“What bloomed from grief / came instinct, / came wrath.” - c. rivera voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/s...

“I want to write about eternity too just like the cats probing at their breakfasts   or your two week old hands Isadora brushing my beard like sleepwalking windshield wipers” - Dylan Emmons voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/p...

we are currently accepting submissions for our WINTER 2026 issue, & we'd love to hear from you! ✨ 💛 voicemailpoems.org/submit 💛 deadline january 1st

writing again, thank God!

Hosting for @moonstonearts.bsky.social again next month, and I'm so excited to feature my good friend & mentor @derrickbrown.bsky.social and the wonderful Erica Miriam Fabri 🤩 Wednesday, Dec. 10th at Fergie's Pub 🎉 Hope you can join us! It’ll be a rockin’ good time 🤘🖤

“it’s where most of us find ourselves after a relationship sharing space with those silver skins not fitting any better than the aluminum did her and her meal prep her and her insistence others should hide what she plans to devour” - @c-late.bsky.social voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/p...

“As a recluse / I really went / all out" - @jennacardinale.bsky.social voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/n...

“When I called desire by name, the fog lifted from our past.” - Micaela Camacho-Tenreiro voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/n...

“I wanted heaven But space spat me out. I heard earth girls are easy. I’m so easy I only learned how to fight Back last week. I didn’t win. But I cured my depression By making the bed!” - Jamie Hood (@veryhotmomm.bsky.social) voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/m...

“Why, even when / I am so quiet, and so good, can I not catch a fish? Why did you die, when / you knew every psalm by heart and every benefit of witch hazel? / Do you ever feel like July has forgotten your name?" - Lauren Mills voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/l...

“Solidarity is pissing / in adjacent stalls. / A godly marriage / is a throuple with / Christ.” - Alexa Vallejo voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/l...

“My thoughts have value even if no one reflects on them. / These mountains scrape the sky even after the sun dips behind them, / the gardens keep growing in darkness even after the dykes who dressed up for the art have / wandered out.” - Juniper Danger voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/t...

“I’m wondering how best to preserve / this day when I find myself summoned / outside into the warming light” - John Muro voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/b...

“the loss we talk about / it doesn’t heal” - Chiara Crisafulli, “4-tongue poem” voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/4...

🍁 fall issue's up! 🍁 ft. @veryhotmomm.bsky.social, @jennacardinale.bsky.social, @aporianautics.bsky.social, @c-late.bsky.social, & more! voicemailpoems.org/2025/11/07/f...

last call for submissions for our fall issue! ⌛️ call & send in a poem by midnight pacific time to be considered ✨

one week left to submit! ⌛️ send us a poem 👻

hosting for @moonstonearts.bsky.social tomorrow at Fergie's Pub! ✍️🎉 thrilled that our featured poets are Michael Joseph Walsh & Ebs Sanders 🙌 come hang 🤙 bring a poem for the open mic if you want! 🩷

Through our Pop-Up Libraries, Book Arks, and Free Book Shelves, we’ve been distributing between eight to ten thousand (!) books per month 📚✨ Due to the overwhelming demand for books, we are seeking donations to help us continue to stock our arks, shelves, and tables.

“I dreamed of a canoe, and of the two of us” - Devan Murphy voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/t...

“But dawn, Because you hid behind the horizon torches blazed, blinding, breaking sleep and families as parents were taken from screaming kids to be jailed then charged then sent back to the islands   Dawn, because you were silent, because all murmurings were silenced.” - @kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

two more weeks to submit! ⌛️ send us a poem 🎃

“My neighbor listens patiently, amused by my young life. We’re the only Black gay men in our building, so he has me over for Sunday tea. I fill our cups. For the heart, he says, adding whiskey to his.” - Derrick Austin (@paradiselaust.bsky.social) voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/s...

“sometimes at 10:37pm you need to change your life / so you do the next best thing / and you cut your hair” - Sarena Brown voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/s...

we are currently accepting submissions for our FALL 2025 issue, & we'd love to hear from you! ✨🍁✨ voicemailpoems.org/submit 🧡 deadline october 1st 🧡

one sweet thing about my job is that sometimes i get to give free books to lovely families at a backpack giveaway in a local church, and it warms my heart

“There was happiness in 1930s Germany and at the end of Rome, too." - Jill McLaughlin voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/p...

“we talked about the final moment and how I might not make it (I did, he waited)   we talked about how a summer would never be enough time, as the days stretched out my son, his namesake, waited in the cherry tree” - Annie Powell Stone voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/m...

"Let's say, This is for me. This is because I want. This is because I exist. This is because I take up space, as much as I want, & more, & I survive despite your best efforts to tamp me down, & I will fucking wear my defiance like a punch to the gut" - Maia Brown-Jackson (@andyetpoetry.bsky.social)

“On Fridays, management makes movie popcorn to celebrate the end of the week. Why are we always so hungry? The smell of fake butter is rich. We follow it. We eat.” - Jaime Jacques voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/k...

“the olive jar says you should take only nine, yet seventeen have passed through your teeth. it is okay. it will all, one day, be okay.” - Annabelle Chen voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/g...

any presses accepting full-length poetry manuscript submissions?

“Lake Berryessa, azure at our backs / the man from / Toluca slips me / lozenges from under his tongue / Spanish alive / in my mouth” - Tatiana Chaterji voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/f...

We had a wonderful time giving away books at DJ Wagner’s Annual Community Drive over the weekend 🙌 Many thanks to Keyann’a at City of Camden Government for inviting us to be part of such a great event! 🙏

"b/c one day i will want for nothing b/c one day i will not want" - Diandra Williams voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/d...

"What song do you serve your ears the morning after your mom sends you home with a peace flower and you say goodbye in the dark because it hurts to see?" - @marissadesantis.bsky.social voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/b...

Publishing Voicemail Poems continues to be one of the great joys of my life (after more than a decade!) I am consistently impressed by the quality of the submissions we receive, & grateful as always for my wonderful team of editors. Check out our new issue!

From ‘Erratic Facts’ (2015) —Kay Ryan #poetry #poem #booksky

one year sober today 🙌

last day to submit a poem for our summer issue! ⌛ call & send in a poem by midnight pacific time to be considered 💛

one week left to send us a poem for our summer issue ⏳ give us a call! 📞✨

Today we celebrate Black freedom, resilience, and achievement, and as we observe Juneteenth, we reflect with gratitude and admiration on all who have fought for hard-won progress and liberation, and all who are still working to make our society more equitable & just ✊❤️

"First rule of depression: We don’t talk about depression." - David J. Schast voicemailpoems.org/2025/05/13/w...

“Uncle Loser taught his parrot all the best curse words to use on everyone except grandma & his daughters / We thought that damn bird was gonna outlive us all but she died early from lung cancer / Family Tradition” - RJ Equality Ingram voicemailpoems.org/2025/05/13/u...

two generations of progressive women & i know the ones who came before us are here in spirit...and you can tear our democracy from our cold, dead hands!

refuse discourse in lieu of embracement Diane di Prima

“They call one ‘bulldagger’. I heard them say ‘she spreads women’s legs that's all   she does’, but I know her. She builds entire worlds where their mouths cannot go,   their eyes cannot perceive.” - Marlanda Dekine (@dekinesoul.bsky.social) voicemailpoems.org/2025/05/13/t...

we are currently accepting submissions for our SUMMER 2025 issue, & we'd love to hear from you! ✨🌴✨ details + instructions: voicemailpoems.org/submit 💛 deadline july 1st 💛

"so how did you get into poetry?"

"I want to be: a good boy, your domesticated coyote." - Mary Violet voicemailpoems.org/2025/05/13/t...