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2025 Poetry Coalition Programming: Poetry & Shelter

Split This Rock is proud to be a member of The Poetry Coalition, a national alliance of nearly 30 independent poetry organizations dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and the important contribution poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. The Poetry Coalition's 2025 slate of programs in the spring and summer reflect the transformative impact poetry has on individual readers and communities across the nation, and is made possible in part by the Academy of American Poets with support from the Mellon Foundation. Follow along on social media at #PoetryCoalition.

Poem of the Week Features Poetry & Shelter Poetry Playlist

Image Description: Split This Rock’s Poem of the Week Series logo appears at the top of the graphic. With the bold text underneath, it reads “Split This Rock Poem of the Week Presents A Poetry Playlist.” Below, a black rectangle with rounded corners and a red shadow contains bold white text with the playlist’s title “Poetry & Shelter” with red rewind, play, and fast forward icons. Behind the rectangle, there are thin concentric geometric lines which peek out at the top and bottom. A URL to Split This Rock’s website is in the lower right-hand corner: splitthisrock.org.

“The farthest external horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems,
carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”
– Audre Lorde, Poetry Is Not a Luxury

On August 1st, Split This Rock offered our community a Poetry & Shelter Playlist as part of this year’s Poetry Coalition themed programming. Split This Rock’s work is driven by the belief that poetry is a tool with which we can transform ourselves, inspire our communities, and envision a better world. Poetry offers us shelter by creating a place where we can meet ourselves and our kindred, name our way forward, and gather momentum toward collective liberation.

These 12 poems curated from The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database all explore the power of our imaginations to hold one another in tenderness, care, and generosity. From declaring solidarity that spans across oceans to softening the individual body to take in more joy, each poem is a site of connection, a place to find the hands that will gladly feed us, and a space to practice existing in the way a world free from oppression calls us to be. We hope this offering feels supportive to each of you in the practice of welcoming yourselves and beloveds into the shelter of coming together and expanding our collective horizons of possibility.

“We find your hands and keep our place with you.”
– "For Gaza" by Noʻu Revilla
“Let earth rejoin sky. Return and become more.”
– "IN ANOTHER LIFE LINK IS A POET" by Summer Farah
“I’m rebuilt, mosaicked by their singing & tenderness & rage.”
– "Winter Solstice" by Jonny Teklit
“all of what was written on
them. the past of the past. the words that
meant difference.”
– "milk river" by Taylor Alyson Lewis
“This is for the possibility that guides us
and for the possibilities still waiting to sing
and spread their wings inside us”
– "from Say Yes" by Andrea Gibson
“and we are always leaving but we are alive,
we are alive, we are alive, we are alive”
– "Diasporican Rechristening" by Malcolm Friend
“I’ve had this face,
flood of love and relief, eyes closed to
better feel everything, store up joy.”
– "Sexualwissenschaft" by Miller Oberman
“Soft numb resilience, wing me a story.”
– "Cedar Waxwing, Pyracantha II" by Lehua M. Taitano
“He lets me hold them
I cannot remember the last time we held hands”
– "Cutting my dad’s fingernails" by Adrian Gaston Garcia
“We are possible. The sky is full of broken windows and so is the dream.”
– "What the Fish Say / Over There" by A.D. Lauren-Abunassar
“I asked to
keep the stars unfinished.”
– "Before going to the Barbershop" by Gabriel Ramirez
“we could be another’s blessing
with our brief and epic lives”
– "spell for reclaiming the moment" by adrienne maree brown