Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #27

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Day #27: Chainmail Poetry

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

There’s something compelling about a braid. A daisy chain. A visible link between one idea, or one hand, to another. If you smile at unexpected connections that serendipitously create new meaning, today’s poetry recommendation is for you.

Chainmail Poetry is a community poetry project, building an archive of poems linked by one line.

From the About page:

Chainmail Poetry is for the poets who believe in written word as human connection, and for the poets who need a little help with that. 
Here’s how it works: (Guidelines for poets)
– You read the latest Chainmail poem.
– You incorporate a single line or phrase from it into a new, original poem.
– One response per poem will be chosen for publication the following Thursday.
– All poems link to their predecessor and successor, thus joining the chain of Chainmail Poetry.

What that means for you, dear readers, is you get an insider view to the workings of a poet’s mind, the ways an unexpected impetus becomes a poem in less than a week. Caridad Cole, the brainchild behind, and editor of, Chainmail Poetry is a “a second-generation writer and filmmaker interested in family bonds, self-mythology, bodily autonomy, and monsters.” She’s been publishing Chainmail since July, 2025.

Here’s the most recent poem in the chain. “Anodyne” by Michelle Levy Schulz begins like this:

Anodyne

23rd Street’s Crow
is majestic even in repose.
Larger than a chicken
bent over in the dumpster
with ebony feathers fluffed.

FROM ANODYNE BY MICHELLE LEVY SCHULZ

Take a minute to read through the Chainmail poetry chain. Maybe add your own response? If you do, please let me know.

We can keep connecting kindly with strangers on and on and on…


Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #26

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Day #26: Literary Hub

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

I’ve been married to J almost 46 years. It’s not original to say that marriage is a dance and on our best days we can feel like this sculpture, bending toward each other, playfully keeping our heads above water, taunting the fates at ocean’s edge. I know this with certainty. J will always try to understand what the people he loves are interested in.

Whether it’s enthusiastically applauding an elementary school performance of Willy Wonka, or trying to figure out what makes one book considered to be great literature and another a simple “beach read,” he analyzes facts to grasp knowledge.

My poetry Cupid skills might not be quite as good as my personal love life matchmaking turned out to be, but when it came time to select a journal with poetry for J, Literary Hub seemed like a guaranteed right fit.

From the “About” page:

Literary Hub is an organizing principle in the service of literary culture, a single, trusted, daily source for all the news, ideas and richness of contemporary literary life. There is more great literary content online than ever before, but it is scattered, easily lost—with the help of its editorial partners, Lit Hub is a site readers can rely on for smart, engaged, entertaining writing about all things books. Each day—alongside original content and exclusive excerpts—Literary Hub is proud to showcase an editorial feature from one of its many partners from across the literary spectrum: publishers big and small, journals, bookstores, and non-profits.

On Literary Hub you can find History, Science, Politics, Biography, Food, Technology, Travel, Music, Podcast, Craft and Criticism essays, Fiction, and yes, of course, Poetry.

For J to read, I selected “Late Winter Walk” by Julia Alvarez, an ode to “the happiness we feel.”

Here’s the opening:

Late Winter Walk

High above this snowy field
we spot a shadow hovering.
When I turn to you and ask,
What is it: a vulture or a hawk?
your hand drops mine
to shade your narrowed eyes
from the brilliant winter light.

FROM LATE WINTER WALK BY JULIA ALVAREZ

Please read the entire “Late Winter Walk” by Julia Alvarez on Literary Hub.

Remember today to walk through the world in awe of birds, and always in kindness to one another.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #25

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Day 25: Poetry Online

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

My friend Tracy is one of those people who leave colorful footprints on your heart with every encounter. She’s kind and curious. A retired teacher who loves to keep discovering new things.

One of our favorite games is trying to learn the names of wildflowers or critters we encounter on our frequent hikes, then laughing at ourselves when a month or so later we’ve entirely forgotten. So we relearn, rename, repeat.

For Tracy, and for all you dear readers who appreciate exquisite poems in repetition: printed words plus audio, plus written descriptions of images, Poetry Online is a reading destination you must visit.

From Poetry Online “About” page:

OUR MISSION

Poetry Online, also known as poetry.onl, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to publishing poetry in accessible formats. Through our web journal and chapbooks, we feature poetry in written, visual, and time-based forms, with audio, plain text, and captioning whenever possible. Our mission is to expand the poetry space to better serve disabled poets, readers, and viewers.

Another thing I love about Tracy is how she will strike up conversations with strangers. So for her I chose the poem “At Checkout” by Greg Oaks. It opens this way:

At Checkout

My mother touches shoulders

in public, stopping strangers in

aisles to talk about their shirts, kids,

the bacon in their basket.

FROM AT CHECKOUT BY GREG OAKS

You can read the entire poem and listen to Greg Oaks read it here.

May you blessed by a stranger today. Or, may you connect with someone you don’t know. Say “hi.” Smile. Compliment someone’s shoes or shirt. Be like an 86-year-old mom in the market.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #24

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Day 24: Polyphony Lit

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

I just discovered a group of fifth grade writers in my neighborhood who are eager to create poetry and stories. They want to learn to refine, edit, and ultimately submit to journals. They want to work on words after homework and swim team and baseball. (In case you’re wondering what that has to do with the image above, what you’re looking at is a praying mantis egg case.) I tell my young writers that to succeed they’ll need a hard shell, a little prayer, and many hours in an undisturbed space.

And, they’ll need to read literary journals to become acquainted with the freshest writing out there.

I found Polyphony Lit for my newfound neighbor friends. I share it with them and anyone else who wants to encourage young writers.

From the Polyphony Lit About Us page:

Polyphony Lit is the global online literary platform for high school students. We invite high school students worldwide to submit creative writing, join our editorial staff, write blog posts, take workshops, and grow into leadership roles. Because developing young writers is central to our mission, our editors provide feedback on every submission.

Since our founding in 2004, we’ve received submissions from students in 87 countries and 52 U.S. states / territories. Our student editors have given feedback to every submission, over 21,000 and counting!

Polyphony Lit publishes a quarterly journal, hosts virtual poetry salons, offers workshops like Summer Editing Apprenticeship, Editor Training, and Around the World of Poetry in 80 Days, a sliding tuition scale, “self-paced course for students aged 12-18…broken into 80 bite-sized lessons that explore poetry as seen through the eyes of experienced editors and award-winning writers from around the globe.”

Whew! So much to explore and inspire. But for Honoria, the first young poet who sat at my kitchen table and read aloud a poem she worked hard on, a girl who walks both sides of shadow and light with big dreams, I chose “ghazal for my lost lives” by Ananya Kharatt.

The poem begins this way:

ghazal for my lost lives

& it was all technicolor, true blue, call it day dreams –
when we left our coats in the grass, we thought up reggae dreams.

we used to like anarchy, but now we’re taller, burning.
orange, rust. no one told us the past’s for throwaway dreams.

& dear god, we thought we were strong.

FROM GHAZAL FOR MY LOST LIVES BY ANANYA KHARATT

Please read the entire “ghazal for my lost lives” by Ananya Kharatt on Polyphony Lit.

And may you dance through “reggae dreams.”

May you be strong today.

May you listen to the dreams of a young person and encourage them whenever possible.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #23

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Day 23: Poetry Daily

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

April showers and all that. The raging storms of this moment in our human history. A turn in the trail. Unexpected rainbow. That intake of breath before you remember you haven’t felt joy nor optimism in a very long time.

My fellow Americans…
My dear sweet humans hoping and praying, dreaming and waiting for the after-hard times while working harder than these times feel…
Today’s recommendation, Poetry Daily, is for you. This online anthology offers what poetry can do best. A whisper in your ear. An answer to, “Who do I share breath with on this planet today?”

From Poetry Daily “About” page:

MISSION:
Our purpose is to provide readers with a window on a very broad range of poetry offered annually by publishers large and small—to make it easier for people to find poets and poetry they like—and to help publishers bring news of their books, magazines, and journals to more people.

Well over 1,000 books of poetry are published in the United States alone each year, but they can be difficult to find, even in areas brimming with bookstores. The numerous journals presenting new poetry and poets can be even more elusive. We will lead you to them and, in the meantime, we give you a new poem to carry with you through your day and share with others.

Poetry Daily offers a new poem every single day, a daily e-mail newsletter, plus a section titled, “What Sparks Poetry” which features poets telling the stories behind the writing of a specific poem, followed by a writing prompt.

With this Poetry Month series, I promised, “poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less,” but you could spend hours exploring the literary labyrinth that is Poetry Daily.

The poem I chose for you, my fellow Americans, my family defined by national boundaries over the kin of humanity, is “Bedtime Story for a Father” by Alejandro Lucero.

Here are the first two stanzas:

Bedtime Story for a Father

On a shelf between photos of his family sits a row of dusty candles
a father never lights. The electricity’s out. In the hot summer night, bugs
find their way in the dark. In a scramble for matches, the father creeps
around the couch where his daughter’s sleeping. He’s thinking of the flour tortillas
he rolled all morning, and his little girl, who dreams of snow and ice,
and he thinks, too, about bugs coming through the windows, the pipes,

those gaps in the slats that he can’t control. Under the kitchen sink, a maze of pipes
and a small fire extinguisher block the emergency candles.
Sweating through his shirt, the father, praying to soak his feet in ice,
praying the food in the fridge won’t spoil and the smell won’t attract more bugs
eats like a dog in the dark. A shred of tortilla
falls from his mouth into his slipper. The thought of waste keeps creeping,

“FROM BEDTIME STORY FOR A FATHER” by Alejandro Lucero.

Please read the entire “Bedtime Story for a Father” by Alejandro Lucero on Poetry Daily.

May you think today of individual humans behind the news, behind the labels of policy or politics or us vs. them, or the flag flying above the patch of ground where our fellow humans want nothing more than the exact same thing you and I want.

A peaceful night’s rest.

Food for ourselves and our children.

A candle in the dark.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #22

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Day 22: The Hyacinth Review

Celebrating poetry by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

My friend Ginger is gentle and tender in all the right ways. She’s the kind of friend who will share tea for hours, talk books forever, send videos of her granddaughter singing true and pure. She always knows the best places to eat and the best gardens. I think of her as a beauty seeker.

I found The Hyacinth Review for Ginger, and for all who seem to be able to find a way, regardless of life’s circumstances, to discover the sublimely beautiful.

From The Hyacinth Review “About” page:

Founded in 2021, THE HYACINTH REVIEW is an online journal dedicated to exploring the humanities through various mediums & providing free learning resources for all.

In the Victorian language of flowers, the hyacinth sends the message: ‘your loveliness charms me’. In Greek mythology, the hyacinth sprung from the blood of Hyacinthus, lover of Apollo. Wherever it’s represented, the hyacinth symbolizes an aesthetic appreciation which, as our name suggests, is the focus of this journal.

From poetry and creative writing, to research essays and reviews, through the world of art and photography, our aim is to promote and celebrate the beauty that can be found everywhere in our world, in all its diversity. If you leave this site with a new bit of knowledge, a burst of inspiration, or even just a nugget of joy – then we’ve done our job.

We’re here for the poets, the bookworms, the autodidacts. Those who see the beauty in the world and hope to add to it. The individuals with niche interests and a curiosity that can never be sated. And, of course, we’re here for those who are in need of a little dose of hope, inspiration, and joy.

We believe that access to art and literature is everyone’s right. We believe that knowledge should be accessible, approachable, and (most importantly) free. Most of all, we believe that everyone has some beauty to share with the world.

The Hyacinth Review features poetry, art, photography, fiction, essays, and a comprehensive roundup of free poetry resources. There’s so much to love in the recent poetry publications, but for Ginger I selected a poem titled “I’ll Send You Postcards” by Fran Fernández Arce.

It opens like this:

I’ll Send You Postcards

I’ll send you postcards for you
to frame. You’ll send me snap
shots in return of flowers and
plants, telling me how swallows
come with horses. I’ll send you

a postcard of my mother’s
garden, close-ups of shamrock
growing in the crevices, eared
doves nesting on naked trees.

FROM “I’LL SEND YOU POSTCARDS” BY FRAN FERNÁNEZ ARCE

Make today a scavenger hunt for “hope, inspiration, and joy.” Make today beautiful.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #21

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Day 21: SWWIM

Celebrating poetry by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

Some of my very best days are spent on hiking trails, and the ones that rate as all-time favorites are those spent exploring with my grandson, Brayden. He’s a flash, moves as fast as time. He looks deeply and loves to ask questions like, “Would you rather live in a world made of candy or of gold?” 

If you have time to peer intently into a daily lyric, and you move quickly through your day without time to linger quietly more than a moment, you might enjoy SWWIM, on online journal that publishes one poem, each day.

From the SWWIM “About” page:

“SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami) was co-founded by Jen Karetnick and Catherine Esposito Prescott. SWWIM publishes, promotes, and celebrates women writers, trans and cis women, nonbinary, intersex, and other gender-expansive communities, with a year-round reading series held at The Betsy-South Beach in Miami Beach, FL and the online poetry journal SWWIM Every Day.”

Brayden once told me I was his favorite toy ,and every day spent with him, and his sister, leave me jubilant, and as roughed up as the Velveteen Rabbit. So when I found “Embrace” by Lara Payne, I knew I’d found the perfect poem for my grandson.

It begins like this:

Do take a minute to click on the photo to link to read the entire poem. And if you’re intrigued by how two editors make time to publish a poem every single day, read my interview with the SWWIM Founding Editors, Jen Karetnick and Catherine Esposito Prescott on this blog, link here.

Wishing you a refreshing day with enough time to pause and look deeply at something, or someone, that brings you great awe.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #20

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Day #20: Apricity Press

Celebrating poetry by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

April is National Poetry Month, true. And it’s now May. Yes. But I’m going to keep on keeping on until you get 30 days of poetry pairing.

Day #20 is for my beautiful granddaughter, Leah.

Leah is five years old. She makes up stories and wants to write them down, as naturally as she walks and breathes. She dances and paints, and is captivated by mud and bugs. For Leah, and for the entire generation of upcoming writers, thinkers, dancers, artists and curious dreamers, I recommend Apricity Press.

Apricity is the first journal I’ve encountered that includes dance alongside poetry, prose, fiction, and art. It’s a multi-genre feast.

ARTWORK BY GIADA ROTUNDO

From the Apricity Press “About” page:

            “Apricity Press is an annual online publication of poetry, prose, short fiction, visual art, and dance works. Embodying the obsolete word it was named after, Apricity aims to manifest the feeling of the warmth of the sun in the winter in all that it publishes. 

Established in 2015, Apricity Press was created to fill an immense void in the publishing world. While there are a myriad of presses, literary journals and magazines, many lack the ability to publish multi-genre works, especially dance works. Because of this, Apricity constructed a space where incredible literary, art, and dance works could be published side by side, showcasing the tremendous inherent connections between the forms.”

Issue #6 features more than 30 pieces of art, literature, and performance. It was hard to pick a specific piece for Leah, but I had to go with Poem Diary, a two-poem animated art video, subtitled with English, while read aloud in the original Bengali by the creator, Adwaita Das. It’s truly a magical experience to listen and watch.

The first poem begins like this:

fireflies live in water as well

have you thought of it?

how the sea sparkles at night

or how dreams surge like stars

FROM POEM DIARY BY ADWAITA DAS

May you put things together in new ways today. May you stay in touch with all your dreams.

Thank you for all the kind responses to this series and for asking me to pick a personal poem just for you.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #19

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Day #19: Arkana

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

Do you have a friend who is happiest in the dark, always willing to fling themselves into mystery for some kind of enlightenment? This describes my friend Alicia who also happens to be happiest when traveling. Anywhere. Any how. Always trying to learn something from someone she doesn’t know. For Alicia, and fellow explorers, I recommend Arkana: A Literary Journal of Mysteries and Marginalized Voices.

From the “About” page:

Arkana lives in the Arkansas Writers’ MFA Program at the University of Central Arkansas. The magazine was spawned in Spring 2016 and launched its inaugural issue in November that same year. This fully online publication is staffed and edited by graduate students and accepts submissions from the whole universe at large.

OUR MISSION

Arkana seeks and fosters a sense of shared wonder by publishing inclusive art that asks questions, explores mystery, and works to make visible the marginalized, the overlooked, and those whose voices have been silenced.

There are so many excellent poems in the current issue online, but for Alicia, I must recommend two poems by Alyea Pierce, a National Geographic Explorer, an award-winning author, educator, international speaker, and performance poet. Alyea Pierce’s work, according to an interview in National Geographic, is “aspiring to provide a voice for the voiceless, I center my creative projects around the exploration of Latino and Hispanic, Caribbean histories, the celebration of all things woman, and the untold narratives of marginalized persons.”

You can listen to her, and read for yourself, “28 Days” and “Return” in Arkana’s current online issue. The words have haunted me.

“Return” begins like this:

On her first morning 
back in this village
her mind is empty
and bones numb to the smell of heat

She tells her body 
to unbind itself into loose change
and bury high-tide shoulders 
back into its place…

FROM “RETURN” BY ALYEA PIERCE

Explore a little more today. Ask a hard question. Listen well.

Thirty Days of Poetry. Day #18

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Day #18: The Acentos Review

Celebrating National Poetry Month by highlighting 30 days of literary publishers who produce poetry you can listen to, watch, or read, in 5 minutes or less.

There’s a stunningly quiet, incisively observant, kind and curious young woman I know. I’ll call her L because she’s also shy. L asked me a while back why it was so hard to find poetry reflective of her experiences, a life spent often in overlooked shadows of well-known cities here and there.

For L, I found The Acentos Review, a multi-lingual, quarterly online journal featuring poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art and translations.

From the Mission Statement:

The Acentos Review shoots from the spring that is the Acentos Bronx Poetry Showcase and The Acentos Foundation in supporting the work of Latinx writers. 

The Acentos Review publishes poetry, fiction, memoir, interviews, translations, and artwork by emerging and established Latinx writers and artists four times a year.  The LatinX community is international and so, too, do we pledge to represent that international community.  We welcome submissions in English, Spanish, Portuguese, a combination of two languages, as well as the use of indigenous languages.    

The debate may rage forever as to who or what constitutes Latinx art. Here, there is no such identity crisis. We are already here, writing the histories of our neighborhoods, following the traditions of our ancestors, as well as the poetic traditions that came before us. To paraphrase Baldwin, the poet’s task as historian is to keep the story new, even when the telling is costly. This is the aesthetic we foster at Acentos. It is always about the word, the work, and it all begins here.

“Loneliness” by Marcella Peralta Simon

Because L is a native Californian, I chose two poems by Jesús Cortez set in Anaheim, California.

The first one begins like this:

Lincoln Avenue

I sometimes gaze at the palm trees,
such a California thing to do,
cliches and romanticism—
but nobody thinks of 
Lincoln Avenue for postcards
or for poems or tales of
magical realism—

FROM LINCOLN AVENUE BY JESÚS CORTEZ

Keep talking to your neighbors, yes, and also to those you pass on the street on your way to somewhere else. Keep listening more.

Keep reading poetry.