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June 2019

Najeebah Al-Ghadban

The oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English-speaking world.

This issue is sold out.

Javier Zamora
Ed Roberson
Hanif Abdurraqib
Khaty Xiong
Brad Trumpfheller

See Table of Contents

Cover of Poetry Magazine June 2019 Issue.

From this Issue

- poem
  
  A brief history of the orchid (兰)
  
  By K-Ming Chang
  
  My grandmother was born in a city called [宜兰]
  
  Despite its name, no orchids grow there
  
  Five of my six aunts have names ending in [兰]
  
  My mother’s full name is [little wind]
  
  Orchid seeds are distributed by land, water & wind
  
  One of my...
  
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- poem
  
  O Calgary
  
  By Tom Wayman
  
  i
  
  In Calgary
  I saw a man marry money
  Who giveth this money?
  the commissioner asked
  The man said
  Everyone who works for me
  The commissioner asked
  Where are they? I don’t hear them declare it
  The man said That’s not their job
  You do yours
  
  Do you take this money
  the...
  
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- poem
  
  Letter to My Blackout
  
  By Maria Hummel
  
  Dear sip, dear shotgun, dear pound:
  beneath the house, the kegs roll in;
  the party flips its switches down.
  
  When drunk comes, it comes as sound,
  a chord, a liftoff. I ride the rim,
  dear sip, dear shotgun, dear pound.
  
  He could be anyone, and he...
  
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From the Editors of Poetry

- Prose from Poetry Magazine
  
  There Must Be Something to Say
  
  By Vidyan Ravinthiran
  
  Angela Leighton’s Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature.
  
  Read More
- Discussion Guide
  
  These Kids
  
  Four poems in the June 2019 issue of Poetry.
  
  Read More
- Audio
  
  Ed Roberson reads from “Architektonis: Twenty for the Chicago Architecture Center”
  
  From The Poetry Magazine Podcast June 2019
  
  The editors discuss Ed Roberson’s poem “Architektonis: Twenty for the Chicago Architecture Center” from the June 2019 issue of Poetry.
  
  Read More

Table of Contents

poems

K-Ming Chang
- A brief history of the orchid (兰)
Tom Wayman
- O Calgary
Maria Hummel
- Letter to My Blackout
Dayna Patterson
- Study for Belief with Lines from “Star Trek: The Original Series”
Khaty Xiong
- On Teaching My Son How to Mourn
Spencer Short
- The Gentle Art of Shabby Dressing
Jim Johnstone
- Performance Anxiety
John Gallaher
- And the Moon on Its Stem Will Steal You Away
Jane Zwart
- These kids running through pictures
Cortney Lamar Charleston
- It’s Important I Remember That They Don’t Have the Tools to Critique Me—
Catie Rosemurgy
- Diorama (woman on a cameo brooch)
Anne Marie Rooney
- Sonnet
Bradley Trumpfheller
- From “Reconstructions”
- Tomorrow, No, Tomorrower
George Szirtes
- Boarding House
John Kinsella
- Tree Elegy Across the Biosphere in Memory of W.S. Merwin
Jasmine Elizabeth Smith
- Zouzou
Kayleb Rae Candrilli
- My partner wants me to write them a poem about Sheryl Crow
Austin Segrest
- Across the Street
Robin Richardson
- Origin Story Ad Nauseam
Michael Farrell
- Dear Pop
Melian Radu
- Object Permanence
Chard DeNiord
- Weatherman
Megan Denton Ray
- Traveling Broke & Ugly
Clare Jones
- Rail
Javier Zamora
Ed Roberson
- From “Architektonis: Twenty for the Chicago Architecture Center”
Wayne Holloway-Smith
- “I want you to leave your body now” he tells me
Mary Biddinger
- Book of Disclosures
Raymond Luczak
- Gazelles
Cody Smith
- Elegy with a Brush Hook and Machete

drawings

Marianne Boruch
- Drawings

comment

Vidyan Ravinthiran
- There Must Be Something to Say
Hanif Abdurraqib
- Grass and Ground and Dirt

Contributors