Room of men in tan jumpsuits holding papers while sitting in a semi-circle. Posters filled with words are on the wall behind them.

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Reading Between the Lines (RBL) aims to mitigate the effects of institutional racism and mass incarceration by exposing people involved in the justice system to a lifeline of culture, conversation, analysis, and exploration of works of poetry and other creative genres. 

Prose from Poetry Magazine

By Chase Berggrun

Allow yourself to be nervous. Allow yourself to doubt the work you’re doing even as you’re doing it.

Prose from Poetry Magazine

By Shangyang Fang

To translate an ancient language—one that feels estranged, unfamiliar, and even a bit sentimental—into English has always been a challenge. 

Prose from Poetry Magazine

By Adrian Matejka

All art, but especially poetry, strives for communication and understanding.

Poem of the day

By John Mulcare
We inhaled slag wool in the throat
of a Tennessee summer, installing cheap
...
Read More
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FROM THE CURRENT ISSUE OF

Poetry Magazine

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Explore Past Issues
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After tonight, what’s left of you is you moving into my
dream
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— Zhang Xian, tr. by Shangyang Fang
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Once I learned I could have the last word
I couldn’t stop having
it.
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— Brittany Cavallaro
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Diné bizaad is a language of patience and cunning. It is quiet, in the distance, like a coming
storm.
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— Jake Skeets
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The clearest memory I have of my friend: his body perched like a sparrow atop the tallest
tree.
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— “Universal Truths” by Shira Haus

The Poetry Foundation recognizes the power of words to transform lives. We work to amplify poetry and celebrate poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry.

Featured Poets

Headshot of Dunya Mikhail

Dunya Mikhail

B. 1965
Iraqi American poet Dunya Mikhail is the author of numerous poetry collections: The War Works Hard (…. Read More
Poem

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Tablets

By Dunya Mikhail
Translated By Kareem James Abu-Zeid

Prose from Poetry Magazine

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One Whole Voice

By Kazim Ali, Jericho Brown, Carolyn Forché, Joy Harjo, Jane Hirshfield, Fanny Howe, Dunya Mikhail, Gregory Orr, Alicia Ostriker, Grace Paley, Gerald Stern, Jean Valentine, G.C. Waldrep & Eleanor Wilner
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