One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now.

CAUTION: STUDENT DRIVERCarly ThompsonI’ve jumped out of the boatthe churning water turns to smokemy mind is a black sand beachthe world is one of those where time is differentslow, fast, all at once, almost neverif a window doesn’t open, is it a wall?is it even there?the cows die all at once and we don’t ask whywe buy sheep instead, not for milk for woolit is not enough to be called sad and beautifulremarkable or terrifyingit is not enough to pick up the phoneto text back, to cry on cueI hover over that plane where one highwaymeets another, no one ever taught me to merge

More from Carly Thompson ↓

• @comehither_poetry on Instagram
• @comehither on Substack

Support + Stay Connected to OPO

If you’d like to support the show, Substack and Patreon members receive a copy of my book, For My Daughter, along with episodes from the audiobook.

Poetry shows us what we need. Thank you for being part of the experience.

Mentioned in this episode:

Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem Only

Write After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice.

We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.

#WriteAfterOPO