Skip to Content

June 2019

Najeebah Al-Ghadban

The oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world.

Javier Zamora
Ed Roberson
Hanif Abdurraqib
Khaty Xiong
Brad Trumpfheller

See Table of Contents

Cover of Poetry Magazine June 2019 Issue.

From this Issue

- poem
  
  A brief history of the orchid (兰)
  
  By K-Ming Chang
  
  My grandmother was born in a city called [宜兰]
  
  Despite its name, no orchids grow there
  
  Five of my six aunts have names ending in [兰]
  
  My mother’s full name is [little wind]
  
  Orchid seeds are distributed by land, water & wind
  
  One of my...
  
  Read More
- poem
  
  O Calgary
  
  By Tom Wayman
  
  i
  
  In Calgary
  I saw a man marry money
  Who giveth this money?
  the commissioner asked
  The man said
  Everyone who works for me
  The commissioner asked
  Where are they? I don’t hear them declare it
  The man said That’s not their job
  You do yours
  
  Do you take this money
  the...
  
  Read More
- poem
  
  Letter to My Blackout
  
  By Maria Hummel
  
  Dear sip, dear shotgun, dear pound:
  beneath the house, the kegs roll in;
  the party flips its switches down.
  
  When drunk comes, it comes as sound,
  a chord, a liftoff. I ride the rim,
  dear sip, dear shotgun, dear pound.
  
  He could be anyone, and he...
  
  Read More

From the Editors of Poetry

- Prose from Poetry Magazine
  
  There Must Be Something to Say
  
  By Vidyan Ravinthiran
  
  Angela Leighton’s Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature.
  
  Read More
- Discussion Guide
  
  These Kids
  
  Four poems in the June 2019 issue of Poetry.
  
  Read More
- Audio
  
  Ed Roberson reads from “Architektonis: Twenty for the Chicago Architecture Center”
  
  From The Poetry Magazine Podcast June 2019
  
  The editors discuss Ed Roberson’s poem “Architektonis: Twenty for the Chicago Architecture Center” from the June 2019 issue of Poetry.
  
  Read More

Table of Contents

poems

K-Ming Chang
- A brief history of the orchid (兰)
Tom Wayman
- O Calgary
Maria Hummel
- Letter to My Blackout
Dayna Patterson
- Study for Belief with Lines from “Star Trek: The Original Series”
Khaty Xiong
- On Teaching My Son How to Mourn
Spencer Short
- The Gentle Art of Shabby Dressing
Jim Johnstone
- Performance Anxiety
John Gallaher
- And the Moon on Its Stem Will Steal You Away
Jane Zwart
- These kids running through pictures
Cortney Lamar Charleston
- It’s Important I Remember That They Don’t Have the Tools to Critique Me—
Catie Rosemurgy
- Diorama (woman on a cameo brooch)
Anne Marie Rooney
- Sonnet
Bradley Trumpfheller
- From “Reconstructions”
- Tomorrow, No, Tomorrower
George Szirtes
- Boarding House
John Kinsella
- Tree Elegy Across the Biosphere in Memory of W.S. Merwin
Jasmine Elizabeth Smith
- Zouzou
Kayleb Rae Candrilli
- My partner wants me to write them a poem about Sheryl Crow
Austin Segrest
- Across the Street
Robin Richardson
- Origin Story Ad Nauseam
Michael Farrell
- Dear Pop
Melian Radu
- Object Permanence
Chard DeNiord
- Weatherman
Megan Denton Ray
- Traveling Broke & Ugly
Clare Jones
- Rail
Javier Zamora
Ed Roberson
- From “Architektonis: Twenty for the Chicago Architecture Center”
Wayne Holloway-Smith
- “I want you to leave your body now” he tells me
Mary Biddinger
- Book of Disclosures
Raymond Luczak
- Gazelles
Cody Smith
- Elegy with a Brush Hook and Machete

drawings

Marianne Boruch
- Drawings

comment

Vidyan Ravinthiran
- There Must Be Something to Say
Hanif Abdurraqib
- Grass and Ground and Dirt

Contributors