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  • Emmett Till

    I’ve loved the poem “I saw Emmett Till this week at the grocery store,” by Eve L. Ewing, ever since I first read it. My first reaction was that of course Emmett Till should be still alive, of course he should be. “It is possible to write a joyful Emmett Till poem,” says Terrance Hays in a note. Hayes curated a series of poems about Till for the Poetry Society of America, where this poem is posted, and I look forward to reading the rest.

    Emmett Till would have turned 85 this summer, on July 25th.

    Mary Lee Hahn is hosting the the Poetry Friday roundup at A(nother) Year of Reading.

  • Swimmingly

    Since it’s Memorial Day weekend, my thoughts turn to beaches, pools, and swimming. Our little great-niece loves the water, and we eagerly await her and her brother’s visit in a month or two. Bring on the snacks, flip flops, towels, sunscreen, and bathing suits—and sand tracked everywhere, of course. I chose Michael Simms’ poem “The Summer You Learned to Swim” for Poetry Friday. It begins,

    The summer you learned to swim
    was the summer I learned to be at peace with myself.

    You can read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.

    For more poems, head over the the Poetry Friday roundup at Carol Labuzzetta’s blog, The Apples in My Orchard.

  • Erasure poem: “I”

    I

    A new term,
    The paths glow—
    the breeze is
    a rush of exhilaration.

    Leafy, muddy
    Cambridge is
    still quiet, but
    their words
    veer off the path.

    I just started the novel Tiepolo Blue, by James Cahill, which I bought because of the title and the swimming pool on the cover. The writing on the first page was so lovely, its phrases so descriptive that it was almost poetry anyway. Is it cheating to use such a source for an erasure poem? A bigger challenge would be to employ, say, the business section of a newspaper, but I took the plunge into the Tiepolo pool anyway. I’m keeping "I" for the poem's title, which is the Roman number I, but you could also read it as the personal pronoun “I” and entertain a little mystery.

    More poems and poetry talk from others at the Poetry Friday roundup for May 15th; it’s at Patricia J. Franz’s place.

    Poem source: Tiepolo Blue, by James Cahill. Sceptre/Hodder & Stoughton/Hachette UK, 2022.



  • Found-language poem: “Why I keep my heels”


    Why I keep my heels

    You know what? 
    I’m going to make the decision myself,
    I’m very inspired by “Twilight,”
    I don’t want a summer wedding,
    I don’t want to be sweaty,
    You’re right, it can’t last forever, 
    It’s way beyond pretend,
    I have mad options, and
    There’s only one Mary O’Shea.

    Susan Thomsen, draft April 2026. This poem and its title consist of lines from various overheard conversations in New York, with just a couple of tweaks for sense. I call these works "street poems."

    Several weeks ago Poetry Friday folks were talking about twilight and celebrating Marcie Flinchum Atkins' new book, When Twilight Comes: The Animals and Plants That Bring Dusk and Dawn to Life. I was so happy to discover and link to Rosanna Warren's fabulously atmospheric "Darklight." 

    Later I remembered the "Twilight" girl on the train. She (unknowingly) supplied several lines of what ultimately became the poem above. So, twilight poem #2! Fittingly, I composed the first draft on MetroNorth, which connects New York and some of the suburbs.

    Heidi Mordhorst will host the round up of Poetry Friday posts for April 17th. Go, read!

    Moist Poetry Journal is featuring prompts this entire month!

    Photo by Susan Thomsen. @kaysuane is the mural artist.

  • Rukeyser’s Prescience

    Poetry Friday has come around again, and this week I chose Muriel Rukeyser’s “Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars),” which begins:

    "I lived in the first century of world wars.
    Most mornings I would be more or less insane"

    You can read the rest of the poem at the Poetry Foundation. Thanks to some Bluesky users for mentioning this one the other day. Its initial publication date is 1968! The despair, as well as the desire for peace and reconciliation, make sense for that awful year, and I'm amazed at how well it works for our era, not to mention just this past week, with its "various devices," the continual selling, and "careless stories." 

    Let's keep reaching for the pen and paper.

    The roundup for April 10th is at Jone Rush MacCulloch's place.

    Photo by Susan Thomsen

  • NYPL Recommends Poetry

  • Speaking of twilight

    Longtime Poetry Friday contributor Marcie Flinchum Atkins is celebrating the release of her new picture book, When Twilight Comes: The Animals and Plants That Bring Dusk and Dawn to Life. Congratulations to Marcie! She invited us to share a twilight poem or image, and I chose “Darklight,” by Rosanna Warren, from the Yale Review. It is so atmospheric. The poem begins,

    “The moon dragged her string-net bag of shadows through the boughs
    as we felt our way along
    the night road, gravel crackling
    under our feet”

    Read the rest here.

    Marcie has the Poetry Friday roundup for March 27th at her blog.

    Photo by Susan Thomsen

  • “I scroll & scroll.”

    For today’s Poetry Friday selection I chose Tiana Clark’s “My Therapist Wants to Know about My Relationship to Work,” which you can read over at the Poetry Foundation. Plus also, you can listen to the poet herself reading it, which I recommend. This post’s title is from one of its verses. I love how Clark uses language in unexpected ways, as in “I stutter the page” and “I short/my breath.”

    “My Therapist Wants to Know About My Relationship to Work” appears in Clark’s most recent collection, Scorched Earth, a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry.

    The Poetry Friday roundup is at Linda Baie’s TeacherDance.

  • Poetry in transit

    This poem by Essex Hemphill is part of “Poetry in Motion,” a collaboration between the Poetry Society of America and New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). The program has been zipping along for more than 30 years, and I’m always happy to bump into the poems on the subway, commuter train, etc. “Poetry in Motion” has spread to other cities as well; for example, Nashville participates during April, National Poetry Month. I saw “Thread” on the shuttle from Grand Central Terminal to the Times Square station, and fell hard for “I am wind/and you/are chimes.”

    Read more about the poet and about artist Jeffrey Gibson here.

    The Poetry Friday roundup for March 6th is at poetry maven Karen Edmisten’s blog.

  • Inspired by Arthur Sze


    In an area not known for its chill

    Green tips of tulips are rising out of the earth
    Although we can’t see their shy peeks
    After a bomb cyclone dropped a cargo of snow
    Onto everything under the sun
    Don’t call it a blizzard!
    Just imagine the tulips— 
    the Blue Wows, the Honeymoons—
     Waiting patiently to show us their spring.

    (With a first line from Arthur Sze's "Black Center.")

    Draft, Susan Thomsen, 2026

    This month the Poetry Sisters are looking to poems by Arthur Sze, the current U.S. Poet Laureate, for inspiration. (See Tanita S. Davis's blog for details.) I was intrigued by their idea and open invitation, and decided to join in, taking the first line of Sze's "Black Center" and seeing where it led. The poem presented a real bouquet of images and language, and choosing only one line to borrow was hard. "Black Center" comes from the collection Sight Lines (2019), and you can read the poem at the publisher Copper Canyon.

    The Poetry Friday roundup is at the talented Margaret Simon's Reflections on the Teche on February 27th.

    Photo by Susan Thomsen