Poetry / American / General

Poems that Zoom In on the Mysterious and Transformative Nature of Expression

Ekphrastic, Meditative Poems from a Writer with Astonishing Range

Humorous Poetry with a Deep Core of Seriousness

Narrative Poems that Embody the Complexity of Connection and Disconnection

Poems that Explore the Dissonance and Delights of Our Current Moment

Winner of the 2020 Donald Hall Prize for Poetry

A Profound New Collection from the Editor of the Best American Poetry Series

A New Poem from the Author of The Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude and The Book of Delights

This collection juxtaposes text from Google Search autocomplete with the intimate language of prayer. Corporate jargon coexists with the incantatory and ancient ghazal form. Ahmed’s second book of poetry explores the terrain of loss—of a beloved family member, of human dignity and potential, of the earth as it ...

Sometimes the most compelling landscapes are the ones where worlds collide: where a desert meets the sea, a civilization, no-man’s land. Here in Bonfire Opera, grief and Eros grapple in the same domain. A bullet-hole through the heart, a house full of ripe persimmons, a ghost in a garden. ...

Imperial Liquor is a chronicle of melancholy, a reaction to the monotony of racism. These poems concern loneliness, fear, fatigue, rage, and love; they hold fatherhood held against the vulnerability of the black male body, aging, and urban decay. Part remembrance, part swan song for the Compton, California of the 1980...

The Woman in the Corner keenly observes and gives voice to the ambiguities and astonishments that we often turn away from—in human relationships and in our own unruly hearts. In poems that speak fearlessly about sex and grief, mothers and daughters, and friendships and marriage, Krygowski examines the beauty ...

In his new poetry collection, Chard deNiord explores the paradoxical nature of unknowing. I WEPT WITH JOY ABOVE THE RIVER I wept with joy above the river.I wept with sorrow above the river.My tears were clear, both sweet and bitter.One leaf cried out to another,“Empty me ...

Poems that Consider the Disappearance of Language in an Age of Digital Communication

Winner of the 2018 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize