The best poems can be immediately re-read from a different angle, each interpretation adding a layer, to make a palimpsest. Like how the "it" in this poem is both literal and ineffable. A concrete object and happiness itself.
Coconut, Paul Hostovsky - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8145654...
"I thought it was the neighbor’s cat [...] /
but what came was much stranger, a liquidity /
moving all muscle and bristle."
(Can you guess?)
Give Me This, Ada Limón - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8144749... #poem #poetry
"Bears I have to say / Pretend we are children"
Still Life with Invisible Canoe, Idra Novey: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8142895...
"Apostrophe" is the English class term for a one-sided conversation like this. Reginald Shepherd was 45 and dying when he wrote this... struggle with an idea? Longing for faith? Prayer and meditation? It's beautiful.
"God-With-Us", Reginald Shepherd - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8141881...
Does what it says on the tin. I checked.
Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line, George Starbuck - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8140926...
Oh yay! I love knowing who reads them and I love knowing which ones they like. Mmm, I hadn't read that one through in a while, thanks for the reminder. 🐻
From Darkling, the final section of the book Night Watch. In part two: Werewolf Hill.
VI. Tulips, Kevin Young - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8140212...
This one is long but took my breath away.
You Are Who I Love, Aracelis Girmay: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8139150...
An experience somehow so personal and so relatable, from a nonbinary poet.
My Perimenopausal Body Cistern Disappointing How Surprising, Gabrielle Calvocoressi - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8137503...
To please lovers of rhyme and the ominous.
The Darker Sooner, Catherine Wing - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8136596...
I honestly thought I'd sent this one years ago. Is it retro to share poems I was really into in 2005? (Those last lines still hit, tho'!)
The Archipelago of Kisses, Jeffrey McDaniel - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8135639...
A lovely reworking inspired by the Philip Levine poem of the same name. (Which we here at April Is Inc. presciently shared in 2020; linked at bottom of post.)
Let Me Begin Again, Major Jackson - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8134767...
"So definitely /
we are imagined creatures."
Furniture, Lisa Allen Ortiz - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8133759...
Poetic irony that's funny, too?!
Faith for My Father Circa 1950, Erik Campbell: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8132760...
Check out the link after the poem to the translator's notes on a more modern -- and catchy! -- interpretation of a centuries-old shitpost.
He Visits My Town Once a Year, Amir Khusrau - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8131721...
One for the times.
poem where no one is deported, José Olivarez - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8130900...
You have to let yourself sink into the extended metaphor of this poem: vivid, yellow, a little silly, a little salacious.
Wedding Poem, Ross Gay: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8130029...
"So what / can poetry be now?" Every time I read this I find a new favorite line.
Poetry, Diane Seuss: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8128952... #literature
I love when reading a #poem is a journey of realization. And when I need to read it again right away to re-process.
Phase One, Dilruba Ahmed: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8128147...
Kicking off the month with a banger #poem about birds and books and writing and time and ambition. I Kept Getting Books About Birds, by Catherine Pierce:
www.tumblr.com/april-is/812...
IT'S NATIONAL #POETRY MONTH, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Wanna celebrate with 30 days of delish, hand-picked poems straight to your email inbox? Sign up here: groups.google.com/u/3/g/april-is
OR follow this account.
AND/OR subscribe on Tumblr! april-is.tumblr.com
The possibilities are nigh infinite.
It's coming.
Saying farewell to another April of #poetry with my best beloved Ada Limón:
"Look, we are not unspectacular things. /
We’ve come this far, survived this much. / [...]
What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, No."
april-is.tumblr.com/post/7823134...
The poet: "This poem articulates my belief that grief isn’t a dead thing; it’s very much alive and continues to shape how I grow and live in this world. This #poem says: healing is forever, another world is possible, and no nation will protect us, only we will.”
april-is.tumblr.com/post/7822194...
Did you know Louise Erdrich's sister is a poet, too? I didn't!
Always a sucker for a good dog #poem.
april-is.tumblr.com/post/7820208...
"God, let me keep what I love. / Peaches, cheap. Books, brilliant—"
april-is.tumblr.com/post/7819051...
A juicy one for you tonight: rhyme and rhythm and that ending, phew.
a remix for remembrance, Kristiana Rae Colón
april-is.tumblr.com/post/7818559...