Palette Poetry Blog
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Palette Poetry endeavors to uplift and engage emerging and established poets in our larger community. We have no particular aesthetic vision except to create a safe and encouraging space for all voices, especially those that often go unheard or unrecognized. Our goal is to find and publish the best poetry we can.
Palette Poetry Blog
3d ago
At the table with your whole team,
visitor badges on our chests,
we’re talking about
killing you. You are in the next room
and you are not
going to wake up, they say.
Your consciousness has found its way
out of the paddock and beyond
the meadow. It crosses
a creek high with spring rain, dying leaves
pulled from the bank—the dark set in,
heavy as an eyelid.
They call it a miracle you’ve lasted this
long on less than a nickel’s chance.
We consider your odds
like flipping a coin,
as if gravity’s fractional pull might ease you
or us into silence.
I tell the nephrologist you would like—
would have ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
1w ago
Scatter your rosebuds over a good,
stout toad. No harm will come to the toad
in this ceremony, but also no kisses.
The toad will not transform
into a tuxedoed beauty. I will
and won’t change during this ceremony.
Add a teaspoon of sugar
& a teaspoon of ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
2w ago
She said that her soul had gone septic.
What she’d been calling neurobehavioral and
pathophysiological, was now something made of
mildew and dogshit.
She asked me if I knew about the salmon.
Apparently, the Prozac in the water makes them
forget how to breed.
She asked if I knew about the mice.
About their medically measurable despair,
how they swim until they float and are scored on their survival time
and their necks are cracked and brains flash frozen
and their serotonin accounted.
She told me that we were experimentally naïve animals,
eager and able
and bloody and unbalanced.
Ripe for seda ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
3w ago
The post where time dips & meets horizon appeared first on Palette Poetry ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
3w ago
We are delighted to share the winners, finalists, and longlist for the 2023 Resistance & Resilience Prize! Please help us congratulate these up and coming poets. Deep gratitude to all who shared moving poems with us—we are so lucky to have been immersed in the worlds of your work. The winning poem and runner-ups were selected by Natasha Rao and are published on the Palette website.
Winners of the 2023 Resistance & Resilience Prize
1st place — Bazeed for “kh like khummus“
Bazeed is a multi–award winning Egyptian immigrant, poet, playwright, performance artist, stage actor, editor, tra ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
3w ago
“kh like khummus” by Bazeed is the winner of the 2023 Resistance & Resilience Prize, selected by Natasha Rao. We’re honored to share this revolutionary poem with you. download a pdf of the winning poem here
The post kh like khummus appeared first on Palette Poetry ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
3w ago
“Banjo Be” by Maurya Kerr is the first runner-up of the 2023 Resistance & Resilience Prize, selected by Natasha Rao. We’re honored to share this musical poem with you.
The post Banjo Be appeared first on Palette Poetry ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
3w ago
“Sharper Than” by Christopher Watson is the second runner-up of the 2023 Resistance & Resilience Prize, selected by Natasha Rao. We’re honored to share this meditative poem with you.
download a pdf of the poem here
Da ich ein Knabe war,
Rettet’ ein Gott mich oft…
When I was a boy
a god often rescued me…
— Friedrich Hölderlin
When I was eight my father came out of the closet;
his first lover, a kind and generous soul;
subsequent others, less so.
Trusts—set up for my twin and me,
by our dead mother’s family—
made quitting his job easy.
So, he left my sister with friends
and sent this “mothe ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
1M ago
The post Lover of Faith, Lover of Marble appeared first on Palette Poetry ..read more
Palette Poetry Blog
1M ago
In If These Covers Could Talk, poets interview the visual artists whose works grace their book covers. The result is an engaging discussion of process, vision, and projects. This series is a celebration of collaboration—here, we champion the fruitful conversations taking place both on and behind the cover.
This month, poet Dimitri Reyes talked to artist Samuel Miranda about the cover of Papi Pichón (Get Fresh Books Publishing, 2023).
A Conversation Between Dimitri Reyes and Samuel Miranda
DR: Hermano, thank you— for your support, for your friendship, and for being a model on how to cond ..read more