2020 Poetry Spotlights

A seasonal poem from Marge Piercy celebrates Autumn and kicks off the October issue of The Woven Tale Press.

Suzannah Dalzell’s poetry, exploring identity and history, appears in The Woven Tale Press Vol. XI #4.

Adrienne Su’s poetry, including the featured poem “The Years,” appears in WTP Vol. XI #3.

Roger Mitchell, who has previously been published in WTP, has a new poem appearing in April’s magazine, Vol. XI #2.

Elizabeth Kirkpatrick-Vrenios’s poem from WTP Vol. X #7 experiments with word games from a newspaper as inspiration.

A childhood memory haunts the narrator of Sydney Lea’s poem “Desperation,” featured from WTP Vol. X #6.

billy cancel’s poetry, which has previously appeared in Boston Review, PEN America, and SAND Journal, is featured in WTP Vol. X #5.

In a selection from his latest poetry featured in WTP, Paul Hostovsky ponders small irritations and their place in history.

John J. Ronan muses on history’s discontinued candies in a selection from his poetry featured in the June WTP magazine.

Diane Martin’s poetry, including the featured “Tomb of the Unknown Washerwoman,” appears in WTP Vol. X #3.

Carol Hamilton reflects on the history and value of textile work in her poem “Stitchery,” from WTP Vol. X #3.

Joshua Jones’s ekphrastic poem, inspired by a painting by John Singleton Copley, appears in The Woven Tale Press Vol. X #2.

“On an island you live in two worlds at once.” Susan Johnson’s poem “To Keep” appears in The Woven Tale Press Vol. X #1.

Regular WTP contributor Michael Thurston’s poem “Plague Year April Morning” appears in December’s WTP Vol. IX #10.

A selection of poems from Corinne Demas’s chapbook “The Donkeys Postpone Gratification” appear in WTP Vol. IX #10.

In his piece from WTP Vol. IX #9, poet Neil Carpathios sets a scene of moths inexplicably drawn to the light.

Susannah Lee’s poems were inspired by Carmelite nuns who, in the 1990s, journeyed from Iceland to the Arctic Circle to build a monastery

WTP poet Stephen Campiglio’s work has appeared in Chiron Review, Circumference (Pi Poetry), Glimpse, Pensive, Stand, and The Wayfarer.

Tim Seibles uses the villanelle form in his haunting poem, “Night Ships Blues Villanelle,” from WTP Vol. IX #6.

Paul Hostovsky’s poetry, including the metaphorical “Emu,” about a dreamed emu at the zoo, appears in WTP Vol. IX #5.

Karina van Berkum’s poetry, including “Logan at Five Begins,” appears in the May issue of The Woven Tale Press.

Adrienne Su’s Glosa on Migration follows a Spanish poetic form incorporating four lines from another well-known poem.

Richard Cole’s poem “Outsider Art,” from WTP Vol. IX #2, is in honor of found object art and the creators who make it.

Sydney Lea’s poem, “Sunya,” is told from the perspective of someone who struggled with math as a student.

Sandra Kolankiewicz’s three short poems, When Positive Thinking Becomes Dissociative, Each Morning We Step, and Compost, from WTP Vol. VIII #8.

Pamela Sumner’s poem on the beggar’s purse, the meal, and the plant.

George Franklin’s poem “In a Suburb” is one of five featured in September’s Woven Tale Press magazine. Preview now!

Caridad Moro-Gronlier’s poetry appears in The Woven Tale Press. Read her poem “Coming out to Mami” in this month’s WTP poetry spotlight.

Cleopatra Mathis’ eighth book of poems will be published by Sarabande Books in July. Her poetry appears in this month’s WTP magazine.

“I think about this cadaver bone in my jaw:/ What parts of a whole// did it lie in when it belonged to the living?” Monica Rowley’s poetry appears in Vol. VIII #3.

Sue D. Burton’s prose poem from WTP Vol. VIII #1 follows the hypothetical tale of swans on a golfing green.

From Joann Gardner’s chapbook The Deaf Island, published by The Poetry Society of America as part of their prestigious PSA Chapbook Fellowship Program.

“What fine chisel / could ever yet cut breath?” DeWitt Henry reflects on statues in his newest poem.

Mary Gilliland’s poetry appears in WTP Vol. VII #10, and she has a forthcoming collection from Bright Hill Press out in 2020.

Featured poems from Laura Foley’s collection SYRINGA appear in November’s Woven Tale Press magazine.

Zane DeZeeuw’s writing has appeared in Dream Pop Journal & Press, Windfall, and Lambda Literary.

Jeffrey Harrison has appeared in Best American Poetry and The Pushcart Prize anthology. Read his poetry in WTP Vol. VII #7.

Poetry by E. J. Evans has appeared in Rattle, RHINO Poetry, and New Mexico Poetry Review. Read his poem “Sleeper Agent,” from the WTP July issue.

Simon Perchik is an attorney whose poem “It’s When” appears in The Woven Tale Press Vol. VII #6.

“All life is maintenance, someone said—/ the light and lovely always cudgeled/ by what’s gone flat—tires and cushions/ astray—your son, the cat/ to seed or pot—your garden, your body.”

“And then I’m outside, standing in a summer / downpour, mounting my bike and riding, / dismayed and joyous at the sudden exuberance / of a storm that will flood all the streets and darken / the afternoon”

“Uncertain acrobats, we tightrope between existing and / living, the patient with a new cane and an incomplete grasp / of gravity, the rest of us sinking under too much of it, / jealous of his morphine, of the wishful thinking he floats in.”

“Buddhas on Death Row,” is one of many poems by Lauren Scharhag featured in WTP Vol. VII #2. Read Scharhag’s poem today.

“Of course he found her, the one who loves // women only quiet. Still as dolls. He got more / than he bargained for when that poison/ was knocked from her throat. When she awoke.”

Bob Sykora’s poem “Anna Alcott at Fruitlands,” from WTP Vol. VI #9.

Bob Meszaros’s poem “Triangulation” appears in October’s WTP magazine.

“Drang Valley 1965,” a poem by Carl Boon from September’s magazine.

Jeff McRae’s poetry appears in WTP Vol. VI #7. Read “The Heart’s Bones” here.

stephanie roberts’s “Meridian” appears in WTP Vol. VI #6.

Dina Elenbogen’s poem “Missing,” from July’s Vol. VI #6.

Robert B. Shaw’s poem “Enigmas of Weeding,” about his “garden’s anarchy,” is featured in July’s magazine. Read it here.

Douglas Cole’s poetry appears in WTP Vol. VI #5.

AR Dugan’s prose poem appears in June’s Woven Tale Press magazine.

Selections from Art Beck’s Rilke translations appear in WTP Vol. VI #4.

Wally Swist’s poetry appears in May’s issue of The Woven Tale Press.

Michele Leavitt’s poetry appears in WTP Vol. VI #3. Read “At Night-Point” here.

stephanie roberts’s poetry appears in WTP Vol. VI #3.

God does his own laundry in Joshua Jones’s Heaven. His poetry, from Vol. VI #3.

A poetic game of childhood Frisbee, from Clodagh Beresford Dunne.

Susan Dworski Nusbaum’s poetry has appeared in The Chautauqua Literary Journal and The Connecticut Review.

A winter poem. Dina Elenbogen’s poetry appears in WTP Vol. VI #1.

Michael Thurston’s haunting poem, from WTP Vol. VI #1, follows the roads and landscape of New England.

Richard Hoffman’s “November Suite,” from Vol. V #9.

Laura Foley’s poetry in WTP Vol. V #9.

Katrinka Moore pairs her poetry with scanned assemblages of found objects, meant to complement but not illustrate the poems.

David Hamilton is the former editor of the Iowa Review and former director of the University of Iowa’s MFA nonfiction program. Read his poetry in WTP.

Emily Mohn-Slate’s poetry has appeared in New Ohio Review, Crab Orchard Review, and Indiana Review. See her work in September’s WTP.

Kelli Simpson’s narrator takes their daughter on a surprising trip to a childhood home in her poem “Choctaw Road,” from WTP Vol. V #2.

The tragedy of the bees as told by Larry D. Thacker, whose “A Lamentation: Honey” appears in WTP Vol. V #1.

Lisa Stice’s poem, with a title inspired by a Salvador Dali painting, makes a reappearance from WTP Vol. V #3.

“We are here, we are here, again.” Alexander McCoy’s poetry appears in WTP Vol. V #6.

Wally Swist is the author of Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love. Read his poetry in WTP Vol. V #5.

Brandon Marlon’s poetry has appeared in over 175 publications in 24 countries. Read his work in WTP Vol. V #4.

“Not just any cruise: to a colder place, / that respite might encourage me for another eternity.” Tracy May Adair’s poetry in Vol. V #3.

Spotlight: Savannah Thorne, Hurricane Isabel

Savannah Thorne expresses the horror of Hurricane Isabel in one of her poems. See her work featured in The Woven Tale Press Vol. IV #9.

Spotlight: Paul Hostovsky, The Calculus

What it’s like to go to the dentist, according to one of our November poets, Paul Hostovsky. See his work in The Woven Tale Press Vol. IV #9.

Boot Found

In “Boot Found on the Side of the Road,” Peseroff playfully asks, “did your mate fall in love with a snake or quit you to roll off yet another man’s bed?”

Emptied of All But Wildness

“Emptied of All But Wildness,” a poem by Tess Barry. See her work in the September issue of The Woven Tale Press

Failed Enough Natasha Head I’ve failed enough times to know Good intentions don’t win gold stars I’ve fallen enough times to know Gravity trumps God I’ve lost enough times to know Hanging on Only serves to steal your strength And hope may be a thing with feathers But is more likely to show up As …

Hybrid Writing — The Falling Sickness  Essay-poem hybrid writing by Charles Bane, Jr. [dropcap]O[/dropcap]f all the gifts a poet can be given, epilepsy is the richest. I fell when I was four. It was kept hidden by my family; my father had it scrubbed from my medical records. But my life was already deeply private, …

National Poetry Month Winter window Outside the opportune window one pink head survives above geranium leaves blowing in the winter wind, covered with cold rain dropped from dimmed desire. The basil released its hope in the face of the war— forces of December and January—