The week’s best online poetry with excerpts, links and (occasional) commentary by yours truly. This week features poetry by Kaylin Haught, Mark Bibbins, Tracy K. Smith and Catherine Pierce.

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• “God Says Yes To Me” by Kaylin Haught:

I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic
and she said yes
I asked her if it was okay to be short
and she said it sure is
I asked her if I could wear nail polish
or not wear nail polish
and she said honey ….read more at The Writer’s Almanac

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• “We, The Reader” by Mark Bibbins:

Murder is also singular, no flight inside. So much
rust on rust, the rest of the city secular and slow

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• “Sci-Fi” by Tracy K. Smith

There will be no edges, but curves.
Clean lines pointing only forward.

History, with its hard spine & dog-eared
Corners, will be replaced with nuance,

Just like the dinosaurs gave way
To mounds and mounds of ice….Read more at Poets.org

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• “Love Poem to Sinister Moments” by Catherine Pierce

You are the dead swan
floating in the Susquehanna.

The red moon before a storm.
You are the series of scars

on a daughter’s arm. The tidy
pool of blood on the 7-Eleven counter

and the small white-haired woman
who wipes it away….Read more at Poem of the Week

**Catherine Pierce is a friend who also won the Wick Poetry Prize in 2004 for her collection, Animals of Habit. I’m thrilled to see her work appearing in these venues – she’s a poet you’ll want to keep your eye on. You can check out her website HERE.

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