April Is: National Poetry Month
@april-is.bsky.social
A poem a day for National Poetry Month, no muss, no fuss. https://april-is.tumblr.com/
LAST POEM of the year. By the inimitable, much missed Andrea Gibson, who writes comfort like no one else. from Every Time I Ever Said I Want to Die - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8153694...
April 30, 2026: from Every Time I Ever Said I Want to Die, Andrea Gibson
from Every Time I Ever Said I Want to Die Andrea Gibson [...] a difficult life is not less worth living than a gentle one. Joy is just easier to carry than sorrow, and you could lift a city from how.....
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Have you heard of golden shovels, the hot new(ish) poetic form created by Terrance Hayes via a Gwendolyn Brooks poem? Michael Kleber-Diggs pulls it off with a technical backflip, never distracting from the poem's raw immediacy. America Is Loving Me to Death: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8152919... #blm
April 29, 2026: America Is Loving Me to Death, Michael Kleber-Diggs
America Is Loving Me to Death Michael Kleber-Diggs acrostic golden shovel America is loving me to death, loving me to death slowly, and I Mainly try not to be disappeared here, knowing she won’t...
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A #concretepoem by an Oglala Lakota poet, on the relationship between indigenous people and the land. And how colonialism has disrupted it. Resolution 2, Layli Long Soldier - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8152011...
April 28, 2026: Resolution 2, Layli Long Soldier
Resolution 2 Layli Long Soldier ---- (Today’s poem is shared as an image, and includes a transcription/description of the poem as alt text. If you’re unable to see it, you can also find it transcribed...
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I just love *looking* at this poem. And reading it over and over again. Peril Sonnet, David Baker - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8151094...
April 27, 2026: Peril Sonnet, David Baker
Peril Sonnet David Baker Where do you suppose they’ve gone the bees now that you don’t see them anymore...
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As brought to my attention by a young reader: yeah, why AREN'T there more car poems? Driving After Supper, Marianne Boruch: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8150064...
April 26, 2026: Driving After Supper, Marianne Boruch
Driving After Supper Marianne Boruch The old senselessness returns when driving in June the ribbon roads, low corn on either side, then woods, then meadows where sheep just stand there, slowly...
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One of my most favorite feelings for a poem to capture—and few manage it—is the struggle to reconcile how horrible and how beautiful the world and life are all at once. The breadth and ache of it. This one totally nails it. A Strange Feeling, Nâzim Hikmet: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8148935...
April 25, 2026: A Strange Feeling, Nâzim Hikmet
A Strange Feeling Nâzim Hikmet “The plum trees are in bloom —the wild apricot flowers first, the plum last — My love, let’s sit face to face on the grass. The air is delicious and light —but not...
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Prose poems & list poems—or both, like this one!—can have a kind of Jackson Pollock problem. They seem like something anyone could have done, but there's so much skill and thoughtfulness behind every decision about what to include. Afro, Morgan Parker - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8148176...
April 24, 2026: Afro, Morgan Parker
Afro Morgan Parker I’m hiding secrets & weapons in there: buttermilk pancake cardboard, boxes of purple juice, a magic word our Auntie Angela spoke into her fist & released into hot black evening like...
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An excerpt from The Palace, by Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8147280...
April 23, 2026: from The Palace, Kaveh Akbar
from The Palace Kaveh Akbar I have a kitchen device that lets me spin lettuce. There is no elegant way to say this—people with living hearts that could fit in my chest want...
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"Now that’s my kind of intimacy— / faceless, salty, / no wondering how my jokes are going over" (So good.) Solitude, Franny Choi - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8146526...
April 22, 2026: Solitude, Franny Choi
Solitude Franny Choi I hope no one comes to my party, I said out loud, and meant it. In the email, I tried to sound too busy to care like, I'm having too much sex to waste time on proper...
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The best poems can be immediately re-read from a different angle, each interpretation adding a layer, to make a palimpsest. Like how the "it" in this poem is both literal and ineffable. A concrete object and happiness itself. Coconut, Paul Hostovsky - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8145654...
April 21, 2026: Coconut, Paul Hostovsky
Coconut Paul Hostovsky Bear with me I want to tell you something about happiness it's hard to get at but the thing is I wasn't looking I was looking somewhere else when my son found it in the fruit...
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"I thought it was the neighbor’s cat [...] / but what came was much stranger, a liquidity / moving all muscle and bristle." (Can you guess?) Give Me This, Ada Limón - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8144749... #poem #poetry
April 20, 2026: Give Me This, Ada Limón
Give Me This Ada Limón I thought it was the neighbor’s cat back to clean the clock of the fledgling robins low in their nest stuck in the dense hedge by the house but what came was much stranger, a...
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On being spectators of our stories. Riveted, Robyn Sarah: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8143323...
April 19, 2026: Riveted, Robyn Sarah
Riveted Robyn Sarah It is possible that things will not get better than they are now, or have been known to be. It is possible that we are past the middle now. It is possible that we have crossed the....
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"Bears I have to say / Pretend we are children" Still Life with Invisible Canoe, Idra Novey: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8142895...
April 18, 2026: Still Life with Invisible Canoe, Idra Novey
Still Life with Invisible Canoe Idra Novey Levinas asked if we have the right To be the way I ask my sons If they’d like to be trees The way the word tree Makes them a little...
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"Apostrophe" is the English class term for a one-sided conversation like this. Reginald Shepherd was 45 and dying when he wrote this... struggle with an idea? Longing for faith? Prayer and meditation? It's beautiful. "God-With-Us", Reginald Shepherd - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8141881...
April 17, 2026: "God-With-Us", Reginald Shepherd
"God-With-Us" Reginald Shepherd after Jean Valentine What will I call you when you are gone? How will I know your name? Little star, reflection on the Sea of Galilee, a lantern in the wood,...
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Does what it says on the tin. I checked. Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line, George Starbuck - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8140926...
April 16, 2026: Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line, George Starbuck
Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line George Starbuck for Helen Vendler O for a muse of fire, a sack of dough, Or both! O promissory notes of woe! One time in Santa Fe N.M. Ol’...
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From Darkling, the final section of the book Night Watch. In part two: Werewolf Hill. VI. Tulips, Kevin Young - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8140212...
April 15, 2026: Tulips, Kevin Young
Tulips Kevin Young What the dead want— shelter—opposable thumbs—to quit being compared to taxes, as if they can be evaded. Each April sadly sadly wiser, & alone they push up like tulips from...
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This one is long but took my breath away. You Are Who I Love, Aracelis Girmay: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8139150...
April 14, 2026: You Are Who I Love, Aracelis Girmay
You Are Who I Love Aracelis Girmay You, selling roses out of a silver grocery cart You, in the park, feeding the pigeons You cheering for the bees You with cats in your voice in the morning, feeding.....
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The transcendent + the mundane. Muffin of Sunsets, Elaine Equi: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8138372...
April 13, 2026: Muffin of Sunsets, Elaine Equi
Muffin of Sunsets Elaine Equi The sky is melting. Me too. Who hasn’t seen it this way? Pink between the castlework of buildings. Pensive syrup drizzled over clouds. It is almost catastrophic how...
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An experience somehow so personal and so relatable, from a nonbinary poet. My Perimenopausal Body Cistern Disappointing How Surprising, Gabrielle Calvocoressi - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8137503...
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To please lovers of rhyme and the ominous. The Darker Sooner, Catherine Wing - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8136596...
April 11, 2026: The Darker Sooner, Catherine Wing
The Darker Sooner Catherine Wing Then came the darker sooner, came the later lower. We were no longer a sweeter-here happily-ever-after. We were after ever. We were farther and further. More was the...
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I honestly thought I'd sent this one years ago. Is it retro to share poems I was really into in 2005? (Those last lines still hit, tho'!) The Archipelago of Kisses, Jeffrey McDaniel - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8135639...
April 10, 2026: The Archipelago of Kisses, Jeffrey McDaniel
The Archipelago of Kisses Jeffrey McDaniel for Sarah Koskoff and Todd Louiso We live in a modern society. Husbands and wives don’t grow on trees, like in the old days. So where does one find love?...
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A lovely reworking inspired by the Philip Levine poem of the same name. (Which we here at April Is Inc. presciently shared in 2020; linked at bottom of post.) Let Me Begin Again, Major Jackson - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8134767...
April 9, 2026: Let Me Begin Again, Major Jackson
Let Me Begin Again Major Jackson Let me begin again as a quiet thought in the shape of a shell slowly examined by a brown child on a beach at dawn straining to see their future. Let me begin this time...
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"So definitely / we are imagined creatures." Furniture, Lisa Allen Ortiz - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8133759...
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Poetic irony that's funny, too?! Faith for My Father Circa 1950, Erik Campbell: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8132760...
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Check out the link after the poem to the translator's notes on a more modern -- and catchy! -- interpretation of a centuries-old shitpost. He Visits My Town Once a Year, Amir Khusrau - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8131721...
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One for the times. poem where no one is deported, José Olivarez - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8130900...
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You have to let yourself sink into the extended metaphor of this poem: vivid, yellow, a little silly, a little salacious. Wedding Poem, Ross Gay: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8130029...
April 4, 2026: Wedding Poem, Ross Gay
Wedding Poem Ross Gay for Keith and Jen Friends I am here to modestly report seeing in an orchard in my town a goldfinch kissing a sunflower again and again dangling upside down by its tiny...
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"So what / can poetry be now?" Every time I read this I find a new favorite line. Poetry, Diane Seuss: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8128952... #literature
April 3, 2026: Poetry, Diane Seuss
Poetry Diane Seuss There’s no sense in telling you my particular troubles. You have yours too. Is there value in comparing notes? Unlike Williams writing poems on prescription pads between patients, I...
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I love when reading a #poem is a journey of realization. And when I need to read it again right away to re-process. Phase One, Dilruba Ahmed: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8128147...
April 2, 2026: Phase One, Dilruba Ahmed
Phase One Dilruba Ahmed For leaving the fridge open last night, I forgive you. For conjuring white curtains instead of living your life. For the seedlings that wilt, now, in tiny pots, I forgive...
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Kicking off the month with a banger #poem about birds and books and writing and time and ambition. I Kept Getting Books About Birds, by Catherine Pierce: www.tumblr.com/april-is/812...
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💬 0 🔁 5 ❤️ 5 · April 1, 2026: I Kept Getting Books About Birds, Catherine Pierce · I Kept Getting Books About Birds Catherine Pierce as if recognizing the yellow-winged one at the feeder, the s…
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