“Poetry leaves something out,” our columnist Elisa Gabbert says. But that’s hardly the extent of it. By Elisa Gabbert I once heard a student say poetry is language that’s “coherent enough.” I love a ...

April is National Poetry Month, and this week we revive an old tradition by devoting an entire issue to the form. But first we ask a very basic question: What is poetry, anyway? There’s no simple ...

As guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2024, Mary Jo Salter spent last year scouring literary journals for 75 of the best poems from 75 different poets. To appear in the volume is a coveted honor ...

If you think poetry isn't for you, this might be the right time to give it a second chance. Every April in the United States, National Poetry Month invites you to experience and celebrate an art form ...

Close reading is more than just reading carefully—it’s a deliberate, methodical way to uncover a poem’s layers of meaning. By focusing on details like diction, imagery, and structure, you can build a ...

Will Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department” usher in a new era of poetry appreciation? Delaney Atkins, a part-time instructor at Austin Peay State University who teaches a ...

Step 2: Commit to reading one poem a day. Read out loud whenever possible and read each poem more than once. Jot down the ...