Z: Zoo

Photo by GaborfromHungary, morguefile.com Thoughts in a Zoo By Countee Cullen (1903-1946) They in their cruel traps, and we in ours, Survey each other’s rage, and pass...

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Y: Yiayia

SUGAR by Jessica Bell You were Yiayia. But I called you Zacharati. That was your name. It meant sugar. Photo by Max Straeten, morguefile.com Your parents must have known that...

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X: Xanadu

Kubla Khan Or a Vision in a Dream. A Fragment by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) Photo credit: alanmort from morguefile.com In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately...

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W: The Waking

by Theodore Rothke (1908-1963) I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. Photo by Alvimann, morguefile.com I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have...

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V: Viewing the Body

by W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009) Flowers like a gangster's funeral; Photo credit: Seemann from morguefile.com Eyeshadow like a whore. They all say isn't she...

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U: Untitled (morning meeting)

a concrete poem by KD This poem is proof that shape poems can be sophisticated, not simply clunky, childish strings of words fancied up using gimmicky typography. (There are...

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T: Technique worth stealing

Studying poetry will make you a better writer, no matter what genre you aspire to master. Poetry uses a number of techniques that I believe are quite transferable to...

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S: Spoken word

Spoken word poetry is meant to be experienced as a performance, heard rather than read silently. The piece I'm sharing below is a segment from a longer TED talk by spoken word...

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R: Reflections

By Deborah Guzzi Photo credit: Gracey at morguefile.com randomly I stare into each reflective surface forever pondering the lines of age, pain and joy each one a splendid...

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Q: Quelled

Holy Saturday Mourning by Sr. Genevieve Glen, OSB The fisherman had aged, they saw, when dawn at last broke through that endless night.  He had no words to strengthen them,...

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P: A Prodigal

by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) inset from a medieval painting, artist unknown The brown enormous odor he lived by was too close, with its breathing and thick hair, for...

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O: Ode to a Dressmaker's Dummy

by Donald Justice (1925 - 2004) Papier-mache body; blue-and-black cotton jersey cover.Metal stand. Instructions included.   --Sears, Roebuck Catalogue Photo credit:...

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N: Not Quite Away

by Laurel Garver Photo credit: o0o0xmods0o0o at morguefile.com Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far across the street my best friend or close enough stepped on her gerbil...

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M: Magnetic creativity

If you find the idea of writing poetry completely intimidating, you might want to try out a creativity tool I rediscovered: magnetic poetry. I recall magnetic poetry being the...

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L: A Lot

By Scott Cairns (1954— ) A little loam and topsoil  is a lot.  —Heather McHugh Photo credit: ronmerk from morguefile.com  A vacant lot,...

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K: Keeping Things Whole

by Mark Strand (1934 —) In a field I am the absence Photo by grtguru for morguefile.com of field. This is always the case. Wherever I am I am what is missing. When...

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J: A Jar of Fireflies

by Angela Felsted Photo credit: hotblack from morguefile.com precisely when night fingers brush the ankles of the cherry tree precisely when a freckled bullfrog...

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I: Independence

by Laurel Garver (that's me) photo by Edumigue for morguefile.com Under a smooth moon we watch fireworks heave purple fluff and spray a thousand blossoms that petal-dance down...

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H: Having it out with Melancholy

by Jane Kenyon (1947-1995) If many remedies are prescribed for an illness, you may be certain that the illness has no cure. —A. P. CHEKHOV The Cherry Orchard   1  FROM...

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G: Ghosts That Need Reminding

by Dana Levin (1965— ) Photo credit: mimicry from morguefile.com Through shattered glass and sheeted furniture, chicken wire and piled dishes, sheared-off...

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F: Freeing Your Life with Words

Excerpt from Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words by Susan Wooldridge photo by Linzi, morguefile.com I have a strong gathering instinct. I collect boxes, hats, rusty flattened...

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E: Eye and Tooth

by Robert Lowell (1944-77) photo by Sebastian Ritter, wikimedia commons I chain-smoked through the night, learning to flinch at the flash of the matchlight. Outside,...

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D: Dash it

Arranged by Annie Dillard (1945 —) from Mikhail Prishvin, Nature’s Diary, 1925 Photo by messy cook at wikimedia commons How wonderfully it was all arranged that each Of...

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C: Constantly Risking Absurdity

By Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919 —) Photo by Quinn Dombrowski, wikimedia commons Constantly risking absurdity                                              and...

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