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POETRY submissions reopen JUNE 1.

Shō Poetry Journal

Established in 2002, revived in 2023

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Featured Work

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.

Audio Feature: Cassandra Whitaker (Shō No. 3)

Dec 31, 2023 · Shō Poetry Journal

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)

Dec 24, 2023 · Shō Poetry Journal

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)

Dec 20, 2023 · Shō Poetry Journal

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.

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Publishing Stats

Since our revival issue was published in Summer 2023:

375

Poems Published

269

Total Poets Published

131

Audio Features Published

61

Prize Nominations

5

Poems chosen for inclusion in anthologies

Shō Poetry Journal


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