“Every day God asks, Cruelty again?” — Nora Hikari . . . This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I fear I will stand at her funeral / before anyone stands at mine.” — Shahd Alnaouq . . . This poem appeared in We Are Not Numbers, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I’m afraid / of dying alone and I imagine I’m not alone / in that fear.” — Matthew Olzmann . . . This poem appeared in HAD, 2023. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“like beasts who only want // to love God in every language” — Nada Faris  . . . This poem appeared in Amethyst Review, 2021. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“This / is the only flag I love.” — Garous Abdolmalekian . . . This poem appeared in Lean Against This Late Hour by Garous Abdolmalekian, published by Penguin Poets, 2020. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I never / asked her what she gave up to drive me, / or how her day was before this chore.” — Ada Limón . . . This poem appeared in The Carrying by Ada Limón, published by Milkweed Editions, 2018. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“But somehow we survive / severance, deprivation, loss.” — Dennis Brutus

“A lesson, surely, given / we are prone to asking for what must be earned.” — Chris Tse . . . This poem appeared in The New Zealand Poet Laureate blog, 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I wait until it is done having feelings.” — Callista Buchen . . . This poem appeared in THRUSH Poetry Journal, 2019. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“What thing is the / body when it’s lost?” — Sara Uribe . . . This poem appeared in Antígone González by Sara Uribe, published by Les Figues Press, 2016. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“let this mean // what we carry we do not easily leave.” — Raena Shirali . . . This poem appeared in Better Magazine, Issue 6. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“There is no living in the / afterlife” — Tran Tran . . . This poem appeared in  The Margins by Asian American Writers' Workshop, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Some / days, I lay in the morgue / of darkness” — Taylor Byas . . . This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Mostly what happens / to people doesn’t happen by chance.” — Lawrence Raab

“you may / glimpse my father / hurtling through space” — Warsan Shire . . . This poem appeared in Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire, published by Penguin Random House, 2022. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I might as well hire back the angel who quit me” — Chris Forhan . . . This poem appeared in Forgive Us Our Happiness by Chris Forhan, published by Hanover, NH : University Press of New England, 1999. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“If we agree on the same lies, that makes us countrymen.” — Momtaza Mehri . . . This poem appeared in Bad Diaspora Poems by Momtaza Mehri, published by Jonathan Cape, 2023. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“where / no one enjoys // life” — George Tsongas

“necessarily bruised, a little raised, a little forwards” — Vahni Capildeo . . . This poem appeared in Utter by Vahni Capildeo, published by Peepal Tree Press Ltd., 2013. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“who told you that this or that would last forever?” — Stanisław Barańczak

“My wild grief didn’t know where to start or end.” — Christiana Castillo . . . This poem appeared in Epiphany, 2026. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I sometimes start to reach / for his hand” — Robert Hershon . . . This poem appeared in Poetry Northwest, Volume XLI, No. 3, Autumn 2000. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“How will you live now?” — Bhanu Kapil  . . . This poem appeared in The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers by Bhanu Kapil, published by Kelsey Street Press, 2001. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I will survive the wrong / I've done. All the love / that didn't serve me.” — Leila Chatti . . . This poem appeared in Wildness Before Something Sublime by Leila Chatti, published by Copper Canyon Press, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Now I think / heartbreaking, but also / insane.” — Louise Glück  . . . This poem appeared in Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I want to shut / this machine down” — Nicholas Bon . . . This poem appeared in Protean Magazine, 2019. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I believe life ends with death, and that is all.” — Tony Harrison  . . . This poem appeared in Selected Poems by Tony Harrison, published by Penguin Books, 1984. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“dear diary, perhaps it’s not wise to dwell on how small i am” — nat raum . . . This poem appeared in Petrichor Issue 27, Spring 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Murderers love to say they protect and serve.” — Natalie Wee . . . This poem appeared in Protean Magazine, 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Why did I think / it would be anything less than too much / of everything?” — Ellen Bass . . . This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day by the Academy of American Poets, 2020. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“When I am an old woman I shall wear purple” — Jenny Joseph  . . . This poem appeared in Warning: When I am an Old Woman I shall wear purple by Jenny Joseph, published by Souvenir Press, 2001. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Mother I never knew, / everytime I see the ocean, / every time—” — Kobayashi Issa . . . This poem appeared in The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, & Issa by Robert Hass, published by Ecco, 1995. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“the problem with passion / isn’t that it doesn’t last / but that it does” — Deborah Landau

“Oh, better to be anything / than America as a gun.” — Brian Bilston

“I do not always have the right thing to say / my foot sometimes moves without me” — Anis Mojgani . . . This poem appeared in Rattle, Issue 39 - Spring, 2013. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I won’t be able to write from the grave / so let me tell you what I love:” — Fanny Howe . . . This poem appeared in Selected Poems of Fanny Howe by Fanny Howe, published by University of California Press, 2000. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Even this late the bones of the body shine / and tomorrow’s dust flares into breath.” — Mark Strand . . . This poem appeared in Poets.org. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Blow your seeds / Directly / To me // Blow your soul / Directly to me / I’ll save you” — Dorothea Lasky . . . This poem appeared in Amsterdam Review, Spring 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“But at night, the frequency / of your grief keeps him homing through // our house.” — Ash Bowen . . . This poem appeared in Rattle, 2013. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Birds over water call their names / to each other again and again / to say where they are.” — Colette Inez

“It is a golden thing, it is / a loud, it is a fabulous flower—” — Paula Bonnell  . . . This poem appeared in Rattle Poetry, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“home is a language that your heart yearns for // but never learns how to speak” — Laurène Southe . . . This poem appeared in The Shallow Tales Review. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Somebody told me grief is the door / and not the room.” — Ali Choudhary . . . This poem appeared in Night of the Fire by Ali Choudhary, published by Ethel Zine & Micro Press, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“a child told me he wanted to drink bleach; / certain he will never be healed.” — Romalyn Ante  . . . This poem appeared in Agimat by Romalyn Ante, published by Chatto & Windus, 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“How did they know / where to uncover me in broad daylight?” — Najya Williams . . . This poem appeared in on a date with disappointment by Najya Williams, published by Button Poetry, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“We are so busy / being small and hungry and alive.” — Joy Sullivan . . . This poem appeared in Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan, published by Dial Press Trade, 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“Hate-filled words have liberated us from our hearts, / in which we used to cherish the enchantments of love.” — Samer Abu Hawwash . . . This poem appeared in an-Nahar, 2025. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“This is a story about hands & / everything they cannot touch.” — Elaine Kim . . . This poem appeared in Chestnut Review, Summer 2024. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“listen I love you joy is coming” — Kim Addonizio . . . This poem appeared in Poetry Society of America. Shared here with deep gratitude.

“I am so sad and everything is beautiful.” — Mark Nepo . . . This poem appeared in Inside the Miracle: Enduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness by Mark Nepo, published by Sounds True, 2016. Shared here with deep gratitude.