Giotto di Bondone - Saint Francis Preaching to the Birds, c. 1297-99

Tea time, 1880: don't you wonder about the subject of their conversation? Also admire decision to wear kid gloves while drinking tea. By Mary Cassatt, born OTD 1844.

Big thanks to @michaelcolbert.bsky.social for a wonderful conversation. We talked about This Elegance, ekphrasis, intimacy, and my love of John Milton. referential.substack.com/p/get-back-t...

Child by Sylvia Plath

Still so grateful for this excellent review of This Elegance

I have a new poem in this issue. Excited to be in The Believer for the first time!

Thank you to Itto and Mekiya for letting me on their podcast to talk poetry youtu.be/blsE9PrrHWM?...

How I’m feeling now

adore this new poem from Aria

To go along with their edition of Wuthering Heights, wouldn’t it be fab to preorder @sandtclassics.bsky.social’s edition of Jane Eyre? Link below!

It's an exceptional gift when a reviewer takes time to sit with a book and really see what the poems are doing, and I'm so grateful for Jeffrey Levine's thoughtful consideration of This Elegance in Southern Humanities Review. www.southernhumanitiesreview.com/review-derri...

Dear Nephew by Brian Tierney

It’s the publication day for my third book of poems, This Elegance. You can order a copy from @boa-editions.bsky.social or your favorite local bookstore (link in bio). ✨💜

I've never seen this photo of Toni Morrison before. Photo by Dwight Carter. Published in Essence.

Insomnia by Henri Cole

Up-Hill by Christina Rossetti

Humoresque Daughters of Darkness The Seventh Seal Le Samouraï

I really adore these short, playful poems about birds by Keith S. Wilson in the @therumpus.net therumpus.net/2026/04/27/n...

“At the end of prayer, how does life begin? How flowers begin: a seed, a breakthrough, a bud opening as if to chant, 'Like this! Like this! Like this!'” —Philip B. Williams, “Paradise”

Beauford Delaney, The Picnic, 1940

Manet - Luncheon in the Studio - 1868

David Walker (1785–1830) by Rita Dove

Portrait of a woman, 1435. Don't know what I love more: the eyes, the subtlety of the purple robe, the incredible headscarf (the layers! the folds!) or the pins. The pins! Robert Campin, you did well.

If anyone had told me The Seventh Seal is metaphysical slapstick I would have watched it sooner.

That’s queer, too.

Sent this Larkin poem to a friend who hadn’t read it before and he had himself a good laugh

Figure of a River God (Fleuve) 18th century Soft-paste porcelain

#poetry #booksky

Thank you to Alexis Soto for this review of This Elegance in the spring issue of American Literary Review. americanliteraryreview.com/2026/04/17/r...

Reading Carl Phillips is always a distinct pleasure, an awakening into the world as if seeing for the first time.

Wish I knew someone in Cleveland so I could afford to see this show 😭 www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

@adroitjournal.bsky.social issue #27 is here! Check out: Lisa Russ Spaar reviews new books by @preetivangani.bsky.social and @sophiadahlin.bsky.social. Interviews with Kevin Young, @emilynemens.bsky.social, @tayari.bsky.social, and @paradiselaust.bsky.social. theadroitjournal.org/issue-fifty-...

I talked to Jim Whiteside about This Elegance (@boa-editions.bsky.social): how the nightmare of 2020 and traveling abroad for the first time shaped the book, ekphrasis, and what I'm working on now. Our convo is up in the new issue of @adroitjournal.bsky.social! theadroitjournal.org/issue-fifty-...

I wrote about Paul Newman, what makes a star-auteur, the kinds of faces I miss in cinema lately, and how seeing a great movie can become a spiritual experience. Thanks to @musicboxtheatre.bsky.social for existing. No paywall, everybody can read, baby. angelicabastien.substack.com/p/watching-c...

Sloe Gin by Seamus Heaney

Two more weeks until the pub day for This Elegance 🥳 www.boaeditions.org/collections/...

For the weekday crew 📷

AICA-USA's 2026 Art Critic Fellowship publication is now online! For my essay, I wrote about a group of Patric McCoy’s photographs on view through August 16 at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago for the exhibit City in a Garden: Queer Art and Activism in Chicago. www.aicausa.org/magazine/aus...

Kneeling cow https://botfrens.com/collections/44/contents/12255

There were a lot of beautiful Byzantine objects on display at the Art Institute of Chicago today. I love the wear and tear of those chalices.

A silver Byzantine spoon from the 6th or 7th centuries inscribed with a message in Greek: Blow so that you do not burn yourself

My first book came out ten years ago today. It's been years since I read from it and flipping through, I thought You're Wild for this. "Apology" is the oldest poem in Trouble the Water. I wrote it at 19. You did good work kid. You wrote the poems you needed to write-and you're still doing it.

“Audience,” by Derrick Austin, from his new book, _This Elegance_

Poem-a-Day “Audience” by Derrick Austin ...The year I landed in Florence, I was the only one from my flight questioned (first in Italian, then English): Where are you from? Not African? How much money do you have on you? Where is your passport? Why are you here?... poets.org/poem/audienc...

If you're in the Chicago area this week, I'll be reading with I.S. Jones and Diamond Sharp on Thursday, April 9th at 7 PM in The Goodman Theater. It's my first time reading in Chicago and there'll be copies of This Elegance for sale.

One month until This Elegance drops from @boa-editions.bsky.social! Order a copy for your local library, from your favorite local bookstore, or direct from Boa--link in bio!