Poetry Daily

Contemplating the Cod I’d seen it dancing. But I couldn’t spy its spine when the sun spun.

Today's Feature:

"Contemplating the Cod" by Belle Ling from Nebulous Vertigo published by Tupelo Press

Read here:
poems.com/poem/contemp...

Another Life I’m writing love on a serviette as mourners gather on a mound for the disgraced dead, still in grave-clothes underfoot—

Today's Feature:

What Sparks Poetry: Medha Singh on "Another Life"

Read here:
poems.com/poem/another...

An Initiation to the Lesser Mysteries that rhyme that rhymes life with time- lessness, lessness, or moreness, the nevermind

Today's Feature:

"An Initiation to the Lesser Mysteries" by Dan Beachy-Quick from @harvardreview.bsky.social, #63

Read here:
poems.com/poem/an-init...

Hear a Door To touch the light, you must believe first In the lucid ghost of grief.

Today's Feature:

"Hear a Door" by Ernest Jésùyẹmí from A Pocket of Genesis published by @variantlit.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/hear-a-...

Pornography There is no universe where he is not a hitchhiker asking a rancher for help, where he is not plugged in like a lamp.

Today’s Feature:

“Pornography” by Richard Siken from I Do Know Some Things published by @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

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Algo in the genocide And I won’t use the word genocide

Today’s Feature:

“Algo in the genocide” by Omar Sakr from The Nightmare Sequence published by Nightboat books

Read here:
poems.com/poem/algo-in...

Take Me to Stavanger Take me to Stavanger. With limpid northern eyes

Today’s Feature:

“Take Me to Stavanger” by Anzhelina Polonskaya, translated by Andrew Wachtel from Take Me to Stavanger published by @upittpress.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/take-me...

Shape of Boy A boy is dragged along the floor.

Today's Feature:

"Shape of Boy" by Lee Sumyeong, translated from Korean by Colin Leemarshall from Just Like published by @blackoceanbooks.bsky.social

Read here:

Pinto Cemetery There is no grass. Just fabric flowers thin from sun. A chain link fence. A flagpole. No flag.

Today's Feature:

What Sparks Poetry: Millie Tullis on "Pinto Cemetery"

Read here:
poems.com/poem/pinto-c...

Melancholy & Spirits Walking the frozen deck, making repairs to the caul of light, you guard us with candles

Today's Feature:

"Melancholy & Spirits" by @benjamingantcher.bsky.social from The Coronation of the Ghost published by Cornerstone Press

Read here:
poems.com/poem/melanch...

red-chested & unequivocally american fireworks crack open my chest.

Today's Feature:

"red-chested & unequivocally american" by Sabrina Siew from Black Warrior Review, #52.1

Read here:
poems.com/poem/red-che...

[The day was like a forest of stone...] I have been in more than one ossuary on my travels Skulls lined up like nouns for schoolchildren

Today’s Feature:

[The day was like a forest of stone...] by Stephen Kuusisto from Close Escapes published by @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/the-day...

Music, or Immortality My uncle breeds like the fish. His music, like the universe, has its own end where there is no end.

Today's Feature:

"Music, or Immortality" by Tares Oburumu from Origins of the Syma Species published by @univnebpress.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/music-o...

The Stairs I heard my voice from below: It called me by my name.

Today's Feature:

"The Stairs" by Ulalume González de León, translated by @terryehret.bsky.social and Nancy J. Morales from Plagios/Plagiarisms, vol. 3 published by Sixteen Rivers Press

Read here:
poems.com/poem/the-sta...

I Must Listen to the Birds but the state stole all my good metaphors

Today's Feature:

"I Must Listen to the Birds" by @deesoulpoetry.com from @kenyonreview.bsky.social, Spring 2025

Read here:
poems.com/poem/i-must-...

Secrets of the Snow The night of the heavy snow My room filled with butterflies and water lilies Till morning I sat with them in gardens Snow all day Snow all night

Today's Feature:

What Sparks Poetry: Holly Mason Badra on "Sleeping in the Courtyard: Contemporary Kurdish Writers in Diaspora"

Read here:
poems.com/poem/secrets...

Parents and pleasantries are pleasantest as boundaries

Today's Feature:

"Parents" by D. A. Fisher from Yale Review, Winter 2025

Read here:
poems.com/poem/parents/

Pageantry I have this fantasy where I'm force- fed what's best for me

Today's Feature:

"Pageantry" by Jody Chan from Impact Statement published by Brick Books

Read here:
poems.com/poem/pageant...

The Living Palette wood, thread, lemon rind, aluminum foil over papier- mâché.

Today's Feature:

"The Living" by Daniel Schonning from As When Waking published by @uchicagopress.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/the-liv...

what are these signs?, asks the woman what are these drawings large and small that name things, that summon them return them to presence,

Today’s Feature:

“what are these signs?, asks the woman” by Mayra Santos-Febres, translated by Seth Michelson from Tripwire #22

Read here:

#21 let's talk about the flag ... a poem starts like this;

Today's Feature:

"#21" by Mihret Kebede, translated by Anna Moschovakis from #evolutionarypoems published by Circumference Books

Read here:

Two Poems from <em>You Must Live: New Poetry from Palestine</em> From the crowd, the hospital is far, the sky persists in its deliriums, blue and green are gone, and there's only ashes in my eyes.

Today's Feature:

"The Hospital is Far Away" by Nasser Rabah and "We will meet, don't be in such a rush" by Hala al-Shrouf from You Must Live: New Poetry from Palestine published by @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/two-poe...

Woof, This Heat What a wonder that among the worst things that has ever happened in her life is Loretta Lynn.

Today’s Feature:

What Sparks Poetry: Kate Partridge on “Woof, This Heat”

Read here:
poems.com/poem/woof-th...

Lesbian Heaven All the girlfriends you ever went with are together now, and they're all getting along.

Today’s Feature:

“Lesbian Heaven” by Lynn Lonidier from Fire-Rimmed Eden published by Sinister Wisdom

Read here:
poems.com/poem/lesbian...

[A song comes out of each object...] He's carrying so many secrets in his head, the afterlives of love, desires that are concrete for an instant but then evaporate

Today's Feature:

[A song comes out of each object…] by Jean Follain, translated from French by Andrew Seguin from Earthly published by @thesongcave.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/a-song-...

Then Death Came Like a Hammer Not a Metaphor As if to speak the body is to stroke the sack of it. As if what remains will be comprehensible.

Today’s Feature:

“Then Death Came Like a Hammer Not a Metaphor” by Dawn Lundy Martin from Instructions for the Lovers published by Nightboat Books

Read here:
poems.com/poem/then-de...

[I am the hero with] I am the hero with ten thousand enemies—

Today's Feature:

[I am the hero with] by @adamhughespoetry.bsky.social from Pluck published by BOA Editions

Read here:
poems.com/poem/i-am-th...

Hey folks, happy Black History Month. Got a new poem, “À la Mode” (after Ashia Ajani) fresh out the ice box into your inbox for a return visit in Poetry Daily. First published last year in Southern Humanities Review, selected by @gabriellebates.bsky.social, go give it a read! Love y’all 💛✊🏾✨

À la Mode The day dries me flowers & I thaw to someone tolerable. The day calls me

Today's Feature:

"À la Mode" by @williekinardiii.bsky.social from Southern Humanities Review, vol 58.2

Read here:

Half Day The results of that pregnancy test were everywhere.

Today's Feature:

"Half Day" by Mike Carlson from Tips to Help You Do Your Best published by @tupelopress.bsky.social

Read here:
poems.com/poem/half-day/