Poetry
Browse our essays and reviews on poetry.
Plato and the Poets
The centuries-old debate should be settled: an intellectual world bereft of poetry is a damaged one.
“We Are Neither Prophets nor Mad”
An interview with poet Fady Joudah about writing his latest collection amid war in Gaza.
The Wisdom of Black Life and Literature
A recording of our virtual literary event with three generations of Black women writers.
Elegies for Empire
We can find reconciliation and closure in poetry, despite the forces that engender grief and dispossession. Three new poetry collections refuse the binaries and amnesia that so often characterize American mourning.
Everyday Mojo Letters to Yusef
A series of creative reflections on why Yusef Komunyakaa remains one of our greatest living writers and what it means to be a Black Jazz Poet.
Adrienne Rich’s Solitudes
Critics tend to discount Rich’s later poems, fundamentally misunderstanding how they engage her radical vision of community.
‘Ancestors’ Contributors Reading
A recording of our digital reading of poetry, fiction, and essays from our annual literary anthology, with ASL interpreting.
Poetry Collection: Award-Winning Poets
The fourth in our series of reading lists to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Poetry in the Critical Zone
In a new book of lyric essays, poet Cole Swensen answers a call issued by theorists Bruno Latour and Peter Weibel: to reimagine the globe in terms of the fragile surface ecosystems that support all life.
Poetry Collection: Uplifting Women’s Voices
The third in our series of reading lists to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Poetry Collection: Empathy
The second in our series of reading lists to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Writing Our Ancestors
A recording of the launch event for Boston Review’s new literary anthology, Ancestors. Renowned writers read their poems, fiction, and more.
Using Formalism to Explore U.S. Systems of Power
Through careful and often irreverent uses of traditional poetic forms, Amit Majmudar offers affecting insights into geopolitics and contemporary life, from the War on Terror to hyperincarceration.
Straight Down to the Bones
Black Arts poet Sonia Sanchez discusses the ancestral influences on her work and how art can give us strength.
Witnessing Grace
In Be Holding, celebrated poet Ross Gay interweaves the legacy of one of basketball’s greatest moments with a meditation on Black resilience.
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