Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Destiny O. BirdsongOr maybe you weren’t. Whenever I’m frightened,
anything can become a black woman in a granite dress:
scaffold for what’s to come: blue lights exploding
like an aurora at the base of the bridge;
By Claire HermannGod separated the light from the darkness,
but I have a light switch.
Once there was morning and evening,
but now someone has torn the heart out of a mountain,
By Alan KingThe 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 HeckscherThis is a love song
to the invisible waves
that travel through the air
finding the antenna
By Kim RobertsHundreds of tiny fry
crowd the single tank,
churning the water milky.
The fry grow to parr
By Remica Bingham-RisherI am almost convinced this morning by the volley
of verses on each frequency, roughnecks telling it
like they want it to be, intoning You bad, baby
By Truth ThomasThere are fists making tom toms of eardrums,
boots kicking downbeats in skulls,
in every state of tinted circles.
By Katy RicheyThere’s not a single thing in your closet
that should be worn after 1997.
You do look fat in those pants,
By Nesha RutherL’chaim to my rabbi who gets red in the face during prayer
and sings off-tune
we can always hear him.