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Techniques

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  • Poem

    Take the I Out

    By Sharon Olds
    But I love the I, steel I-beam
    that my father sold. They poured the pig iron
    into the mold, and it fed out slowly,
    a bending jelly in the bath, and it hardened,
    Bessemer, blister, crucible, alloy, and he
    marketed it, and bought bourbon, and...
  • Poem

    The City in Which I Love You

    By Li-Young Lee
    And when, in the city in which I love you,
    even my most excellent song goes unanswered,
    and I mount the…
  • Poem

    Deep Water Trawling

    By Jorie Graham
    The blades like irises turning very fast to see you completely—steel-blue then red where the cut occurs…
  • Poem

    The Covenant

    By Brenda Hillman
    Having stopped using dolphins to locate explosives in the Cold War
    they had 30 leftover dolphins.
    An officer…
  • Poem

    Breakers ["And then, rained down"]

    By Raúl Zurita
    Translated By William Rowe
    And then rained down from ferocious clouds
    our empty pupils heard the suspended breakers
    beat while down…
  • Poem

    I Don‘t Like Poetry

    By Joshua Seigal
    I don’t like similes.Every time I try to think of onemy brain feels like a vast, empty desert;my eyes…
  • Glossary Terms

    Euphony

    Euphony is, in essence, the musicality of poetry. It often evokes positive emotions in the reader or listener and can contribute to the overall mood or atmosphere of a poem.
  • Poem

    Meditations in an Emergency

    By Cameron Awkward-Rich
    I wake up & it breaks my heart. I draw the blinds & the thrill of rain breaks my heart. I go outside…
  • Poem

    Twentieth Amanita Ode

    By Peter O’Leary
    In a wind
    the lake's scissoring surface

    and the Sun's vernal glare
    the gulls cut to curls
    in their turns…
  • Poem

    poetry-magazine

    Wulf ond Eadwacer

    By Unknown
    Lēodum is mīnum swylce him mon lāc gife;
    willað hȳ hine āþecgan gif hē on þrēat cymeð.
    Ungelīc is ū…
  • Poem

    Ultimately Everything Becomes Boring

    By Sri Chinmoy
    Ultimately everything
              Becomes boring.
    Even great miracles
              Become boring.
    Even the tremendous powers of…
  • Poem

    The Magnificent Frigatebird

    By Ada Limón
    Is it okay to begin with the obvious? I am full of stones—
                is it okay not to look out this window, but to look out another?

    A mentor once said, You can't start a poem...
  • Poem

    Cyrus & the Snakes

    By Ada Limón
    My brother holds a snake by its head. The whole
                length of the snake is the length
     
    of my brother’s body. The snake’s head
                is held safely, securely, as if my brother
     
    is showing him something in the distant high grass.
                I...
  • Poem

    Calling Things What They Are

    By Ada Limón
    I pass the feeder and yell, Grackle party! And then an hour later I yell, Mourning dove afterparty! (I call the feeder the party and the seed on the ground the afterparty.) I am getting so good at watching that...
  • Poem

    God Defend New Zealand

    By Thomas Bracken
    God of Nations at Thy feet,
    In the bonds of love we meet,
    Hear our voices, we entreat,
    God defend our free…
  • Poem

    Totem

    By R. L. Swihart
    The young man says, “Alan can 
    do anything he wants”

    “Not fly,” I say

    The young man returns 
    a puzzled look…
  • Poem

    Gratitude

    By Cornelius Eady
    I’m here
                 to tell you 
                                 an old story. 
                                 This
    Appears to be
                     my work.
                                    I live
                                    in the world,
    Walk
             the streets…
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