from Itters: "Want to know / But not wanting to Google it / Pure juice of loss / The Top 40 offered to be his sex thPoems about...I'm not really sure.
from Itters: "Want to know / But not wanting to Google it / Pure juice of loss / The Top 40 offered to be his sex therapist / A kryptonic geometry where curves are really muted corners"
from Walking Tour of an Imaginary Homeland: "The airplane inside us was running out of pretzels / We took the drugs in the morning so we could see at night / All day clinging to ghastly seaweed on the naked internet ocean"
from Except: "I am alive after all I am / alive but the floating dander // of the dying stings my nostrils I / am alive centipede after gnat"...more
A collection of poems written as letter back and forth between two poets. Themes of disability, the body, survival, friendship, and illness.
from DearA collection of poems written as letter back and forth between two poets. Themes of disability, the body, survival, friendship, and illness.
from Dear S—: "Half the nights / I don't know my body when I wake to it, / and there's grief in the returning, remembering / pain, familiar as a fist I know. In the morning, / I wake and my body wears bruises I didn't make, / or don't remember making."
from Dear M—: "I've turned off all the lights, / closed every door, but the littler / selves come tumbling out no matter / what I do: they tug at the hem / of my dress, until I stop and say / their names."
from Dear Maker: "Most stories lack magic: your lungs are too small, / so you can't breathe, so you don't breathe,, . so you die. Or almost die, and then / there's just a life, full of a lot of things that / have no place in myth: scalpel and stitches / and too many dishes in the kitchen sink."...more
A collection of poems about grief, motherhood, desire, family, and hope.
from Who the Letters Were From: "He was the father / of my dictionary. He wasA collection of poems about grief, motherhood, desire, family, and hope.
from Who the Letters Were From: "He was the father / of my dictionary. He was an irreplaceable // rhyme for baby. He was my third / love, my second chance, a trampoline's notion // of romance. Maybe now, maybe then, / maybe if, or so the end refrains. He was one // of a number of mistakes I made / for which I don't take the blame."
from The Next to Last to First Kiss: "For some time after, I thought / we might get married, though I met him / only once. Oh fate you are the glorious / queen of the prom. I vote for you over and over."
from Poem without Antigone: "And I was again a girl among many, / the verb through which I existed / having been translated from a past / so definitively past that the dead / felt no need to apologize."...more
A collection of poems about identity, race, enslavement, and freedom.
from Farm Book: "In my student's / poem, the house stands for womanhood, pain coA collection of poems about identity, race, enslavement, and freedom.
from Farm Book: "In my student's / poem, the house stands for womanhood, pain coiled / in the drywall. Sorrow warps the planks, pulling nails / from ribs. In Kentucky, I'm the only black teacher / some of my students have ever met, & that pulls me / somewhere."
from The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy: "Such an odd jumble of things might spoil you for good. / The right sauce, served wrong, only glazes the error. / We all hope we shall be forgiven in high style."
from How It Feels to Love Butler Smith: "You don't love him, exactly. You love the wagon / of his name, long letters filling up // with leaves & peeling back."...more
A collection of poems invoking ancestors, spells, and obsessions.
from Whole 30: "After a winter of gluttony & grief / I'm back on plan for good this tA collection of poems invoking ancestors, spells, and obsessions.
from Whole 30: "After a winter of gluttony & grief / I'm back on plan for good this time. / I've ballooned to a specific kind of ugly // the kind you hope to hide / with body spray. But it gets worse / after a winter of gluttony & grief."
from First Girdle: "For the glob of a girl who feeds like a grub. For her teeming belly-apron. For her frowning navel, sunk like a moon in the night-night lake."
from Political Poem: The country is not what it was. I miss the arc of / green fireworks in spring & the moral / bellies of lake trout rolled in flour. This universe is / so dry, star-sharp. Each day, my arms grow long but / never reach the freedom shore."...more
A collection of poems about being an immigrant, first-generation American, family, and identity.
from My Therapist Says Make Friends with Your MonstersA collection of poems about being an immigrant, first-generation American, family, and identity.
from My Therapist Says Make Friends with Your Monsters: "we are gathered in truth, / because my therapist said / it was time to stop running, // & i pay my therapist too much / to be wrong, so here I am."
from Boy & The Belt: "maybe the belt & the boy can rebel. the boy tugs at the thread that will bring dad & the belt. the boy won't lie about his bruised brother or call it anything noble. the boy fights because he is bigger, dad says he has no choice. the belt says it has no choice. the boy understands he displeases god. when the belt meets the boy, the belt kisses the boy & leaves purple lipstick."
from Not-Love is a Season: "i drank fire, a dozen blankets // couldn't keep me from shivering. / winter is an unavoidable fact, // unless you're from Cali & / i don't trust people who don't know // the freeze of loneliness."...more
A collection of poems about identity, queerness, Hong Kong and China, and family.
from Biased Biography of My Father: "who turned the corner / of his aA collection of poems about identity, queerness, Hong Kong and China, and family.
from Biased Biography of My Father: "who turned the corner / of his adolescence like that & bragged / about the turn, whose brag was the man / was his wound, whose wounds / are public & his palms never a poetic / domain"
from 101. Taipei: "I have become a witness standing by your loneliness. All winter long, / a raw anticipation aches. Everyone in this city crawls toward everyone / less sad-looking now."
from Grindr: "A serious rainbow lover. / Like it with the lights off. // Like it more when a man nods / in the dark, denying // that one of us is nodding." ...more
A collection of poems about identity, family, growing up as a Black man in America, acceptance, violence, and hope.
from Keep Your Mouth Shut: "Keep aA collection of poems about identity, family, growing up as a Black man in America, acceptance, violence, and hope.
from Keep Your Mouth Shut: "Keep a journal that can never be / found, chiseled on the underside of your skull. / Keep your metaphors in bird cages."
from Newton's Third Law / Negritude's First Law: "I praise and cuss by parting the same lips / and there's not one thing you can say to / persuade me that God doesn't like gangsters / or appreciate their habitual leans."
from "I Like My Women Like I Like My Cars": "E. tells me straight up with zero hesitation—meaning white- / bodied. Good motor. Low mileage. Grips tight to dark asphalt."...more
A collection of poems about identity, sexuality, love, desire, and family.
from Amsterdam: "I am a woman and last time, I was a girl / and when you areA collection of poems about identity, sexuality, love, desire, and family.
from Amsterdam: "I am a woman and last time, I was a girl / and when you are a girl, all you see is another girl / and when you are a woman, all you see is the history / careering towards a girl whom you cannot protect."
from White People Always Want to Tell Me That They Grew Up Poor: "White people / like to remind you // that you are Indian, not black. // Black people / never say that to you. // they make / a home for you / inside / their archives. // It is like an elegy."
from The Poet Holds a Gun: "The bullet is a simple, adolescent heartache. / When guns go off around you, you wince like a single sheet / and nothing in your body has ever been so simultaneous"...more
A collection of poems about gender, technology, survival, being Black, violence, and safety.
from My Past Has Value: "to the men who never knew me / tA collection of poems about gender, technology, survival, being Black, violence, and safety.
from My Past Has Value: "to the men who never knew me / then. If pretty now, think how pretty when / so newly wounded in a world. / They paid for rent, / spent hundreds on this girl's birthday steaks. / Men away from wives / on work trips are simple men / with simpler desires. Of what did I / remind them?"
from Maine Coast: "I watch the ocean square into a turning // Burn. Burning, my holes glass over. Lightning // Hits the beach, melts me shut. I've drowned // Before, in the bye along a row of shored // Rocks."
from The Darkest Winter: "You and I: we've been silent since / its start. / Count every unclaimed word / between us and the sum runs // the river and back."...more
A collection of poems about race, identity, family, fatherhood, and America.
from Soft Prayer for the Teething: "Be it the miracle wounding. / Be it thA collection of poems about race, identity, family, fatherhood, and America.
from Soft Prayer for the Teething: "Be it the miracle wounding. / Be it the tearing of one's own / body to allow invasion. Be it / the song that won't be suppressed/ / The courtship that only happens / at nightfall."
from Inheritance: "I don't h old any sin // separate from / the father. I take // all the history / into my mouth / and swallow / without tasting."
from Pledge to Raising a Black Girl: "I mean, if there's anything I'm perfect at, it's still being alive and maybe that's worth / passing on, maybe she doesn't mind reminding / people every day how impossible that is." ...more
A collection of poems about J. Robert Oppenheimer and his work on the Manhattan Project.
from Risk/Benefit: "If your job is to spare, mine is to squandA collection of poems about J. Robert Oppenheimer and his work on the Manhattan Project.
from Risk/Benefit: "If your job is to spare, mine is to squander, / to waste whole afternoons watching tumbleweeds succumb to wind / so that you may be relieved to discover how little one life is worth."
from Notes from the Target Committee, I. Tokyo: "The reconnaissance photos return / x-rays of a doomed lung / from thirty-two thousand feet, // white heads of cauliflower / blooming from the cavity, / tissue aggregating tissues, // tumors of white fire against the black / negative."
from Parable of the Children: "Not because we were wanted but because it's lonely being married // to the keeper / of human time, // our mother retrieved us to the world: // not the place / we'd left // —where the gods enjoyed / what they failed to recognize // as a golden age— // but the one we'd been warned about."...more
A collection of poems about queerness, theater, family, acceptance, and trans identity.
from People You May Know: "Every day I write a poem titled / ToA collection of poems about queerness, theater, family, acceptance, and trans identity.
from People You May Know: "Every day I write a poem titled / Tomorrow. // It is a handwritten list / of the people I know / who love me. / I make sure to put / my own name at the top."
from I Am Scrolling Through Instagram and Crying: "maybe bc, to the water, / my body is arbitrary. maybe bc i am scrolling along // convinced i am building bridges when all i have done / is given myself something to jump from"
from Rewrites: "Romeo & Juliet / but this time— // Juliet doesn't text back, / Romeo embraces his bi-curiosity, / he & Mercutio kiss a lot, / & no one advises a young girl / to drink all that NyQuil"...more
A collection of poems about life, growing up, family, and motherhood.
from The Life: "Theirs / is a heaven with no elsewhere, // a heaven with no hell.A collection of poems about life, growing up, family, and motherhood.
from The Life: "Theirs / is a heaven with no elsewhere, // a heaven with no hell. / For them there are three times: // the beforelife, which is nothing, / the life, and the afterlife, which is // everything. Who knows? Maybe / they're right."
from Cold: "I think he's going to // turn good, my son says. / And I say, Hope so, because // I know how much he loves a bad guy / who just needs one experience // of goodness to turn good / himself—good again, finally // good, his evil so simple, just pain / and fear and shame"
from First: "My heart is so giant / this evening, like one of those moons / so full it's disturbing, so full that / if you see it when you're get of the car you have to go inside the house / and make someone else come out / and see it for themselves." ...more
A collection of poems about pop culture, icons, magicians, and strange tales.
from Two-Headed Taxidermied Calf: "I hated myself for pitying it— / nearA collection of poems about pop culture, icons, magicians, and strange tales.
from Two-Headed Taxidermied Calf: "I hated myself for pitying it— / nearly thirty years dead, and alive / for only a few hours— / as if that could do any good. / But there was something / in its tender swirls of ochre hair / that the amateur taxidermist / couldn't quite make / laughable."
from The Plagiarist: "I only steal from the ones / you've never heard of, / the ones whose fingers / shook too hard to hold / a pen, the ones who froze / with their heads to the ground / like cattle in a blizzard, / the ones who drowned / like witches in their sleep."
from Dear Bruce Wayne,: "My parents are dead, too. / A dirty, self-cannibalizing Gotham— / I also claim it, its city limits / built by my skin. I slough / and slough, but the city remains." ...more
A collection about identity, race, growing up Black in America, family, and survival.
from America: "America is full of magicians, / the way they stayA collection about identity, race, growing up Black in America, family, and survival.
from America: "America is full of magicians, / the way they stay catching bullets. / The greatest illusion, / how the trick is replicated. We see Black— / I mean, American bodies / disappear / each wee, / yet there's never blood on anyone's hands."
from Wishing Well: "She is praying to any god she can find / that an officer does not make a hashtag out of me, / does not make me body-bag beautiful."
from The Last Conversation Between Malcolm X and His Daughter: "They will say I wanted to be bigger / than the Black Muslim movement but / will say nothing about how / I wanted Black freedom to be the religion."...more
Stitched on Me is a collection of poetry that every woman -- especially those of us in/approaching middle age -- needs to read. Full of wit and wisdomStitched on Me is a collection of poetry that every woman -- especially those of us in/approaching middle age -- needs to read. Full of wit and wisdom, with a "no f-cks to give" attitude, you'll see yourself, or someone you know, reflected back in these poems.
from The Witch Explains Herself to Snow White: "Don't be scared, Snow honey. I don't want / your beauty. Didn't I already have it? // Didn't I once wear my dress so low, my lips / so red? Didn't I once serve the house of little men? // I did, Snow honey, I did. For too long, far too long. / Years of scraping and bowing and pretending // the sound of my mouth was singing, not screaming."
from Woman Becoming Winston Churchill: "It happened after menopause. My waistline and comfort with power grew imperceptibly until one day I found myself having whiskey at breakfast and convincing America to enter the war. Older women knew this would happen, but they didn't tell me. Politics. When you're young, you want to be lithe, diplomatic. You want to appease everyone."
I saw myself in so many of these poems and you will too. Buy it for everyone woman you know, we all need a battle cry. ...more
A collection of poems about identity, queerness, family, fitting in and love.
from Pride Month: "It was June and I was / awake past midnight gatheringA collection of poems about identity, queerness, family, fitting in and love.
from Pride Month: "It was June and I was / awake past midnight gathering news about the Pulse / nightclub shooting. I fell asleep knowing I would wake / to walk against grief in waves."
from Albino: "The white peacock is in love / & that is all that I see. Dear / Spanish fan, immaculate flutter. / His feathers undulate & ask to be touched. Soft prince, / how your careful blankness / staggers. / The world defines itself / by your plumed horizon."
from Courtship: "I try on crowns // because I walk the walk. With age / we learn the lines of our bodies. // Don't tell me what's unbecoming / for a woman: I was raised on magazines."
A collection of poems by Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American poets about the war in Ukrainian.
from Words by Yuliya Musakovska: "Our words / are stretchiA collection of poems by Ukrainian and Ukrainian-American poets about the war in Ukrainian.
from Words by Yuliya Musakovska: "Our words / are stretching to those dear to us - to everyone who is scattered / around the country's map with bullet holes in it. / Words - like the strong connecting wires attached to the heart, / along the tight ropes of lasting together."
from Sirens by Nadiya Adriivna Romanenko: "Today I was woken up by a lone rocket fragment's explosion / Now I am passing the codes with my trembling hands / But my fingers would love to squeeze yours / In a most tender frozen embrace"
from Dear Ukraine by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach: "This expanse is nothing // but a singing wound. / Forgive its music as you burn and bleed and I drive / my children to daycare and sob in my car / then go on with the day while you tug and tear / at me, Ukraine—thorn, anchor, stone, seed."...more
A collection of poems that chronicle the poet's battle with schizophrenia, with notes/intros to may of the poems by her psychiatrist.
from Junior MissA collection of poems that chronicle the poet's battle with schizophrenia, with notes/intros to may of the poems by her psychiatrist.
from Junior Miss: "You toss off a shrug / like a compliment / with a flicker of disdain // catching the whistle / in midair and / pitching it back again."
from Offering: "The tip of the cigarette glows and grins / as I lower it to you, / unlover, / alien body."
from Acrophobia: "It's no secret you long / to fall, don't you, through all / that blue breathless air, / want the kind of danger that is / taken in like food, though / your weight is pinning you, / the flesh of your shadow / is too tethered to earth." ...more
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