PEN Poetry Series
Through 2019, the PEN Poetry Series published work by writers from all over the world.
Spill Split
I am sentimental, but continue to be surprised by how quickly an event, while / retreating into the past, gains its nostalgia. More
Three Poems by Jennifer Kronovet
Victor is used to draw the timeline of the mind, proving we / must keep the children inside our forest of words to take / them from evidence—a boy… More
The Shaman of Ice Cream
On Monday, September 23, 2013, Sherman Alexie participated in a live conversation with PEN America and Director of the Office of Intellectual Freedom at the ALA, Barbara Jones. This… More
from Poses
At this, Joe asked, Are you good? O yeah, I’m a slugger, she said, her gaze trained on the far wall. Every statement she makes induces in me a… More
Two Poems by Frances Richard
there is no end / there is no end / one version of this only creates happiness / earth-movers across the street / festooned with colored ribbon while demolishing… More
Three Poems by Mary Hickman
In the photos, he’s sixteen. His horse stands with loose reins by an alpine lake. The water looks less like water than sky, and even in the heat of… More
One Way of Doing Battle
When I touched my wrist to my chest / it was shorthand for love. // When I returned & the house was empty // I carried his body with… More
Seven Poems by Valerie Hsiung
(I am withholding something / frightening, holy, foolhardy, strange, / loving, excruciating, vital, unknown, / rejuvenating, transient, natural, old) // like a free will / like nowhere to go More
Six Poems by Lily Mazzarella
All summer, the road was littered / with songbirds, their heads smashed in / I was poisoned by absinthe, and set a field / on fire, and spent the… More
Three Poems by Kiki Petrosino
You died in the pith of August. You left us. / In rageful choke, in dust: you left us. // On your coffin lid: Going Home. A bluebird. /… More
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