The Philly Poetry Scene | National Poetry Month
If Philadelphia and environs were a garden of poetry, it'd be ... quite a garden. It'd be huge. This is a poetry town that, while perhaps not as famed for verse as New York and San Francisco, is lush and fertile, especially during April, Poetry Month.
- Christ Church, by Diane Sahms-Guarnieri | Weeds, by Jane Leichner | To an Asteroid, by Andy Macera | The Orchestra, by Rachel Silverstein | The Orchestra, by Rachel Silverstein | Sixteen, by Aaron Poller | On Being Twenty-Five in Your Hometown, by Luke Stromberg | My passion is a paper crane, by Nicole Distasio | My dad called to ask, by Alisa LoSasso | Loki, by Kenneth Pobo | Goodman’s Angel, by Donald LaBranche | Exterior. Night., by George McDermott | Also read: Six poets show the Philly scene's vigor
- HONORABLE MENTIONS: | Commemoration, by Madeleine Wallenbarger | On Paul Muldoon’s Wings, by Wendy Fulton Steginsky | Honeysuckle, by Hayden Saunier | Star Dust, by Faith Paulsen | Looking out at the Aegean, by Mara Miller | Plumage, by George McDermott | sunrise bike ride in northern colorado, by Jeffrey Ethan Lee | Sonnet for Dry Leaves, by Laura Eleanor Holloway | Walnut Street, by Ernest Hilbert | Thinking I see Philip Levine in the clearance section of a TJ Maxx, by Brett Haymaker | Prediction, by Tori Fellenbaum | Pockets, by Alan Elyshevitz | Marché aux Puces (Flea Market), by Joseph Dorazio | To My Future Daughter, Dissecting Light, by Laura Didyk | Death of Levon Helm Alt Country Blues Poem, by Sharon Black
If Philadelphia and environs were a garden of poetry, it’d be … quite a garden.
It’d be huge. This is a poetry town that, while perhaps not as famed for verse as New York and San Francisco, is lush and fertile, especially during April, Poetry Month.
To celebrate Poetry Month, we invited our readers to send in their work. John Timpane, Media Writer and a publishing poet, read and judged over 360 poems! You can find the winners and honorable mentions above. We hope to host this contest again next year. Stay tuned!
Our six poets represent six online literary magazines that have published them. (Several of them have appeared in more than one!) The diversity of styles – of both the poets and the magazines – speaks to the rich, many-tongued poetry world in Philadelphia. Lynn Levin has appeared in Painted Bride Quarterly, Kelly McQuain in Press 1, Scott McVay in Wild River Review, Tamara Oakman in Apiary (of which she is a cofounder), Laura Spagnoli in ONandOnScreen, and Cleveland Wall in The New Purlieu Review.
Browse the latest issue of APIARY Magazine below. APIARY is an all-volunteer literary organization dedicated to nurturing the literary arts and fostering cross-cultural understanding in Philadelphia.
