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Poems

Begin in delight, end in wisdom.

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    • Poem of the Day

      Sea-Fever

      By John Masefield
      I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
      And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
      And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s...

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    • Audio Poem of the Day
      Audio

      Shell

      From Audio Poem of the Day July 2022

      By Harriet Brown

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Chicago

      By Carl Sandburg
      Hog Butcher for the World,
         Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
         Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
         Stormy, husky, brawling,
         City of the Big Shoulders:

      They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the...

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Featured This Month
  • Detail of "Summer Grasses" by Sara Katz
    Summer Poems
    collection
    By The Editors

    Poems to make you one with the sun.

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  • Bright rainbow-colored background with a grunge texture and graffitti paint drops.
    LGBTQ+ Pride Poems
    collection
    By The Editors & Robert Eric Shoemaker

    A collection of poems and essays by LGBTQ+ poets on topics and themes of identity, gender, and sexuality.

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Poem Guides
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Schools and Movements

From the Poetry Magazine Archive
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine june 8, the smiley barista remembers my name

      By Wo Chan
      Beauty on earth so blue, even the cheese flowers
      a culture with no democracy...    Yesterday (for example),
      I ate the same sandwich I eat every week: eggplant
      roasted in red pepper aioli, a focaccia jammed full
      by arugula, capers sweaty in browned butter....

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine The Month of June: 13 1/2

      By Sharon Olds
      As our daughter approaches graduation and   
      puberty at the same time, at her
      own, calm, deliberate, serious rate,
      she begins to kick up her heels, jazz out her   
      hands, thrust out her hipbones, chant
      I’m great! I’m great! She feels 8th grade coming   
      open around her,...

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Marriage

      By Baku Yamanoguchi
      Whenever poetry saw me
      It cried out, “Marriage, marriage.”
      Thinking back, I see that I was
      Most eager to marry.
      In other words,
      There are various states in this world:
      The state of getting soaked in the rain,
      The state of being blown by the wind...

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