Poetry Foundation

Poetry Magazine

October 2025 Subscribe

Subscribe

Explore Poems: Epigraph

Showing 1-20 of 150 poems

Sort by

Filter Results

Techniques
Epigraph

Dolls
By Toi Derricotte
To be born woman is to know—
Although they do not speak of it at school-
Women must labor to be beautiful…
Bollywood Confabulation
By Rajiv Mohabir
Look at your feet, so beautiful. Do
not step on the ground, filth will smear them;

your future will…
Tall Lyric for Palestine (Or, The Harder Thinking)
By Rickey Laurentiis
Because I should’ve wrote this years ago, I’m crying. So what my slow failure pass the years
Make me…
White Egret
By Chris Abani
A stream in a forest and a boy fishing,
heart aflame, head hush, tasting the world—
lick and pant. The…
k.o.d.a.k.
By Patti Smith
picture this. I’ll play the killer. 16 millimeter.
ebony and ivory. the purest contrast. iris closed…
What Women Are Made Of
By Bianca Lynne Spriggs
We are all ventricle, spine, lung, larynx, and gut.
Clavicle and nape, what lies forked in an open palm…
Ode to Fetty Wap (written after strip club)
By Roya Marsh
... then Rap Gawd formed a man
from the dust of the auto-tune
&breathed into his nostrils
the breath…
Moana Means Home: A Contrapuntal
By Terisa Siagatonu
someone will
touch the Earth
once, I wanted
my own soil.
tried to drown my ankles
in myself.
again. …
We House
By Britteney Black Rose Kapri
House, as in abode, as in dwelling, as in crib, as in where your inhibitions go to rest. as in jack,…
a little hopeful song
By Bernadette Hall
I give thee the sun as guarantee
and the Egyptian faience beads

and the little silver oar that was …
- Nature
- Animals
- Living
- Life Choices
- Stanza Forms
- Couplet
- Techniques
- Epigraph
- Optimism
- + 2 more
Brantwood Senilia
By Paul Batchelor
My dear little birds,
before me on my desk this morning
where I sit preparing tomorrow’s lesson
lies…
Ballad of the Clyde’s Water
By Marion McCready
mother’s malison

The burr of the wind is seeping through the door,
pink stumps of rhubarb are breaking…
Sitting on a Desk Together at SMU, 1982
By Sandra McPherson
A girl moaning: I don’t
understand
“Wave.”

You said, Maybe
you should try
selected whitecaps.

I saw…
The White Campion
By Donald Revell
i

How is it I can never find
Or call to mind
One image of Christ walking slowly in the rain,
In a steady…
Recycler
By Christopher Spaide
i. troppo allegro

Remember seasons? Seem to recall those once were easier.
Reasonably sequenced, regal…
I am dark, I am forest
By Jenn Givhan
I carried a bowl of menudo into the forest / I carried my bisabuela’s tripas not daring ask whose intestines…
Balm & Lamentation
By Anne Waldman
Blood of an eye: tamarisk gall.
Blood from a shoulder: bear’s breach.
From the loins: chamomile.
Blood…
Windows
By Sumita Chakraborty
i

how much loss
gains suddenly in emphasis
and brilliant sadness

ii

far from that which lives and…
Cow Song
By Elena Karina Byrne
I heard them, far-off, deep calling
from behind death’s invisible floor door. Their wallow
metronome…
The Underwings of War
By Linda Bierds
Notch.
Web.
And then,
down the shaft,
lesser wing coverts
and marginal coverts, and soft,
greater underwing…

Jump to:

Quick Tags

CURRENT ISSUE

Read Issue

Poems & Poets
Topics & Themes
Features
Events & Programs
About Us

Poetry Foundation

Facebook Instagram

Contact Us
Newsletters
Press
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use
Poetry Mobile App

61 West Superior Street,
Chicago, IL 60654

See a problem on this page?

Dolls

Bollywood Confabulation

Tall Lyric for Palestine (Or, The Harder Thinking)

White Egret

poetry-magazinek.o.d.a.k.

poetry-magazineWhat Women Are Made Of

poetry-magazineOde to Fetty Wap (written after strip club)

poetry-magazineMoana Means Home: A Contrapuntal

poetry-magazineWe House

poetry-magazinea little hopeful song

poetry-magazineBrantwood Senilia

poetry-magazineBallad of the Clyde’s Water

poetry-magazineSitting on a Desk Together at SMU, 1982

poetry-magazineThe White Campion

poetry-magazineRecycler

poetry-magazineI am dark, I am forest

poetry-magazineBalm & Lamentation

poetry-magazineWindows

poetry-magazineCow Song

poetry-magazineThe Underwings of War

k.o.d.a.k.

What Women Are Made Of

Ode to Fetty Wap (written after strip club)

Moana Means Home: A Contrapuntal

We House

a little hopeful song

Brantwood Senilia

Ballad of the Clyde’s Water

Sitting on a Desk Together at SMU, 1982

The White Campion

Recycler

I am dark, I am forest

Balm & Lamentation

Windows

Cow Song

The Underwings of War