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September 2011

Brian Cronin, "Untitled," 2010

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

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  • Fanny Howe
  • Peter Campion
  • Beverley Bie Brahic
  • David Yezzi
  • Anthony Hecht
See Table of Contents
Image of poetry magazine cover September 2011
From this Issue
    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine White Buttons

      By Mary Ruefle
      Having been blown away
      by a book
      I am in the gutter
      at the end of the street
      in little pieces
      like the alphabet
      (mother do not worry
      letters are not flesh
      though there’s meaning in them
      but not when they are mean
      my letters to you were mean
      I found...

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine Pietà

      By Kevin Young
      I hunted heaven
      for him.

      No dice.

      Too uppity,
      it was. Not enough

      music, or dark dirt.

      I begged the earth empty
      of him. Death

      believes in us whether
      we believe

      or not. For a long while
      I watch the sound

      of a boy bouncing a ball
      down the block

      take its time
      to reach...

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    • poem

      Appeared in Poetry Magazine The Flurry

      By Sharon Olds
      When we talk about when to tell the kids,
      we are so together, so concentrated.
      I mutter, “I feel like a killer.” “I’m
      the killer”—taking my wrist—he says,
      holding it. He is sitting on the couch,
      the old indigo chintz around him,
      rich as...

      Read More

Table of Contents

POEMS
UNCOLLECTED HECHT
COMMENT
LETTER
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