summer songs: weekly

prompt

Put pen to paper and write with us.

Our second writing prompt is inspired by Marianne Moore’s “Silence.”

“First Light”
Chen Chen

“We Should Make a Documentary About Spades”
Terrance Hayes

From “The World After Rain”
Canisia Lubrin

“On the Brighton Beach Boardwalk”
Gala Mukomolova

“Father Listens to the Artists”
David Petruzelli

“there is no flash”
Metta Sáma

“Night Festival”
Roberto Tejada

“Ledge”
Kevin Young

from the archive

You and general Hugh [Bullock] will have had a large part in my recovery and my optimism to say nothing of subtler matters.

A letter from former Chancellor Marianne Moore to Marie Bullock, founder of the Academy of American Poets.

essay on moore

“Moore was herself a master
of disguise and evasion.”

“The Marianne Moore of First Intentions”

Read an essay by Heather Cass White on editing Marianne Moore’s New Collected Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2017).

poet laureate fellows

“Do you think the water will forget what we have done, what we continue to do?”

“River as a Verb: Reading Ecopoetry with High School Students”

Read 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow B. K. Fischer’s reflections on ecopoetry.

pick of the week

Celebrate the legacy of Nuyorican Poets Café, founded fifty years ago in the East Village of New York City at NJPAC. (Sponsored)

the glimpse

I love this personification of grief, or this metaphor for grief, as a newborn.

Camille Rankine and Chen Chen on poetry and grief in The Glimpse podcast, produced by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation.

literary seminars

Explore Rumi’s views on divine love, heartache, ecstasy, and liberation with Haleh Liza Gafori.

Three sessions: August 6, 13, & 20
2:30–3:45 p.m. EDT 
Live over Zoom with recordings available

2025 Ambroggio Prize: $1,000 publication prize given for a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation. Giannina Braschi will judge. Read the full guidelines and apply by September 15.

2025 Academy of American Poets First Book Award: Winner receives $5,000, publication by Graywolf Press, and a six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center. Former Chancellor Alberto Ríos will judge. Apply here by September 1.