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Take the I Out
By Sharon Olds
But I love the I, steel I-beam
that my father sold. They poured the pig iron
into the mold, and it fed out slowly,
a bending jelly in the bath, and it hardened,
Bessemer, blister, crucible, alloy, and he
marketed it, and bought bourbon, and...
Ultimately Everything Becomes Boring
By Sri Chinmoy
Ultimately everything
Becomes boring.
Even great miracles
Become boring.
Even the tremendous powers of…
Cyrus & the Snakes
By Ada Limón
My brother holds a snake by its head. The whole
            length of the snake is the length

of my brother’s body. The snake’s head
            is held safely, securely, as if my brother

is showing him something in the distant high grass.
            I...
The Magnificent Frigatebird
By Ada Limón
Is it okay to begin with the obvious? I am full of stones—
is it okay not to look out this window, but to look out another?

A mentor once said, You can't start a poem...
Calling Things What They Are
By Ada Limón
I pass the feeder and yell, Grackle party! And then an hour later I yell, Mourning dove afterparty! (I call the feeder the party and the seed on the ground the afterparty.) I am getting so good at watching that...
Totem
By R. L. Swihart
The young man says, “Alan can
do anything he wants”

“Not fly,” I say

The young man returns
a puzzled look…
Gratitude
By Cornelius Eady
I’m here
to tell you
an old story.
This
Appears to be
my work.
I live
in the world,
Walk
the streets…
I’m a Fool to Love You
By Cornelius Eady
Some folks will tell you the blues is a woman,
Some type of supernatural creature.
My mother would tell…
Mrs. Butterworth, Uncle Ben & Aunt Jemima
By Frank X Walker
...walk into a bar in America.
Butterworth says, I’m being repackaged.
Ben says, I’m being rebranded.
Jemima says, I remember
when they branded my mama on her back.

The bartender says, I could stand in the middle
of Main Street and kill somebody
and I wouldn’t...
Intimacy
By Paisley Rekdal
How horrible it is, how horrible
that Cronenberg film where Goldblum’s trapped

with a fly inside his Material
Transformer: bits of the man emerging

gooey, many-eyed; bits of the fly
worrying that his agent’s screwed him—

I almost flinch to see the body later
that’s left its...
Self-Portrait as David Lynch
By David Roderick
I wear a flower in my lapel.
I like the sweetness of its lie in my nose.
A carnation, the fool’s flower,

its heart a wilting empire.
In late-night editing sessions,
I imagine I’m planting flowers

in the sockets of eyes. Whatever helps
me reach our rigor...
Enter the Dragon
By John Murillo
For me, the movie starts with a black man
Leaping into an orbit of badges, tiny moons

Catching the sheen of his perfect black afro.
Arc kicks, karate chops, and thirty cops

On their backs. It starts with the swagger,
The cool lean into the...
The Ophany
By Cyrus Console

Rotor wash, or the downward-flowing
Air by which our helicopters formed
Imprints in the jungle grass beneath
Now stands effectively for Vietnam
Because our understanding of that war
Omitted many things but not the wind
We bowed our heads and fled. In this case we

Refers effectively...
Marigolds of Fire
By Ama Codjoe
1.

He had a caribou's face. Once he let me
lick the sadness there. It tasted of salt

and moss-covered rocks. He grew the beard
of a mountain goat. He scaled the face

of a mountain. Lying beside him, I stared
into the face of faceless...
Muybridge’s Horse in Motion
By Holly Mitchell
1.
After the beginning of the gallop, there are counts when the horse is in the air, her
legs withdrawn, a diamond shape.

This is called suspension.

2.
Her name is Sallie Gardner.

She’s by Vandal, out of Charlotte Thompson, Kentucky bred, of Irish pedigree, a
Birdcatcher.

Now...
Crip vs. Crip
By Walela Nehanda
Crip (noun): slang for a disabled person/the whole of
the disabled community/
a school of thought
Example: “I’m on crip time”
Meaning: Time bends differently when the universe that is
my body dictates it

Crip (noun): a Black gang that originated in...
Blonde Bombshell
By Lynn Emanuel
Love is boring and passé, all that old baggage,
the bloody bric-a-brac, the bad, the gothic,
retrograde, obscurantist hum and drum of it
needs to be swept away. So, night after night,
we sit in the dark of the Roxy beside grandmothers
with their shanks...
XLIX. ("its a secrete")
By Jos Charles
its a secrete

the grls speeching mye hole /

inn 2 the lindens / wee go out

& playe footballe / verie nashenallie

how wee leeve a stall / piteus

wen the grls

speech me /

this is how u make a porno / ...
Letter
By Jean Valentine
The hornet holds on to the curtain, winter
sleep. Rubs her legs. Climbs the curtain.
Behind her the cedars sleep lightly,

like guests. But I am the guest.
The ghost cars climb the ghost highway. Even my hand
over the page adds to the ‘room...
Into the Weeds
By Kevin Prufer
The brutality of those two men
who broke into her apartment
and murdered her boyfriend,
...

Quick Tags

Explore Poems: Free Verse

Take the I Out

Ultimately Everything Becomes Boring

Cyrus & the Snakes

The Magnificent Frigatebird

Calling Things What They Are

Totem

Gratitude

I’m a Fool to Love You

Mrs. Butterworth, Uncle Ben & Aunt Jemima

Intimacy

Self-Portrait as David Lynch

Enter the Dragon

The Ophany

Marigolds of Fire

Muybridge’s Horse in Motion

Crip vs. Crip

Blonde Bombshell

XLIX. ("its a secrete")

Letter

Into the Weeds