Explore the rich tradition of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer poets and poetry by browsing a selection of poems & audio. For more essays, video, and ephemera, check out our Pride Month roundup.
Featured Poems
“Hair” by Francisco Aragón
who conceived that ravine
“Langston Blues” by Jericho Brown
O Blood of the River of songs...
“The Distant Moon” by Rafael Campo
Admitted to the hospital again...
“Where Is She ::: Koté Li Yé” by R. Erica Doyle
Long ago I met / a beautiful boy...
“Things Haunt” by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
California is a desert and I am a woman inside it...
“Kudzu” by Saeed Jones
I won't be forgiven / for what I've made / of myself...
“The Talking Back of Miss Valentine Jones: Poem # one” by June Jordan
well I wanted to braid my hair...
“Breathe. As in. (shadow)” by Rosamond S. King
Breathe / . As in what if...
“The Black Unicorn” by Audre Lorde
The black unicorn is greedy...
“I Do” by Sjohnna McCray
Driving the highway from Atlanta to Phoenix...
“syntax” by Maureen N. McLane
and if / I were to say // I love you and / I do love you...
“Starlight” by William Meredith
Going abruptly into a starry night / It is ignorance we blink from...
“My Lover Is a Woman” by Pat Parker
my lover is a woman...
“Abandonment Under the Walnut Tree” by D. A. Powell
Something seems to have gnawed that walnut leaf...
“No One Speaks fo How Tendrils Feed on the Fruits” by Xandria Phillips
of my demise these dead hands...
The King is Dead, Long Live the King” by Julian Randall
Heaven is the certainty that you will be avenged...
“Tonight No Poetry Will Serve” by Adrienne Rich
Saw you walking barefoot / taking a long look / at the new moon's eyelid...
“Elegy in Joy” by Muriel Rukeyser
We tell beginnings: for the flesh and the answer...
“The Anactoria Poem” by Sappho
Some say thronging cavalry, some say foot soldiers...
“Syntax” by Reginald Shepherd
Occasionally a god speaks to you...
“C.R.E.A.M.” by Danez Smith
in the morning I think about money...
“Dear Melissa: [a curve billed thrasher]” by TC Tolbert
A curve billed thrasher / is cleaning it's beak on the ground...
“Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds” by Ocean Vuong
Instead, let it be the echo to every footstep...
“And Now Upon My Head the Crown” by Phillip B. Williams
In the first place—I wanted him and said so...
Featured Audio
“At the End of Hell” by Jericho Brown
So what if I love him …
“Book of Statues” by Richie Hofmann
Because I am a boy, the untouchability of beauty …
“A Song for Many Movements” by Audre Lorde
Nobody wanted to die on the way …
"The Black Unicorn" by Audre Lorde
The black unicorn is greedy
“To a Butterfly” by James Merrill
Already in midsummer …
“Joan” by Eileen Myles
Today, May 30th, Joan …
Queer Love Letters & Videos
Poets on Poets featuring Cyrus Cassells, Eduardo C. Corral, Michael Klein, Joan Larkin, and Carl Phillips.
Meg Day Reads "Elegy in Translation"
Forgive me my deafness now for your name on others' lips: …
Walt Whitman's Letter to Peter Doyle
Dear comrade, I think of you very often. My love for you is indestructible …
Allen Ginsberg Sings "A Western Ballad" on the roof his apartment in the East Village.
Emily Dickinson's Letter to Susan Huntington Dickinson
Sue - I have lived by this. It is the lingering emblem of the Heaven I once dreamed, and though if this is taken, I shall remain alone...there is a darker spirit will not disown its child …
Frank O'Hara Reads "Having a Coke with You"
is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne ...
Video: Kay Ryan, the first out lesbian U.S. Poet Laureate, reads a poem and describes an surprise experience that occurred while reading the funnies in bed with her partner, Carol.
Gertrude Stein's Two Love Notes to Alice B. Toklas
Dear dainty delicious darling, dear / sweet selected [enemifier?] of my soul …
TC Tolbert Reads "Dear Melissa:"
I wish you (my mother once told me—mother of my child- …
More Poems to Read & Share
"Hair" by Francisco Aragón
who conceived that ravine …
“Lullaby” by W. H. Auden
Lay your sleeping head, my love …
“In Particular” by Djuna Barnes
What loin-cloth, what rag of wrong …
"elegy for kari edwards" by Julian Talamantez Brolaski
damesirs of fishairs / princes reginae / I don't need this botheration …
"Langston Blues" by Jericho Brown
O Blood of the River of songs …
“The Distant Moon” by Rafael Campo
Admitted to the hospital again …
“Ceremonial” by Eduardo C. Corral
Delirious …
“Heartbeats” by Melvin Dixon
Work out. Ten laps …
“The Embrace” by Mark Doty
You weren’t well or really ill yet either …
“from Bharat jiva [I can not begin to know]” by kari edwards
I can not begin to know …
"Things Haunt" by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
California is a desert and I am a woman inside it
“A Supermarket in California” by Allen Ginsberg
What thoughts I have of you tonight, Walt Whitman …
"The Man with Night Sweats" by Thom Gunn
I wake up cold, I who / Prospered
“He would not stay for me, and who can wonder” by A. E. Housman
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder …
"In the Dream" by Jenny Johnson
I was alone in a dyke bar we'd traversed before
"Kudzu" by Saeed Jones
I won't be forgiven / for what I've made / of myself
“Senior Discount” by Ali Liebegott
I want to grow old with you …
“Lullaby” by Lyubomir Levchev
The boy was standing at the exit …
“Grotesque” by Amy Lowell
Why do the lilies goggle their tongues at me …
"Sonnet XLIII" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why …
“Tender Buttons [Eggs]” by Gertrude Stein
Kind height, kind in the right stomach with a little sudden mill …
"Dear Melissa: [a curve billed thrasher]" by TC Tolbert
A curve billed thrasher / is cleaning it's beak on the ground …
“Calamus [In Paths Untrodden]” by Walt Whitman
In paths untrodden …
