It’s true – there’s never been a more important time to get involved. Now’s the time to get involved. It’s on each of us to do everything and anything we can to help to get out the vote poet.
Handle on the Verbal
PSNY's Places to Write #6
As much as there’s plentiful opportunity to be inspired in darling NYC, often quiet times to write are harder to come by. We’re launching this series on First Mondays as a monthly reminder to take some time out for the poet in you. Carve out some you-time and head down to this month’s PTW spot & give this Prompt a free write.
This recently opened Brooklyn gem is named after the owner’s book-loving grandmother, Elizabeth. It boasts over 4,000 titles and a high quality selection of beverages, that can take from your morning coffee to an afternoon IPA or an evening glass of wine. It’s only closed Mondays and is open 10am-10pm every night except Tues-Wed. It’s a beautiful and calm environment focused on connection and creativity.
Directions:
Navigate to Carroll St subway stop off the G (if it’s running) or F train & walk 2 minutes to 315 Smith Street.
Writing Prompt:
Choose five titles from five different bookshelves/sections. For example, Romance, Crime, Fantasy, Poetry and Philosophy. Take those five titles, for example: Kindred, Happiness Falls, Red at the Bone, Table for Two and Northern Light. Aim to include each of these five phrases in one singular poem, seeing where the words take you alongside a beverage from the bar.
Hashtag #PSNYPlacestoWrite when you visit our PTW Location 6.
Share what you write with us @poetrysocietyny on Instagram or TikTok so we can repost it!
Series by F.M Papaz
F.M Papaz is a Greek-Australian creative and writer who believes that there is space at the literary table for everyone and is excitedly setting up your cutlery. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Wild Roof Journal, Five South & Mantissa Poetry Review amongst others. She does Editorial work for Milk Press and Tabula Rasa Review as well as being a Marketing Associate for PSNY. Connect @fmpapaz on Instagram & TikTok and visit fmpapaz.com/ings to find her monthly newsletter about living a creative life and to find her chapbook, ‘Distance Makes the Heart Grow.’
Poems for June 2024's Trending Searches
Through a Poet's Lens: The Unseen Connection Between Coffee Brews and Poetic Verses
What do coffee and poetry have in common?
At first glance, they might seem like unrelated pleasures—one a daily necessity, the other a sublime art form. Yet, for many writers, myself included, coffee is more than just an ancient beverage. It is an essential part of the creative ritual, a companion to the process of putting thoughts and emotions into words.
Like most poets, I adhere to a ritual that borders on the sacred. Whether this ritual benefits or harms us is a matter of debate, contingent on the time, energy, and mental space it consumes under the guise of “productivity.” Yet, if I may indulge for a moment, I propose that these rituals are as vital and as inevitable as the feelings they help us navigate.
Feelings can be elusive and difficult to process immediately, but they can certainly be articulated and named, even as they evolve. This is the essence of poetry: a word set into a line, forming a stanza, flowing into another line, until our innermost thoughts are laid bare. Similarly, coffee serves as my ritual when crafting poetry, even poetry that revels in “all things caffeine.”
This isn't to suggest that those who abstain from this simple ritual, enjoyed by over half our population daily, are at a disadvantage. Rather, it is to suggest that this ritual is available to you, should you choose to sip on it.
Coffee is ubiquitous: every block in a metropolitan area, every turnpike in suburbia, offers a reminder that there’s a coffee shop waiting to serve you on your journey—even if you don’t know the destination. It is inescapable, like poetry. The moment an emotion stirs within, you are compelled to act. Yes, you could sip on it for immediate gratification, but you could also let it drip, simmer, and remain unindulged.
Why should poetry be any different? Who says poetry must always be written? Sometimes, poetry is found in the words left unspoken, captured within our mugs, “like the mugs we hold a little too close.”
In my debut poetry collection, "Coffee, a Sip of You and Me," I seek to capture my upbringing, my love life—including its not-so-sweet moments—the expansive world I grapple with, and the happiness I brew from the lessons I’ve encountered and learned from along the way.
To give you a glimpse into this symbiotic relationship, this ritual of coffee and poetry, this connection, that I return to time and again, consider these verses. Remember, whether reading or writing these poems, there are no rules—just hands on a keyboard, fingers flipping pages, and pen to paper, to spill the beans:
you order black because you’re certain
you taste black because you’re saddened
you stopped sugar in your coffee because you’re not satisfied
you stopped sugar in your coffee because you let them take
your sweetness
you burned your tongue because you couldn’t bear to speak
you didn’t think they’d understand anyway
you blistered your taste buds to feel alive
you did not wait for the coffee to cool
because what difference did it make
you weren’t in charge of the order anyway
—DEPRESSED
in due time
the remnants of you and i will vanish
and i will find another drink
that’s not quite you
and it won’t quite be the time
and certainly, i’m not fine
but quite honestly, i’ll tell myself lies
and tell the crowd: this is the best drink i’ve ever laid eyes on
and best of all
i won’t hope for your return
because drinks have an expiry date too
—ONE AND DONE
i like my friends
my mochas
my blondes
my dark roasts
my blends
for we all love
and converse
for we vow
we won’t
we don’t
discriminate
–21st CENTURY KID
Written by Rachel Harty
Writer Bio: As a transplant New Yorker, coffee aficionado, and poet, Rachel Harty can often be found roaming the city on gliding, hyper-caffeinated feet. And if you can't find her in person, well, discover her debut poetry collection, Coffee, a Sip of You and Me, now available on Amazon and select independent retailers.
To discuss her latest book or respond to this article, visit her at www.RachelHarty.com.
Gaining Stamina for Syntax: How Punctuation Changes Everything
Gregory Gonzalez writes: “When it comes to being a poet, gaining stamina for syntax––the sentence structure and punctuation of prose––is important. Sentence structure helps create brevity in poetry, and brevity then goes on to control how often one takes a breath within the sentence; further amplifying the tone, and the mood of the poem.”
Your #NYCPOFEST24 Guide
Book Review of Geometry of the Restless Herd by Sophie Cabot Black
Sophie Cabot Black is one of our readers at the New York City Poetry Festival this year. Catch her reading at 5:30pm with Copper Canyon Press on July 14th at the Brinkley Stage. Read on for a review of her latest poetry collection.
I did not have one specific idea of what to expect when I delved into Sophie Cabot Black’s new book of poems, Geometry of the Restless Herd, but I must say I was not expecting a book of pastoral poems centered around sheep herding to be so scathing, fiery, and politically eloquent.
Every poem in this collection unfolds upwards from a strong and direct foundation of candid truth and observation into a soaring call to examine oneself, one’s surroundings, and one’s daily endeavors. Cabot Black weaves threads of connection between the layered, convoluted systems that make up our everyday contemporary reality, and measures how deep they go in an exploration of human relationships with work, nature, animals, and each other.
The first section of the collection starts off with “And So,” an ode to wildness about running off “Beyond and into our own summer” and leaving behind one’s home. This first section is preceded by the standalone poem “Coyotes,” addressing “the in between/ of where it was/ and where it might/have been,” a question which comes up throughout the collection.
In the poems which immediately follow these two, Cabot Black delves into a comparison of agriculture–specifically sheep herding, human-animal relationships, and human-land relationships–to contemporary post-industrial capitalism.
Poems like “Democracy Until,” “To Burn Through Where You are Not Yet,” and “Sanctuary” address the illusory nature of individualism, ownership, and freedom, particularly how systems of power determine and assign value to people and animals based on what service they can provide or how much work they can do, to the detriment of everything but profit. Herds of sheep being taken to a pasture which they don’t realize is confined from the world outside loom in similarity to people being funneled through cities, buildings, paperwork, and systems. The following section from “Democracy Until” particularly struck me:
My barn, your barn; we were never ready
To know the herd. Each coming from somewhere else
Fills in until whatever might be missing
Does not easily fit. And so the field
Becomes the shape the market requires,
And to set fire just before heading on
Is also to say it does not matter
Which part is played
But that it gets played… (Cabot Black 8).
Throughout the collection, Cabot Black explores what it means to play a part, especially as a worker. “To Burn Through Where You are not Yet,” “Silo,” “Bringing in the Stray,” “Handbook of Risk,” and “Of Use,” among others, highlight the mournful futility at the end of a day, or lifetime, of work for someone else. The speakers in several poems are distinct characters who have their own perspectives on and approaches to work, and include what I read as multiple herders both narrating and being addressed, foremen, agents, borrowers, and children.
The pastoral landscape that Cabot Black paints is at times desolate, lonely, and harsh, and the recurring speaker repeatedly voices regrets about the dreams and freedoms they have sacrificed in the name of work for someone else’s profit as well as marriage in a few poems. However, a strong hopeful and sweet note comes through simultaneously, in the cyclicality of nature and the creatures who inhabit the world of the poetry.
As Cabot Black questions the meaning of ownership over land and the meaning of being part of a family and a community when people are pitted against each other for profit, she simultaneously depicts the sweetness, intimacy, and stillness of being with others, whether human or animal. A strong connection and indebtedness to the land shines up out of these poems as an answer towards the question of meaning and strength. Connection, community, and storytelling are the tools of remembrance and resistance at play in these poems, and at our disposal as Cabot Black emphatically reminds us.
Written by Lily Naifeh-Bajorek
Writer Bio: Lily Naifeh-Bajorek is a multidisciplinary writer, musician, and artist studying in the creative writing program at Oberlin College. Currently, she is interning at The Poetry Society of New York, where she is helping plan and put on the 13th Annual New York City Poetry Festival and working on the Summer 2024 edition of Milk Press. In her free time she makes zines and puts on shows to celebrate her friends’ music and art. She hopes to publish several books, release a million albums, and open a venue/art and poetry space someday. Follow her on Instagram @trashprincessdestroy
#PoFest 2024 Headliners: PSNY's Poetry Picks
How to Care for Your Poet
Book Review: Copper Canyon Press Releases Nikki Wallschlaeger’s Fourth Collection, Hold Your Own
Hold Your Own wastes no time. From the imperative affirmation of its title, to the George Carlin epigraph and the opening poem How to Write a War Poem, Wallschlaeger outlines the state of affairs. It’s one in which feelings of helplessness, fury and desperation are as homeostatic as war, racial inequality and violent sexism. She’s clear, these “forces of evil” are fixtures in our world. But, the potent assertion being made is, so are we. We are not going anywhere.
PSNY's Places to Write #4
As much as there’s plentiful opportunity to be inspired in darling NYC, often quiet times to write are harder to come by. We’re launching this series on First Mondays as a monthly reminder to take some time out for the poet in you. Carve out some you-time and head down to this month’s PTW spot & give this Prompt a free write.
Brooklyn Heights Promenade
Elevated above DUMBO and behind stunning Brooklyn Heights brownstones is a Promenade that unveils one of the most striking vistas of the Manhattan skyline. Governor’s Island peers from the left and Jersey peeks over from the distance. Bridges both Brooklyn & Manhattan frame the centerpiece.
Directions:
Navigate to Borough Hall station in Brooklyn, which will allow you to emerge right by Montague Street. Begin your walk all the way down it , past Arthur Miller’s residence at number 62 on the left, until you reach the intersection of Montague Terrace & Pierrepont Place.
Writing Prompt:
It’s the perfect place for people-watching, sitting here it’s impossible to be uninspired. There’s no elaborate prompt needed today. Just watch and record the life surrounding you. Be curious. Look, but don’t just look. Close your eyes. Feel all the energies that you’re sharing this space and this moment with. Pick up your pen. Write… Oh & if you see a poet, ask them for a poem!
Hashtag #PSNYPlacestoWrite when you visit our PTW Location 4.
Share what you write with us @poetrysocietyny on Instagram or TikTok so we can repost it!
Series by F.M Papaz
F.M Papaz is a Greek-Australian creative and writer who believes that there is space at the literary table for everyone and is excitedly setting up your cutlery. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Wild Roof Journal, Five South & Mantissa Poetry Review amongst others. She does Editorial work for Milk Press and Tabula Rasa Review as well as being a Marketing Associate for PSNY. Connect @fmpapaz on Instagram & TikTok and visit fmpapaz.com/ings to find her monthly newsletter about living a creative life and to find her chapbook, ‘Distance Makes the Heart Grow.’
Reading Poetry as a Non-Poet
How To Write a Love Poem: Theory, Steps and Template
Cucumbers, Pornography and Formula 1: Three Ways to Define Poetry
PSNY's Places to Write #3
As much as there’s plentiful opportunity to be inspired in darling NYC, often quiet times to write are harder to come by. We’re launching this series on First Mondays as a monthly reminder to take some time out for the poet in you. Carve out some you-time and head down to this month’s PTW spot & give this Prompt a free write.
Greenacre Park
Directions: Find your way to Midtown on 51st Street between 2nd and 3rd Ave. There you will discover a beautiful hidden gem nestled in the middle of the city.
Writing Prompt:
The eye-catching centerpiece of the park will drown out the usual sounds of the city with rushes of water.
Water has so many functions and properties. It can cleanse, drown, lift up, restore and calm us.
Focus on the soundtrack of this place & ask yourself: What does your body need from the water today?
Do you need the trickling streams to carry something away? Or the force of its waterfall to wash you clean?
Hashtag #PSNYPlacestoWrite when you visit our PTW Location 3.
Feel free to share what you write, we’ll repost it @poetrysocietyny.
Series by F.M Papaz
F.M Papaz is a Greek-Australian creative and writer who believes that there is space at the literary table for everyone and is excitedly setting up your cutlery. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Wild Roof Journal, Five South & Mantissa Poetry Review amongst others. She does Editorial work for Milk Press and Tabula Rasa Review as well as being a Marketing Associate for PSNY. Connect @fmpapaz on Instagram & TikTok and visit fmpapaz.com/ings to find her monthly newsletter about living a creative life and to find her chapbook, ‘Distance Makes the Heart Grow.’
Fools (and Foolishness) in Poetry - By Joshua John Smithe
PSNY's Places to Write #2
As much as there’s plentiful opportunity to be inspired in darling NYC, often quiet times to write are harder to come by. We’re launching this series on First Mondays as a monthly reminder to take some time out for the poet in you.
Carve out some you-time and head down to this month’s PTW spot & give this Prompt a free write.
Aye Simon Reading Room
Directions: On the corner of 5th & E 89th, you’ll find the entry of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Grab a $30 ticket and head inside to the iconic atrium designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. As you travel up the Level 1 ramp, halfway up you will find a semi-circle opening on your right that leads to the Aye Simon Reading Room.
Writing Prompt: You have the option within the room, to peruse the many art and poetry books for inspiration. In 2023, Ama Codjoe was the Poet-in-Residence of the Museum. There are materials within the Reading Room that she created. A screen with headphones to the back of the room, will offer you options to listen to poems Ama has written as well Writing Prompts she created during her residency.
Alternatively, take a walk around the museum and take in the artworks, paying special attention to shape.
Shape makes this museum everything that it is.
Artworks you’ll find also reflect their nature, in the form the artists have chosen to present them in.
Create a poem whose form reflects its nature.
Hashtag #PSNYPlacestoWrite when you visit our PTW Location 2.
Feel free to share what you write, we’ll repost it @poetrysocietyny.
Series by F.M Papaz
F.M Papaz is a Greek-Australian creative and writer who believes that there is space at the literary table for everyone and is excitedly setting up your cutlery. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Wild Roof Journal, Five South & Mantissa Poetry Review amongst others. She does Editorial work for Milk Press and Tabula Rasa Review as well as being a Marketing Associate for PSNY. Connect @fmpapaz on Instagram & TikTok and visit fmpapaz.com/ings to find her monthly newsletter about living a creative life and to find her chapbook, ‘Distance Makes the Heart Grow.’
Poetry is Magic: My First Intensive Poetry Class by F.M Papaz
Up until then, how I conducted myself in poetry had come from an intuitive place within me that was difficult to regale. The amazing part of getting into Theory was the discovery and affirmation that the craft of poetry does have this spiritual origin and operation to it that lives within and is executed by the Poet.
