Poetry Daily

Leg

Danusha Laméris

I think of how I've come to call her sister, dropping the suffix. We've known each other since she was three and I was six. And I don't know what a sister is if not an other, a fragile mirror, space of tenderness. Female, and mortal, and afraid.

from the journal The Southern Review

Report: "On Sunday, Ayad read out The Ruler by Iraqi poet Ahmed Matar on air. Matar is famous for his satirical and critical poems about dictators from the Arab world. Ayad was arrested soon after."
(BBC News)
#pdnews
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58821420

Announcement: "Artists applying to the nation’s first artist residency program will no longer have to submit reference letters as part of their application."
(Los Angeles Times)
#pdnews
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-10-14/macdowell-artists-residency-drops-reference-letters-requirement-for-now

Conversation: "We are always faced with the limits of language and language’s inability to represent the unspeakable."
(The Adroit Journal Blog)
#pdnews
https://theadroitjournal.org/2021/09/30/the-elasticity-of-language-a-conversation-with-daniel-borzutzky/

Excerpt: "From your letter we gather that your heart may be taken, but that your head is still up for grabs."
(LitHub)
#pdnews
https://lithub.com/wislawa-szymborska-on-learning-to-write-from-life/

Review: "Tishani Doshi’s stunning new poetry collection, A God at the Door, performs the difficult task of locating the body within the broader politics of state power and gender."
(The Hindu)
#pdnews
https://www.thehindu.com/books/pliny-dont-preach-k-srilata-reviews-tishani-doshis-a-god-at-the-door/article36891731.ece

What Sparks Poetry

Building Community

What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature in which we invite poets to explore experiences and ideas that spark new poems.

In our occasional series, Building Community, we spotlight connections between our work on the page and our work in the community. In each issue, we pair a poem and writing prompt from our featured poet with an interview that explores what poetry brings to our neighborhoods, cities, and the wider world – and what community makes possible for poetry itself.

This week's issue: Rosemarie Dombrowski on Public Poetry and Public Health

Catch Up on Recent Poems

October 14, 2021

Brought to You by the Letter S

Parker Hobson

There is a thin, curvy line between laughter and slaughter, I try yelling to you on the roller coaster but my timing is off, our shark bodies flung into runaway cursive, vestigial Converses dragging serifs across the clouds.

October 13, 2021

Epithalamium

Derrick Austin

Today I'm happy by myself wandering this creek's paths of sand and crushed shells, what used to be submerged.

October 12, 2021

Tenants

Jane Wong

Above: my neighbor's feet, fussing from room to room, velvet hooves tendering my head. Was the fruitcake curdling? Would the mail make it there on time? (it must make it there on time)?

October 11, 2021

Anti-Chlorinated Feminism

Rosemarie Dombrowski

that the inventory of the body is equivalent to the trauma that comes from crop-dust in our eyes . . .

Poetry Daily Depends on You

With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.

Meet Our Editorial Board

Each member of our diverse board selects poems for our daily poem feature and works with us to identify new outstanding, interesting publications for our thousands of daily readers.

B&W Photo of Dana Levin by B.A. Van Sise — Dana Levin

Phillip B. Williams