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May 2017

Alexander Stewart, "Silverlake Ribbon 3," 2016

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

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  • Sandra Simonds
  • Fred D'Aguiar
  • D. Gilson
  • Sergey Gandlevsky
  • Laura Kasischke
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Poetry Magazine cover for May 2017 issue
From this Issue
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine “When you think about it, mostly, a cage is air—”

      By Sandra Simonds
      When you think about it, mostly, a cage is air — 
      so what is there
      to be afraid of?
      A cage of air. Baudelaire said
      Poe thought America was one giant cage.
      To the poet, a nation is one big cage?
      And isn’t the nation mostly filled...

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Letters to America (An Abecedary)

      By Fred D'Aguiar

      “Ah neva seen this before in all ma years.”
      Testify, Sis. How we grew accustomed,
      Spoiled almost, by decorum, now try
      Mosquito larvae cultivating at speed
      In standing bodies of water. Pigeons
      Flock rooftops, twist, launch, shout
      As one, spin sky, turn skulls porous.

      Car repair shop...

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Where the Wild Things Go

      By D. Gilson
      The night Max wore his wolf suit
      made him infamous, bred the child star
      never sent to bed. Middle school,
      Max started drinking. Not in my house,
      his mother begged, No, no, no, wild thing.
      Max reminded her who bought
      this condo, who paid for her...

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From the Editors of Poetry

Table of Contents

POEMS
from the poetry review
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