Poems for September 2025's Trending Searches
Fall is here! And yet my list of trending search poetry includes not one single autumn verse. Let me sneak one in the intro: “Autumn Leaves” by Marilyn Chin inspired me to write a similar poem a few years back, letting bits of autumn serve as metaphoric stand-ins for death. It’s that time of year—time for darkenings days fired by the tense thrum of impending change.
Jimmy Kimmel
Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily suspended from his late night talk show after the chairman of the FCC threatened its host network over Kimmel’s comedic commentary on the death of Charlie Kirk. It’s not unheard of for celebrities to lose work due to disagreements with private companies or individuals. The problem is when the government gets involved, then it becomes a first amendment issue.
Speaking up without threat of government action is an important right here in the U.S., and one that Kirk himself avidly defended (I’m told). Poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote about it in her poem “Protest,” published in the late 1800s:
“The few who dare, must speak and speak again
To right the wrongs of many. Speech, thank God,
No vested power in this great day and land
Can gag or throttle.”
2. Adolescence
Did you watch Adolescence on Netflix? I did. It was compelling and well done, but also stressful and not at all what I expected. The show examines how social media subcultures influence today’s youth, sometimes to catastrophic ends. It netted a solid handful of Emmys this September.
Audre Lorde also poignantly expressed adolescent angst in her poem “Hanging Fire.” Circumstances change with time, but the early teen years stay emotional.
3. The Summer I Turned Pretty
This one, I haven’t watched. But a whole lot of people are talking about it.
For me, all it took were the words “summer” and “pretty” put together and I immediately recalled Mary Oliver’s “Out of the Stump Rot Something.” Not one of Oliver’s better known works, though it contains one of my favorite lines:
“If you like a prettiness,
don't come here.”
On rereading, I realized the poem is about spring, not summer. Oops. If you like a flawless memory, don’t come here.
4. Real Madrid
I had to include Real Madrid again because, y’all, it is on the Google Trends list every single time I look. Do they have a more avid fanbase than Taylor Swift? It sure seems that way.
Thankfully, it’s not terribly difficult to find poems about Spain, including Major Jackson’s poem, “Spain.” As a listener of The Slowdown Show, which Jackson hosted up until recently, I can imagine his voice reading the poem aloud. I encourage you to read it aloud, too.
5. Charlie Kirk
For someone who first heard of Charlie Kirk on September 10th, 2025, it’s been a strange few weeks. Anyone reading this surely knows by now that Kirk was murdered at an event on that date. The political and media fallout has been tremendous.
Since I didn’t know anything about him, I can’t say much. People are sad and angry for different reasons. I start to worry when whole human identities get thrown into the mix—not beliefs or opinions, but actual human bodies. It seems Kirk’s killer may have had a trans partner, and certain people have taken this as one piece of an excuse to pitch anti-trans laws or spew anti-trans hate speech. One thing about hate speech is, the first amendment doesn’t cover it.
In the past two weeks, I’ve learned that Charlie Kirk liked to debate. So I’ll take the opportunity to share an outstanding, relevant poem written by torrin a. greathouse.
The days are getting shorter now, the nights longer. It’s a good time to think about all the light we can kindle, keep, and share. Gandhi said, “A thousand candles can be lighted from the flame of one candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.” I’ll add this: a single candle gives enough light to read at least one poetry book, and one poetry book is enough to light the world.
Written by Allisonn Church
Allisonn Church was born in a small rural community to a mother who pinned butterflies in glass cases and hid scarab beetles in her jewelry box. Her first favorite poem was “The Willow Fairy”’ by Cicely Mary Barker. Find a list of Allisonn's published work at churchpoems.wordpress.com.
