Poem-a-Day - Visual Art Poems, Epistles, and more

July 19, 2022

Poems Inspired by Visual Art

“The Shield of Achilles” by W. H. Auden
“A Picture” by Olivia Ward Bush-Banks
“O’ Noblesse O’” by Nikky Finney
“Muscular Fantasy” by Terrance Hayes
“Pier 52” by Omotara James
“Still Waiting” by Harryette Mullen
“Having a Coke with You” by Frank O’Hara
“Médée Furieuse, 1838” by Chelsea Rathburn
“Archaic Torso of Apollo” by Rainer Maria Rilke
“Poem that Wanted to Be a Brueghel” by William Stobb
“Birds in Flight, 1965” by Enrique Villasis, translated by Bernard Capinpin
“A Painter’s Thoughts” by John Yau

Epistolary poems, from the Latin epistula for “letter,” are poems that read as letters. Read a selection of epistles for inspiration on expressing our most intimate thoughts this summer:

“Letter to Borges from London” by Stephen Kuusisto
“Dear March—Come in—(1320)” by Emily Dickinson
“Letter to Brooks [Spring Garden]” by Major Jackson
“Dear J.” by Kazim Ali
“Letter Home” by Natasha Trethewey

“I love this idea of a story in which the stakes are high. The stakes are one’s very own life. And it restores, for me, the idea that literature matters. What are the stories that we tell to save our lives?”

Erica Hunt is the author of Jump the Clock (Nightboat Books, 2020). Read and listen to Hunt discuss her curatorial approach and more on Poets.org.

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

Check out our #PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and founder of The Writers Studio, Philip Shultz, will be joined by Academy of American Poets Chancellor Emeritus Edward Hirsch for a conversation on Shultz’s new book, Comforts of the Abyss: The Art of Persona Writing (W. W. Norton, 2022). Thursday, July 21 at 7 p.m. EDT at The Strand Book Store in New York City (828 Broadway on 12th Street, 3rd-floor, Rare Book Room). Buy tickets here. (Sponsored)

First Book Award

Submissions for the First Book Award are open and will be accepted online until September 1, 2022. Eduardo C. Corral will judge the 2023 Academy of American Poets First Book Award, the most generous first-book prize for poetry in the U.S. The winning manuscript will be published by Graywolf Press and the winning poet will receive a paid residency at Civitella Ranieri.

Watch and listen to Sarah M. Sala read William Johnson’s poem “Moose Dreams” as part of the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation’s Read By series of poetry films.

The Academy of American Poets is seeking a full-time membership & development coordinator.
Yale University Press in New Haven, Connecticut is seeking a full-time editor.
Navajo Technical University in Crownpoint, New Mexico is seeking an assistant professor of creative writing.

Revisit last week’s Poem-a-Day selections with us on Poets.org:

July 10: “The Treasure” by Robinson Jeffers
July 11: “I, New York” by Lam Lai
July 12: from “Consequences of a Heavy Heart” by Jennifer Firestone
July 13: “Lineage Anagrams II” by Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
July 14: “I Never Felt Comfortable in My Own Skin So I Made a New One” by Xan Phillips
July 15: “Leaves of Today” by Kit Robinson
July 16: “The Locust” by Leonora Speyer

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Poem-a-Day - Visual Art Poems, Epistles, and more

Older messages

"time travel" by Mihee Kim

"Spider" by César Vallejo, translated by The Friend

"Gitanjali 60" by Rabindranath Tagore

"The Locust" by Leonora Speyer

"Leaves of Today" by Kit Robinson

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