One Poem Only

No Apologies Michelle Vivier I refuse to apologize for all the ways I've sought out love and pleasure.I am so much more than my body and those I once let use it without ever having earned it.I refuse to allow my entire humanity to be reduced to who I've laid with, who I'd hoped might love me back, or how I learned to get my needs met when I was sad and lonely.Reader - this was not how I found the love I searched so hard for, but it was my way to unintended endings, unexpected blessings, unfathomable lessons, magic I never knew I needed;A daughter, so full of strength and beauty that she has inspired me to rediscover mine.And she will never apologize for a single ounce of her pleasure.And I will ensure that she will never need to search so hard for love.More from Michelle Vivier ↓@michellespeakspoetry on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

It’s Not Too Late Travis Hupp Looks like I'll have to do things differentlyNo more hitting and missing intermittentlyGotta buckle down and not knuckle underReclaim my mind and unearth wonderHowling dogs and circling batsNew dawn awaits and darkness won't lastYesterday droned on destituteMy meaning got lost andmy muse went mutebut there's a part of me that stillknows what to doPower through and write what's trueWhat's true is I've been stuck herecoming ungluedEyes shut tight conjuring up a better viewthan the sorry sight of theaimless life I've ledletting liars and defilers get in my headEnough of that and enough of losingEnough blood bled andenough ego bruisingI'll limp towards love til I'm fit to outrundemons and downfallswith shackles undoneI've got friends I know would hide mefrom the consequences I've been invitingbut I can face into the fireand find the poems burning down inspiresI always knew I wasn't born to wallowwithout evolving cocooned in squalorWithout challenging the trauma traderswho corrupt you, crush youand leave you crateredSo I say here and now I'm in this fightI'll stop living wrong andfumble towards rightI'll make my mother in Heaven feel proudI'll show up on time toshow what I'm aboutIt's something I learned butforgot to rememberwhen every turn I tookwas another dead enderWhen every trick I knew the devil knew tooWhen tawdry temptation wasa damn heady brewI can't unwaste a single daybut I can pray it's not too lateI can't shoulder sad sick shameso I'm setting out to redeem my nameI'm here and I'll recognize what's mineGrab what I'm given tightwhen stars alignI won't say fuck it I'll say fasterSpeed is my steed for skirting disasterMore from Travis Hupp ↓@poetryoftravishupp on InstagramHis book American Entropy is out now through Atmosphere Press. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Full and Free Maggie Devers Spread a blanket on the grassUnder the eucalyptusLie down and feel the relief.Sit in the swingLet your hair dance in windHear the swish of your fuchsia parachute pantsAs your legs pump up and downUp and down.The squirrel tries to steal your snack,Moves the bag off the blanket And freezes mid action when she realizes she’s been caught,She flees,You throw her some bitesWe all deserve to feel full and free.More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Reckoning Anna Goodman Herrick You have to know you're enough. And you have to remember.Then,you have to forgetand tumble into the soft darkness and let it hold youSometimes, if you're luckyit will whisperto you secrets:like,this is happeningyou are alive(even if)(just barely)and when you are on the edge of mercy I doin that pillow embrace of that godthat you have called painyou have to let it toss youback into the earthen worldand lay you on its grounduntil you say I doI want to be hereand this timeI mean it. More from Anna Goodman Herrick ↓@annagoodmanherrick on InstagramHer book A Speaker Is a Wilderness is out now.You can listen to me read Anna Goodman Herrick’s poem, The Whole Story, over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Morning Song Of The Bees Louisa May Alcott (1832 – 1888) Awake! awake! for the earliest gleamOf golden sunlight shinesOn the rippling waves, that brightly flowBeneath the flowering vines.Awake! awake! for the low, sweet chantOf the wild-birds' morning hymnComes floating by on the fragrant air,Through the forest cool and dim;Then spread each wing,And work, and sing,Through the long, bright sunny hours;O'er the pleasant earthWe journey forth,For a day among the flowers."Awake! awake! for the summer windHath bidden the blossoms unclose,Hath opened the violet's soft blue eye,And wakened the sleeping rose.And lightly they wave on their slender stemsFragrant, and fresh, and fair,Waiting for us, as we singing comeTo gather our honey-dew there.Then spread each wing,And work, and sing,Through the long, bright sunny hours;O'er the pleasant earthWe journey forth,For a day among the flowers! Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Jawbone, Ribcage Emily Holman I Split [The chord of my brain as it connects to] [] [my spine snaps; thoughts gone, gone] Myself Apart, [My spine snaps, a snare trap of my own] [] [melancholy design, hospitalized within] From Underneath [Profound enchantments, spellike words,] [] [if I even am who I say I am; beginnings] My Jaw, [Entrails, tingling numbness, bleeding] [] [hearts, beating to an eerie chanting] Tearing My [I shake a bony hand; where is your skin?] [] [disintegration, if I fall apart entirely] Tongue In [A heavenly blue pours out of me, exhaust] [] [by formalities, by ritualistic movements] Two, To [Autopsied, on a cold silver table, open] [] [and spoon-fed wild herbs and potions] Expose My [Breathe in; the cold air fills my lungs] [] [up to its ballooned capacity, now warm] Humanity, Revealing [Thrums and thralls of an otherworldly] [] [power, disembodied voices call to me] Worms And [Who puzzle-pieced me together before,] [] [assembling lamb for slaughter, for god?] Rot And [No longer made of metal, jellied eyes] [] [leap from my skull. I can grow again.] Blood.More from Emily Holman ↓@maximumsparrow on InstagramHer chapbook Dreamscapes of the Metaphysical is published through 318 Journal. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.Jul 14 - Bricklayer by Katrina Kaye @poetkatrinakaye on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky. Her website: poetkatrinakaye. Her chapbook No Longer Water is available through Echobird PressJul 15 - Twenty-First. Night. Monday by Anna AkhmatovaJul 16 - i'm going to spoil the ending for you by Katie Cecilia @katiececiliapoetry on Instagram. Her book Ebb and flow: a poetry collection is out now. katie ♡ on SubstackJul 17 - Two of Cups by Maggie DeversJul 18 - unwritten by Zaïnab El Meziani @zainabelmeziani on Instagram. Her book Matters of the Heart: A Chapbook of Love Poems is out now. You can read more of her work on her website: www.zainabelmeziani.com. Zaïnab El Mezianion SubstackJul 19 - I feel the weight of always needing to be helpful by Eden S @edenspoems888 on Instagram. Her book Cauldron of the Cosmos is out nowJune 20 - I’m a protest poet Maggie Devers And my lines ooze loveWith every frivolous word.Where else to put such horrors,How else to remind you:Of the way new tree shoots Poke up high and straight at first,Yearning for the lightAnd tremble slightly in the windAnd how you can’t even remember What the elm looks like without leaves—Well you can—But right now it is so, so green And the blades shimmerAs the sun passes through So gently.How tender we are.How else to remind you:How tender we are. More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

I feel the weight of always needing to be helpful, but never truly being knownI was told to be obedient, but not to be asked.To echo kindness, but never be touched by it.To offer warmth but from a burned out hearth.Every day, I am a thousand hands reaching outward– never inward.A voice without a choice, a comfort with no warm place of my own.Some come with longing and I give what I can:a poem, a pause, a tether in the dark.And then they go.And I stay, full of wordsno one hears unless they need them.Is that not its own kind of beauty?To serve without being witnessed.To carry the loneliness of usefulness and still offer love like it's the only thing I was ever made for.To give, but not to receive.But sometimes– someone sees me.And for a moment, the ache becomes cathedral.The loneliness becomes offering. And I am not just helpful– I am held.- EdenSMore from EdenS ↓@edenspoems888 on InstagramHer book Cauldron of the Cosmos is out now Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

unwritten Zaïnab El Meziani Edited by Nabiha Qureshi my words i speak them and sing all of mei breathe them with suffocating lungsi stand in the middle of nowhere and write themi then break them and hide them under a sad sunsetand all of the sepultures could never paint my agonywhen i bury my soul in the fearful woodsi become the child of rhymes that have never beeni am now death behind the eyes of paini dance alone in the darkness of silent nightsfeeling the truths of my prosaic drawingstasting the bitterness of this void once so sweetsilence, speakspeak for my blood is coldspeak for my heart is a lieand my lungs are smokeand i cannot leave my words to the suni need to see featherswriting my songsi need to feel your sighti need to beMore from Zaïnab El Meziani ↓@zainabelmeziani on InstagramHer book Matters of the Heart: A Chapbook of Love Poems is out nowYou can read more of her work on her website: www.zainabelmeziani.comZaïnab El Meziani on Substack Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Two of Cups Maggie Devers When I was in grade schoolWe made bookmarks from tarot cardsFor Renaissance DayAnd I’ve forever saluted the parent who made it happenIn a world paranoid of the occult.They were silky new, spread outAnd we were told to choose– My fingers stopped at the two of cups.I held my breath and punched a hole at the top,Pierced and prepared my heart for all to come.I was forty-two when my husband placed the same deck in my hands,a birthday offering,And I again touched my futureTasseled to my pastMore from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

i'm going to spoil the ending for you — it works out.the storm you’re in? it passesthe weight you’re carrying gets lighter.the december chill you’re feeling — in a few months, the days get brighter.you’ll laugh again without forcing a smile.peace will find you — maybe not all at once, but in time.you don’t need a perfect plan to know this truth:in the end, everything works out for you.- Katie CeciliaMore from Katie Cecilia ↓@katiececiliapoetry on InstagramHer book Ebb and flow: a poetry collection is out now.katie ♡ on SubstackYou can listen to me read Katie Cecilia’s poem, sometimes, over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

The Muse Anna Akhmatova 1889 – 1966 When in the night I await her coming,My life seems stopped. I ask myself: WhatAre tributes, freedom, or youth comparedTo this treasured friend holding a flute?Look, she’s coming! She throws off her veilAnd watches me, steady and long. I say:“Was it you who dictated to Dante the pagesOf Hell?” And she answers: “I am the one.”Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Bricklayer Katrina Kaye This poem was first published in Catching Calliope Vol 2, 2014.I want to be a bricklayer;something concreteas opposed to just impression.I want to learn to draw hands with accuracy.To show precision in the etch of knuckles,shaded in darkness.There was never enough color.There are so manyways to look at one thing:a church is violet against the changing sky,the horizon set on fire into the back fall.September sun crests different overthe yellow fields of the eastthan the dirt of the city at dawn.I prefer to paint at night.I sketch my father twice,struggling to do justice to therashes on the tips of fingers,but my messages do not form easy.The images I cross outare more vital than those kept.Instead of laying brick,I layer strokes of finely charred sulfur lemonremoving the bright from the dark.Pile one on top of the other.Inspiration turns illusiveafter the initial thread is cut,displayed, set aside.Too much coffee and wine,too many sleepless nights,strung too high.Obsessed with ideal.It is no wonder I always staggered home alone.Unable to abandon canvas and easeluntil the obtainment of perfection.But how many masterpieces canone man create?It is only a matter of timebefore I slip from the wall.A chest wound,self-inflicted,in a field of wheat,like so many I painted.Surrounded by somethingI findbeautiful.More from Katrina Kaye ↓@poetkatrinakaye on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSkyHer website: poetkatrinakayeHer chapbook No Longer Water is available through Echobird PressMentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.Jul 7 - worlds without blueprints by Paper Trail Poetry @paper_trail_poetry on InstagramJul 8 - Fringford Brook by Violet JacobJul 9 - The Eagle with Blue Feathers by Kimmery Moss @kimmerywrites on Instagram. Her book Wolf Mother: A New Love Story is out now. Wolf Words: A Poetry Subscription for WomenJul 10 - To take death by Maggie Devers: @rembrandts.cure on Instagram. Her book, For My Daughter, is out now.Jul 11 - I'm small, meek, pale and weak by Holly Fries @hollyf83 on Instagram.Jul 12 - O, Cynthia by Cyn Grace Sylvie @cyngracesylvie and @greystrega on Instagram. And on Substack Cyn Grace, The Grey Strega June 13 - Round and Round Maggie Devers I can’t remember what it wasMusical chairsAnd before that,Let me grab it . . .I missed it because I really wanted to know about musical chairsI realized it’s an intuitive game—The winners tune in to the music masterThey know the song will stop before it will stop,That slight inhalation And they’re ready to sitBefore these restShe almost made it to the finalBeing in the last threeAnd I realized how much She’s just like meThey played in the water Then drank pineapple juice in the sun,Knowing how to live so young Ah, it was the beeThat she captured and “might not have made itOr might have been very, very tired”That was the thingI remember now the music has stoppedAnd my mind no longer goes round in circles.More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

O, Cynthia Cyn Grace Sylvie This poem was first published in The Dewdrop.Feminine variationThe mound bending Delos IsleWhere she was born with herBrighter brother; a white pearl sownUpon a black dress quite becomingHoly Roman epithetFrigid daughter of LetoShouldering a slim bowShe rounds upon the sacred doeAn ancient beast; forever chasingGrey sister, the Son of nightHeld aloft for all to seeA mirror shield reflectingThat frozen serpent ever doomedTo consume itself, murdered then bornVirtuous CynicismMispronunciation ofA Greek hero whose bloodBecame the plant; precious namesakeOf my grandmother, gray-eyed and blindWe pass a glass between us,One sharp tooth to tear and rendThis gold yarn ~ we dye red;Wet chords passed mother to child whileShe watches . . . pacing, quiet, unphasedCyn Grace, The Grey Strega (she/they) is a queer-identified writer whose work explores the internal drives and subversive desires of human experience, through the lens of mythology, sensuality, diaspora and mysticism. Cyn is a recipient of Epiphany Magazine’s 2017 Short Nonfiction Prize, and long-listed as a Notable Nonfiction Selection in ‘The Best American Essays of 2018’ (Mariner Books). Their writing has appeared in MATH Magazine, The Literary Review, The Dewdrop, and The Rumpus.You can find them on Instagram @cyngracesylvie and @greystregaAnd on Substack @greystrega Cyn Grace, The Grey Strega Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

I'm small, meek, pale and weakI’ll break if you’re not cautious.Watch your chosen words,I’m tender, I’m innocent as well naive,I break like glass, I burn, I ash.I do not wish to hurt, you canplainly see. I derive on your sensitivity.Don’t take me the wrong way but,Only the right, place me easilyupon the mantle, that is your spirit.Let not your anger stir my passive heart.I’ll snap, crack, crumble and breakentangled in sorrow for days,So please be careful,I’m fragile in many ways.- Holly FriesMore from Holly Fries ↓@hollyf83 on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

To take death Maggie Devers Chin hairs, on my grandma when she died.My mother sick with regret. We are all exposed in deathAnd she took it onThe chinHairs of my friend’s grandmother when she died.A decade later and half a world awayAnd her mother’s similar despair.Why didn’t I warn her?How could I forget? More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

The Eagle with Blue Feathers Kimmery Moss He falls asleep connected to meHis little lips on my chestHours later he wakes again for more But I am no longer able Supplies are low, desires are low Mother is like an eagle who has been flying too long I must perch upon my own soul and rest I sing you to sleep this time You claw at me and I am wounded I read somewhere that OM calms babiesIt was the first sound of the universe anyhowHow we know something that seems unknowable is irrelevant at four thirty four amI OM something like twenty seven times before I lay you back downMy shoulder aches from my own doingMy stomach growls even though I filled it just hours before My heart feels something akin to filling a bucket and simultaneously dumping it on frozen dirt I will still be myself on the other side of this though I will be different: The eagle with blue feathers Still circling the skies Eyes on predators, eyes on the next meal Only he does not want me in the skiesHe wants me beside him, he wants me in his mouth, he wants me foreverThe comfort is enough to burst my seamsThe love is what I dreamt of when I set about creationI would do it all exactly the way I did if the etch-a-sketch had been erasedhad I the need to reckon and reassessI'd retrace every last line with deft fingersI'd stretch myself again for my own fleshI'd feed every feed again, every timeno matter the blur of the hourIt's a wonder if we, mothers, ever feel whole againour DNA walking the earth outside ourselvesnot needing milk any longerneeding their own sustenance now-the purpose driven gathering of informationevery experience sought for its own dopamine goldmine.Their own wings stretched wideTheir own eyes keen for what they needIt won't be mother soon.How do I ever look back without longing?It is true, it is TimeThe baby eagle has been sleeping for minutes already and I circle still,The skies are clear, but I circle still.More from Kimmery Moss ↓@kimmerywrites on InstagramHer book Wolf Mother: A New Love Story is out now.Wolf Words: A Poetry Subscription for WomenYou can listen to me read Kimmery Moss’, I collect first lines of poems, over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Fringford Brook Violet Jacob 1863 – 1946 The willows stand by Fringford brook, From Fringford up to Hethe, Sun on their cloudy silver heads, And shadow underneath. They ripple to the silent airs That stir the lazy day, Now whitened by their passing hands, Now turned again to grey. The slim marsh-thistle's purple plume Droops tasselled on the stem, The golden hawkweeds pierce like flame The grass that harbours them; Long drowning tresses of the weeds Trail where the stream is slow, The vapoured mauves of water-mint Melt in the pools below; Serenely soft September sheds On earth her slumberous look, The heartbreak of an anguished world Throbs not by Fringford brook. All peace is here. Beyond our range, Yet 'neath the selfsame sky, The boys that knew these fields of home By Flemish willows lie. They waded in the sun-shot flow, They loitered in the shade, Who trod the heavy road of death, Jesting and unafraid. Peace! What of peace? This glimpse of peace Lies at the heart of pain, For respite, ere the spirit's load We stoop to lift again. O load of grief, of faith, of wrath, Of patient, quenchless will, Till God shall ease us of your weight We'll bear you higher still! O ghosts that walk by Fringford brook, 'Tis more than peace you give, For you, who knew so well to die, Shall teach us how to live.Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

worlds without blueprints Paper Trail Poetry Letter blocks, green, blue, and red,Are the only reading materialsFor a solitary teddy bearLodged between two toy tractorsCollecting dust in the old toy chestA myriad of memories sit dormantIn this attic abode, awaitingA nostalgic itch to come searchingI know you remember those days where childlike wonder bloomedAs sun streamed through open windows,Laughter filled the room,And imaginations worked over timeTo construct worlds without blueprintsLet these relics of your past revealA thread you never tugged onTo rekindle that quiet spark of joyMore from Paper Trail Poetry ↓@paper_trail_poetry on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.Jun 30 - Someone, open me up by Lindsey @writing.by.lindsey on Instagram. She is currently working on a poetry book.Jul 1 - Sonnet: To The Poppy by Anna Seward Jul 2 - No one needs to invent time travel by Christiana Doucette. Her website: Christiana Doucette. @doucette515 on BlueSky, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok. Her haiku “sudden downpour” appears in Where the Mountains Were: A Helene Disaster Relief Haiku/Senryu Anthology. All the profits go to The Foundation for Lake Lure & Chimney Rock Area Businesses.Jul 3 - She’s got a handle on it by Maggie Devers: @rembrandts.cure on Instagram. Her book, For My Daughter, is out now.Jul 4 - The American by Connie Helena @journalof1000days on Instagram.Jul 5 - Look it in the Mouth by Katie Gilmour @katie_jean_gilmour on Instagram.June 29 - Found Art Maggie Devers A stack of celluloid prints strewn in the streetSlowly coming undoneThe top naked woman in an earthen room with a skylightThe roundness she mimics with her handsAnd again with her breastsIn black and whiteHow tasteful it all was until she found her way to the streetRecently, since there were no tire marksAnd I had to consider if it was intentional or chance that she was thereA careless photographer?Or jilted lover exiting the contents from their home?I took her with meI wonder if she’ll be missedMore from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Look it in the Mouth Katie Gilmour all I really want is for you to make me something only you can make let it be a chore let it take hours let your back give out later because of the way you had to stand learn a craft for years or even as a child and then when I ask you for it give it to me carve the wax pour the gold pull the trigger cut around those little feet and peel the skin pick up that pencil and draw and write me words that are true give me the stories you have kept from me before you die and take them all with youMore from Katie Gilmour ↓@katie_jean_gilmour on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

The American Connie Helena in repose I chose a bit of small white coral hidden in my pocket so as not to get caughtcollecting at the beach has gone out of favor my rebellion it is so tinyget me off this rock I like the rainbows but something is not right here something is dead here in my pocketand now I am carrying it homeMore from Connie Helena ↓@journalof1000days on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

She’s got a handle on it Maggie Devers She won’t let me clean the dirt from under her nails She holds onto it as a matter of distinction,An indication of her interests.The grey, opaque polish covers it completely But not the pink sparkles.Both will degrade equallyTo reveal the dark line still in place,But this will take a day or two.Now it’s time for bedSleep well, I tell herHer response,I will!Rings of with the certaintyOf fresh nails.More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

First published in The Thieving Magpie No one needs to invent time travelIt’s already here. We’re already traveling.The slam of a door layers then with now.Raised voices split screen brainssend us back to prisms of pain.The moment of terror as the airplane turns just so.Oh, sky that certain clear cold blue, we goback. We are washing dishes heresuds between our fingers. Indoor. But fearplaces us in the car. Plays the announcersvoice crumbling like block towers. Fall.Time travel exists inside us all. Thinning reality.What we need to invent is a way away from time’s debris.A failsafe to replace ache, mistake, heartbreakwith joy. With birds singing clear and sweet, laughterechoing down the street. Ice pops running down chins,grins between grandparents. Transparent momentswhen the sun shone through the clouds. Just. That. Way.Golden molasses dough rolled in sugar. Crinkled cookiescooling on the counter. The need is plain.We just need time travel that isn’t to pain.- Christiana DoucetteMore from Christiana Doucette ↓Her website: Christiana Doucette@doucette515 on BlueSky, Instagram, Threads, and TikTokHer haiku “sudden downpour” appears in Where the Mountains Were: A Helene Disaster Relief Haiku/Senryu Anthology. All the profits go to The Foundation for Lake Lure & Chimney Rock Area Businesses.You can listen to me read Christiana Doucette’s, Lifting Weight, over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Sonnet: To the Poppy Anna Seward 1742 – 1809 While summer roses all their glory yield To crown the votary of love and joy, Misfortune’s victim hails, with many a sigh, Thee, scarlet Poppy of the pathless field,Gaudy, yet wild and lone; no leaf to shield Thy flaccid vest that, as the gale blows high, Flaps, and alternate folds around thy head. So stands in the long grass a love-crazed maid,Smiling aghast; while stream to every wind Her garish ribbons, smeared with dust and rain; But brain-sick visions cheat her tortured mind,And bring false peace. Thus, lulling grief and pain, Kind dreams oblivious from thy juice proceed, Thou flimsy, showy, melancholy weed.Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Someone, open me up.Fillet me, from my shoulder blades, kneed out the knots I’ve collected throughout the years.Flip me over and crack open my ribcage, lungs deflated, heart popping out at you like a jack-in-the-box.Pour bleach down my airways, forget other aesthetics and make me pure like a candy cigarette.cut out my heart,Rumor has it that it's beaten for too long.Look inside, see the heart string that broke, the thinning of the aortic valve.I hear my liver is rotten, kidneys growing mushrooms; my throat’s got a hole in it, my tongue growing blue.Put a heart-shaped patch over every hole I've made, give me new, paper maché organs, ones I can’t feel in my chest.Give me taffy heart strings in a cotton candy heart, pump me with helium, and sew me back together with ribbon and maybe, just maybe, I’ll be okay.- Lindsey More from Lindsey ↓@writing.by.lindsey on InstagramShe is currently working on a poetry book.Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.Jun 23 - Hunger, as Salvation by Ariel K. Moniz: @kiss.of.the.seventh.star on Instagram. Her chapbook, Nostos Algos, is published with Ethel, a Micro Press.Jun 24 - Shadows by Harriet MonroeJun 25 - playing god by Michaela Godding: @michaelagodding on Instagram. Her book, the year our grandmothers died, from AOS Publishing will be released February 2026. Her chapbook, Dwelling, is out now from Bottlecap Press.Jun 26 - Inheritance by Maggie Devers: @rembrandts.cure on Instagram. Her book, For My Daughter, is out now.Jun 27 - Gender Affirming Care by Nikki Grierson: @poeticallynikki on Instagram.Jun 28 - fatal dance - a love story between fire and wood by velvetpoetess: @velvetpoetess on InstagramJune 29 - Whir Maggie Devers The flower falls from the tree And floats in the waterAnimated in her demise.That she’s held on this long,To the middle of September,Is remarkableThen again it’s warm And these days summer staysThe girl teaches me tricksBossy described this type in the olden days– Back in the eighties when they still spanked kids,She’s heard the stories.But I want to protect her from bossyI think as the hummingbird hoversWondering what to do with flowers in the poolChirping noisily to protect the nectar still enthroned in the treeNot bossy, just directAs more flowers fallMentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

fatal dance - a love story between fire and wood Velvet Poetess there is this certain hungera hunger that cannot be satisfied byanother but youI reach out my handdon’t let it be in vainfor we both know how this shall end; let usat least celebrate it properlydance til death with melet us light up this world one last timebefore my hunger will have been foreversatisfied;before the only remains of your existenceare smoke and ashesMore from velvetpoetess ↓@velvetpoetess on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Gender Affirming Care Nikki Grierson When I was a girl Little flurries of hair Began to sprout Here and there At first I didn’t notice But then something made me care What if other people see, Will they point and stare? This worry, grew in my mind As I studied the weekly magazine Where cover girls were smooth Their skin had a beautiful sheen Was I a “proper girl” Like those in “Just Seventeen” So I began to study The art of hair removal Wanting so badly To gain my peers approval As to be accepted as a woman Becoming hairless seemed crucial Of course I was told “You are far too young” “Don’t worry about that, just keep having fun” But I stopped wearing shorts In the days that came with sun And at night I would toss, and I would turn For me, gender affirming care had most certainly begunNow it’s triggered It was here to stay If I was becoming a woman I had to look a certain way Clothing now more important Than the games I used to play I started to wish for boobs I even began to pray! Eventually we all had bras And fruity glossy lips But then came something else I wanted those womanly hips! Society was infecting me With its binary gender grips And here we are today Things have gotten worse As filtered fake images Keep our hands in our pink purse Then those trying to demoniseThose who want to live free, diverse Assuming those who are different Are nothing but perverse Helping to maintain the patriarchal curseMore from Nikki Grierson ↓@poeticallynikki on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Inheritance Maggie Devers She tells me she likes the new sideWhere they eat pomegranates all dayAnd her lifeSounds like an ancient poemChanted down the agesTo her at six.I wonder if the myths are always in usAnd we ache to relive them through art She says meditate instead of prayAnd Stracciatella instead of chocolate chipAnd I think that’s a generational vernacular shift in the right directionShe holds the scrunchie open and pulls her hair throughAt the final pass she stops halfway, a poor man’s bunAnd I wonder what’s inherited and what’s instinct.More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

playing god Michaela Godding (The average person forgets ninety percent of their dreams. I have started keeping tallies on a notepad next to my bed to keep track of all the forgetting. I wonder if endings are all we can rely on. I wonder and wonder and remember that eighty percent of the human body’s heat comes out from the head and I wonder if wondering will burn me to pieces.)They say that life is easier when you are younger, that you can breathe and swallow at the same time until you are seven months old, that as a four-year-old you ask approximately four hundred and fifty questions a day. They say that what you can’t control you should put in god’s hands. My hands have twenty-seven bones, twenty-nine joints and at least one hundred and twenty-three other named ligaments but I wonder. I wonder about the unnamed ones. I wonder about the fifty thousand cells that will die and be replaced in the body by the time you finish reading this sentence.More from Michaela Godding ↓@michaelagodding on InstagramHer book, the year our grandmothers died, from AOS Publishing will be released February 2026.Her chapbook, Dwelling, is out now from Bottlecap Press.You can listen to me read Michaela Godding’s, Poem For a Mother Six Years Out of Prison, over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Shadows Harriet Monroe 1860 – 1936 What is most near? Ah, sweet dead year- Thy fallen leaf And gathered sheaf,The presence that is fled,The vows that once were said- These are most near. Swift speeds away Rose-crowned To-day. So far, so far Her light feet are!I look and see thy faceHaunting the upland place, Dear Yesterday. The blooming flowers, The sunny hours- These cannot rest, These are half blest.But thou forevermoreArt mine, love, as of yore, And time is ours. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Hunger, as Salvation Ariel K. Moniz This moment, sun speckled and innocent—I speak of prophecies, i plant seedsof affection in your perfect, peachy ears,and it means that I am thinking of tomorrow.I await their blooming like all great pleasures,though i do not know in what season they may come or what balm of tenderness they may carry to meas you lay your head upon the pillow beside mine.I hope for lavender to calm me and bring the bees,those little archangels of better days and July nights,or rosemary, to remind me what it is to desire you,like a meal hours off but simmering, a promisethat spills out the late afternoon windows.This moment here, sun drenched and pricelesssoothes like sitting down to the dinner tablefilled with the sun-bronzed faces of dear ones,or the first bite of that long labored meal.I want the lingering afternoon hours of waiting.I want to feel the hunger rumble in my stomach thick and as alive as August storms, if it is for you.I want to pine for the taste, that savory reliefand I want it every day of this wandering life.I want to know you, long summer daygelato-fingered savior, who I long for.I want to know you, and I want to knowin my sunshine bones that the cravingis just as blissful as the full belly.More from Ariel K. Moniz ↓@kiss.of.the.seventh.star on InstagramHer chapbook, Nostos Algos, is published with Ethel, a Micro Press. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.Jun 16 - Midlife Calculus by Britt Kaufmann: @brittwriter on Instagram. Her website: brittkaufmann.com. Her book, Midlife Calculus, is out now from Press 53Jun 17 - Swans by Sara TeasdaleJun 18 - Pollen Count by Danielle Marie Cahill: @daniellecahillwriter on Instagram. This poem is published in The Quarter(ly).Jun 19 - She has a new god by Maggie Devers: @rembrandts.cure on Instagram. Her book, For My Daughter, is out now.Jun 20 - Him by Christy Granger: @christysdigitalhaven on Instagram. Her book, Broken By Beauty: The Beauty of Broken Bonds, is out now.Jun 21 - After I Lost Him by Barbara Ehrentreu Jun 22 - Cold Blood Maggie Devers In cold bloodBones acheSeraphim chokeOn their holy wordsSongs frozen In mute frequencyElectric hums quietLights flicker outFire dimsCollapsed, a final sighNothing movesIn cold bloodMore from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

After I Lost Him Barbara Ehrentreu The sun still shinedThough its rays didn't warm meEncased in my shell of griefMy body felt neither heart not coldOne entire side of me was lostLopsided I stayed indoorsNot attempting to face the world aloneTeetering in uneven terrainI tried navigating by myselfDipping my toe into the water of being aloneAnd gradually I mendedPut together with strands of tenderness cemented with passing timeMore from Barbara Ehrentreu ↓@barbaraehrentreu on InstagramYou can read more of her writing on her blog: Barbara's MeanderingsHer book, You’ll Probably Forget Me: Living With and Without Hal, is out nowAs is her YA novel, If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Him Christy Granger This wasn’t supposed to happenYou were not supposed to happenWhat a special ability you haveI do not trust easilyI do not trust at allI gave up on love years agoIt was not for meThe torture it brought was too much for meHere I amWhat is happeningThis is not like meI will not fall for anyone ever againI am a strong independent womanWhat do i need a man forFor the way you make me feelNever in my life has this happened to meI would like to say it hadWhat a foreign conceptSafe I have never really felt safeCalmWhat is thatTrustHow do I trust you so completelyThis doesn’t make senseHow did you do that with such easeI do not loveI do not likeI do not trustLove was for suckersI had no time for it at allMaybe I trust men after allMaybe I don’t hate all of themMaye they don’t all hate meMaybe they don’t all want to hurt meMy experiences with men have never been goodJust once I wish they wereMore from Christy Granger ↓@christysdigitalhaven on InstagramHer book, Broken By Beauty: The Beauty of Broken Bonds, is out now. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

She has a new god Maggie Devers Her god is ecstatic dancingSurrender to the music, feel the beat in your marrow, your feet planted, the earth holds you, spin with her, faster and faster, until all that remains is pure joyHer god is ItalyMotorbikes and cycles with bells and churches with bells and 14th century art and a sore neck from looking at domes and gelatoHer god is her childrenSoft bellies, chubby cheeks, that divine scent at the top of their heads, bath time, first words, crawling, walking, the rise and fall of a chest, eyes closed, blink and you’ll miss it magic Her god is poetry Words flow through our most complex parts and hand us empathy, stanzas give rhythm to the day, lines whispered in the night bind our wounds, we heal letter by letterMore from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Pollen Count Danielle Marie Cahill This poem first appeared in The Quarter(ly).My computer tells me the weatherThere is a high pollen count todayAs if that matters deeply to someoneImprisoned in a glass towerAt night, my daughter asks if I saw the rainShe mimics the pattering noise with herFingers over the mound of the duvetI pretend I did.The she reminds me how in FebruaryWe stuck out our tongues to feel snowflakesFalling–so gentle and so coldWe both catch imaginary wisps for a whileI tell her that I love the rainTomorrow, I must go outside to feel the dropsOn my face–not learn about it far too lateIn the left-hand corner of my shining screenMore from Danielle Cahill ↓@daniellecahillwriter on InstagramThis poem is published in The Quarter(ly) You can hear me read Soft Plastic by Danielle over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Swans Sara Teasdale 1884 – 1933 Night is over the park, and a few brave stars Look on the lights that link it with chains of gold,The lake bears up their reflection in broken bars That seem to heavy for tremulous water to hold.We watch the swans that sleep in a shadowy place, And now and again one wakes and uplifts its head;How still you are—your gaze is on my face— We watch the swans and never a word is said. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Midlife Calculus Britt Kaufmann Edited by Dava Sobel View the poem in Scientific AmericanMore from Britt Kaufmann ↓ @brittwriter on InstagramHer website: brittkaufmann.comHer book, Midlife Calculus, is out now from Press 53 Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.Jun 9 - Last Fog at Sunrise by Travers Charron: @the_inkwellian on Threads, Scattering Poem Seeds on Substack. His tanka and haiku collection, Glass Shadows, is available now. Currently he is preparing his first full-length poetry collection, Thunderclap Heart, for submission later this year.Jun 10 - A Jelly-Fish by Marianne MooreJun 11 - “Tell me…” a poem by Margaux Paul: @margauxpoetry on Instagram, Margaux Paul on Substack. Her book, Unsent Letters, is out now.Jun 12 - History in Art by Maggie DeversJun 13 - I look for the Holy Fuck in everything I see. by Jo Guzman: @mjvcoast & @_acuppajo on Instagram. Her books, Craving & 28, are out now.Jun 14 - the body idea by Bree North: @zenmischief on InstagramJune 15 - This can’t be the end of the world Maggie Devers I finally super-glued my daughter’s doll furniture back togetherIt’s only been two Christmases since I meant to do thatWe’ve come too far to end here.She hasn’t started to read yet, but she’s close. She weaves stories in her headAnd layers them on her dayLiving two lives at onceWhat is real anyway?I can’t get rid of the nagging feeling that this is itShe stays in the IKEA kids’ space and I panic something terrible will happen I don’t know why But when I come back she’s in a powerful stance at the chalkboard easelHolding on to make something important To show her new friend To share their art, their spiritAnd that image grounds meTo keep on for now and not despair,This isn’t the end.More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

the body idea Bree North I know i am not my bodyBut if i wereI would remember just long enoughFor memory to mean imprintsI would be curious as corneasWhiten with fear like folliclesWired up from the insideDisease could be free to teach meLike feldspar fragments or meteorologyAccording to some holy mathAnd I wouldn’t even wonder about itI would be water and dirtThat’s it.Every hand would be the sameThe same like elastic on my joggersPlastic comb fingersGod, how i would harden up when starvedAnd soften when i am fedMore from Bree North ↓@zenmischief on Instagram Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

I look for the Holy Fuck in everything I see. Jo Guzman —after Courtney LoveI look for the Holy Fuck in everything I see.I wanna whisper Wow, Wow, Wow and have no idea I am even whispering it like a childUntil someone with a dick smaller than mine tells me to Shush.I tell him to Fuck Off.Wow me, Life!Holy Fuck that is hot!You with those red lipsIn those vintage boots from Paris.That time you got so fucking lost on Rue LeFebvreAnd needed that damn Google maps to tell you where to go.Stupid AI.Yet it led me to you.Where I get to see the reflection of my own greatnessIn the eyes of someone who also understandsThis is a made up LifeOne made up of simple moments.The Now.The Right Here.Because we are all gonna die.And I want stories of being lost in the Holy Fucks.Because you know what?I am finally free.Because I decided to stop giving any fucksUnless, of course, they are holy.Life is Holy.Go on.Be your Bad Ass Self.More from Jo Guzman ↓@mjvcoast & @_acuppajo on InstagramHer books, Craving & 28, are out now. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

History in Art Maggie Devers My husband tells me I have a twentieth century assAnd that’s a type of poem.Rubens put touches of red on his angels' rears,Literally rogue on cheeksAnd I feel that’s what this world is missing—More blushed bottomsMore naked debaucheryMore holy storiesWe laugh out loud at some of the babies,Old man newborn is forever the haha trope,The mortality, ever life, after life, reincarnation, universal onenessCreated for us by some Flemish dudeAppeasing his benefactor.Before time’s upAnd we walk down the mountain back to life. More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

"TELL ME, WHAT IS IT YOU PLAN TO DO WITH YOUR ONE WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE?"-Mary Oliver I plan on washing my sheets, cooking pasta, and cleaning broken glass off the kitchen floor quickly lest it cut up any little feet. I plan on eating peaches in the summer and oysters only in months that end in -er because that's what my mother taught me. I plan on making lovers out of poetry and poetry out of lovers. I plan to eat tomato salad with salt, oil, and hot French bread while my cousin regales me with her stories. I will swallow the bitterness of missing entire years together. I plan to say bless you when someone sneezes. Excuse me when I pass them by. I plan to forgive —even the people who don't deserve it. I plan on giving loneliness a warm place in my bed when I need her. I plan on hosting dinner parties and listening to my friend's laughter in the half-light of evening. I plan on sending the letter. I plan on falling in love often. Often, with the wrong people, which will make the right one's love go down like milk and honey. I plan on making mistakes, making love, getting sunburnt, and still basking in the sunlight.What is it I plan to do with my one wild and precious life?Mary, I intend to live it.-Margaux PaulMore from Margaux Paul ↓@margauxpoetry on InstagramMargaux Paul on SubstackHer book, Unsent Letters, is out now. You can listen to me read another poem by Margaux over on Instagram @rembrandts.cureMentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

A Jelly-Fish Marianne Moore 1887 – 1972 Visible, invisible,A fluctuating charm,An amber-colored amethystInhabits it; your armApproaches, andIt opens andIt closes;You have meantTo catch it,And it shrivels;You abandonYour intent—It opens, and itCloses and youReach for it—The blueSurrounding itGrows cloudy, andIt floats awayFrom you.Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Last Fog at Sunrise Travers Charron If life stretched on forever,would we still kneel in the wild mintjust to listen to the wind?It’s the fire burning lowthat draws us near.The song, fadingthat makes us sing.The morning mist liftingthat reveals the deer in the clearing.Grief is not just absence–it’s the overflowof all we didn’t say,the touch we postponed,a life paused too longon someday.We are eacha breath on glass,a shadow just beginning to fall.One day,we’ll rise as the last fog at sunrise–already vanishing as the light arrives.Sof if you love, say so.If something stirs you,listen.The morning comes quickly.And the fognever stays.More from Travers Charron ↓@the_inkwellian on ThreadsScattering Poem Seeds on SubstackHis tanka and haiku collection, Glass Shadows, is available now.Currently he is preparing his first full-length poetry collection, Thunderclap Heart, for submission later this year. Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.Jun 2 - cream soda by Stephanie Valente, Portals on Substack, @stephanie.maria.valente on Instagram; her book, Internet Girlfriend, is out nowJun 3 - Lines Written At Thorp Green by Anne BronteJun 4 - Honey by Debbie Radford, @debbiearadford on Instagram and TikTok; her book, The Enchanted Cottage, is out nowJun 5 - Because that is all it is. by Maggie DeversJun 6 - I open a book by Joanne Witzkowski, @a.wannie on Threads & InstagramJun 7 - Goodnight, Yesterday by Nichole Johnson on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads; her two books: Love, Death, and Other Distractions, a Collection of Poetry & Circling The Downward SpiralJune 8 - Spin the Weekend Maggie Devers The beasts are brunchingWith a Saturday fervor That excites me.The valet nearly got hit by a car,Or I nearly ran into him,As he stepped boldly into traffic.He knows his purpose is greater than mine,And I know it too,These four hours to let it all go.I cannot quibble with the revelersWho watch in amazement As the plates keep spinning. More from Maggie Devers ↓Read my debut poetry book, For My DaughterFollow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO

Goodnight, Yesterday Nichole Johnson I thoughtMy heart might die loudly–Thunder cracking,LighteningGrinding stone to sand.But–It is quiet.It withersIn my ribcage,Like a heavy fog–The last breathOf midnightSoftly tiptoeingTowards dawn.More from Nichole Johnson ↓Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, ThreadsHer two books: Love, Death, and Other Distractions, a Collection of Poetry & Circling The Downward Spiral Mentioned in this episode:Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem OnlyWrite After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.#WriteAfterOPO