PEN Poetry Series

Through 2019, the PEN Poetry Series published work by writers from all over the world. 

Explorer

This poem is a whiteout erasure of the newspaper article “EXPLORER VERNER HOME WITH AFRICAN CURIOS; Brings Mr. Otabenga, a Dwarf, to Act as His Valet” published by the… More

Two Poems by Mia Kang

Rome made a deal / with the surrounding areas. / Let’s be friends, said Rome. / What is friends, said the world. // An engineering feat, said the city.… More

Miscarriage

So mom I came out / with a wallop / and was ready to live / covered in the rubies / you made / You looked at me /… More

from The Blue

a body hard as rock / I am occupied // with the visible // rock as soft as a body / both hurt // that’s why she can’t touch… More

Oakland, Cal.

The horses go running through my mind. My student says / She wouldn’t believe police if they told her the sky is blue. More

The Transformation

In deeper waters / were hairtail, and cuttlefish. Hairtail were called knife fish / in my language. If you’re shipwrecked, some say, / knife fish are the first… More