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Odd Pocket Press

@oddpocketpress.bsky.social

The goal of Odd Pocket Press is to reinvent the way we publish poetry!

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Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2w ago

From 'Phantom Limb' by Cora McCann Liderbach, selected by @josehernandezdz.bsky.social as a honorable mention in Issue 2: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/phantom-li...

Children chant about a cow hurdling
me. Poets pretend I’m the shade
of a pirate ship adrift at night.

When astronauts sampled my surface,
you found we share family DNA—
oxygen, titanium, tungsten.

—Cora McCann Liderbach

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2w ago

From 'A Glass of Burgundy' by Tammy Iralu, chosen by @josehernandezdz.bsky.social as honorable mention in Issue 2: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/a-glass-of...

You are the curve of passionfruit,
dragonfruit,
and the hard shell of lychee that opens
to an epiphany of white.

Like a hummingbird who oscillates
between two blossoms,
you are of two minds as you swing
between passion and pain.

—Tammy Iralu

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 3w ago

From 'YouTube Elegy, Cam One' by @feed-me-poetry.bsky.social selected by @josehernandezdz.bsky.social as honorable mention in Issue 2: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/youtube-el...

Bird omens are nothing new,
and in us all exists an armchair prophet.
An opportunist too, if we’re honest.
Still, heartbreak lands—cruel, hungry—

—Candice M. Kelsey

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 3w ago

From 'Purple Grief' by @barriecole.bsky.social , selected by @josehernandezdz.bsky.social as the third-place poem in Issue 2: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/purple-gri...

But only the soft purple song
of grief since you died.
I tried to find a match for it
at the paint store so I could
view it more clearly. I considered
Velvet Bath, Lavender
Concrete and Afternoon Cave.

—Barrie Cole

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 3w ago

From 'Kuma, Language of my Blood' by Janette Schafer, chosen by @josehernandezdz.bsky.social as the second place poem in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/kuma-langu...

lullaby of survival—
my soul across the ocean
to red dust that knit
my bones together.

—Janette Schafer

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 4w ago

From 'Installation Piece' by Martin Willitts Jr, chosen by @josehernandezdz.bsky.social as the winning poem in Issue 2: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/installati...

and, I had to remind myself —
this is not real,
I’m not back there anymore,
the war ended
eons ago, I’m in a Boston
art museum, I’m
alright, I’m not wounded
a second time
—Martin Willitts Jr

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 4w ago

From 'Love Song' by Martin Willitts Jr in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/love-song-...

I found myself with her, amazed
I had crossed the boundary of silence
into her arms

—Martin Willitts Jr

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 4w ago

From 'Blue' by @patriciawallace.bsky.social in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/blue-by-pa...

There’s little blue pigment
in nature, except for
the true-blue bands on
the Obrina Olivewing butterfly.
The rest is light, bent and scattering,
blue illusion. No blue
whale (it’s grey), no blue lake, blue
ocean. Just water
swallowing sunlight’s longer
wave-lengths.

—Patricia Wallace

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

From 'The Night I Nearly Hit a Cow' by @jeanmikhail.bsky.social in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/the-night-...

The moon pinned itself to a clothesline
as a dress slipping over my head,
then heave-hoed over farm fields,
backroads,with the agility of a track star,
jumped hurdles over silos and barns.

—Jean Voneman Mikhail

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

From 'Praying With the Mantis' by Lauren WB Vermette in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/praying-wi...

My finger hovers millimeters above
her triangular head. She rears up,
catches me

between her thorny legs and bites.
Hard. She is not praying,
but preying.

—Lauren WB Vermette

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

Congratulations to our Best of the Net nominations: @jessicapurdy.bsky.social , Tara Humphrey, Alesa Bernat, @patriciawallace.bsky.social , @nancysobanik.bsky.social and @kellygracethomas.bsky.social

Odd Pocket Press' Best of the Net Nominations Are...
If I Named the Flowers-an Abecedarian by Jessica Purdy. mixed tape by Tara Humphrey.
Decomposition: an Act of Contrition by Alesa Bernat
Dog by Patricia Wallace
Vigil by Nancy Sobanik
Coming Home, See a Fawn Standing in the Center
of Town by_
Kelly Grace
Thomas
OddPocketPress.Substack.com

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

From 'The Gift' by Lauren WB Vermette in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/the-gift-b...

what I thought
was a dried rose

left on the picnic table
is half a rat.

—Lauren WB Vermette

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

Thank you to everyone who has donated or submitted for Issue 3 so far. There are still two days left to submit, so polish up those poems and send them our way: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/submit

Odd Pocket press
3rd Issue Contest is Ope
Submit 3 Poems by midnight Oct. 1s
Donation-Based Submission Fer
Prize
1st Place, $10
znd Place $75
3rd Place $5
All Poems Will B
Considered for Publicatiol OddPocketPress.Substack.con
Summer Issue Judge:
Rita Mookerjee
Allison Blevins, Alison Hurwitz, Laurie Kunz, Jacquinn Sinclair, Ankine Antaram, Pratibha Kelapure
Hosted by ThePoetrySalon

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

from 'After the Argument and Long Silence' by Alison Stone in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/after-the-...

Now the seven church bells chase each other
down the street.

Now the sun’s untouchable shine is your mouth.

Now a bee in the tulip is not your hand.

—Alison Stone

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

From 'Merino' by @dsmpoet.bsky.social in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/merino-by-...

I didn’t love the deep
vermillion, but it was your last favorite.
I love it now. I want to say
it isn’t fair—
how hard I loved you

—Donna Spruijt-Metz

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

From 'How We Let a 6th Grade Boy Define Us' by Shoshauna Shy in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/how-we-let...

Mrs. Epper claimed she had information
about our contest Who Danny Shotwell
Likes Best, was privy to his thoughts via
the school mother grapevine.

—Shoshauna Shy

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · last mo.

From 'The Great Escape,' by Shoshauna Shy in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/the-great-...

and one enormous lady,
round as two beer kegs,
comes alone to see
Steve McQueen
make his break
in The Great Escape.
She’s purchasing
an El Grande box

—Shoshauna Shy

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From 'Last Christmas in California' by Kristine Rae Anderson in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/last-chris...

December predawn lingers like a cat reluctant to wake up

—Kristine Rae Anderson

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

from 'Sonnenizio on a Line from Sylvia Plath’s To Eva' by @jessicapurdy.bsky.social in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/sonnenizio...

Then dinner arrives on a broken
stovetop to eat
and be eaten. To break bread
and go all stranger,

you could close your eyes
and feel daybreak

—Jessica Purdy

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From 'The Dog I Am' by Lucinda Pinchot in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/the-dog-i-...

I’m so fucking weary

of throwing myself against the fence

sniffing

—Lucinda Pinchot

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From 'Ode to the Racoon in Ashland, Virginia' by Carrie Myers, in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/ode-to-the...

Staggered like a freshman
frat boy to the bathroom. Fell,
face-first, beside the toilet
and a mop

—Carrie Myers

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

There are two weeks left to submit to Issue 3: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/submit

Odd Pocket Press
3rd Issue Contest is Open
Submit 3 Poems by Oct. 1st
Donation-Based Submission Fee
Prizes
1st Place, $100
2nd Place $75
zrd Place $50
All Poems Will Be
Considered for Publication
OddPocketPress.Substack.com
Summer Issue Judge:
Rita Mookerjee
Allison Blevins, Alison Hurwitz, Laurie Kunz, Jacquinn Sinclair, Ankine Antaram, Pratibha Kelapure
Hosted by ThePoetrySalon

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From 'Smooth Operator,' by Scott McLane in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/smooth-ope...

Yes, you'll reminisce about going to the barbershop, that warm towel around your mug. When self-care was your community. The buzz of the clippers beating out all the banter and sports experts. Bald is beautiful, but lonely, too.

—Scott McLane

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

from 'Self-Portrait as Galactus' by Rita Maria Martinez in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/self-portr...

When Mami is intubated three times
and flatlines five times in one week, I ditch
Weight Watchers and gobble a cheeseburger

—Rita Maria Martinez

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From 'When Your Hospital Bed is a Dive Boat' by @bamars.bsky.social in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/when-your-...

My mind drifts to scuba lessons:
rough dives off a dreary beach in winter,
instructors trying to awaken us
from our Jacques Cousteau dreams.

—Betsy Mars

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From ‘My Mother Draws’ by Susan Krane, in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/my-mother-...

a shaky circle, wavering on the
downstroke, the wide curve
of the turn. The room fills with the
sad smell of effort.
Facing off the face of failure. The doctor
says again,
Please draw the face of a clock, and with
undue calm

—Susan Krane

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From 'De Kooning Morning’ by Susan Krane in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/de-kooning...

at top right of the composition
sits the moon, lyrical footnote
and reminder that emotion need not be loud.

—Susan Krane

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From ‘Passport’ by Tim Kahl in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/passport-b...

I anticipate that sudden lift
when things fall just short of disaster
and someone has to send in the Marines.

—Tim Kahl

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

From 'Innocent Complicity’ by Nancy K. Jentsch in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/innocent-c...

Uncle Bobby’s model trains spilled
from boxes. The unfinished walls grinned
from stud to stud with Playboy centerfolds.

—Nancy K. Jentsch

Odd Pocket Press @oddpocketpress.bsky.social · 2mo ago

from “3 Killed as Northwest Braces for More Freezing Rain, Ice and Snow” by Leslie Hodge in Issue 1: oddpocketpress.substack.com/p/3-killed-a...

We go
through snow not seen before,
this fearsome icy storm. I
moan for those frozen in sleep

—Leslie Hodge