A chronological archive of poetry published in Cleaver’s quarterly literary issues from 2013 to present …

FAIRY SHRIMP by Richard Parisio
Richard Parisio FAIRY SHRIMP In my first year of teaching ...........................I led my seventh graders to the woods ...........to study ...
AQUACULTURE QUARTET by Jess Yuan
Jess YuanAQUACULTURE QUARTET [1] to explain eyestalk ablation imagine floating mid face fallopian tube connecting to the ocular nerve .............in ...
LIGERTOWN: HERALDIC ATTITUDE by Susan Goslee
Susan GosleeLIGERTOWN: HERALDIC ATTITUDE Ligertown —Idaho, 1995  Heraldic attitude —Photograph of lion 9 Goldenrod lines the creek like torches lighting ...
THEY ARE CALLING YOU AND THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE SAYING by Michael Grinthal
Michael GrinthalTHEY ARE CALLING YOU AND THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE SAYING  In the unsolvable sun Of a yellowing year ...
SOMETIMES WE SPEAK TO OURSELVES by Peter Grandbois
Peter GrandboisSOMETIMES WE SPEAK TO OURSELVES in dead things   other times   we fit too many   bodies   into the meadow where ...
QUESTION 1: HOW WILL YOU BECOME YOUR MOTHER by Sofia Sears
Sofia Sears QUESTION 1: HOW WILL YOU BECOME YOUR MOTHER? Your body is a secret you forgot how to keep ...
HOSPICE INTAKE by Luke Koesters
Luke KoestersHOSPICE INTAKE I close my eyes and jump / off a stone pointed cliff. / I’m back to falling ...
ANNIVERSARY POEM II by Matt Thomas
Matt Thomas ANNIVERSARY POEM II Remember the tracked snow it was last to melt and so was like a suture ...
I MISSED ANOTHER DEADLINE BUT IT’S OKAY IT’S REALLY OKAY by Erin Mizrahi
Erin Mizrahi I MISSED ANOTHER DEADLINE BUT IT’S OKAY IT’S REALLY OKAY  & it’s for the best my CV is ...
EVERYWHERE THE WORLD IS GREEN AND DYING by Todd Robinson
Todd RobinsonEverywhere the World is Green and Dying 1                       ...
MANGER, EMPTIED by Michelle Bitting
Michelle BittingManger, Emptied I saw the shepherds slogging through red dust,Their sandals kicked up a ruddy cataclysmWith palm trees sighing ...
GERMANTOWN AVENUE SPEAKS by Yolanda Wisher
Yolanda Wisher germantown avenue speaks & coulter school to school the dark writes itself a poem of youngblood façades playin ...
DRINK, ANYWAY, THE LIGHT by Ginger Ayla
Ginger Ayla DRINK, ANYWAY, THE LIGHT There are creatures adapted to living so low in the ocean they can only ...
TRANSNESS AS PERPETUAL PAPERBOY by Gideon Huan-Lang
Gideon Huan-LangTRANSNESS AS PERPETUAL PAPERBOY Imagine: Victorian hand-me-downs, black suspenders, tweed-lined cap. And he is holleringabout the end of the ...
IMMUNOTHERAPY by Eileen Toomey
--In the line that begins "fibromyalgia, anxiety, nerve pain..." I changed "GERD! Depression," to "GERD, depression," because I don't think ...
PARTHENOGENESIS by Clara Bush Vadala
Clara Bush Vadala PARTHENOGENESIS Sonnet Crown for Anna the anaconda from Boston’s New England Aquarium, 2019 Her unborn litter will ...
OCD SONNET #3 by Zachariah Claypole White
Zachariah Claypole White OCD SONNET #3 Sonnet  enough of poetry—i want only honesty between us how once for cbt i ...
MUSIC TO DROWN BY, a shape poem by Maya Salameh
Maya Salameh MUSIC TO DROWN BY Shape Poem do you understand? you speak & the sun spills out. this is ...
LOCKDOWN, a pantoum by Penny Johnson
Penny Johnson LOCKDOWN Pantoum Four days until they shamble back to school. Even the lithe dreamers, penchant for subordinate clause, ...
grindr villanelle by Matt Broomfield
Third Prize, Form & Form-Breaking Poetry Competition In “grindr villanelle,” Matt Broomfield creates the unlikely hook-up between the queer dating ...
GORGON SON by Geoffrey Billetter
Honorable Mention, Form & Form-Breaking Poetry Competition Geoffrey Billetter GORGON SON Geoffrey Billetter is a Chicago poet and prose writer ...
FIVE STRETCHED SAPPHICS by Weijia Pan
First Prize, Form & Form-Breaking Poetry Competition I love Weijia Pan’s contemporary approach to the Sapphic stanza—a lyric poetic form ...
ENGAGEMENT CORONA by Jeff Pearson
Jeff Pearson ENGAGEMENT CORONA “The mouth of weeds marriage.” She shivered. “It’s—it’s a death!” –John Ashbery, “Idaho” Absence holds rings ...
CONTAINMENT FAILURE by Ky Lohrenz
Ky LohrenzCONTAINMENT FAILURE At the party, I watch drunk men piss in a sink & all I see is freedom ...
IT NEVER SEEMED WRONG TO LOVE YOU, IT'S JUST THAT WE WERE HERONS by Lynn Finger
Lynn FingerIT NEVER SEEMED WRONG TO LOVE YOU, IT'S JUST THAT WE WERE HERONS It never seemed wrong to love ...
COLLOQUY OF YOUNG MOTHERS ON VENANGO STREET by Leonard Kress
Leonard KressCOLLOQUY OF YOUNG MOTHERS ON VENANGO STREET By one a.m. they hoard the crossroad stoops, spotlit by squealing cars ...
AMONG THE WRECKAGE by Laura Ruby
Laura RubyAMONG THE WRECKAGE 1. Earth after the asteroid strikes, leaving the Chicxulub crater twelve miles deep. 2. The dinosaurs, ...
JUNIPER POPLAR by Grayson Thompson
Grayson Thompsonjuniper poplar I knew a guy who lost over 100 lbs by running away from himself he taught me ...
MESENTERIC PANNICULITIS AT NINE MONTHS by Robin Kinzer
Robin KinzerMESENTERIC PANNICULITIS AT NINE MONTHS Today, they applied electrodes to my abdomen, then told me to slowly up the ...
PISSER CLAM by Yujia Li
Yujia LiPISSER CLAM Learned today that clams break with the slightest pressure between forefinger and thumb. I jumped at the ...
HUMMINGBIRD SKETCHES by Evan Anders
Evan Andershummingbird sketches iced ruby oolong— hints of soothing baked pear, cedar, cacao, the miscarriage. precarious masculinity drizzled upon lamb ...
CREATION MYTH WITH CHORUS OF WORMS IN MY BRAIN by Jordan Ranft
Jordan RanftCREATION MYTH WITH CHORUS OF WORMS IN MY BRAIN nothing springs forward it spills as it would from a ...
TWO POEMS by Nathan Lipps
Nathan LippsTWO POEMS Controlled Burn To the north they have set fire to a thousand acres of a very real ...
THE SHAPE OF A FOG by Kevin Eguizabal
Kevin EguizabalTHE SHAPE OF A FOG It was in the water, the shape Of a fog. Surrounding me with ambiguity ...
FORM AND FORM-BREAKING POETRY CONTEST 2023 Winners
CLEAVER’S FORM AND FORM-BREAKING POETRY CONTEST Judge: Diane Seuss Contest Manager: Claire Oleson We were thrilled to receive 370 entries ...
FOR PHIL by Michelle Bitting
Michelle BittingFOR PHIL All day we’ve bent like Benedictine monks over armoires and bookshelves, rubbing the house clean of grime ...
O by Varun Shetty
Varun ShettyO It is a circle, a cipher, the opposite of something. It is formed by an old man’s lips ...
SHOOTING BUCK by Lydia Downey
Lydia DowneySHOOTING BUCK Peeking around the cliff, I meet my father’s eyes. The horizon’s glowing haze & morbid curiosity as ...
THAW by John Schneider
John SchneiderTHAW Still burdened with winter’s whiteness .............and the darkness of prolonged nights, we gaze out at our world through ...
A LETTER FROM MY FATHER TO ME by Mimi Yang
Mimi YangA LETTER FROM MY FATHER TO ME My mother asked me to kill a spider, so I take her ...
POP SONG by Matt Thomas
Matt ThomasPOP SONG These eggs that I wash every morning before tucking them into the carton remind me of washing ...
TWO POEMS by Sadie Shorr-Parks
Sadie Shorr-ParksTWO POEMS Winter on Earth In my bruise blue Subaru with the drooling sunroof rattling down skyline drive. Winter ...
TWO POEMS by Mitchell Untch
Mitchell UntchTWO POEMS Twin I I. I had thought we’d said everything we needed to say when you were in ...
MEMORY REMAINS AS SKELETON by Mateo Perez Lara
Mateo Perez LaraMEMORY REMAINS AS SKELETON The lover: I cut into Mark’s frail // pulled out anxious apologies weathered by ...
a rust chewed pipe by Alex Wells Shapiro
Alex Wells Shapiroa rust chewed pipe The glug above my left ear (a rust chewed pipe next to my right ...
A POEM WHEREIN I TRY, AND FAIL, TO IDENTIFY MY TUESDAY GENDER by Quinn Rennerfeldt
Quinn RennerfeldtA POEM WHEREIN I TRY, AND FAIL, TO IDENTIFY MY TUESDAY GENDER Have you ever been forced .............to swallow ...
LEAVE NO TRACE by Robin Neidorf
Robin NeidorfLEAVE NO TRACE the full moon rises in the cleft .................................between rock and green-turning- gold on gravel trails twenty ...
DON’T KICK THE DOG by Philip Schaefer
Philip SchaeferDON’T KICK THE DOG Just last week doves glued to the beach, stuck between physics and chemistry. Beneath the ...
EVEN THE DOGS by Ronda Broatch
Ronda BroatchEVEN THE DOGS The horses hid the day I walked out to pasture to catch my appaloosa. Ferro, eluding ...
BREAKFAST SOLILOQUY by William Erickson
William EricksonBREAKFAST SOLILOQUY After breakfast I discovered an accretion disk around the empty container of raspberries, an iridescent plate of ...
From KENNINGS, Visual Erasures by Katrina Roberts
Katrina RobertsFrom KENNINGS Visual Erasures Katrina Roberts is the author of four books of poems and a chapbook, as well ...
REGENERATION by Brenda Taulbee
Brenda TaulbeeREGENERATION I want to put my head down .........................and sleep like I used to know ....................................how to sleep. .........................I ...
SHOW TUNES by Julie Benesh
Julie BeneshSHOW TUNES My ex- husband texting quotations, marked: “I know all about your standards…” Because July: .............Music Man. last ...
I AM LOSING MY HANDS. by Kelley White
Kelley WhiteI AM LOSING MY HANDS. The right hand middle finger middle joint swollen. I can almost see it. And ...
TEENAGE ASTRONOMY by Karin Wraley Barbee
Karin Wraley BarbeeTEENAGE ASTRONOMY Men watch her from her ceiling, Cepheus and Hercules, pressed there by a girl on the ...
BEND AND TOUCH THE GRASS by Peter Grandbois
Peter GrandboisBEND AND TOUCH THE GRASS Though the house is quiet another day nearly .............snuffed out Shadows slipping through a ...
THE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW by Maddie Baxter
Maddie BaxterTHE DOCTOR WILL SEE YOU NOW My left leg is an eroded coastline. Squeeze my thigh to feel the ...
MONOCULAR by Tingyu Liu
Tingyu LiuMONOCULAR Remembering, still: Sunday egg scrambles, green ..............peppers and sharp cheddar adorning ..............our fingers, coffee pot chuckling. Tilt and: ...
SILVER FALLS by Melody Wilson
Melody WilsonSILVER FALLS We have driven east this bright afternoon, the two of us, young parents on a break from ...
BIOLUMINESCENCE by Sara Mae
Sara MaeBIOLUMINESCENCE The pregnancy scare skulks through bay grasses. It tips us over like cows & drains our peach liqueur ...
SURVIVOR GUILT by Melody Wilson
Melody WilsonSURVIVOR GUILT My sister slept in the laundry room, the door fastened by a cinch strap and a nail ...
FLOUNDER by Tom Laichas
Tom LaichasFLOUNDER i The fingertips know things. Their ridged whorls .... confess... the ... whole.. body’s whereabouts. The fingernails know things ...
flats by Danny Cooper
Danny Cooperflats hot sand and grainy glass yours is packed like clay me i grab some seashells and scrape to ...
manic / depressive by Savannah Slone
Savannah Slonemanic / depressive i only exist in spectrum extremes floating amongst personality binaries hard cut offs........ prescription intimacy learning ...
NITS by Marsha Blitzer
Marsha BlitzerNITS The native mums told me it was inevitable, ..............................................................nobody’s fault. ....................In the changing room ..............................................................they swapped ....................uniform jumpers ...
Shelter by Esther Ra
Esther RaSHELTER Every evening before we climb into the car, I tap the hood politely, and wait for the street ...
SMALL CONSOLATION by Diana Rickard
Diana RickardSMALL CONSOLATION you make an offering to posterity  ghastly aesthetic cauterizes the virile  there is a corniness to the ...
PAPER MACHE ON THE DRAIN by Soheon Rhee
Soheon RheePAPER MACHE ON THE DRAIN The day of Chuseok, I remember that you wanted to cut my dress and ...
AT A CAFÉ IN VICTORIA, BC TWO GREY-HAIRED MEN TALK ABOUT LOVE by Kate Peterson
Kate PetersonAT A CAFÉ IN VICTORIA, BC TWO GREY-HAIRED MEN TALK ABOUT LOVE She’s in the garden all the time ...
LAST GESTURE by James Miller
James MillerLAST GESTURE We eat on the porch when evening heat recedes. Lamps hang from the oak. The Conrad novel ...
LITTLE GRIEF SONG, JULY 2020 by Laura Tanenbaum
Laura TanenbaumLITTLE GRIEF SONG, JULY 2020 “But the great dark birds of history screamed and plunged into our personal weather ...
I AM THAT GROUP OF PICTURES OF SPIDERWEBS MADE BY SPIDERS ON DIFFERENT DRUGS by Valerie Loveland
Valerie LovelandI AM THAT GROUP OF PICTURES OF SPIDERWEBS MADE BY SPIDERS ON DIFFERENT DRUGS Scientists call everything an experiment, ...
AMMONITES by Ann de Forest
Ann de ForestAMMONITES mountains once were ocean  evidence coils beneath our feet  prehistoric curlicues  not yet nautilus  not yet snail  ...
BEING WHOLE AFTER A DIAGNOSIS by Anthony Aguero
Anthony AgueroBEING WHOLE AFTER A DIAGNOSIS I. Diagnosis Someone likens your body to soured-meat, Flies swarming the thighs, a hint ...
marigolds against dark background
Meggie RoyerTHE SECOND STEP That night, the door so waterlogged with rain it stuck for hours, hinges flush with the ...
AS TRANSPARENT AS IT GETS by Heikki Huotari
Heikki HuotariAS TRANSPARENT AS IT GETS          Just because you're parasailing doesn't mean this call's not coming ...
DISSECTION by Amy Beth Sisson
Amy Beth SissonDISSECTION After school my teacher helped me pull the pink downy breast feathers to clear the skin and ...
White Clouds Blue Sky
Peter WearHAVANA, ILLINOIS, AUGUST 2020 White clouds, so many white clouds pause above August’s green cornfields– an armada of triremes, ...
WHERE I WAIT FOR YOU By travis tate
travis tateWHERE I WAIT FOR YOU The river before anything else, the glazed sun emerging gently from evening. You, brightly ...
A sunflower at dusk in front of blue morning glory vines
Evan AndersSPEAKING OF SUNFLOWERS the world is bare bones an orphan after rage relinquishes her arrow. magnolias ago, sunflowers stormed ...
A forest in foggy light
Chi Siegelmy lover starts seeing after a.b. yehoshua’s “facing the forests” my lover starts seeing our house as a forest.  ...
red liquid with bubbles, close up
THE PRICE OF HANDS by Brian Ellis You can try the gloves, but the gloves will work two hours tops ...
THE ESPERANZA PROJECT: A Collaboration of Sound and Words by Richard Casimir & Herman Beavers
Music by Richard Casimir, "Antumbra" (poem) by Herman BeaversTHE ESPERANZA PROJECT In classical music, a fermata is a pause of ...
A hand holding a coin
Rosemary KitchenFIELD NOTES FOR THE MAGICIAN: SLEIGHT OF HAND I. Mother teaches me to read the ages of bald women ...
A pair of sneakers with a mysterious shadow, in the rain
Nicole GreaveEIDOLON She said there are some things you will always be, like Italian, some skills interchangeable:  folding underwear and ...
TWO POEMS by Jaewon Chang
Blindness It began with a stove, burnt mahogany dissipates in, wishing the ember hinted the future: mother running out of ...
SOULS FALLING INTO HELL LIKE SNOWFLAKES by Roy Bentley
Am I the only one in the Cleveland Art Museum today looking for mercy? I’m looking at an artwork about ...
THE WOMAN IN THE DREAM by Mirande Bissell
hands the swaddled child over. A dream is no place for a baby. She has seen revelers pour the baby ...
WALKING THROUGH THE UNDERWORLD by Stella Hayes
out my window colored heads bound in swiftness. in their decision to bring about movement & motion. the snow is ...
Blue gate with two locks
SIX STAGES OF GRIEF I. you are going to a Danish pastry down on Jung-gu road to sell your soul ...
a white wall with shadows and sunlight
I have a mother who once said car, lake, who said, I couldn’t stand holding your sticky hands any longer, ...
Windows with curtains, exterior view, night time
The fiery fist above slowly loses its hold / and the musky lungs of autumn grow dry. At last, fall ...
keys, lighter, pocket watch, watch, pen on a desktop in dim light
He knew how it would be—should have.Forgetting the keys on the table, / doors locked, window’s open, returning / on ...
abstract image of cracked phone screen in black, purple, and magenta
Today has dawned a nude beginning. The male truck idles at the curfew and the bruisepaper waits on the porch ...
starry night above a large city
Shouldn’t it let me buy everything and pay with negative interest? All those swirling golden stars teeming, unbalanced in the ...
birds flying overhead
IN SOME ALIEN PRAIRIE the birds don’t circle the ways they do here     collected in one large cloud      a ...
Retro diner at sunset with neon lights
Jeremy RadinTWO POEMS Ode to the Nectarine O secretive sunrise of an armadillo, won’t you please uncurl for me? Of ...
image of a field at sunrise
He wakes back bent into a kind of platform for what is meant to be goodness ...
black and white image of a girl on the beach
Chits came in stapled packets, five yellow slips to a page, that ripped like postage stamps, perforated. Three’d buy a ...
Close up of a toad's face
she scans a glossy creak lowland like wood floors creased with alluvial fans playas and alkali flats before sandy gravely ...

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