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Issue #2, April 2024

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photo by David Ward

Congratulations! You made it to Public School Poetry! In our second issue, ten sensational poets share work about moths, bikinis, ancestors from the Dalmatian Coast, medicine, motherhood, beading, and vulture magic with you. And, if that wasn’t enough, they also fearlessly agreed to write a “five paragraph essay” on another contributor’s poems that we, the Public School Poetry Vice Principals, randomly and anonymously assigned them.

 

Writing an essay for anonymous work that's been handed to you is maybe the poet's version of Spring Break riskiness, like flying into a new space where you're not sure whether you've packed enough sunscreen or can trust new people enough to have fun. And then it happens! This issue includes an essay in the form of a pantoum, an essay offering 'Inexpert Instructions', essays that are intimate, rigorous, and lively--all the superlatives!

Thank you poets, readers, and everyone who supported our annual bake sale to pay for our site. Thank you to Tracy Anderson and Emma Ward who selflessly jumped in to help the Vice Principals with the baking. We love you all! 

Contents & Contributors

Amanda Moore

A wall divided horizontally by a curvy line. The top is flat black; the bottom is glossy black.

The Thing about John Is

Long Distance

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Keith Taylor

            

Amorak Huey

If I'm on My Knees

An Experience I Have Not Had

All Housing is Temporary

All Desire is the Desire to be Desired

Dryer the Ground, More Dangerous the Flood

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Monica Rico

Anthony Madrid

The Instructions for the Vulture Magic

The Poet's Daughter is Missing

Song

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Sofia Fall

Elsbeth Pancrazi

The Abyss

Vocations

The Doctors

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Anthony Madrid

Keith Taylor

Luna Moths Among the Ferns

Shadow Blue

Anecdotal Evidence

The Biblical Allotment

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Melissa Fite Johnson

Melissa Fite Johnson

Elegy for the Restaurant Where We Always Ended Up

Once I Left My Heart Behind This Coffee Shop Window

Just When I Think I know Everything About My Husband

My Student Says She Thinks Her Poems Are OK

          Five-Paragraph Essay by Elsbeth Pancrazi

Molly Raynor

{April 2020}

ALTERNATIVE NAMES FOR MY EPILEPSY MEDS 

YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE, MY ONLY

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Amorak Huey

Monica Rico

THERE WAS A BIKINI

I WAS ALL LEGS AND LIES

VERDE

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Amanda Moore

Robin Gow

Second Class Relic

Watching You Bead

Ode to Uncertainty

           Five-Paragraph Essay by Molly Raynor

Sofia Fall

Trenčíanský Hrad

"Nothing Fills Me Up At Night"

The Heron

Mirila

         Five-Paragraph Essay by Robin Gow

       

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