One Poem Only

Voice Yvette Francis Voice to speakWhy don’t they listen?Voice to teachDo they really learn?Voice to whisper… to sootheWill they take comfort?Voice to declare… truthWill they run away?Voice of courageVoice of beautyVoice of graceVoice of wisdom, love and joy!My voice goes on…The voice I have earnedThe voice that always has beenNow unencumberedNow freeNow me!All me!

More from Yvette Francis ↓

• @yvetteshealingspace on Instagram and Facebook
• She has two books out now: Everyday Wisdom - Healing Words for the Journey & The Years of Solitude - Expanding Self

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us when we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, in print, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form

I've had too much to drink today The haze of smoke blurs the edges of my deepest musingand leads my mind to wonderLike a restless traveler
These songs I ruminate on arethe blood curling around my ribsechoing stories I don’t want to hearof a beautiful ingenue I once knewOne I feel, I am losing
In the dead of morning I sleep in silenceBut I can still feel the hum of the starsrepositioning themselves in my sky
How was I an ingenue at seventeenEyes wide open to endless possibilitiesand then-hollowed out.Just smoke and shadows at 23?
Will they still want me??When the afterglow fades from my skinwhen the bruises of timebegin to show their colors in scars
Will I still want me when i’m ancient and listless???my youth slipping through my fingerslike blood once didfrom my veins so many moons ago
fingers that once held the future of the worldcoming to rest one last time.
- Precious

More from Precious ↓

• @precious_poetry101 on Instagram

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us after we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, a book, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form

Speak Maggie Devers She speaks in poetryLike she doesn’t know another way.Seriously, there is a soundtrack to her life.It’s not even main character energy,It’s ‘I embody me’ energy.
How brave to live for yourselfAnd all your deep, true, pure desires,The ones underneath what you showAnd even the ones under those.Excavate your heart and find the way to live for you.
Venture to the bottom of the wellWhere it’s cool and quiet,Where the water springs from the earth—There you will find all you need,The poetry to speak.

More from Maggie Devers ↓

• Read my debut poetry book, For My Daughter
• Follow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us when we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, in print, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form

ancient remedies Raquel Medora can you tell me?how the roots and the leaves listen while i place my hand on their trunks and ask them to whisper their wisdom as if the bark could bark orders at me about how to save a marriage how to serve how to hide emotions in a vaulted reserve how the calluses on my memories have lived in my brain in vain can it snap back into place as if snapping wouldn’t just break a branch awaywithout a roof the air is like transparency voiceless and present no facet of truth to unearth your hands like wiggling worms ambition like a slippery snail hidden face of a temptress let her, like water, wash away

More from Raquel Medora ↓

• @raquel.medora on Instagram
• Lost in Thought on Substack
• Her book, Moms Are The Strongest Men, is out now

You can listen to me read Raquel Medora’s poem, The Month of Lavender, over on Instagram @rembrandts.cure

meet me under the celestial croissantwith its ridged crispy doughand cream-colored insidesdreamy cratersperfect for scooping up spacelike blueberry jamedible stardustspeckled throughout
find mewhere silver cutlery lightinvites to devourreflected in your eyesuntil the buttermilk orange juice skiesoffer milky way breakfastunder the egg yolk sunlightagain- Irina Vérène

More from Irina Vérène ↓

• @queen_of_gore on Instagram
• @queenofgore on Substack

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us after we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, a book, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form

Until We Are Soft Again Shauna Richmond I know a place where living takes flight where we can plant willow and watch them grow gracefully cascade to the ground and together we can bring life to the parts forever shaded as we share oxygen and flashes of light kiss our skin through life we created a place with crystal clear streams forever changing, yet still the same where ery twist and turn we’ll be held close until we’re soft again

More from Shauna Richmond ↓

• @shauna_lee_art_poetry on Instagram
• Her book, It’s Time to Love Yourself First, is out now.

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us after we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, a book, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form

Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.

Jul 28 - Unholy Hunger by katherine kier. @katherinekier on Instagram and Substack. You can listen to her soundscapes at katherinekier.bandcamp.com

Jul 29 - Noon. by Sophie M. (Almon) Hensley

Jul 30 - Wednesday Double Feature Mourning Politely by Anne Card @annephora on Instagram. Anne Card at Sit for a Spell on Substack.

Jul 31 - Irises by Maggie Devers. Read my debut poetry book, For My Daughter. Follow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure

Aug 1 - Nights Full Of Terror by Nicole Marie. @nicolemarie_crim on Instagram. @bookbaddiexxx on TikTok. Nicole Marie on Substack. Her book Boneyard Poetry ~ A Wild Compilation of Poems & Cemetery Photos

Aug 2 - You’re so hot by Jacqueline McCoy. @kaleidoscope_eyesx0 on Instagram

Aug 3 -

Ask the Bear Maggie Devers I want to know what the bear knowsWhat the ocean knowswhat my heart knows.
Might it all be the same.
Does the bear not love?Does the ocean not mournis my heart not wild?
But how to know what the bear knowsMaybe the salmon swimming in the stream will tell me.Or children who have learned to war like a bear Or the ghost of the hiker mauled by the bearThere must be truth in all they know Or I could just ask the bear.

More from Maggie Devers ↓

• Read my debut poetry book, For My Daughter
• Follow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure

you're so hot your heart will never break againonce you realize the absence you grieve is a presence within asking to receive
the magic you perceive is but you staring into yourselfI wish I could see you from as many perspectives as your mind composesI wish I could be the words you write see from their vantageto feel your smile as I'm pulled by your immersive gaze and melt into meaningblister into belonging and never scab
every time you hit the right noteyour eyes are a slow light ablazeglimmering through every disappearing dusk
I wish I knew what it was like to be the pen you holdthe way your grip tightens when a line makes you bleedsmearing black ink like a painting touched with a new feelingthe keys you type on with fervor and passion like you mean it
I wish I could be a feelingto cleanse in the scent of your tearsto not need a sea but dive in the current ofyour nameand purify the body that carries you
I want to be the lone freckle in your right eye to know how it feels to be submerged in avisionbreathingnever coming up for airnever needing to in order to feel aliveas the rest of your vessels contract
your eyes remind me of another way to breathe
you're so hoteven though you've been silent most of your lifehow I wish I could feel what your lips felt the moment they spokefeel the way they quivered before separating the rush of your releaseI want to exist as the air they press upon collapse between their symmetryand fall into its shape carved by your exhale
you're so hotI wish I could see you without a mirrorknow what it is to really see youthen write a poem about the way I do what other choice could my body bear toseepwithout a barrier that only shows your reflectionI want to undress the glass as it shatters between usfeel you reach for me like I do when I reach for my voice
you're so hotwhen you believe in a dreamlet reality retractuntil you're refracted in a realm of your callinghow I want to hear the volume of your cords raise arpeggios in the heat of an answer please always keeps answering
I want to be the floor you walk upon feel the whole of you without fracturingI want to be the fragment of the imagination you extractbe inside its prism that directs the sun where to shineI want to feel the sun when its rays devour youonly your silhouette remainsI want to know what she feelsin her knowing of how only she can unearthyour red highlightsthrough your hair the shade of burnt cocoa nearly blacktranslate your DNA strand by strand layer by layeruntil I'm stripped inside your particlesI want to dive deeper inside your depthyou taught me how my oxygen dissolves if I stay on the surface
I want to be the silence that enters you feel the electricity of your insightwhat it is to be let in through youlet me be your iron the blood that moves you let me be inside your veinswhen your heart starts racing like a river that knows where it flows and how it will never empty but overflow to move me like you tend to love's motion is to know me in a nestled notion in the ache of devotion
you're so hot you're more than human poetry written by a god you recreated living inside you resurrecting me no wonder so many angels surround you it's your essence that penetrates the tincture pulling heaven down around us
you hide behind metaphor until you're promptedto tell me why you're so hotit was never a secretyou wanted to be seenyour truth transparentof what you've always been trying to say I believe first you had to love yourself become intimate with the muscle that knows more than your pain the way you glow when you can command grief where to go to make the vow to never bathe in concealment for you have always known on the other side
you're so hotthe way you walk through your fears of open spaceshow bodies of water breathe you into the timing of their wavesto permeate your lungs with verses of vitalitythe way you feel the panic despite so you can live enough to write the poem to write the poem is why you are alive
you're so hot when you think of me thinking of other women the way you look at themin a transfixed glazeyou knew there was no coming back to any other after the eye contact of the solvent of your spirit
you're so hot the way you show me how to keep coming back keep me from missing you after you became the first to never leave keep me listening as your body whispers indelible ink on fabric so delicate delving into the geometry of your core
the truth is how will I ever know another the way you see me and I in you
I hope you always remember
I know I’m never alonefor you alone exist
- Jacqueline McCoy

More from Jacqueline McCoy ↓

• @kaleidoscope_eyesx0 on Instagram

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us when we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, in print, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form

Nights Full of Terror Nicole Marie Remember the vision you had?For a split second, That caused you to feel complete terror?A thought,That chilled your body to the bone.You told yourself,You would never survive the loss.The failure.The wreckage.And you tried so hard, Sacrificing yourself,
You stayed.
But it happened anyway,And here you are,Living the vision that rocked you into oblivion. All of the nights of terror,Silenced.It was never what you thought it would be.

More from Nicole Marie ↓

• @nicolemarie_crim on Instagram
• @bookbaddiexxx on TikTok
• Nicole Marie on Substack
• Her book Boneyard Poetry ~ A Wild Compilation of Poems & Cemetery Photos

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us after we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, a book, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form

Irises Maggie Devers I had to write her story Before I heard it from the lips of another,Even a writer I admired—I had to release it first.
So I stopped readingTo write it downAnd saw it dance across the pagesFive lines later.
Such certainty predilectionBrings to life.Irises between pagesYou cannot deny.

More from Maggie Devers ↓

• Read my debut poetry book, For My Daughter
• Follow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure

Mentioned in this episode:

One Poem Only submissions are open.

This round, I’m looking for poems about what remains. What stays with us when we experience change? What survives? What do we yearn to carry forward? Send me the poem you wrote and want the world to hear. Also, if you’d like to read your own poem on the podcast, you can. Submit a clear audio file recorded in a quiet space—no perfect studio recording required. And yes, your poem can have been previously published in a literary magazine, in print, or on social media. Submissions close Thursday, October 29. I’ll respond by Wednesday, November 11. Whether I read your poem or you read it yourself, I’d love to hear what you have to share.

One Poem Only Submissions Form