Every Day Poems

A Poem A Day

Poems about Women

I’ve Set Out All of the Traps for Us by Kiara Nicole Letcher

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I’ve Set Out All of the Traps for Us

by Kiara Nicole Letcher

I start to miss you right after you leave
and then at night I feel a deep ache
in that need spot.

Feeling full to the brim with urgency
soft serve ice cream
melting off the cone.

Why are you holding my mouth so wide open?
So wide open in lust and embarrassment?!
Why are you seeing me so full and lush?

I see tarnished jewelry and
half-eaten birthday cake.

Don’t look at me that way
don’t you watch me like that
with your hand on the throttle
and my trap door
fully open.

 

 

IN THESE TIMES, EMILY, NO by Janet McCann

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These Times, Emily, No

 

IN THESE TIMES, EMILY, NO

by Janet McCann

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — Emily Dickinson

Tell it bent,
refracted in an oblique lens?

No, tell it as a fishhook
caught in smug corpulence

Tell it as drawn blood
Label the dark red vials

Tell it as a sword
mightier than the pen

Tell it as a scream
half an inch from a sleeping ear

Tell it as a siren
a snapped shriek

Don’t hide it in gardens,
bejewel it, dress it in silk

Spell it
Tell it
Yell it

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Journals publishing Janet McCann’s work include KANSAS QUARTERLY, PARNASSUS, NIMROD, SOU’WESTER, AMERICA, CHRISTIAN CENTURY, CHRISTIANITY AND LITERATURE, NEW YORK QUARTERLY, TENDRIL, and others. A 1989 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship winner, she taught at Texas A & M University from 1969-2016, is now Professor Emerita. She has co-edited anthologies with David Craig, ODD ANGLES OF HEAVEN (Shaw, 1994), PLACE OF PASSAGE (Story Line, 2000), and POEMS OF FRANCIS AND CLARE (St. Anthony Messenger, 2004). Most recent poetry collection: THE CRONE AT THE CASINO (Lamar University Press, 2014).

The Code by Ann Bracken

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Picture of poet Ann Bracken

 

The Code

by Ann Bracken

In this circle of men
their code demands one rule—
Find my value in my words.

Each session a blank check
you discover that everyone has
an attic filled with hope,
loss, and dreams.

How do you hold the experience
of terse words
shaped by
poverty and despair?

Slowly you will discover the unexpected bridges
connecting your life to theirs—the falls,
the disappointing parents,
the harsh walls of privilege.

Press deeper.
Mind only the present—
the books discussed,
the ideas on the page.

Ann Bracken is the author of two collections of poetry, No Barking in the Hallways: Poems from the Classroom (2017) and The Altar of Innocence (2015), She also serves as a contributing editor for Little Patuxent Review and coordinator for the Wilde Readings Poetry Series in Columbia, MD.  Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in anthologies and journals, including Bared: Contemporary Poetry and Art on Bras and Breasts, New Verse News, Fledgling Rag, ArLiJo, Reckless Writing Anthology: Emerging Poets of the 21st Century, and Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence among others. Ann’s poetry has garnered two nominations for the Pushcart Prize. She offers poetry and writing workshops in community centers and at conferences.

Recasting by Tricia McCallum

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Recasting

by Tricia McCallum

Disney Princesses don’t want to get married nowadays.
They know their way around a bow and arrow,
Eat out a lot.
They’re skeptical about stepsisters,

They prefer
Princes that consult
Rather than control.
Ones that climb the stairs
And not their hair.

They choose
Uber over horse-drawn,
Waking to a smartphone
Rather than a strangers’ kiss.
Hedge funds over credit unions,
Loose comfortable clothing.

They don’t
Always feel like singing in public,
Wait well,
Take no for an answer,
Play dumb.

They won’t
Whistle while they work,
Put up, sweep up, or and shut up,
Swoon and expect to be caught,
Falter and expect to be saved.

They want equal billing,
Signing authority,
A credible back story.
They want last names.

 

“Poetry is my church. My refuge. Without it I wouldn’t have navigated my life nearly as well.”

Tricia McCallum, a Glasgow-born Canadian, is a Huffington Post Blogger, a 2016 Pushcart Prize nominee, and the author of two poetry books, The Music of Leaving (Demeter Press 2014) and Nothing Gold Can Stay: A Mother and Father Remembered (2011).

She has won the poetry competition at goodreads.com a total of three times through the past three years, along with an honorable mention.

McCallum says she publishes both online and off, wherever she can find good homes. “My approach is simple. I tell stories in my poems and write the poems I want to read,” she says.

Her latest poetry manuscript entitled Icarus Also Flew was a finalist in the Marsh Hawk Press Book Contest in 2017.

She can be found online here, and often:

www.triciamccallum.com

facebook.com/tricia.mccallum.9

twitter.com/triciamccallum1