One Poem Only

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. When the Moon is full GiGi When the Moon is Full, She never holds Me by the hand. She grabs right behind the gape of My neck and drags me to all I've been avoiding. When the Moon is Full, She never whispers in My ear. She screams at the top of Her lungs, so loud, that her rasping voice awakens the aliens in outer space; now pee...

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. This is How I Die Kris Aziz This is how I die Glass reflecting moonlight on the pavement Metal and gasoline mixing with Blood in the air A paramedic holding my hand Except, wait-- rewind. I chose to get Taco Bell Before getting on the highway After all. I don't worry about the calories Or how a dress will fit After all, I have...

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise. First Draft Jo Wright I don’t want AI. I want bees and seas Deep evergreen forests Great honeycombs Icecaps. Just, knowledgeable lovers Men needing others People questioning rhetoric Speaking truth Understanding Vaccinations A world where we exclude no one Years where there is...

One Poem More gathers all of this week’s poems from One Poem Only—an unhurried chance to listen again, or catch what you missed. This week’s poems Plutocracy by Alicia Swain Tony and/or Tonee by Nguyen Minh Tri Snail by Lizzie Elliot-Klein intuition by rism Reduced by Rosalind Davies Epitaph On A Tyrant by W. H. Auden Plus one new one to carry us into the week ahead In Warmth Maggie Devers How man...

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. Epitaph On A Tyrant W. H. Auden Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in...

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise. Reduced Rosalind Davies Easy winter option, ideal for layering over your favourite outfits, regular fit, timeless crew neckline. The glory of a full-price item Chosen in the hot bloom of the season My size, my length. I take time to choose, plan ahead, create, Build a look, an...

A daily reading from One Poem Only—a quiet space for a single poem, read aloud. intuition rism Pattern recognition is a cognitive discipline — congenitally decided for most, congested with emotion. Not to boast, but I’m a fucking psychic functioning on fumes and faint traces of a beauty who previously inhabited this body, this brain. I mainline cues. It’s smooth, yet dangerous — an almost cancerou...

Wednesdays on One Poem Only are a double feature: one poem here on the podcast, and one more by the same poet shared on Instagram. Snail Lizzie Elliot-Klein In your spiral shell you hold the answer – slowness is radical. From the ash pile of my burn out, I see you everywhere. Clinging to walls, meandering through moss, criss-crossing my path. Reaching unbelievable heights at speeds that will win n...

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. Tony and/or Tonee Nguyen Minh Tri The "y" is a hook, a barb in the ground, A heavy-set anchor, a masculine sound. It carries the dust of the fathers and sons, My father and his son. The weight of the "Tony" who follows/ who runs, A name like a suit that is tailored too tight, Designed for the sun, yet afraid of the light. To th...

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise. Plutocracy Alicia Swain In kitchens drops will drip, each brown in hue, a mother will keep her son from the truth, the senate will swear there’s nothing to do, though they tout their care for the nation’s youth. A man will cast his vote at ten to noon, his ballot broken down in...

One Poem More gathers all of this week’s poems from One Poem Only—an unhurried chance to listen again, or catch what you missed. This week’s poems Operating Instructions for the Day After Your Best Friend Tells You He Supports Genocide by Jané Dowd Swan Dive by Maia von Maltzahn Cycles by S. Salazar An Emblem of Wounds by Henry Opeyemi mortal perch by Amanda Thuy A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe Plus on...

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. A Dream Edgar Allan Poe In visions of the dark night I have dreamed of joy departed But a waking dream of life and light Hath left me broken-hearted. Ah! what is not a dream by day To him whose eyes are cast On things around him with a ray Turned back upon the past? That holy dream that holy dream, While all the world were chid...

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise. mortal perch Amanda Thuy upon a mortal perch i scribe away my lonely parts, pulled from deepest chasm of this broken heart. a treasure trove of loss and tattered dreams, befitting muse which in the dark sits agleam. heartache wrapped in anguished words seeking sanity, mutated f...

A daily reading from One Poem Only—a quiet space for a single poem, read aloud. An Emblem of Wounds Henry Opeyemi We are in the middle of a conversation, the reflection of our lives upon glossy waters. We’re twice the age we used to be, shading home into grief, into a childhood memory. there is an ophicleide infused in the distance of souls, singing into the littleness of a heaven: a prayer old en...

Wednesdays on One Poem Only are a double feature: one poem here on the podcast, and one more by the same poet shared on Instagram. Cycles S. Salazar The space in which my family occupies is a revolving door— each rotation moves me further from their timelines. Yet turning to push the door in reverse won’t take me back to a time with them: to picnics beneath the Central Park oaks or a game of tag a...

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. Swan Dive by Maia von Maltzahn Maia von Maltzahn It’s the kind of hot afternoon in August where the sun cracks your mouth open so you can take a big gulp of life Chin tucked wind-up lanky-limbs bare browned shoulders hum in the heat running warm wooden dock beneath your feet, step one, two, and Leap… gravity greets you like a p...

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise. Operating Instructions for the Day After Your Best Friend Tells You He Supports Genocide Jané Dowd Upon waking: breathe deep. Savour the shimmer of momentary freedom, lack of memory and regret. Surround yourself with three dogs: sentinels; triumvirate. Check the curtain crack f...

One Poem More gathers all of this week’s poems from One Poem Only—an unhurried chance to listen again, or catch what you missed. This week’s poems no place like home by Abhilasha Ghosh The mind unmasked by Aliyah Morayo borderline by Luna Ferguson Inedible by Sera adulthood by Carlee Wilson To My Daughter Elizabeth by Mary Ann H. T. Bigelow Plus one new one to carry us into the week ahead The Call...

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. To My Daughter Elizabeth Mary Ann H. T. Bigelow Two flowers upon one parent stem Together bloomed for many days. At length a storm arose, and one Was blighted, and cut down at noon. The other hath transplanted been, And flowers fair as herself hath borne; She too has felt the withering storm, Her strength's decayed, wasted her...

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise. adulthood Carlee Wilson gone are the days where my ceiling twinkled with plastic magic and the only house i worried about was barbie’s. it didn’t matter if ken came home or not, didn’t matter if stacie’s car had a flat or if joe’s deployment was extended. boy, i’d kill for a mu...

A daily reading from One Poem Only—a quiet space for a single poem, read aloud. Inedible Sera I wish I could cover my body in spikes, become unappetizing, indigestible. I poke holes into my image, pour lighter fluid over it, flicking the flame on and burning away the outline you memorized, char the version of me you still think of. I wish I could transform, shapeshift into something you hate. I ch...

Wednesdays on One Poem Only are a double feature: one poem here on the podcast, and one more by the same poet shared on Instagram. borderline Luna Ferguson borderline between what may i ask? floating whilst the clock ticks by tears on the night of your life pain in pleasure pleasure in pain doors closed the slams still echo in your brain in-prisoned by your own name dust scatters over where you la...

One Poem Only is a daily ritual: one poem, center stage, just for now. The mind unmasked Aliyah Morayo My mind carries centuries. The rust of chains sits where dreams should bloom. It remembers the songs my ancestors could not finish, the languages drowned beneath the ocean, The prayers that reached heaven but never came back whole. I carry the scent of burning villages, the hush of mothers hiding...

One Poem Only is a daily poetry podcast offering a quiet moment with a single poem—read aloud, without analysis or noise. no place like home Abhilasha Ghosh coming back feels different— as if the walls have softened while you were gone, as if the light has rehearsed the exact way it will fall on your face when you step inside. you notice small things first: the old curtain breathing in the breeze,...

One Poem More gathers all of this week’s poems from One Poem Only—an unhurried chance to listen again, or catch what you missed. This week’s poems Presence of Choice by Alecia Lewis Harmony by Seán Tate Memory weighs more than bone and Hash browns by Charlotte Dawn Tangerines and Alcoholism by Labanya Dey I Am Mother by Melissa Norton Comrades by Ella Wheeler Wilcox Plus one new one to carry us in...