BOA Blog

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from Clues from the Animal Kingdom by Christopher Kennedy. Small Hope Factory We were always the hopeful ones, thrilled to find a cigarette stillburning in the grass. It felt good to have a pocket full of changeand nowhere to go. I found a coupon for get one free of something.It didn’t matter what. Payday was magical and came once a week,like church. The world was a poignant and miraculous place. A job,any job, was good and life-affirming.My family was...

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem from Mandatory Evacuation by North Carolinian poet Peter Makuck is dedicated to the people affected by Hurricane Florence. Streetlamps The last long streaks of sunlightfinally slipfrom photo cellsatop each poleand one, two, threedown the hillabove the brick street and yellow leavesit begins—not the soft whitehovering and shimmering I sawthose grade school nightson bedroom ceiling and wall,but a harsh, almost purple glow.They’re not angels any morebut keepa kind of faith(flicker though it will)with my parents’ house,the woodstove kitchen,the music and voicesdrifting upstairsto my...

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from Holy Moly Carry Me by Erika Meitner. No Matter How Many Skies Have Fallen Let’s say we are making a list,and it’s not about how to begood or zombie foreclosuresor anything resembling distresscalls from an airline going downin a cluster of trees. Someonesays, I’ve got a situation here,but they don’t mean that holidaypicture of you dangling handcuffsfrom your index finger or the factthat your mother loved youvery much until we enhancedthe audio. Let’s say we are inviolation of...

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from The Second O of Sorrow by Sean Thomas Dougherty. Why Bother? Because right now there is   someoneOut there witha wound               in the exact shape                          of your words.   The Second O of Sorrow is available from the BOA Bookstore. Catch up on your summer reading with BOA's Summer Sale—going on now! Take 30% off all BOA Bookstore orders for a limited...

Hello readers! Every week, BOA's staff and interns share one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem is from Book of My Nights by Li-Young Lee. The Bridge The stars report a vast consequenceour human moment joins.Or is it all the darkaround them speaking?And if someone who listened for yearsone night hears Home,what is he to do with the storyhis bones hum to himabout the dust?Let him go in search of the hiding placeof the dew, where the hours are born.Let him uncover whose heartbeats behind the falling leaves.And as for the one who hears Remember,well, I...