Today’s choice
Previous poems
Jason Ryberg
The Conversations of Ghosts
Sometimes I’d swear that
the ancient box fan I’ve hauled
around with me for
years is a receiver for
the conversations of ghosts
not unlike the way
hats I’ve bought at vintage shops
still hold trace elements
of the residual thoughts
of their previous owners.
Jason Ryberg is the author of eighteen books of poetry, and six screenplays.He is currently an artist-in-residence at both The Prospero Institute of Disquieted P/o/e/t/i/c/s and the Osage Arts Community, and is an editor and designer at Spartan Books. His latest collection of poems is Fence Post Blues (River Dog Press, 2023).He lives part-time in Kansas City, MO and part-time somewhere in the Ozarks.
Day Six of ‘Choice’ for NPD: Adam Horovitz, Sibyl Ruth, Sue Finch, Amlanjyoti Goswami
Wile E. Coyote Pauses for Thought All these unthinking technocratic years shooting myself from giant rubber bands and pawing vitamins –the kind that build your limbs into flexible hillsides– down my ravenous throat and here I still am, a blurring...
Day Five of ‘Choice’ for NPD: Anne Symons, Alwyn Marriage, Vinita Agrawal, Carole Bromley
Invitation The flamingoes are waiting, poised pink rippling across the water. Bubbles rise around my feet disturbing frogs and fish. I balance on one leg to show that I am good enough to be a bird. Hands on hips, I flex my elbows, lower my shoulders,...
Day Four of ‘Choice’ for NPD: Patrick Wright, Marcelle Olivier, Ruth Higgins, Peter Raynard
Ascent of the Blessed After Hieronymus Bosch Hovering a hundred feet over an ambulance in the starless dark, they congregate. Below: a machine frantic to restart my heart. My silver cord stretches, doesn’t quite snap. I look down on the mad...
Day Three of ‘Choice’ for NPD: Kathleen Jones, Tristan Moss, Özge Lena, Dave Hubble
In a Time of Crisis Not all the small things you can do can save the world. Never say “It couldn’t happen here!” It could. Put on your best face for the future and take heart. Rescue those you can and leave the rest – the boat has only so much...
Day Two of ‘Choice’ for NPD: Estelle Price, Rachael Clyne, Pratibha Castle, Sarah Doyle
Flying to Reykjavik I've been here hours. Sharing air with a factory of lawyers, a dead-eyed clerk, a bored, squinting judge and you. Stacks of files, a new party wall, divide us. In this windowless box excess words are trying to escape. They...
Day One of ‘Choice’ for NPD: Eljae, Aditi, nudi and Gaby Koenig
choice (n). 1. a lack of certainty 2. a presence of freedom 3. a privilege of possibility choose (v). 1. to sacrifice 2. to forfeit ignorance 3. to exercise discernment 4. to implicitly accept responsibility chosen (adj). 1. the act, or art, of...
Julie Stevens
Insomnia Night shakes hurt the most. Firm hands strangle the life out of sedate songs. You’re awake breathing the curse of noise, as dark sniggers. The hours clang, trees thump the ground, damp air sharpens knives. Prickly reminders have lodged in...
Imogen Cooper
Moderately / A Lot / Extremely I have saved up so many things that they get in the way: the smell of your temple, just above the ear; the grip of your hand for fear it will be the last. Your laugh and every cumulative ambulance clang jam-stuffed...
Josie Moon
Goat Keeper There is a hill with a house, goats graze in a green pasture. They are my responsibility When the righteous priest comes with his red ribbon I will run him through with a pitchfork, pin him to a tree before he touches one hair on one...