In This Place (An American Lyric)

By Amanda Gorman There’s a poem in this place—
in the footfalls in the halls
in the quiet beat of the seats.
It is here, at the curtain of day,

The Journey

By Alan King The diner's nearly empty
when you both arrive - except for
the six or so other patrons and
a waitress who calls everyone "Hun".

By Zahara Heckscher This is a love song
to the invisible waves
that travel through the air
finding the antenna

By Rajiv Mohabir A twist of cotton
daubed in oil
catches flame, an echo

By JP Howard black women we be trying to hold worlds
on our backs, in our hearts without fail
some days we fail at perfection

By Trace Howard DePass [And legal] now.
[Taking full advantage of the enough he is.
Might go sign up for the war.

By Purvi Shah You had a name no one
could hold between their
teeth. So they pronounced

By Sylvia Beato for years you told no one
how you cried yourself to sleep
after the doctor held your hand

By Tara Betts I am sitting in a café with my boy
that I have known longer than my
students have been alive, before the birth

By Anastacia-Renee the cedar tree could not comprehend
the crime could not comprehend a leaning
a lynching a love gone wrong