LAST POEM of the year. By the inimitable, much missed Andrea Gibson, who writes comfort like no one else. from Every Time I Ever Said I Want to Die - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8153694...

Have you heard of golden shovels, the hot new(ish) poetic form created by Terrance Hayes via a Gwendolyn Brooks poem? Michael Kleber-Diggs pulls it off with a technical backflip, never distracting from the poem's raw immediacy. America Is Loving Me to Death: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8152919... #blm

A #concretepoem by an Oglala Lakota poet, on the relationship between indigenous people and the land. And how colonialism has disrupted it. Resolution 2, Layli Long Soldier - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8152011...

I just love *looking* at this poem. And reading it over and over again. Peril Sonnet, David Baker - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8151094...

As brought to my attention by a young reader: yeah, why AREN'T there more car poems? Driving After Supper, Marianne Boruch: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8150064...

One of my most favorite feelings for a poem to capture—and few manage it—is the struggle to reconcile how horrible and how beautiful the world and life are all at once. The breadth and ache of it. This one totally nails it. A Strange Feeling, Nâzim Hikmet: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8148935...

Prose poems & list poems—or both, like this one!—can have a kind of Jackson Pollock problem. They seem like something anyone could have done, but there's so much skill and thoughtfulness behind every decision about what to include. Afro, Morgan Parker - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8148176...

An excerpt from The Palace, by Iranian-American poet Kaveh Akbar: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8147280...

"Now that’s my kind of intimacy— / faceless, salty, / no wondering how my jokes are going over" (So good.) Solitude, Franny Choi - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8146526...

The best poems can be immediately re-read from a different angle, each interpretation adding a layer, to make a palimpsest. Like how the "it" in this poem is both literal and ineffable. A concrete object and happiness itself. Coconut, Paul Hostovsky - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8145654...

"I thought it was the neighbor’s cat [...] / but what came was much stranger, a liquidity / moving all muscle and bristle." (Can you guess?) Give Me This, Ada Limón - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8144749... #poem #poetry

On being spectators of our stories. Riveted, Robyn Sarah: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8143323...

"Bears I have to say / Pretend we are children" Still Life with Invisible Canoe, Idra Novey: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8142895...

"Apostrophe" is the English class term for a one-sided conversation like this. Reginald Shepherd was 45 and dying when he wrote this... struggle with an idea? Longing for faith? Prayer and meditation? It's beautiful. "God-With-Us", Reginald Shepherd - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8141881...

Does what it says on the tin. I checked. Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line, George Starbuck - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8140926...

From Darkling, the final section of the book Night Watch. In part two: Werewolf Hill. VI. Tulips, Kevin Young - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8140212...

This one is long but took my breath away. You Are Who I Love, Aracelis Girmay: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8139150...

The transcendent + the mundane. Muffin of Sunsets, Elaine Equi: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8138372...

An experience somehow so personal and so relatable, from a nonbinary poet. My Perimenopausal Body Cistern Disappointing How Surprising, Gabrielle Calvocoressi - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8137503...

To please lovers of rhyme and the ominous. The Darker Sooner, Catherine Wing - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8136596...

I honestly thought I'd sent this one years ago. Is it retro to share poems I was really into in 2005? (Those last lines still hit, tho'!) The Archipelago of Kisses, Jeffrey McDaniel - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8135639...

A lovely reworking inspired by the Philip Levine poem of the same name. (Which we here at April Is Inc. presciently shared in 2020; linked at bottom of post.) Let Me Begin Again, Major Jackson - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8134767...

"So definitely / we are imagined creatures." Furniture, Lisa Allen Ortiz - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8133759...

Poetic irony that's funny, too?! Faith for My Father Circa 1950, Erik Campbell: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8132760...

Check out the link after the poem to the translator's notes on a more modern -- and catchy! -- interpretation of a centuries-old shitpost. He Visits My Town Once a Year, Amir Khusrau - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8131721...

One for the times. poem where no one is deported, José Olivarez - april-is.tumblr.com/post/8130900...

You have to let yourself sink into the extended metaphor of this poem: vivid, yellow, a little silly, a little salacious. Wedding Poem, Ross Gay: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8130029...

"So what / can poetry be now?" Every time I read this I find a new favorite line. Poetry, Diane Seuss: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8128952... #literature

I love when reading a #poem is a journey of realization. And when I need to read it again right away to re-process. Phase One, Dilruba Ahmed: april-is.tumblr.com/post/8128147...

Kicking off the month with a banger #poem about birds and books and writing and time and ambition. I Kept Getting Books About Birds, by Catherine Pierce: www.tumblr.com/april-is/812...

IT'S NATIONAL #POETRY MONTH, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Wanna celebrate with 30 days of delish, hand-picked poems straight to your email inbox? Sign up here: groups.google.com/u/3/g/april-is OR follow this account. AND/OR subscribe on Tumblr! april-is.tumblr.com The possibilities are nigh infinite.

It's coming.

Saying farewell to another April of #poetry with my best beloved Ada Limón: "Look, we are not unspectacular things. / We’ve come this far, survived this much. / [...] What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, No." april-is.tumblr.com/post/7823134...

The poet: "This poem articulates my belief that grief isn’t a dead thing; it’s very much alive and continues to shape how I grow and live in this world. This #poem says: healing is forever, another world is possible, and no nation will protect us, only we will.” april-is.tumblr.com/post/7822194...

This one knocked the breath right out of me. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7821222...

Did you know Louise Erdrich's sister is a poet, too? I didn't! Always a sucker for a good dog #poem. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7820208...

"God, let me keep what I love. / Peaches, cheap. Books, brilliant—" april-is.tumblr.com/post/7819051...

A juicy one for you tonight: rhyme and rhythm and that ending, phew. a remix for remembrance, Kristiana Rae Colón april-is.tumblr.com/post/7818559...

American Sonnet for the New Year, Terrance Hayes: "things got terribly ugly incredibly quickly / things got ugly embarrassingly quickly" april-is.tumblr.com/post/7817428...

Staircase I trip on the title, clumsy as I am, and topple down the first few (This one tickles me; I am tickled.) april-is.tumblr.com/post/7816631...

This stopped me in my tracks with how specific it feels to current events. But of course its point is just the opposite. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7815399...

There should be many more poems with Dunkin' Donuts in them. An Improvement in Stairs, Mairead Small Staid: april-is.tumblr.com/post/7814874...

#Poem in the Shape of the Poet Beating Henry Kissinger to Death with Their Bare Hands: april-is.tumblr.com/post/7813730...

Maybe it's my age. Or my personal fixations on time and memory. But wow, this one packs a punch. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7812930... #poem #poetry

I want a president, Zoe Leonard - Amazing when something can be such an important snapshot of a moment in time -- 1992 -- and still feel desperately fresh and relevant. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7812010...

More poems about time machines, please. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7811199...

Reading this is such a journey. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7810256...

That ending tho'. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7809495...

Sorrows - "who would believe them winged / who would believe they could be / beautiful who would believe / they could fall so in love with mortals" Lucille Clifton, always [chef's kiss]. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7808438...

I love poems that capture the feeling of being a child, the complexity/simplicity of the child mind. april-is.tumblr.com/post/7807703...