Audio Feature: Nathan Xavier Osorio (Shō No. 4)
My mother fell in love with the way you cracked / into an urchin.
Audio Feature: Lana Matthews Sain (Shō No. 4)
I smelled like churned earth, breasts bouldered and leaked / through my support bra into my shirt / for days after his deathbirth.
Cover Artist Feature: Harim Choi, Shō No. 4 & 5
Harim Choi (she/her) is a Korean-American illustrator based in Long Island, New York. She obtained a BFA at Rhode Island School of Design in 2020. She currently works as a painter at a pottery studio. Her work explores absurdity. Follow her on instagram: @harimmch
Pride Month Playlist ’24
A playlist for Pride Month, featuring recordings by Ally Ang, Cass Garison, Cassandra Whittaker, Eben E. B. Bein, Quinton Okoro, and Dare Williams.
Audio Feature: Eben E. B. Bein (Shō No. 4)
Mom, since we stopped / speaking, I've been searching / for the first word / you gave me.
Audio Feature: Andrew Payton (Shō No. 3)
My father came to this country / through the womb. My mother, too. // Their mothers and their fathers, too. / But somewhere behind them: a crossing.
Audio Feature: Ally Ang (Shō No. 3)
Today, my heart is working / remotely. I watch it thump / and thrum reliably behind / the blur of a computer screen.
Audio Feature: Richard Vargas (Shō No. 4)
i’m drinking coffee and reading an essay / by Tarantino breaking down Scorsese’s decision to / cast Harvey Keitel as the pimp in Taxi Driver
Audio Feature: Nazifa Islam (Shō No. 4)
The sirens—remembering—often sing to me / of my own deathwish.
Audio Feature: Quinton Okoro (Shō No. 4)
how else would i describe it? / somewhere below all of us // i paced the dirt floor of a deep / and airless pit, digging and uncovering // only daylilies tight and green
Audio Feature: Dare Williams (Shō No. 3)
I’m not good at holding / anything real // the glass the weight these night- / blooming jasmine
Audio Feature: Cass Garison (Shō No. 3)
I share an arm rest / with a stranger who has desires // too.
Audio Feature: Bunkong Tuon (Shō No. 3)
I can tell you about strength. / How the sun warms our skins. / How the moon turns tides.
Audio Feature: Sean Thomas Dougherty (Shō No. 3)
I think I'm tired of auditioning. / I'm not dancing for bread anymore. / I'm not paying your fee.
Recent & Forthcoming Books from Shō No. 3 Poets
Congratulations to these Shō No. 3: Revival Issue (Summer/Fall 2023) contributors, whose books were recently published or are forthcoming! Their books are linked below. You can also read the bios of all Shō No. 3 contributors here. Debut Poetry Collections Ally Ang: Let the Moon Wobble, forthcoming (Alice James Books, 2025) Kathryn Bratt-Pfotenhauer: Bad Animal …
Audio Feature: Cassandra Whitaker (Shō No. 3)
I split into two and the wolf split into four and we kept dividing
our greatness until I matched the air and the wolf matched the earth
Audio feature: Alfonso Zapata (Shō No. 3)
I sling myself up those stairs / with all the other tired men because //
who am I to refuse the slap / of hunched playing cards
Audio feature: Ellen June Wright (Shō No. 3)
Sometimes I forget I came from the Earth / from the rocks, from the spongy moss // was a home for all the squirming, crawling / slippery life that lived under me.
Contributors’ Notes, Shō No. 4
Erica Abbott (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based poet and writer whose work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Stone Circle Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Philadelphia Stories, Midway Journal, and other journals. She is the author of Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship, is a Best of the Net nominee, and is a poetry editor for Variant Literature. …
Editors’ Note, Shō No. 3
Like the bleary-eyed bear on the cover of this issue, we are waking up from hibernation—a twenty-year hibernation, to be exact. Shō’s revival was set in motion by our return to the United States two years ago. After spending ten-odd years in Southeast Asia, where we met, we moved to North-Central Arizona, which we now …
Notes on Poems, Shō No. 3
Sage Ravenwood on “Leonard Peltier’s Plea for Clemency,” pp. 10: Leonard Peltier is a Native American man of Lakota and Dakota descent, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe. To many despite tribe affiliations he is a hero; to the FBI he’s a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) convicted of two …
Contributors’ Notes: Shō No. 3
(SUMMER/FALL 2023) / Purchase Shō No. 3 Ally Ang is a gaysian poet and editor based in Seattle. Their work is published in Columbia Journal, ANMLY, Bellingham Review, The Journal, and elsewhere. Ally is the recipient of fellowships and support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Trust, and the Jack Straw Writers Program. …
News & Updates
2024 Tuesday July 23: Shō No. 5 is here! Monday July 1: Submissions are now open! See our guidelines for more info. We now read for the Sita Martin Prize and Shō Poetry Prize. Saturday April 13: Shō Poetry Journal will be attending the 2024 Northern Arizona Book Festival (NOAZBF) in Flagstaff. Look for our …