Nick Lantz, our Poet of the Week 💙

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I think whoever prepared his body must love what they do. Because he looks so clean.

The Return of April 📆

poetry prompt of the week: take an x-ray of your body as it is today. take an x-ray from a pivotal moment in your life that shaped you, that reset every cell in your body all at once anew like a lightning strike.

what do the x-rays say in contrast to each other? anything changed? anything the same?

...for it is well known that the best way to keep a secret is to eat the evidence.

Steven Espada Dawson

We asked July Westhale in their POTW interview: What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received? Alternatively: what would you tell other young poets by way of advice or caveat?

SUBMISSION TIPS 📍 Editor's Desk 📍 #1. Read past winners!

Read the room before you enter it. If you can’t find the voices of the past, you won’t want a future there. Save your words for a house that keeps its windows open.

Past Poet of the Year winners & finalists are free to read on ONLY POEMS!

July Westhale, our Poet of The Week 💙

Paige Lewis

excruciating read but so, so vulnerable and human.

In July Westhale's POTW interview: “the loneliness empire” is a stunning catalog. The repetition builds then fractures: “Someone’s my plum. Someone’s my trash.” You end with “Someone said we are in this alone." Tell us about your fascination with the form of the list?

real af bc *real* ones know even showering is a monumental obstacle & everything in the world IS (unfortunately) the exact same way

Osamu Dazai, No Longer Human

Thank god humans barely remember how bad something feels.

“I am grateful that, on balance, the absence of stars in Manhattan is offset by the number of lights there’s no reason to leave on but people do”

— Bob Hicok

goooooooodbyeeee $376 and hellllo 3 collector's copies of books i already own & 2 new notebooks to accompany the 3 existing notebooks i haven't finished (featuring a NEW PEN!)

2010.02.05

July Westhale 💙 in our Poet of The Week interview

July Westhale

We have the term "friendship breakup"; but as poets, we say:

I liked to climb high towers — To conjure up a bit of sorrow to make new verse.

"that was your thing and you never even tried it." 💔🥲 OUCH MUCH?

July Westhale—in our Poet of The Week interview 💙

I had a certain capacity, which is a generous way of saying I had nothing.

"the loneliness empire", July Westhale (our Poet of The Week 💙)

Wouldn't that be nice if it were true?

poetry prompt of the week: Albert Camus once said, "Find meaning or don't find meaning but 'steal' some time and give it freely and exclusively to your own self...you need to breathe. And you need to be."

what meaning do you find when you give and breathe exclusively for yourself? get granular.

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