PEN Poetry Series
Through 2019, the PEN Poetry Series published work by writers from all over the world.
“My Grave” and “Ripeness”
Every day I watch my grave in the yard / included in the price of the house, / with a board over the hole, / with a tombstone of… More
Four Last Songs
I’d forgotten to pay attention for years / To a song I heard for the first time // At the end of a recent memorial, / An actual song… More
What Follows Us Now Must Soon Enough Be Carried
I can’t drink beers at 3 p.m. very often / or anytime soon live in San Francisco / because I am trying to be a decent middle-class father, /… More
Vocation & Dear Mid-Afternoon Nap
some, like the moses / of israel, have a rod and god’s warrant, / and still can hardly get started. / others, / like the moses of her people,… More
One Onion Layer After Another: A Conversation with Valzhyna Mort
The village where I spent my childhood summers, away from the city and school, is the landscape that has become my tabula rasa, the primary point of any departure.… More
Valzhyna Mort: Three Poems
It’s as if somebody threw at him slices / of skinned grapefruit. / Every time she hits him—I hit her. / Look at this. Look whom you’ve bred. //… More
Farnoosh Fathi: Two Untitled Poems
Brimming over a secret alone, the end / of its thought must be lost in a hum. / Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care— / The waves explode… More
[the air and its quality, the soft moon which we notice]
your friends gathered around the / record player singing guthrie tunes // too wistful for a work nite / or just wistful enough to fight as a result of… More
Kathryn L. Pringle: Two Poems
and tracks were laid / and trains were running / and the town was divided // people who were family / people who were friends / people who were… More