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Poetry Archive

Two poems by Todd Dillard

Todd Dillard

fallen / credit: de

A Door like a Wound The door first appeared in my backyard, white sentinel among anemone sheets unfurling on clotheslines. The next morning I found it laying on the back row of the bus, … [Read more...]

Five poems and four collages by Steve Dalachinsky

Steve Dalachinsky

actual size collage (detail) - Steve Dalachinsky

the blood hustle   (more than a lb. of flesh) - “everything is somewhere else.” - for gregory corso @ perazzo funeral … [Read more...]

Two poems by Cali Kopczick

Cali Kopczick

skagit & cedar / credit: em

Switchback Softpalm welcome to the door jamb and the waiting stoop and the quarry mined to dust to mold it. Little mountain, meet your shadow.   I Learn from My Subscriptions Squash takes … [Read more...]

Two poems by Constance Schultz

Constance Bacchus

Steamboat Rock / credit: de

on the beach at steamboat rock thinking too deep of the stars & lake & columbia flowing below all her strength extra hot today we forget again the coldest part of winter forget when … [Read more...]

Sky Pieces: three poems by Michael Lehman

Michael Lehman

boundary road / credit: em

The Sky Above Fickle Hill in January Rain reaching over the ridge from a dark ocean Salmonbellied sea crud hides the slenderest moon The Sky Above Fickle Hill in June Edge of … [Read more...]

Four poems translated from the Sanskrit by Brishti Guha

Brishti Guha

scudder pond, december / d.enck

Translator's note:These poems from the Sanskrit “Gathasaptashati” are attributed to King Hala, a first-century AD ruler of the Satavahana dynasty in ancient South India. Hala’s version was in Prakrit, … [Read more...]

Three poems by Danielle Rose

Danielle Rose

imminent / credit: em

aleister crowley summoned demons & all i get is this tarot telling me about how i am always in the wrong i want to become a fountain / first still stone / then bubbling water like seeping / like … [Read more...]

Three poems by Andrew Shattuck McBride

Andrew Shattuck McBride

at the fragrance garden / credit: de

To the Person(s) Who Drowned Beehives and Set Others on Fire, Killing 600,000 Bees When I was a kid, wild bees swarmed a plum tree on Dad’s property. From our picture window, I marveled at the … [Read more...]

Poems by Iranian poet Bijan Najdi, translated by Parisa Saranj

Bijan Najdi and Parisa Saranj

in the fragrance garden / credit: d.enck

I have chosen the poetry of Bijan Najdi’s for its heartbroken yet hopeful and tender view of the world. Najdi’s poems provide a window into concerns of modern Persian poetry and Iranian society. I … [Read more...]

Broken Glosa: an alphabet book of post avant glosa by Stephen Bett

Stephen Bett

containers / credit: em

Note: Stephen Bett’s father took him to sit, age 15 and starting out in poetry, at the feet of his father’s friend P.K. Page, the doyenne of Canadian poetry, who later revived the "glosa" in Canada. … [Read more...]

Four poems for Empty Mirror by rob mclennan

rob mclennan

off five-forty-two / credit: em

1. However quick, language still takes time to adapt. Beautiful things, to wit: the colour of a spring balm, a tongue. The amplification of syntax. What have you. 2. His hospital … [Read more...]

Three poems by Ann Eleven

Ann Eleven

ancient glass afternoon

If Wishes I’ve never walked in so much woods I didn’t come to somewhere roads ran towards. If I missed a train another train would follow, my ticket prove good for that journey or some … [Read more...]

Six poems by Háel Lopez, translated by Ariel Francisco

Ariel Francisco and Háel Lopez

Complete Turn Your heart fell into a glass of beer I watched it drown while tracing the rim with my finger. The pieces fall on terrible rhymes of an endless poem but you don’t get up, don’t … [Read more...]

Three poems by Dani Putney

Dani Putney

image credit: dre

Potato Bugs For Breanna On an electric box outside your house, I told you potato bugs were tragically beautiful. You mentioned wasps: how an arrow sits on their striped abdomens, nature’s … [Read more...]

Two poems by Katherine Fallon

Katherine Fallon

Meet Cute Summer an anti-shadow, diamond-bladed, and you, the soft-bodied starfish, the bell, a slim book to be opened. Patience, profusion. Nothing less than a pageant: caught breath and the … [Read more...]

Günter Grass: three translations and response poems by Allie Marini

Allie Marini

gunter grass translated by allie marini

These poems are dedicated to the memory of Dr. Glenn R. Cuomo, Professor of German Studies 1992-2017, New College of Florida, with whom the translator first began work on this project in 1997. Fishily … [Read more...]

Two poems by Joanna Cleary

Joanna Cleary

I Cook Us Beets I cook us beets, using the red to smear your teeth with love. This poem will not be long. I make us beets, pulling them apart like convex and ashamed little hearts. You are … [Read more...]

Two poems by Cynthia X. Hua

Cynthia X. Hua

harbor / credit: d.enck

Brown Eyes So the universe is everything, even the anthills even the anthills lit with whispering, longing, elegant brownstones and engine fires and dirty arguments the body you didn’t … [Read more...]

5 poems by Miss Poetrix, translated from the Italian by Alessandra Bava

Alessandra Bava and Miss Poetrix

plumearth #3 / credit: de

Translator's note: Miss Poetrix (pen name for Gaia Casanova) is a poet and performer from Rome, Italy. Her work is reminiscent of Italian poets such as Patrizia Valduga and American poets such as Anne … [Read more...]

Three poems by Edgar Rincón Luna, translated by Toshiya Kamei

Edgar Rincón Luna and Toshiya Kamei

september 80 / image: d.enck

Farewell to the Beach Why does this shadow that's no longer us hurt so much? why does that ash getting losing among stones make us cry? The heart of the world spills and caresses nobody's … [Read more...]

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Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

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