A reading room for poems
Read something.
Say something.
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
00Sonnet for the Salt I Didn't BuyI balanced the whole week on what I saved:
the coffee brewed at home, the walked-not-driven mile,Waiting on a reader01Sonnet, UnsentI wrote the letter four times over, each
draft calmer than the one that came before,1 critique02Sonnet for the Unpaid InvoiceI wrote to you in April, then in May,
and twice in June, politely, with a date.2 critiques
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