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September 2018

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

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  • Franz Wright
  • Donika Kelly
  • Ange Mlinko
  • Aram Saroyan
  • Inger Christensen
See Table of Contents
POETRY Magazine cover of September 2018 issue
From this Issue
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine The Playwright’s Daughter

      By Virginia Keane
      I was one year old when my nanny went away
      leaving no memory of a face that watched,
      arms that held, hands that fed and cleaned me,
      left no record of her voice or name. My father
      died, leaving wisps of pipe smoke for...

      Read More
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Heliocentric

      By Keith S. Wilson
      I’m striving to be a better astronaut,
      but consider where I’m coming from,

      the exosphere,
      a desk where the bluest air

      thins to a lip. Impossible
      to know the difference

      from where I sit and space.
      I promise I still dream

      of coming back to you, settling
      on your...

      Read More
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine The Rule

      By Franz Wright
      1

      Father trellis of my voice (or noose) abruptly vanished — 


      2

      I wear this razory fishhook
      of crucifix.
      Look.

      How it helps me
      keep my head
      down,

      down with shame,
      the glory
      and shame

      see this frail weightless chain:

      there is another
      like it.
      Sometimes
      my neck feels
      like it’s
      breaking — 

      It hangs right here
      near the heart’s
      hidden room

      where a...

      Read More
From the Editors of Poetry

Table of Contents

POEMS
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