POETRY since 1912

"Down Wall, from girder into street noon leaks, A rip-tooth of the sky’s acetylene; All afternoon the..."

Sat, 18 May 2013 19:30:38 -0500

“Down Wall, from girder into street noon leaks,
A rip-tooth of the sky’s acetylene;
All afternoon the cloud flown derricks turn …
Thy cables breathe the North Atlantic still.”

- Hart Crane, from “The Bridge: To Brooklyn Bridge”

Read more here and join in celebrating Brooklyn Bridge with Crane’s poem Sunday, May 19.

Jim Ferris will read as part of the Bodies of Work Festival at...

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:30:31 -0500

Jim Ferris will read as part of the Bodies of Work Festival at the Poetry Foundation on Saturday, May 18.

“Remember” by Christina Rossetti. Read the poem and...

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:30:44 -0500

“Remember” by Christina Rossetti. Read the poem and find more expensive poetry manuscripts at Book Patrol (this one went for £33,650).

—Barry Silesky, Poetry, April 2003Barry Silesky and Jim...

Wed, 15 May 2013 19:30:49 -0500

—Barry Silesky, Poetry, April 2003

Barry Silesky and Jim Ferris read at the Poetry Foundation as part of the Bodies of Work Festival on Saturday, May 18.

—Dante translated by Robert Pinsky, Poetry, April...

Tue, 14 May 2013 19:30:30 -0500

—Dante translated by Robert Pinsky, Poetry, April 2007

It’s publication day for Dan Brown’s Inferno, according to the Los Angeles Times. Will you read it? Or Clive James’s? Or neither?

Read the full text of “There Is No Word” by Tony...

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:30:35 -0500

Read the full text of “There Is No Word” by Tony Hoagland, Poetry, July/August 2012.

Offer Mom a poem for Mother’s Day. Find a poem here and...

Sat, 11 May 2013 17:30:43 -0500

Offer Mom a poem for Mother’s Day. Find a poem here and record it!

—Charles Simic, Poetry, August 1990Take an evening walk...

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:30:30 -0500

—Charles Simic, Poetry, August 1990

Take an evening walk with your mom this Mother’s Day. Better yet, Record-a-Poem for her!

americanspokenlanguage: “A KIND IN GLASS AND A COUSIN, A...

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:17:56 -0500

americanspokenlanguage:

“A KIND IN GLASS AND A COUSIN, A SPECTACLE AND NOTHING STRANGE A SINGLE HURT COLOR AND AN ARRANGEMENT IN A SYSTEM TO POINTING. ALL THIS AND NOT ORDINARY, NOT UNORDERED IN NOT RESEMBLING. THE DIFFERENCE IS SPREADING.” [—gertrude stein]

Find this and other Gertrude Stein poems in our archive.

—John Ashbery, Poetry, December 1955On Saturday we host...

Thu, 09 May 2013 17:30:38 -0500

—John Ashbery, Poetry, December 1955

On Saturday we host our first-ever symposium on poets and artists, “Sitting Between the Sea and the Buildings.” Attend all day long our drop by for just part of the schedule.

"For now no more we trace in ev’ry line Heroic worth, benevolence divine: The form distorted..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 07:36:51 -0500

“For now no more we trace in ev’ry line
Heroic worth, benevolence divine:
The form distorted justifies the fall,
And detestation rids th’ indignant wall.”

- Samuel Johnson, from “The Vanity of Human Wishes”

Was Samuel Johnson’s writing too monotonous?

William Hazlitt thought so. Though even his prose was poetic, “the close of the period follows as mechanically as the oscillation of a pendulum, the sense is balanced with the sound; each sentence, revolving round its centre of gravity, is contained within itself like a couplet, and each paragraph forms itself into a stanza,” Hazlitt preferred Johnson “when he threw away the pen.” Read the rest at the TLS.

—Gary Snyder, Poetry, April/May 1965Wishing Gary Snyder a...

Wed, 08 May 2013 17:53:31 -0500

—Gary Snyder, Poetry, April/May 1965

Wishing Gary Snyder a happy birthday. Read the rest of “Through the Smoke Hole.”

Poetry is now available via a digital subscription for iPads and...

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:17:56 -0500

Poetry is now available via a digital subscription for iPads and iPhones! Purchase here or learn more.

—Rabindranath Tagore, Poetry, June 1913The original...

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:59:28 -0500

—Rabindranath Tagore, Poetry, June 1913

The original “Come as you are.” It’s Tagore’s birthday today.

2011 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Youssef Biaz reads Sharon...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:01:00 -0500

2011 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Youssef Biaz reads Sharon Olds’s “Mrs. Krikorian” at the White House. (Teachers, don’t miss this!)

You can catch quality poetry live tonight! Find the live webcast of the National Finals of Poetry Out Loud here. The show starts at 7pm ET and is hosted by Anna Deavere Smith (Nurse Jackie).

Tonight’s nine competitors emerged from a competitive field of 375,000 high school students across the country. Do it for the last day of National Poetry Month.

—Matthew Nienow, Poetry, January 2013Hear the...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:42:00 -0500

—Matthew Nienow, Poetry, January 2013

Hear the Record-a-Poem here.

Record-a-Poem from Poetry!

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:38:56 -0500

Record-a-Poem from Poetry!

Read Robert Frost’s “Home Burial” here, and...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 17:30:49 -0500

Read Robert Frost’s “Home Burial” here, and support the project, which will feature music by Arcade Fire’s Will Butler.

—Ted Kooser, Poetry, November 1983On Ted Kooser’s...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 10:11:20 -0500

—Ted Kooser, Poetry, November 1983

On Ted Kooser’s birthday, his own “Birthday Card.”

“I was in my 20s when I learned the octogenarian writer...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:30:33 -0500