BOA Blog

Hello readers! Every week, the BOA staff shares one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem-in-translation is from Seed in Snow by Knuts Skujenieks, translated by Bitite Vinklers. The Voice of a Snowflake In a moment I'll melt—Enjoy me!Enjoy me as a work of art,as fruition,as a final result.But if you don't seein my small six-pointed shapethe tragedy of cyclones and anticyclones,the whiteness and blackness of the entire world,if you only delight in me,I will silently suffer:I will have arrived in vain,I will have melted in vain. Buy a copy of Seed in Snow from the BOA Bookstore....

Hello readers! Every week, the BOA staff shares one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. We're kicking off the holiday season this week with a poem from Fuel by Naomi Shihab Nye. Boy and Mom at the Nutcracker Ballet There's no talking in this movie. It's not a movie! Just watch the dancers.They tell the story through their dancing. Why is the nutcracker mean? I think because the little boy broke him. Did the little boy mean to? Probably not. Why did the nutcracker stab his sword through the mouse king? I liked the mouse king....

The poems in Sky Country have resonated with readers of all backgrounds. Drawing on both the real and imagined experiences of her own family, Christine Kitano fills a gap in America's history by giving a voice to immigrant women whose stories have been forgotten by time.

Hello readers! Every week, the BOA staff shares one of our favorite poems from our over 300 collections of poetry. This week's poem from The Moon Makes Its Own Plea by Wendy Mnookin celebrates a quintessential American holiday. Happy Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving One glass of wine is good for you, Mother says. And three are too many. No one needs to leave the table crying. Salt takes out the stain. Or is it sugar? The cat meows, plaintively, repetitively. Come in. Go out. Outside the boundaries are clear. I listen hard to the hiss of the sun's longing, red leaves etched by that other...