A reading room for poems
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Poems published here are free to read and free to post — no account needed to read a word of it. The response you leave is worth more than the count of it, so length decides whether it sits with the critiques or with the short notes, and nothing on this site can be bought.
Waiting on a reader
12 poems have been published here and not yet had a single critique.
Theme
AnyLoveMemoryAngerDeathFaithLossWorkFamilyHomeIdentityNatureTimeDesireHopeJourneySolitudeWarWonderFearFriendship
+14 more
Form
AnyFree verseSonnetLyric poemAcrosticElegyOdeProse poemVillanelleBalladBlank verseEkphrasticHaikuLimerickSestina
+8 more
00Thirty PercentThe forecast gives it seventy
and my mother brings the washing in.1 critique01AppetiteI wanted the house.
I wanted the man in the house.Waiting on a reader02What He Would Say About the WarHe would say the food.
He would say the cold, and then the food again,Waiting on a reader03I love you differently.I can say
that i love a lot of thingsWaiting on a reader04What the Neighbors HeardNot the plates. We never broke plates.
What they heard was quieter than that —Waiting on a reader05Two Words for RainMy mother's language has two words for rain —
one for the kind that asks permission,1 critique06InventoryThirty-one years of a workshop
comes down to boxes labeledWaiting on a reader07The Long Way to Forgiving My FatherHe taught me how to check the oil
by never once explaining why,1 critique08Closing ShiftNobody tells you retail teaches you geometry —
how to fold a shirt into a rectangle nobody will remember,Waiting on a reader09Kitchen, 3 a.m.The fridge hums its one note
and I stand in its light1 critique
Three ways in
4 poemsWorking HoursWhat a job costs, in poems by people who have had one.Chosen by Ilse Brandt3 poemsSmall PrayersFaith as habit, inheritance and argument, not as certainty.Chosen by Nadia Osei3 poemsWhat We Mean By LoveThree ways the word gets used before anyone agrees what it means.Chosen by Dev Ramanathan2 poemsNight WorkWritten close to the dark, where the odd and the exact meet.Chosen by Mara Okonkwo2 poemsWhat Outlasts UsMonuments, memory, and the weather that keeps going after we stop.Chosen by Dev Ramanathan2 poemsSmall HopesPoems that hold on to something, plainly and without arguing for it.Chosen by Ilse Brandt