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Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

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    • A Conversation with Arah Ko
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Featured Work

Poet Megan Merchant

Audio Feature: Megan Merchant (Shō No. 3)

Sep 22, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

This poem is part of a larger epistolary exchange, "A Slow Indwelling", with Luke Johnson, and will be published this fall with Harbor Editions.

A person in a black blazer sits in a soft window light, their chin resting on their left hand while gazing out the window.

Audio Feature: Jeddie Sophronius (Shō No. 5)

Sep 22, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I’m more broken than I’ve ever been. / This shell of a body, emptied / and longing.

Poet Arah Ko

Audio Feature: Arah Ko (Shō No. 4)

Sep 17, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

These trees war scalded from the mountains, burnt stubble, replanted when my father was a child, now tall again.

Poet Donna Vorreyer

Audio Feature: Donna Vorreyer (Shō No. 5)

Sep 16, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

The last night with my mother, I blinded like a snake in the blue, /
shed the skin of daughter and switched roles

Audio Feature: Eylie Sasajima (Shō No. 4)

Sep 5, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

i am here with you by the premade sushi. / by the out-of-season strawberries. / by the tofu.

Poet Mckendy Fils-Aimé

Audio Feature: Mckendy Fils-Aimé (Shō No. 5)

Aug 26, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

we stumble through a forest / of awkward silences, careful not to touch // the brambles.

Poet Nyree Abrahamian

Audio Feature: Nyree Abrahamian (Shō No. 5)

Aug 7, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I can think of a few things more entrenched, / like language, syllables strung together // in a lilt

A Conversation with Nathan Xavier Osorio

Aug 2, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

INTERVIEW A Conversation with Nathan Xavier Osorio Shō intern Claire Zhou interviews Shō contributor Nathan Xavier Osorio, whose poems “How to Cook a Wolf,” “Empty Stadiums,” and “Come, Little Hunger” appear in Shō No. 4. Nathan’s debut collection of poetry, Querida, won the 2024 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, selected by Shara McCallum. Claire Zhou …

Poet Corey Baron

Audio Feature: Corey Baron (Shō No. 5)

Jul 29, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

After all, what way is there to leave / a dance floor other than wet // & shaking under a mass of pleading / legs all huddled into a single moving // sacrifice—swaying tall & drowning / in bass?

Audio Feature: Jessica Nirvana Ram (Shō No. 5)

Jul 23, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

The days have been heavy lately, /
an albatross on each shoulder

Audio Feature: Nathan Xavier Osorio (Shō No. 4)

Jul 12, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

My mother fell in love with the way you cracked / into an urchin.

Poet Lana Matthews Sain looks off to the side. She has long black hair with grey streaks and wears a sleeveless light blue/grey shirt with a short ruffled collar.

Audio Feature: Lana Matthews Sain (Shō No. 4)

Jul 3, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I smelled like churned earth, breasts bouldered and leaked / through my support bra into my shirt / for days after his deathbirth.

Pride Month Playlist ’24

Jun 28, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal
Eben Bein has short hair and smiles into the camera. They wear a black tshirt that says "Our Climate."

Audio Feature: Eben E. B. Bein (Shō No. 4)

Jun 28, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

Mom, since we stopped / speaking, I've been searching / for the first word / you gave me.

Poet Andrew Payton

Audio Feature: Andrew Payton (Shō No. 3)

Jun 26, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

My father came to this country / through the womb. My mother, too. // Their mothers and their fathers, too. / But somewhere behind them: a crossing.

Ally Ang, a gaysian poet with short blue hair, nose ring, and a black shirt printed with bright red and orange mushrooms

Audio Feature: Ally Ang (Shō No. 3)

Jun 26, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

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)

Jun 13, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

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)

Jun 8, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

The sirens—remembering—often sing to me / of my own deathwish.

Poet Quinton Okoro

Audio Feature: Quinton Okoro (Shō No. 4)

Jun 3, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

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

Poet Dare Williams

Audio Feature: Dare Williams (Shō No. 3)

May 29, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I’m not good at holding / anything real // the glass the weight these night- / blooming jasmine

Poet Cass Garison

Audio Feature: Cass Garison (Shō No. 3)

Mar 25, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I share an arm rest / with a stranger who has desires // too.

Audio Feature: Kailee Pedersen (Shō No. 3)

Mar 8, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

There is still good meat / on these bones.

A brown-skinned Cambodian man wearing a bright pink short-sleeve shirt sits in a park, smiling at the camera. A large tree fills the background.

Audio Feature: Bunkong Tuon (Shō No. 3)

Feb 22, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

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)

Feb 5, 2024 · Shō Poetry Journal

I think I'm tired of auditioning. / I'm not dancing for bread anymore. / I'm not paying your fee.

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Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

260

Poems Published

170

Total Poets Published

73

Audio Features Published

28

Poems Nominated for Prizes

1

Poem chosen for inclusion in Best Spiritual Literature

Shō Poetry Journal


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