Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Sheila BlackSheila Black reads "My Mission is to Surprise & Delight" at the 2014 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
My daughter works in the Apple Store--the Help Center, open 24-7,
people from all fifty states, angry because their iPhones
malfunctioned or they don't know how to program their data
By Jacob RakovanThe bones cast in the field like seed corn grow nothing,
grow briars in the boarded gas stations
brown stalks ready for the fire.
By Jericho BrownThey said to say goodnight
And not goodbye, unplugged
The TV when it rained. They hid
By Remica L. BinghamThe weight of my parents,
the dawn of them;
my grandmother's lackluster
By Emily K. BrightIt is nearly midnight and I'm
scrubbing at the grout.
The dishes, washed,
By Samiya BashirBrother I don't either understand this
skipscrapple world that is--these
slick bubble cars zip feverish down
By Jamaal MayHold a pomegranate in your palm,
imagine ways to split it, think of the breaking
skin as shrapnel. Remember granada
By Brian FanelliEvery Sunday, I came dressed in punk rocker black,
checkered pants, steel-toed Docs.
No tie dye on me when I joined
By Jonathan B. Tuckerpardon our appearance
as we grow to better serve you
says the sign on the fence
By María Luisa ArroyoMami called us away from the roach trap line
where novice factory workers, fresh from the island,
and I, fresh from Germany, poked