompt is drawn from a movie title.
A writing prompt inspired by Maggie Smith's poetry collection, specifically the title "This Human Life." The prompt is designed to spark a train-of-thought about identity, self-perception, and reclaiming hidden strength, as demonstrated in the accompanying poem.
A weekly haiku prompt inviting readers to create a 17-syllable poem (5-7-5 structure) inspired by the theme of CITY. Readers are encouraged to share their work in the comments section.
