Poetry International

Poetry International Poetry International is a world class literary magazine based on the campus of San Diego State Unive

11/05/2025

We asked the PI community to share recent poetry collections that stuck with them. Our podcast host Artrice Bennett spotlights Post Colonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz. Thanks, for bringing this must-read book to the table.

Is there a contemporary poetry collection you can’t stop talking about? Let us know in the comments!

Over the next month, we’ll be selecting one commenter to win a free copy of PI issue #29. Must be following to participate.

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It's giveaway time! Enter for a chance to win a free print copy of Poetry International Issue 29. How to enter: 1. Make ...
10/26/2025

It's giveaway time! Enter for a chance to win a free print copy of Poetry International Issue 29.

How to enter:
1. Make sure you're following us.
2. Tell us in the comments: What's a collection of poetry from the past few years that you can't stop talking about?

The winner will be picked at random in 3 weeks.

10/26/2025

Suzanne Frischkorn reads her poem “The Season: Contents,” inspired by a move to Central New York.

Make sure to watch until the end to hear how the poem ties into broader themes in Frischkorn’s upcoming manuscript.

Poetry text in English below.

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The Season: Contents

The runoff at the creek held tiny toads,
we crossed the bridge

to see ducklings. We are not swan eaters,
and memorial day has passed.

Who carved the stone steps into the gorge?
My knees shook when I began the trail

and I thought everyone noticed.
I tried not to look down,

but all the wonder was pooled at the bottom—
no that’s not it at all.

The weather broke at last
and the heat moved to a new glen,

breeze in the tree limbs,
breeze through the porch screen,

I sit on the porch when I can’t sleep—
a nocturne for another day.

The pines have an ailment that has no cure.
The pines are shaped like old men.

You’d be surprised what shows up
when you forgo w**d killer. Cardinal, crow,

yellow warblers—the robins wake me
on the sunporch. They are the first to sing.

Everywhere I look it is green, green, green.

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10/23/2025

We’re asking poets and poetry enthusiasts to share contemporary collections they think more people should be reading. 

Tell us in the comments: What’s a collection of poetry (or poetry-adjacent writing) from the past few years that you can’t stop talking about?

Over the next month, we’ll be selecting one respondent to win a free copy of PI issue #29. Must be following to participate. 

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“The Chair” by Fayad Jamís from Poetry International Online. Read more poems from our archives by going to the link in o...
10/19/2025

“The Chair” by Fayad Jamís from Poetry International Online.

Read more poems from our archives by going to the link in our bio 🔗

Poem text in English below.
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The Chair 

On the chair a favorite book a dirty shirt
a glass full of noise and thirst
or a beach where dolphins of smoke
are meditating
Its wood has rested my bones
insubstantial air
international politics love
I’m sick of traveling
In this room which the Queen of England has never visited
in this room which groans like a lurching boat
while morning wind lashes the black spires of churches
I feel only dust ground down by light
Chair of silence of joy of dark wood
Electric chair
where every night my soul is burnt to ash
under the blind stare of the electric bulb.
–

10/12/2025

When speaking about his poem “La Carabina de Ambrosio,” Gustavo Hernandez reminds us that “in any search for joy, there’s always something at stake.”

Make sure to watch the full video for a captivating reading of the poem and its backstory.

Poem text in English below.

–
La Carabina de Ambrosio
By Gustavo Hernandez

I’ve named the stray cat that tries to get at the canaries
El Destino. This last month I’ve been half cynic,
half television special. My mother, who still believes
improvised altars are lightning rods for a miracle,
says the humor—the good that has returned to me—
is grace, and sometimes I want to agree with her,
but who these days really remembers the definition
of grace, or every one of its definitions and then
each one’s reach and breadth? These years have not
been years made to be sure of anything. We wonder
if El Destino will forget the birds if we stop taking
the cage out to the yard. We both think it unlikely.
Just about everything now is in some way unrelenting,
and the birds are no good to anyone locked up inside.

10/06/2025

Thank you, Emma Trelles, for your beautiful reading of your poem “Lilac Y Nido”.

✨ Make sure to watch until the end of the video to hear Trelles share more about the inspiration behind this poem.

Poem text in English below.
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Lilac Y Nido

“A gruesome unskilled depiction,
But nonetheless mine. I have drawn
The great poet as if poured in marble,
Languid and without perspective, lunar
Moths float a corona and her eternal white
Gown hemmed in flames.
Because I cannot stop the mandible
Of my mind —maker and pyrite—
I wander evenings and return to my body,
A carousel horse, a battered lovely
looping streets for a bit of peace,
the comfort of a known star—
Estrella. To multiply. To try again.”

—

PI @ 🌴📚✨Throughout the week:Stop by our book fair table (T1105) for author signings, chats with the PI Editorial Team,...
03/27/2025

PI @ 🌴📚✨

Throughout the week:
Stop by our book fair table (T1105) for author signings, chats with the PI Editorial Team, and a chance to purchase physical copies of PI!

Friday, 3/28: “The Translator’s Note: Bridging Linguistic & Cultural Chasms, Sponsored by ALTA”
Our panel featuring Blas Falconer, Sandra Alcosser, Nancy Naomi Carlson, Wayne Miller, and Armen Davoudian addressing how the Translator's Note bridges linguistic and cultural chasms while fostering an understanding and appreciation for diverse voices!

See you at the convention center☀️

https://poetryinternationalonline.com/poetry-international-at-the-2025-awp-conference/

Congrats to our 2024 Winter Chapbook Competition winner: Carlos Andrés Gómez’s “Circling Fatherhood” 📖❄️✨“Circling Fathe...
03/18/2025

Congrats to our 2024 Winter Chapbook Competition winner: Carlos Andrés Gómez’s “Circling Fatherhood” 📖❄️✨

“Circling Fatherhood” will be featured in an upcoming edition of PI! Read more about Gómez & our chapbook competitions here: https://poetryinternationalonline.com/chapbooks/

✨✏️ Congratulations to John Okrent, winner of the 2024 PI Prize (selected by judge Rick Barot) for his poem “Scrub Pine....
03/17/2025

✨✏️ Congratulations to John Okrent, winner of the 2024 PI Prize (selected by judge Rick Barot) for his poem “Scrub Pine.” Okrent’s “Scrub Pine” will appear in an upcoming issue of Poetry International.

For more on Okrent and our annual PI Prize, check out our side: https://poetryinternationalonline.com/pi-prize/

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An Annual Literary Journal

Described by former U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera as a “one of a kind” collection, and by Fady Joudah as “diving for pearls in pearl-infested waters.”