It seems to me one of the great things about American poetry right now is its energy and diversity.
Copyright © 2025 by Victoria Chang. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 9, 2025, by the Academy of American Poets.
is up The Met’s stone steps,
so many that I have trouble collecting
my girthy tourist’s breaths
and my palms, all sweaty,
smeared with ink
from his crinkled face,
wrinkled in the brochure, and
to think I’m too underdressed
for a pocket square,
I’m writing
a love poem
even with
an American
boot to
my throat.
I lick the croony
sole and picture
you in a fresh white
wife pleaser.
At the end
of the story,
we exchanged
hair. Two tiny
Ziploc bags,
little plastic
windows.
I sheared off
the tip
of my braid,
candlewick
I burned my life, that I might find
A passion wholly of the mind,
Thought divorced from eye and bone,
Ecstasy come to breath alone.
I broke my life, to seek relief
From the flawed light of love and grief.
The 2010 winner of the National Book Award in poetry, Terrance Hayes is the author of seven poetry collections. He currently serves on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets.
Danez Smith is the author of Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017) and [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014).
Jackie Wang is the author of the poetry collection The Sunflower Cast a Spell to Save Us from the Void (Nightboat, 2021), which was longlisted for the National Book Award.
Janice Mirikitani was born on February 4, 1941, in Stockton, California.
Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017).
The Poetry Coalition, an alliance of nearly thirty independent poetry organizations across the United States, is presenting a series of progra
Learn more about the 2024 Poet Laureate Fellows, their communities, fellowship projects, writing practices, and thoughts on poetry, by reading these interviews and essays from their fellowship year.
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