HOW TO POET
Folk Poetry: The People’s Language of Yearning
Folk poetry has always belonged to the people—a collective voice rising from the fields, the taverns, the streets. It was never intended for the page, nor for academia. It grew from a need to speak when no one was listening, to tell stories about yearning, about suffering, about those small moments of joy that flutter briefly amidst the enduring ache of survival.
Folk poetry has always belonged to the people—a collective voice rising from the fields, the taverns, the streets. It was never intended for the page, nor for academia. It grew from a need to speak when no one was listening, to tell stories about yearning, about suffering, about those small moments of joy that flutter briefly amidst the enduring ache of survival.
We forget that we are constantly consuming folk poetry. It is woven into the fabric of our lives—hidden in the songs we scream out of car windows at 65 mph after a party, or the tunes we hum as we drift off to sleep in our dark, shoebox apartments. Folk poetry saturates both our moments of exhilaration and our quietest hours, even when we are unaware of it.
We consume it because it belongs to us—because it carries the stories of our ancestors—those who survived, who loved, who protested, and who left their voices in songs that continue to echo across time. These voices don’t just shape the folk singers of the past; they permeate the modern musicians we listen to every day.
Ezra Hozier, with his haunting melodies and searing social critiques, is one of the most conscious inheritors of this tradition. When he sings “Seven new ways that you can eat your young,” he taps into the same thread of protest that folk poets have woven for centuries. His songs, like folk poetry, are both melodies of protest and tools of reflection, forcing us to confront the hard truths of the present with the weight of the past pressing down on us.
But Hozier isn’t alone. Modern artists like Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, Joan Baez, and Indochine continue to carry the flame, each infusing their music with the raw emotion and urgency that folk poetry demands. They take the everyday and elevate it into something mythic, telling stories that resonate with our shared human experience.
Modern Ballads and Laments: Echoes of Folk Poetry
Ezra Hozier – “Eat Your Young”
"Seven new ways that you can eat your young," Hozier chants, and here the past collides with the present. The song is a lament, but it’s also satire—its weight drawn from Swift’s disgust for a society that reduces human lives to commodities. Hozier channels this centuries-old folk tradition of protest songs, where melodies were designed to carry devastating truths, forcing us to face the ugliness of unchecked greed.
2. Miley Cyrus – “Flowers”
"I can buy myself flowers, write my name in the sand." On the surface, Miley’s self-reliance anthem could seem like a pop hit, but it’s deeply rooted in the reclamation ballad of folk tradition. Ballads have always spoken of love, but here, Miley reclaims that love for herself. This isn’t a tale of love lost—it’s a story of love transformed, redefined. Like the women of folk poetry who sang for their own survival, Miley stands firmly in this lineage of voices.
3. Stevie Nicks – “Rooms on Fire”
"This is the way, the room’s on fire." Stevie Nicks doesn’t write songs; she writes in flame. "Rooms on Fire" is a ballad not just about passion, but about the fleeting, those moments of intensity that slip from our grasp. Folk poetry thrives in this space between the tangible and the elusive, and Nicks' lyrics carry the same urgency—the sense that life is burning, and all we can do is witness its beauty and terror. Like the ancient laments, Nicks mourns not only for what’s lost, but for what was never fully attained.
4. Joan Baez – “There But for Fortune”
"Show me a prison, show me a jail / Show me a prisoner whose face has grown pale." Baez’s simple, cutting lyrics are the epitome of the folk protest song. She speaks the unvarnished truth, giving voice to those society prefers to forget. Empathy flows through her words, a direct connection to the folk poets of old who told the stories of the voiceless. Baez, like her predecessors, holds up a mirror to a world that turns away from its own suffering.
5. Indochine – “L’Aventurier”
"L’aventurier contre tout guerrier." Indochine captures the spirit of rebellion, a theme that runs through centuries of folk poetry. Their music is a modern iteration of the epic ballad, celebrating the “Hero’s Journey”, the one who defies boundaries and seeks new worlds. Folk poetry has always honored the outsider, the wanderer who refuses to be tamed by society's norms, and Indochine carries that defiant tradition into the modern era.
Why We Can’t Let Go of Folk Poetry
Why do these songs touch us in ways we can’t fully explain? Because they are rooted in something deeper, something ancient. They carry the weight of our collective yearning—the part of us that longs for more: more love, more freedom, more life. Folk poetry is not some relic. It is the heartbeat of human existence, the way we tell stories to make sense of our longing, our suffering, our joy.
Every time we sing along, we partake in this tradition. We are consuming poetry, whether we know it or not. And in that act of consumption, we become poets ourselves. We carry with us the stories, the protests, the yearnings of our ancestors, even as we scream along to the lyrics of our beloved contemporaries. These are not merely songs—they are modern vessels, carrying the same stories that have always been told.
Folk poetry is alive, and it belongs to us. When we truly listen—really listen—we become part of that ancient voice spanning time.
Written by Rachel Harty
Writer Bio: Rachel Harty is a New York-based poet and essayist, whose work has appeared in Poetry Nation, The Madrid Review, The LA Wave, and other notable literary platforms. Her debut poetry collection, Coffee, a Sip of You and Me, delves into intimate coming-of-age moments, exploring themes of connection and solitude. It’s available on Amazon and in select independent bookstores and coffee shops across the U.S. and abroad.
To discuss poetry or for inquiries, visit her at www.RachelHarty.com.
Yearning and Folk Poetry: The Ancient Hunger for Meaning
There’s a hunger in all of us, something primal, an ache that lodges deep within the marrow—a gnawing we rarely name, but one we feel. It’s an unquenchable thirst for more—more life, more love, more understanding—and it drives the songs we place on infinite replay. This hunger is where we find folk poetry. Not a relic of the past, but a pulse, alive and beating, threading through the music of contemporaries like Ezra Hozier, Miley Cyrus, Stevie Nicks, and others. Folk poetry is the language of the unspeakable, something we all consume unconsciously, and in that consumption, we awaken to our own poetic sensibilities.
satire as folk legacy
Hozier’s “Eat Your Young” doesn’t merely drift through your headphones; it haunts you. There’s a gravitational pull that lures you into its orbit. First, it’s the melody—those sharp, soaring soprano notes, the quiet beat pulling you in—but as the lyrics settle in your bones, the true ache begins to reveal itself. Hozier is not simply singing a catchy chorus. He’s interrogating us, forcing us to reckon with our complicity in a world that devours its young for the sake of unchecked greed.
And here, we hear echoes of Jonathan Swift’s satirical masterpiece A Modest Proposal, a work in which folk poetry sheds its illusions and reveals the ugly mechanisms of exploitation. Hozier jolts us out of our complacency, shattering the lies we tell ourselves about the systems of power that prey on the vulnerable.
For context, in 1729, Ireland was strangled by famine and profound destitution. Swift’s essay—blistering in its savage irony—suggested that to bridge the chasm of inequality, the poor might offer their infants as sustenance for the rich. This was satire sharpened to a blade, protest dressed as horror, meant not to amuse but to jolt society into awareness.
Fast forward nearly three centuries, and Hozier channels this same fury. “Seven new ways that you can eat your young,” he sings. Behind the melody is a modern disgust for a machine that still preys on the powerless, a world where the wealthy feast on the labor, dreams, and bodies of the poor. This is the essence of folk poetry—rooted in protest yet cloaked in song. Hozier, consciously drawing from both Dante’s Inferno and Swift’s biting irony, bridges the past and the present, forcing us to confront ourselves. And like the best folk poets, he shoulders the weight of history to craft something urgent, something undeniably new.
Written by Rachel Harty
Tune in next week, on How to Poet to read Read Part Two: Modern Ballads and Laments: Echoes of Folk Poetry.
Writer Bio: Rachel Harty is a New York-based poet and essayist, whose work has appeared in Poetry Nation, The Madrid Review, The LA Wave, and other notable literary platforms. Her debut poetry collection, Coffee, a Sip of You and Me, delves into intimate coming-of-age moments, exploring themes of connection and solitude. It’s available on Amazon and in select independent bookstores and coffee shops across the U.S. and abroad.
To discuss poetry or for inquiries, visit her at www.RachelHarty.com.
Poems for September 2024's Trending Searches
In September, I was mostly searching for autumn. It came in flashes like yellow leaves, often too warm for my taste. Other folks searched for the usual things: YouTube, Facebook, local restaurants. Google’s Trending Now feature offers particular insight into the most vivid moments that flared up within the existing landscape of commonly used websites. Here are a few topics that lit up the web in September, each accompanied by a relevant poem.
1. Eclipse
Poet Amie Whittemore describes marking the date of an eclipse on her calendar, knowing she’ll forget to step outside and look at it anyway. This matches my own relationship to most eclipses, including the Harvest Moon that appeared on September 17th.
Amie writes, “...like a shovel, I’m purposeful / but often idle.” Do you ever feel that way? I certainly do, but wouldn’t have had the words for it without Amie’s help.
2. Covid
There is no post-Covid world, so here we are in the Covid world, just writing about it. I know I wrote a handful of Covid poems— particularly in 2020— and I remember seeing calls for Covid poems from lit mags in those earlier years.
Did you know that, in 2022, American Sāmoa was the only place with zero Covid deaths? I didn’t, until I read this poem by Terisa Siagatonu. Siagatonu also manages to include another of September 2024’s trending topics — the NFL.
Read “The Only Place in the U.S. with Zero COVID Deaths” by Terisa Siagatonu
3. Real Madrid
I’m from the U.S., so you can forgive me for pretending “Real Madrid” is just another way of saying, “Madrid, in actuality.” We tend to be woefully ignorant about the-thing-everyone-else-in-the-world-calls-football. So I can happily share that Orlando Ricardo Menes wrote about the real, authentic Madrid, as experienced in his youth at the open air market. The poem fills me with nostalgia, appreciation, and hunger for life.
5. Dancing with the Stars
I don’t suppose anyone has yet written a poem about the TV show Dancing with the Stars, but Olympic Rugby medalist Ilona Maher has chronicled her reality series debut via social media. Meanwhile, dozens of poets have written about stars, and about dancing, and possibly even about dancing with stars (just not the rich and famous kind).
Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sandburg offers a short and sweet nod to summer stars that closes out the season and leaves readers with only the best memories of the many warm nights now past.
Did everyone find what they were searching for in September? I hope so. In October, let’s look for red leaves, mugs of hot chocolate, and fresh books of poetry to read as the light fades.
Written by Allisonn Church
Writer Bio: 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.
Beyond Rhymes and Verses: The Art of Poetry
Often, when asked, “What is a poem?” many people answer that it is just words arranged in short lines that sometimes rhyme. While they are not entirely wrong and some poems do display those features, this view barely scratches the surface. Poetry goes beyond mere line breaks and rhymes. It is a profound art many poets have uniquely defined.
So let’s discover these definitions and develop our own vision of The Art of Poetry.
1. The art of correspondence.
“The art of correspondence”—this is how French poet Charles Baudelaire, author of The Flowers of Evil, defines poetry. His conception emphasizes how poetry creates a bridge between disparate elements through metaphors and symbolism. For instance, in his poem “Correspondances” Baudelaire writes, “Perfumes, colors and sounds answer one another,” using this poetic image to draw a parallel between distinct senses—smell, sight, and hearing.
Reading a poem, then, is like entering an alternate reality where the poet is aware of his sensations and constantly connecting elements. Those links open the reader to new ways of feeling connections between things that, at first sight, seem unrelated. This proves that verses and rhymes are not essential to poetry. We can find those “correspondences” even in prose. In Swann’s Way, for example, Marcel Proust links the smell of a madeleine to childhood memories.
2. The Seer Poet
This term was introduced by the young poet Arthur Rimbaud in a letter addressed to his professor. In this letter, he claims to have found the poet’s role. He writes, “I say that one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The Poet makes himself a seer by a long, immense, and rational dissoluteness of all the senses.” Like Baudelaire, Rimbaud also emphasizes connections between the senses. However, Rimbaud takes this idea further, suggesting that the poet is a seer—someone able to see things that others don’t.
The poet’s role is thus to enlighten readers by introducing them to his visions. This ability to have “visions” is present in many poets’ works and it can transform the readers’ perceptions. For instance, after reading Charlotte Forten Grimké’s verses,
“Oh, deep delight to watch the gladsome waves
Exultant leap upon the rugged rocks;
Ever repulsed, yet ever rushing on—
Filled with a life that will not know defeat”
One might not look at waves the same way after discovering Grimké’s depiction of the sea’s waves as a relentless and enduring force.
3. The original poet: Orpheus
The myth of Orpheus is from Greek mythology. According to this myth, Orpheus was a poet and musician whose songs were so soft that animals would follow him and trees bend towards him; he could even soothe the most frustrated men. This myth led to Orphism: the belief that poetry is meant to purify the reader.
4. The definition of poetry and the poet’s role
So now we might ask: What is poetry and what is a poet? Well, is it fair to impose a universal definition and deprive the art and the artists of their liberty? Whether you seek to disturb the readers’ sensations, enlighten them, or heal them, you are a poet. From the moment you choose to express yourself with your unique voice, you become a poet. We are all poets really, we just don’t realize it. Taking a simple sunset picture, for example, makes you a poet since you are capturing a beautiful moment to create emotion. Just remember, poetry is a free art open to anyone wanting to express themselves uniquely and creatively.
Writer Bio: Rania Miyara is a writer who shares her poems on social media and often takes part in poetry contests. She is also working on her first poetry collection. Her inspiration for this article came from all the literature classes where the professor would ask, "What is poetry?" She wanted to share her belief that poetry can be seen anywhere and in anyone, proving that it is not so hard to "poet," while sharing some of her favorite poetry references and facts about the history of this beautiful art.
Revelations About Community: What I Learned At Poetry Camp
I almost didn’t show up to Poetry Camp. I’d signed up months in advance, and as the date drew closer, I started devising a scheme to chicken out. I couldn’t turn my camera off going into Camp like in a virtual workshop. I couldn’t control how much or how little others see me. A zoom call features a built-in escape, a gathering of fifty poets in the woods of upstate New York does not.
Five days at Poetry Camp taught me to let others see me, to share space in a way I’d forgotten how to.
Every exercise, every workshop, every mealtime, asked for a kind of vulnerability. Sharing your writing was optional, but sharing your existence was inescapable.
On the second full day, headlining poet India Lena González led a seminar that incorporated movement and acting exercises, eye contact meditation, mirroring. Walking around in circles, head up, meeting the gaze of every person you passed.
We then found a partner and stared at them, let them stare back at us, for a span of time that was immeasurable. India’s even voice in the background reminding us it was okay to feel uncomfortable, to feel silly, to feel. It was okay to just be. It was, for me, an exercise in being perceived— in allowing myself to be perceived, not without fear but along with it. An exercise in existing.
Existing, it reminded me, is something we do together. Being alive is an inherently communal activity.
I’d been asking myself what I needed to do to acquire community, what kind of mask I needed to put on in order to be worthy of inclusion. But here, it occurred to me I had it all wrong. Maybe, community is the baseline, foundational to our very existence. What had seemed ethereal was in fact mycelial. I couldn't see it, but I was built into it all the same. Community was there all along, and I had been putting on a mask to hide from it. The outsider narrative I’d been feeding myself for years was a fallacy. I was a part of all of this, and it was part of me.
I don’t mean to say that I found a place I belonged, in the woods among poets. I mean to say that, in the woods among poets, I found out that I didn’t need to belong at all. I only needed to be. To be living is to be in community with those around you. To be living is to belong to the world. Community doesn’t require any special skill or great effort to get in on. Community is what’s already all around you. You only need to stop hiding from it.
Written by PSNY Member Sara Iacovelli
Sara Iacovelli is a poet and a preschool teacher. She has gone to grad school too many times, though never for writing; she holds degrees in comparative literature and special education. She lives in the northern catskills with her partner, her very large dog, and her very soft cat. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Pine Hills Review, *82 Review, Prairie Home Magazine, Barren Magazine, and Eunoia Review.
Why Poetry is for the Masses
Considering we all at one time or another feel deeply and perhaps wonder about the ways to express this let me make the case for poetry; the real question today is not why poetry but why NOT poetry?
Poetry by its very definition (Oxford dictionary) is: “A literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.” Feelings are defined as “that which a person feels in regard to something based on emotion or intuition and not solely on reason.” If we are all human with many shared experiences and emotions then by this logic, poetry is for you. Let me prove it to you.
Written by PSNY Member Julie Hogg
Considering we all at one time or another feel deeply and perhaps wonder about the ways to express this let me make the case for poetry; the real question today is not why poetry but why NOT poetry?
Poetry by its very definition (Oxford dictionary) is: “A literary work in which special intensity is given to the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive style and rhythm.” Feelings are defined as “that which a person feels in regard to something based on emotion or intuition and not solely on reason.” If we are all human with many shared experiences and emotions then by this logic, poetry is for you. Let me prove it to you.
Poetry for: Those Under The Moon
Let's begin with the Persian lyric poet Hafiz with these words
"Spare the candle, friends.
In tonight's celebration,
my beloved is a Moon.
A very full one."
For centuries, hasn't the full moon enchanted those under its spell?
Poetry for: Those That Delight In Nature
Not to jump to the obvious but why let a day go by without a snippet from the beloved poet Mary Oliver? Her delicious words...
"At Blackwater Pond the tossed waters have settled after a night of rain. I dip my cupped hands, I drink a long time. It tastes like stone, leaves, fire. It falls cold into my body waking my bones..."
Take that travel blogger! Let's think! Let's explore the nuance of words beyond the mere iPhone snapshot of "Paradise" I want to hear your heart.
Poetry for: Those Romantics Among Us
What dating app can come close to Edna St. Vincent Millay ASHES OF LIFE
"Love has gone and left me and the days are all alike;
Eat I must and sleep I will, --and would that night were here!
But ah! to lie awake and hear the slow hours strike!
Would that it were day again---with twilight near!"
That's so much better than "ghosting" isn't it?
Poetry for: Those Who Love Their Animal Friends
Robert Frost took us to the very heart of an experience with "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" with all of today’s dedication to nature and one's animal friends how more lovely to describe one's horse pal than:
"He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake."
Poetry for: Those Calling For Justice
What poems will emerge out of the current events of today? What better way to express the deep feelings and sentiment of one's cause? The blood, sweat and tears of the past can get us started. Read the heart wrenching poem "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall for starters.
Poetry for: Those Seeking Solace
Of all the moments of our time, where we find ourselves alive, now is the time for poetry.
“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; All Your waves and billows have gone over me” (Psalm 42:7).
Poetry for: Those Remembering Home
Describing the land of her ancestors Bell Hooks in her elegy on Appalachia says in part ..."Listen little sister, angels make their hope... here in these hills."
Have you too experienced any of the above?
Most of our feelings are Universal, meaning we have all felt them! So embrace the amazing sentiments of others who see and feel things and put them into words for us and then write something of your particular experience that only you can describe.
In the words of Emily Dickinson and very timely I would say for those thinking they need the attention and fanfare of "friends" on FB "I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you--Nobody--too? Then there's a pair of us! Don't tell they'd advertise you know! How dreary to be Somebody! How public-like a Frog! To tell one's name--the livelong June--to an admiring Bog!"
Enjoy the wisdom and courage of those who have come before us but forge your own path and start to write with expression. You too can become a voice for the masses. Begin today. If not your voice then who's?
Writer Bio:
Julie writes fun, light, encouraging poetry for the masses, you can find her work in books by Poets Choice.
Fly (Intern) on the Wall: What I've Learnt from my PSNY Internship
When I came across this internship opportunity online earlier this year, I realized that PSNY was the organization that started The Poetry Brothel, so I visited their website to see what else they were all about. Every event and program listed looked so fun and creative, and I fell in love from afar with The Poetry Society’s mission of bringing poetry to everyone through accessible, unconventional, and collaborative projects and events.
It’s difficult to narrow down everything this internship has given me, but my top three takeaways are as follows:
When I came across this internship opportunity online earlier this year, I realized that PSNY was the organization that started The Poetry Brothel, so I visited their website to see what else they were all about. Every event and program listed looked so fun and creative, and I fell in love from afar with The Poetry Society’s mission of bringing poetry to everyone through accessible, unconventional, and collaborative projects and events.
It’s difficult to narrow down everything this internship has given me, but my top three takeaways are as follows:
1. poets are the dream team
Putting together the New York City Poetry Festival on Governors Island was one of the most magical experiences I’ve ever had. PSNY staff, my fellow interns, all the volunteers, readers, stage hosts, literary orgs, and vendors were there purely because of their dedication to poetry, and it showed.
When it rained on the morning of the first festival day, this crew of poetry devotees rolled with the punches, tackling the moment with optimism and creativity. The sense of community and warmth was like none I have ever experienced before!
On the second day of the festival, as I was walking around saying hi to poets and vendors I’d met the previous day and introducing myself to new faces, I found myself dreading the sunset that would ring in the festival’s end. I was ready to put on a third day!
2. Event production is immensely rewarding
As an event production intern, I knew from the start that my tasks would mainly revolve around planning for the festival and making sure it ran smoothly. However, what that actually entailed was so variable and wide-ranging that I found myself building new skills that I never would have guessed could pertain to event production.
I built an interactive Google Map and a treasure hunt, two completely new skills, which were such fun and creative projects outside of my comfort zone. During the festival itself, I was constantly thinking on my feet and getting inventive with solutions for the unpredictable situations that arose, whether that was finding tents for vendors, rigging up signs with DIY materials between readings, or crafting myself a trash bag hat and poncho in the rain.
The dynamic and spontaneous nature of event production is what made the experience so enriching and bonding.
3.Stepping outside your comfort zone is always worth it.
At the beginning of the internship, I did not expect to have so many opportunities to share my writing as I did; and I could not have predicted the level of encouragement I received.
I shared my writing through research and construction of the Festival’s Treasure Hunt and I was thrilled, albeit nervous, to be able to read my own poems at the Festival. I didn’t have much experience reading my work aloud, and finding my spoken voice for my poetry was so different and so much more powerful than sharing the work digitally or on paper.
The PSNY team also gave me the chance to write articles, such as this one, for the How to Poet blog! My first article was a review of renowned poet Sophie Cabot Black’s new book, Geometry of the Restless Herd, and I was pleased and surprised to receive personal responses from her and Copper Canyon Press expressing their appreciation. I was honored that they thought my review captured the soul of the book so well. Taking the time to go in depth with someone’s work can be so valuable both to you and to them, and this was yet another way in which I was able to take part in creative community anew and branch out.
None of this would have been possible without PSNY!
Said makeshift Poncho.
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
How to Get Out the Poet
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.
how to get out the vote Poet
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.
This is not hyperbole. Rather, this is about a high stakes place (and poetic space) in history and one that must be documented (by design, not by denying what’s right).
Ready to step up and poet? There is no other way.
Sure, the act of poeting is often done alone. Behind a closed door. Hidden under a dusty curtain. Sometimes written by hand. But now, no matter how you do it, it’s not enough for you to do it alone. Be a good literary citizen and build a community that poets alongside you.
Step up and ensure your neighbors, friends, family members, and colleagues all poet this season – whether in person or by mail. It’s crucial to make sure they, too, know just how important it is. Need some ideas on how to get out the vote poet
1. Register new poets
Register new poets? For what, you want to know? For all things poeting – invite potential poets to community workshops, social gatherings, Zoom sessions, group chats, coffee conversations, neighborhood walks. Get those who have yet to jump on board ready to go. Syllable by syllable. Line by line. Beat by beat. Rhyme by rhyme. It’s critical. It’s time. Every word and every poet matters.
2. contact your poet-people
Wait, what? I have to talk to someone? Well, sure—you can talk and talking works! Conversation is one of the most effective ways to convert a reluctant poet and resurrect a disenchanted poet. But, fear not – texting, emails, and posts on socials work too! Heck you can even poet on a postcard. It’s also cool to participate in poetic conversations. Yes, that’s right. Reengage with communities in which you used to be an active participant. Say Hello, Hola, or Bonjour. Type updates. Post emojis – pens, pencils, couplets. Who knows, you just might reignite a poetic burst in other dormant members, too.
3. be an informed poet
Yes, it’s true. Surprise associations in poetry often work great. But don’t overlook the fundamentals. Assonance is just as powerful as alliteration. Free verse can be as powerful as form. Rhythm and rhyme both work fine. Repetition is also very effective. Choose your words wisely. Apply metered and measured speech. Think strong verbs. Utilize description to poet with power. Think concrete objects. Don’t lose sight of your objective – more poets! Don’t reinvent the poetic wheel. Share Poet 101 resources widely. Of course, make sure you share only reliable poeting resources.
4. bolster fellow poets
Yes, that’s right. It’s on you, an informed poet, to boost and bolster groups less likely to poet. Help unlikely-to-poet youth navigate access. Help the elderly attend poeting events. Work poetry polls. Poll for potential poets. Forgo illusion and embrace allusion. Resist reams of fake claims and embrace rhyming schemes. It’s hard to find good help but it’s not hard to find a good poet. You fit the bill! Be a verb. Spread the word.
5. poet early
The sooner you start to poet the more time you’ll have to poet. We all know that you can’t edit a blank page. It’s also true that getting started is often the hardest part of the process. Yes, clichés should be avoided at all costs when poeting, but sometimes there’s truth in their tired wisdom. It’s not only USPS and traffic that pull surprises. Life is unpredictable. Writer’s block can be as formidable as a traffic jam. Use enjambment to your (and democracy’s benefit) and seize every opportunity to poet.
The (Bottom Line): Every. Poem. Counts.
P.S. While you’re here, don’t forget to vote as you poet! Whether you poet as you vote or you vote as you poet, do it! Don’t forget!
Written by Jen Schneider
Writer Bio: Jen Schneider is a community college educator who lives, works, and writes in small spaces in and around Philadelphia. She served as the 2022 Montgomery County (PA) Poet Laureate. She's as committed to "poeting" (and building poetry communities) as she is to voting (and related engagement). Ready. Set. Poet (and vote while you're at it).
Handle on the Verbal
It was those tough Italian kids with the pretty names--DiOrio, DelVecchio, Policarpio--who taught me to love poetry. If I told any one of them he had a pretty anything, I’d get a metaphor for my trouble: a knuckle sandwich; a brand new asshole; my ass kicked into next week.
It was those tough Italian kids with the pretty names--DiOrio, DelVecchio, Policarpio--who taught me to love poetry. If I told any one of them he had a pretty anything, I’d get a metaphor for my trouble: a knuckle sandwich; a brand new asshole; my ass kicked into next week.
Assonance & F-Bombs:
Of ass-onance they were overly fond, those Roman poets spouting their smoke rings out behind the junior high--smoke rings that were beautiful and true and rhymed perfectly with the decrescendo O’s of their last names. F-bombs sprinkled their idiom like commas. And there was a definite skill involved in employing them--in the best places, at the perfect intervals, as adjectives, adverbs, nouns, gerunds--a virtuosity, really, that had everything to do with rhythm, anaphora, creative use of grammar, and many other tools in the poetry toolkit.
Take, for example, the f-bomb’s most basic and familiar usage, in the imperative mood, which, metrically speaking, is usually a spondee: FUCK-YOU. But there is also the trochaic variation with the stress on the first syllable--FUCK-you--whose music and meaning are subtly different from the spondaic version. Of course the rejoinder to the trochaic FUCK-you is always either an iamb--fuck-YOU--or an anapest--no, fuck-YOU. Needless to say, the f-bomb makes the study of poetic meter feel a lot more contemporary and sexy, and far less fusty and old-fashioned than it ever was for those of us who were forced to learn it in the classroom all those effing years ago.
Of the Vernacular:
But don’t misunderstand me, I am not advocating the use of vulgar language in poetry. Well, not exactly. The thing is, one of the senses of vulgar is “of the vernacular,” or “of the common people,” and I do advocate a poetry that speaks to the common people, that speaks like the common people, the common people whose speech is full of naturally occurring music and found poetry, and yes, vulgarities; the common people whom we poets need to keep trying to win back from their unhappy places of exile where they no longer read poetry and where they “die miserably everyday for lack of what is found there.” Which sucks big time for them.
The Proper Fit of Word with Act:
I’m pretty sure the first time I encountered an f-bomb in a famous poem was when I was reading Philip Larkin’s Collected Poems and I came across the little gem called “This Be the Verse”:
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do…
I remember being surprised—that you could do that. And impressed—that he had. Larkin, after all, was a formalist. And a librarian. He’d won the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. And I couldn’t help wondering what the Queen thought about Larkin’s f-bombs exploding here and there among the tidily rhyming iambic tetrameter and pentameter stanzas. Then, a few pages on, I came across these opening lines from another famous poem of Larkin’s, “High Windows”:
When I see a couple of kids
And guess he’s fucking her and she’s
Taking pills or wearing a diaphragm,
I know this is paradise…
I was shocked and delighted. And persuaded. And not long after finding Larkin’s fucks I came across Kim Addonizio’s poem with its titular “Fuck”:
There are people who will tell you
that using the word fuck in a poem
indicates a serious lapse
of taste, or imagination,
or both. It’s vulgar,
indecorous, an obscenity
that crashes down like an anvil
falling through a skylight
to land on a restaurant table,
on the white linen, the cut-glass vase of lilacs.
But if you were sitting
over coffee when the metal
hit your saucer like a missile,
wouldn’t that be the first thing
you’d say? …
Of course it’s not shocking anymore to drop an f-bomb in a poem. In fact, it’s practically de rigueur. We find them all the time now in the works of poets and writers writing today. Not only that, but they’re everywhere in our music and movies, in comedy and on cable, and rolling off the tongues of adolescents and grandmothers alike. But still, how and when one deploys an f-bomb in a poem--creatively, discriminatingly, and with no collateral damage to the poem—that is still the work of a poet. In Stephen Dunn’s poem “Decorum” he takes on exactly this question of how and when and where and whether or not to use the f-bomb in a poem. Here are the first three stanzas:
She wrote, “They were making love
up against a gymnasium wall,”
and another young woman in class,
serious enough to smile, said
“No, that’s fucking, they must
have been fucking,” to which many
agreed, pleased to have the proper fit
of word with act.
But an older woman, a wife, a mother,
famous in class for confusing grace
with decorum and carriage,
said the F-word would distract…
Of course, it’s only relatively recently that the f-bomb began to appear in the poetic canon, even though the common people have been using it in the most poetic and sublime ways for centuries. Scour the poetical works of a great dead poet like Wordsworth, who was prolific as fuck, and you won’t find a single f-bomb. Believe me, I’ve looked.
Granted, all those great dead poets were a product of their time--and their language--just as we are a product of ours. But the times they are a’changing and the language it is a’changing, too, because language is always changing, because language is alive--it isn’t dead like all those great dead poets--and it’s our job, as living poets, to make sure the language is as alive as we are.
That being said, those great dead poets are still worth reading, because once they were as alive as you and me, and they had what we might call a handle on the verbal. And we can still learn a shitload from them.
Written by Paul Hostovsky
Writer Bio: Paul Hostovsky (he/him/his) has won a Pushcart Prize, two Best of the Net Awards, the FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, and has been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, The Writer's Almanac, and the Best American Poetry blog. His latest book of poems is PITCHING FOR THE APOSTATES (Kelsay, 2023).
Website: paulhostovsky.com
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
Bringing home a new pet poet can be a scary experience. You’ve brought your new companion home - how can you keep your pet poet happy and healthy?
Humans across the globe search the internet for the same things year after year— YouTube, Facebook, the weather forecast. Yet there are also things we search for only in the heat of a collective moment, such as the Blue/White dress or SpaceEx. In these ways, the internet offers objects both enduring and ephemeral.
Below is a selection of five trending search topics from June 2024 according to Google Trends and Exploding Topics, each accompanied by a relevant poem. Maybe you were looking for these.
1. Weather
Last weekend was humid in the Northeast and I read a poem called “He Watches the Weather Channel” by Charrie Shipers. Aren’t weather forecasts a sort of divination? Even when tech and satellites get involved, it’s still a prophecy, and one we each care about for some reason or another (or another, or more). We all want to know what happens next.
Read “He Watches the Weather Channel” by Carrie Shipers
2. Translate
Я говорю по-русски, et j'apprends le français. I once showed my son a
Russian-English dictionary and he said, “Oh, it’s just like google before they had the internet.” Why search books for words anymore when you can search the web? That’s why we’re here. Some still carry mini-dictionaries in their pockets, but many have been replaced by smartphones. Some carry lived experiences inside complex neural networks that navigate between tongues. Whatever your method, it’s useful to have a few languages attached to your person in some way.
Read “Bilingual/Bilingüe” by Rhina P. Espaillat
3. USA
In our global society, folks from all over hold a vested interest in the USA. The poet Mosab Abu Toha recently made a plea on Instagram for non-Americans to vote in U.S. presidential elections, “simply because a United States President is not, unfortunately, responsible for his people but for the people in the whole world.” The USA— it’s a confusing concept and I might need to google it, too. In “notes on the seasons,” Roque Raquel Salas Rivera explores the concept of national identity while also reviving our need to translate between languages. The poem in English never mentions the USA, but the Spanish version mentions usa, which translates to uses.
Read “notes on the seasons” by Roque Raquel Salas Rivera
4. Indiana
No doubt people in the U.S. have been googling Indiana with regard to Caitlin Clark, #SPORTS. But I knew that Indiana would be poetic. My great uncle lived there and his yard was full of bowling balls— full. Bowling balls of all colors and sizes. Bowling balls in bird baths, on stone walls, and in the garden. It may also be the first place I ever saw an osage orange, which looks like a tennis ball crossed with a brain. Yes, you could write a poem or two in Indiana. And Lindsey D. Alexander did.
Read “Sleepless in Indiana, I Contemplate the Age-Old Arts” by Lindsey D.
Alexander
5. Trump
Fatimah Asghar introduces her poem, “When the Orders Came,” with a quote rom former president Donald Trump’s administrative team: “[We are] calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Fatimah’s poem is profound and haunting in the way that only poetry can be, in the way that it bends tragedy and horror into a platform for compassion, healing, and change.
Read “When the Orders Came” by Fatima Asghar
I suppose we search the internet for whatever we’re curious about, and whatever
we’re curious about could probably become a poem. Maybe it already has.
Written by Allisonn Church
Writer Bio: 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.
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.”
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. It is why run-on sentences mimic drowning, and why single-word sentences represent panic attacks. It. Is. What. Helps. To. Create. Chaos. And. Forces. The. Reader. To. Pause. With. Every. Word, mimicking the idea of losing oxygen…just to create tension for the reader.
Consider this:
Standing in an open field of red chrysanthemums, I am completely surrounded by a horde of buzzing hummingbirds: who are willing to go through me just so they can reach their sweet nectar.
Versus
Red flowers call dancing hummingbirds,
Swaying winds control beating wings,
Frenzying around singular posts.
While both are a style of prose, there is a whole mood shift between the examples. Despite what is read first: either the sentence, or the stanza; each verb phrase, and each noun phrase, within the poem creates its own backstory, its own tension, and its own brevity, which then forces the reader to either take a deep breath––preparing for the long sentences that are ahead of them––or a small, concise breath to get through the lines of a stanza.
A Simple Switch Changes Everything:
Another great example of syntax in poetry is Howl, by Allen Ginsberg.
Take the first line:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked.
The first thing one should look at are the phrases. If the verb phrase had been set in front of the noun phrase, the line would read how the subject of the sentence ‘I’ is the one who is starving, hysterical, naked, rather than the object of the sentence ‘the best minds of my generation,’ being the ones who are starving, hysterical, naked. By leaving the comma in place, but re-arranging the noun phrase and verb phrases…the mood of the poem shifts…and, as a result, places the subject inside of the madness. Whereas currently––and in perfect form––the subject is excluded from the madness and is, instead, an outsider who is looking in and analyzing the object.
Also, one should take note: by omitting the oxford commas (or, the serial commas) in the verb phrase, where the three words are being listed for specific purpose––even though they are not in alphabetical order––it leaves a certain kind of un-easiness the narrator is striving to achieve, because it breaks all the conventional rules for grammar and structure. While all three of the words are adjectives, they’re being used as qualifiers for the object, which means they should…by rules of grammar and structure…they should have commas to separate their qualities.
It's why mastering syntax is so important for being a poet, regardless of the said person being an aspiring artist or someone who is already established within the community. Syntax not only helps create both mood and tone in the poem by using brevity, but it also helps create clarity and direction in the given work. Whereas the rest of it: the allusions, the cesuras, the diction choices, the different moods, and motifs, and metaphors, and punctuations, and themes, and tones; that will all comes later. For the more a writer can play with syntax, the more they look for inspiration. And the more they look for inspiration for their work, the more they will learn about their surrounding world and everything in it.
Written by Gregory Gonzalez
Writer Bio: Gregory Gonzalez graduated from Sierra Nevada University, where he earned both a BFA and an MFA in Creative Writing. He's studied under and many other wonderful artists, and his works can be seen in the San Joaquin Review Online, Hive Avenue: A Literary Journal, the Dillydoun Review, Wingless Dreamer Publishing, Bridge Eight: Film & TV, Drunk Monkeys: Literature and Film, Causeway Literature, Nat 1 LLC, Vermilion Literature, Writing Workshops, and Havik Literary Journal.
Your #NYCPOFEST24 Guide
Everything you need to know about The 13th Annual New York City Poetry Festival on Governors Island, July 13th and 14th. This covers: Transportation, Ticketing, Readers and the many sundried features of the Festival.
We thought we’d put together a special edition of How to Poet to ensure you get the most out of EVERYTHING The New York City Poetry Festival has to offer, which is A BUNCH.
Let’s start with transportation & navigational tools that will help you get smoothly from place to place.
Transportation:
The Governors Island Ferry leaves from 10 South Street in Manhattan every 30 minutes.
The Festival begins at 11:00am so we suggest taking the 10:00am or 10:30am Ferry.
The NYC Ferry also leaves from several Brooklyn stops at a less frequent cadence.
MAPS
We have a beautiful artistic site map illustrated by the amazing @MarthaMay.
If you want something more interactive, we have a Google Maps link that will calibrate you specifically to every Stage, Vendor, Restroom, etc.
TICKETING
The New York City Poetry Festival is completely free for anyone to attend.
You can register for your free ticket on Eventbrite!
If you would like to include a donation you do so also. Or consider upgrading to a VIP ticket to hang out in our VIP Villa with headliners, PSNY members, sponsors & enjoy free drinks and good all day for $55.20 for the weekend. Select that ticket option at this link also.
ITINERARY
Poetry IS the attraction of this Festival & boy do we have an abundance of talented poets to choose from.
Our Headliners are performing between 3-4pm at The Brinkley stage each day of the Festival: the amazing poets Ilya Kaminsky, Kazim Ali, Katie Farris, and Safia Elhillo !
Outside of this hour of power, our interactive Reading Schedule is on the Festival website, where you can learn about each organization and the readers they are featuring.
BONUS FUN
You didn’t that was all did you?!
You don’t want to miss these other Festival features:
> The Ring of Daises Open Mic Stage where you can sign up & perform
> The Youth Poetry Festival, with a schedule of its own
> Our illustrious Poetry Brothel, performing four times daily
> A TREASURE HUNT sponsored by PlayTours,
(with a physical Poetry Passport available for pickup at the Members Table)
> Our first Festival Beer Garden!
> A packed Vendor Village, with a range of incredible NYC businesses to support
> Art activations for you to enjoy from a Poetry-Camp-themed Board Game Cafe to Postcard Writing and a solar-powered Merry-Go-Round.
Any other Questions? Comment them below on this post!
SEE YOU THERE!
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
This post features poems from each of the Headliners of the 13th Annual New York City Poetry Festival: Ilya Kaminsky, Safia Elhillo, Kazim Ali & Katie Farris.
The biggest event in our calendar year (and yours too, if you know what’s good for you) is coming up this July 13th & 14th on Governor’s Island in NYC.
In case you’ve been living under an excitement-obstructing rock, the event I’m referring to is…
THE 13TH ANNUAL
NEW YORK CITY POETRY FESTIVAL.
Every day of the festival, between 3-4pm on the main stage, our incredible headliners will be performing. For a sneak peek into the poetry of Safia Elhillo, Ilya Kaminsky, Kazim Ali & Katie Farris see our PSNY Picks from their outstanding catalogues below.
spring
After Louise Glück
it’s late now, it’s early, no way
to know which season it is
of the total years of my life,
weren’t we only just nineteen,
tonya & i, wasn’t she only just
alive, long-limbed & cross-legged
on my dorm room floor,
wasn’t it springtime of a year
so unlike this one, thirteen
years past, cool nights in line
outside the nuyorican hoping
to make it on the list, wasn’t it
a friday night like this one
& the only people i wanted to love
were poets, earrings swaying
against their necks, dancing
in the dark of the room where we
all knew each other’s secrets, weren’t
we all just at that party, wasn’t i only
just eighteen, pointed northward
on a chinatown bus to that city,
to watch ai elo onstage at the apollo,
wasn’t she only just alive, smoking
with camonghne, asking me my favorite
song, cackling on the apartment floor,
on the air mattress we used as a couch,
how is it that it was long ago, how is it
i am on the other side of it, long ago, how
did i leave that city, that time when we
were all together, everyone alive,
wasn’t the dream to be a poet, wasn’t
the plan to live forever, our powers
newly acquired, newly in love
with what we could do, didn’t we all
belong to each other, to that work,
going after to the pizza shop
to recite what we’d memorized,
weren’t we all just there, wasn’t it warm
outside, wasn’t the road long & clear,
isn’t it early still, isn’t it late, & why
am i still here, did i survive or was i left
behind, & what season is it that we are
no longer together & some of us have gone?
Bonus poem: Click here to read Ode to Sudanese Americans
Lullaby
Little daughter
rainwater
snow and branches protect you
whitewashed walls
and neighbors’ hands all
Child of my Aprils
little earth of
six pounds
my white hair
keeps your sleep lit
Bonus poem: Click here to read We Lived Happily During the War
Ramadan
You wanted to be so hungry, you would break into branches,
and have to choose between the starving month’s
nineteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-third evenings.
The liturgy begins to echo itself and why does it matter?
If the ground-water is too scarce one can stretch nets
into the air and harvest the fog.
Hunger opens you to illiteracy,
thirst makes clear the starving pattern,
the thick night is so quiet, the spinning spider pauses,
the angel stops whispering for a moment—
The secret night could already be over,
you will have to listen very carefully—
You are never going to know which night’s mouth is sacredly reciting
and which night’s recitation is secretly mere wind—
Bonus poem: Click here to read Autobiography
Why Write Poetry in a Burning World
To train myself to find, in the midst of hell
what isn’t hell.
The body, bald, cancerous, but still
beautiful enough to
imagine living the body
washing the body
replacing a loose front
porch step the body chewing
what it takes to keep a body
going –
This scene has a tune
a language I can read a door
I cannot close I stand
within its wedge
a shield.
Why write love poetry in a burning world?
To train myself, in the midst of a burning world
to offer poems of love to a burning world.
Bonus Poem: Click here to read After the Mastectomy
How to Care for Your Poet
Bringing home a new pet poet can be a scary experience. You’ve brought your new companion home - how can you keep your pet poet happy and healthy?
See enclosed your Complete Pet Poet Care Guide
Bringing home a new pet poet can be a scary experience. You’ve brought your new companion home - how can you keep your pet poet happy and healthy?
Nutrition & Health
Some new poet owners make the mistake of feeding their poet too many treats. They argue that their poet enjoys them so much, and that if their poet eats it, it must be safe for them. This is not the case. Please limit their intake of ‘people food’ to avoid nutritional imbalances. Poets require a carefully balanced diet, served in reasonable proportions, preferably with a runcible spoon. Remember that poets need a higher than usual intake of tea, calico pie, and no end of Stilton cheese.
Socialization
Many poet owners are surprised to find that poets do not always get along well with others. At the local park or in a cafe, you may find it embarrassing when your poet behaves inappropriately with others, or worse, refuses to interact with anyone at all. Remember, poets can only learn through experience. Time spent in the company of others can help your poet rhetorically flourish. Be sure to quickly correct inappropriate behaviors by distracting and redirecting them with a favorite topic, such as whether Plath is over or underrated. Behaviors that need correcting may include staring for uncomfortable periods, discussing oneself in the third person, unexpectedly bursting into laughter or extended bouts of personification.
Grooming
Although it may seem superficial and vain, it is worth putting some time and care into your poet’s appearance. Although poets are typically indoor creatures and therefore do not attract the dirt of some other creatures, they can benefit from grooming. Trimming their hair is particularly important, as it can quickly become unruly and impede their vision. When venturing outdoors, poets require jackets with sufficient pocketage for notebooks and pens. Whether velvet, patched or leather, a quick brush once a week can keep their coat glossy and presentable. Do be sure to empty their pockets regularly, as they can snag all manner of detritus in their long coats - seashells, butterfly wings, cabbages and kings to name but a few.
Playtime
Believe it or not, some poet owners forget the importance of playtime for their poet. This is a shame, as it is one of the great joys of poet ownership! A few minutes of pun-o-war, Scrabble or the lazy but effective game of ‘mute the tv and let them narrate’ can keep them frisky and expressive for days. Remember, an under stimulated poet can resort to unproductive coping strategies such as writing entirely in white space or collecting vintage typewriters. These poor habits can be readily avoided with a few daily minutes of wordplay.
Conclusion
Whatever your breed of poet - rhyming, lyrical or beat - they can thrive with the correct care. Treat your poet well and you may even earn that highest of honors - a dedication in their eventual publication!
Written by Aloma Davis
Writer Bio: Aloma Davis is an emerging poet. Despite her best efforts, birds fly in and out of her poems. In 2022, she was a national finalist in the Australia Poetry Slam; in 2023, one of her poems was in the International Human Rights Art Festival in New York; and she received a Red Room Poetry Fellowship in 2024. She divides her time between living in Melbourne, Australia, and living in her head, where she has a library with one of those sliding ladders, Haast's eagle as a pet, and work-life balance.
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.
“May the forces of evil get confused on the way to your house.” – George Carlin
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.
We can shrink from the inarguable truths of hegemonic masculinity, sexual miseducation, mental illness, and yes, our own inevitable funeral, but this poetry chooses to embrace them, to ready itself and face them head on. After listing materials in How to Prepare for Your Own Funeral, the procedure outlined then abruptly subverts the poem’s premise. This volta is unexpected and powerful, invoking to contemplate not just on their conceptualization of their dying, but on their living too.
If the first section of this collection is about the inequitable structures that our society is held within – and that threaten to destabilize us – the second is about holding these broken cisterns accountable. The poem Nothing, epitomizes this as Wallschlager names the negligent and culminates in the damning declaration, “The United States is a whole lot of nothing.”
Other bangers include American Happiness, On Seeing an Ad for Levi’s “Still I Rise” Tees for Black History Month and Letters to a Young Black Conservative and Young White Feminist respectively. The power of these poems can be exemplified in the closing line of How to Survive Confusion: “Confusion is America’s mode of time. Clarity is dangerous, and political.” This is poetry that wields lucidity as a tool of resistance.
The penultimate section shifts from its societal focus to a relational one, before the last section lands in a seamless amalgamation of both. The narrator summons from some unknown reserve, the capacity to hold others. She holds space for the brokenhearted looking for answers in their origins, the exploited horse, determined seeds of corn, the ones that call her Mommy. But most pertinently, she holds space for her own inner child, retrogressing through time and redressing wrongs she couldn’t wholly recognize at the time, from violin lessons to late-night bartending shifts.
“For I declare on this afternoon / it is my sacred right to be loved / gently & serenely, yes I said it / I’m asking for it right now / on my knees in the failing city.” From Manifesto.
In the closing poems Manifesto, This is a Grace Period and What I Want, the poet typifies the heart-cry of this collection. Within these poems, is a final holding. A stability, reinstituted by grounding beatitudes. In these last stanzas, the poet gifts us meditative reminders that accountability, resistance, empathy, grace and peace, can coexist together. We can, and must, hold them all on our own.
Book Review written by F.M Papaz with thanks to Copper Canyon Press for providing a Reader Copy.
Writer Bio
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.’
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
New ways of reading lend themselves to new ways of writing, and new ways of writing enriches my fiction-writing.
So although I don’t write poetry, poetry is always with me when I am writing.
Reading Poetry as a Non-Poet
by S.D Munawara
I have not written a poem since the tenth grade. From memory it was a horrible, clunky piece on World War Two for an English Assessment. Initially I obsessed over the meter, but soon after surrendered any semblance of intent or exertion. Poetry is supposed to be effortless and is inherently lawless, I thought, and that combination meant it was not for me.
I revisited poetry, this time as a reader, after graduating high school. The first time I read a full collection of poems in earnest, my perception of poetry as lax and undemanding was stripped from me entirely. It was Warsan Shire’s ‘Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head.’ Suddenly all I could see was the effort. Intention shone in every line, in every word, in every syllable. I am always desperate to glean the thought process of the poet. I always have questions afterwards.
This curiosity was new to me. My experience with fiction is that of the author fading slightly into the background, overridden by the story’s characters and its narrators. I can easily forget that a novel has in fact been written, but this is never the case with poetry. The craftmanship of a poem is always at the forefront of my mind. I examine the shape of it, where the poem carries its weight, how it sits on the paper. I appraise the font, the title, the absence or presence of capital letters. I am hyperaware that everything was a decision.
This in turn makes me hyperaware of my position as a reader. Poetry harkens me back to when I first learnt to sound out words, stress letters, obey full stops. The reading does not happen solely in my mind. Poetry tugs on my consciousness and forces it to notice my mouth, my lungs, my heartbeat. A poem can ground me in my body, become something biological.
I am still learning how to read poetry. Sometimes I walk into a poem cautious, like I’ve been called on to join the stage of a magic show. With a title like ‘My Father, The Astronaut,’ I don’t know what to expect, and so the only think I expect is to be surprised. I keep an eye out for sleight of hand, for misdirection, but the poem is usually cleverer than I.
Other times, I treat a poem like an exhibition. I wander through ‘Bless our CCTV Star’ like every word is framed, squint for contextual information in the title, or the glossary, or the author’s biography. I linger.
I try to take cues from the work itself. Does the poem demand speed? Halfway through
Shire’s ‘The Baby-Sitter’s Club’ I let my eyes jump ahead and carry as many words as they
can manage.
my white body, in my white underwear,
sprawled on white sheets, the white light
of the sun shining through white linen
drapes, beyond which white clouds
are punctured by a white god
Does the poem ask for scrutiny? Will I need a trail of breadcrumbs to find my way back to meaning? I read ‘The Abubakr Girls are Different’ once again, with new eyes, when I reach the last stanza.
We lie in bed beside each other, holding mirrors
to the mouths of our skirts
comparing wounds
Sometimes I can feel, with giddy anticipation, that a poem is rising up to grab me by the shoulders mid-sentence and twist, confronting me with an entirely different view. I hold my breath through the glittery wedding imagery of Shire’s ‘Buraanbur’ until the very last line, where she writes:
Adorned in gold, my mother the child bride sits to the side, unsmiling, unbreathing.
My premature assessment of poetry as a teenager, that it was not for me, could not be more wrong. Poetry is for everyone, and it is especially well-suited for writers seeking to expand and better their craft.
Here are three ways Poetry can benefit every genre of writer:
1) Reading poetry will enlighten you to how much meaning and tone can be conveyed in a single word. I find myself now approaching a short story draft not only with plot-points, characters, and ideas, but also armed with specific language. Poets will show you how easily and how often a word, rather than a sentence, can do the work for you.
2) Poetry will reignite an appreciation for variety. A collection of poetry will always feature poems of wildly different styles. Writers of other forms could benefit greatly from similar diversity, and reading poetry will inspire you to write scenes that differ in shape, pace, and language, not just subject.
3) Finally, poetry is a spectacular reminder that writing is only half of the work. Poets put remarkable amounts of trust in their audience to construct, to interpret, and to apply themselves genuinely to the process of reading. When you read poetry as a non-poet you recognise how exhilarating and rewarding it is to fill the gaps the poet has left for you. Having this skill means you too can apply a similar spirit of collaboration to works of fiction or non-fiction, and learn to view readers not just as an audience but as active agents.
As I read more poems, I will be further introduced to new ways of reading. New ways of reading lend themselves to new ways of writing, and new ways of writing enriches my fiction-writing.
So although I don’t write poetry, poetry is always with me when I am writing.
Written by S.D Munawara
S.D is student of literature and an emerging writer, living, working, and writing in Melbourne, Australia. In 2022 she was the winner of the Hachette Australia Prize for Young Writers for her non-fiction piece 'Mental Funerals'. She has since published both fiction and non-fiction, and recently featured in the 2024 Nillumbik Prize Anthology.