Nashville Poets Quarterly (2024)

14/01/2021

“There are two ways to be. One is at war with reality and the other is at peace.” — Bryon Katie

30/11/2020

“I could go days without encountering a poem in wild.” —

Our closing poet from 2019 Q4 and also our winning response to the essay prompt: “Do you believe social media is helping or hurting poetry?”

Collins won a feature on our website for her brilliant, witty, and insightful response. Find it now on our website under POETS > 2019 Q4: FEATURED POET.

Oh, and give this poem a few good read throughs. It slays. 🖤💫

06/11/2020

“If you do not know the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.” — Virginia Woolf

21/10/2020

We weren’t ready. We’re you ready?? And that’s not even the whole poem!!
Drop over to nashpoets.com and download 2019 Q4 for free! This one by Magnolia Lee is on page 21.
“Magnolia Lee is a poet born in Tennessee, and raised by the wolves of her mind. She wants to be polite but she doesn't really try.”
Follow her on Twitter:

06/10/2020

The opening line of this ode to, well, all the things makes us feel seen in 2020 👀. Visit nashpoets.com or follow the link in our bio. 2019 Q4 is digitally published on our home screen so you can find and read this full piece. 🖤💫

Wendell is impacting the marketplace as a Brand Architect, transforming businesses through dynamic storytelling. His creative consultancy has collaborated with Red Hat (IBM subsidiary), Chiro-CEO (co-founded by Dr. Josh Axe), Tidelift, GiANT, and Lenovo. With 150+ hours in film and television, Wendell’s production portfolio includes Netflix, Discovery Channel, NBC, and CNN. Wendell is passionate about creating impactful experiences through written and visual storytelling. He lives in Nashville with his wife and newborn son.

Wendell Moon is a 2019 Q1 alumnus. Follow him here:

11/08/2020

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerso

29/07/2020

It’s brilliant. 2019 Q4 can be found for free on our website.
APA grew up in South Nashville. He works with refugees. He writes. He reads. He prays.
This poet can also be found in 2019 Q3, available for purchase AT COST ($2-$3 + shipping) from our printing partner. Link in bio > FIND COPIES > FROM OUR VENDOR.

13/07/2020

It’s been a long two months, right fam?

For a while, coronavirus consumed every waking moment.

Then, we were muted. A time to be quiet, reflect, and begin the process of unlearning decades of false-history and lies.

Then came the task of asking our selves how NPQ could best shift to better serve our poets during the pandemic.

Our founding mission was to print your poems. A huge part of that mission relied on the foot-traffic through our local partnerships: , , .golden.co, , . Today, that foot traffic just isn’t there; and our mission was never to be an echo chamber. We want to share your work with Nashville because we believe great poetry is worthy of recognition everywhere, but especially in an arts-centric city.

So, we’ve settled on a pause.

All print publications are suspended until distribution can resume like normal. If you’re reading this and you’re a 2020 Q1, Q2, or Q3 poet, we’ll be emailing you more details this week pertaining to your quarterly.

The online platforms will shift to features (after we finish up the remaining poems from 2019).

This has been a YEAR, y’all. Thanks for bearing with us as we fight to ‘keep the lights on.’

Remember, if you’re using our hashtag for digital features and we don’t know you personally already, we’ll be using your bio, geo-tags, photos of Nashville, or your DMs to verify your residency so keep your eyes peel for us in that pesky ‘general’ column.

It’s good to be back.

14/05/2020

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
— Johann wolfgang von Goethe

13/05/2020

We’re just gonna leave this... riiiiight.... here 🤗🔥🥳 !!!! 🙈🙏🏻🔥!!!! ✍🏻👀🔥🥳!!!! 🔥🔥🔥!!!!
Bay () is a 23 year old writer and curator who dwells in Nashville, Tennessee with her Husband, who is a full time musician, and their two Golden-doodles, Boomer & Ollie.
She started writing when she was young - at first it was songs, then poetry, and prose. Today, she still loves writing and considers it such a gift. For her, writing is about opening up and connecting with others.
Bay Rooney is a 2019 Q1 alumnus. Follow the poet here: !!! @ Nashville, Tennessee

10/05/2020

“It is the custom of every good mother after her children are asleep to rummage in their minds and put things straight for next morning, repacking into their proper places the many articles that have wandered during the day. If you could keep awake (but of course you can’t) you would see your own mother doing this, and you would find it very interesting to watch her. It is quite like tidying up drawers. You would see her on her knees, I expect, lingering humorously over some of your contents, wondering where on earth you had picked this thing up, making discoveries sweet and not so sweet, pressing this to her cheek as if it were as nice as a kitten, and hurriedly stowing that out of sight. When you wake in the morning, the naughtinesses and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind; and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on.”
— J.M. Barrie, The Adventures of Peter Pan

09/05/2020

📝🖤🔥 E.H. Hoffman is a poet based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Inspired by the likes of Charles Bukowski, Sylvia Plath, and Rainer Maria Rilke, she resonated at the age of 18 with the latter poet’s advice: “...confess to yourself you would die if you were forbidden to write.” Since then, she has only confessed that to herself more ardently every day. She enjoys hearty laughter, morning coffee dates with her cat ChiChi, and living in the fair city of Nashville.
Sometimes it’s better if we shut up and let the work speak for itself. 📝💪🏻🔥🥳.
Follow the poet here: .h.hoffman !!! @ Nashville, Tennessee

05/05/2020

This poem isn’t much longer than this, but we REALLY want you to go to our website and read the full version as well as the rest of the poems from 2019 Q4.
We think MM has perfectly captured a moment we’re sure you’ve experienced — we all know we have. And WOW, what a moment. Be sure to find her full poem on p.11 and read the final couplet!
Michelle M (MM) is a Nashville native, a lover of good fries, traveling, and being around good people. The poem featured in NPQ Q4 is the first poem she’s shared publicly. @ Nashville, Tennessee

30/04/2020

someone tell it to stop looking at us like that 📝🧐

28/04/2020

This poem by .music reminds us that poetry is always new. Like a sunset, you can revisit it a thousand times and always discover a different truth about life and light and the person watching — in this case, reading 🤓📖📚. We hope you’ll take time to read the full poem! 2019 Q4 downloadable as a PDF and FOR FREE live on our website. Print purchase option also available at COST. Link in bio.
XEAH is a poet and songwriter who explores the relationship between sexuality, the body, and spirituality. Former content creator for Fortune 500 clients, story consultant, and songwriter featured on major network television, XEAH’s mixed-media background helps her explore storytelling through visual, auditory, and literary devices.
Follow the poet and songstress here: .music. @ Nashville, Tennessee

26/04/2020

This poem is like watching an entire movie in less than 20 lines. And we are heeeere for it 🤩🎉 Goodness, what words!
Alexandria M. Rowland was born in Panama City, Panama to a shy Panamania woman, and a gruff American Naval Officer. Due to her upbringing, she spent most of her life believing that she should push down her emotions, which often spilled out as panic attacks. Alexandria’s poetic voice came during a period of spiritual healing, as a way to express her inner “secret” self. She is originally from Texas, but calls Nashville home.
Follow the poet here: . @ Nashville, Tennessee

18/04/2020

before the notes app 🤣🤳🏻💫
"I met the extraordinary American poet Ruth Stone, who's now in her 90s. She's been a poet her entire life. She told me that when she was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out working in the fields, and she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape. She said it was like a thunderous train of air, coming barreling down at her over the landscape, and she'd feel it coming, because it would shake the earth under her feet. She knew that she had only one thing to do at that point, and that was to, in her words, 'run like hell.' And then she would run like hell to the house, chased by this poem; she had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her, she could collect it, and grab it on the page. Other times she wouldn't be fast enough, so she'd be running and running but she wouldn't get to the house, and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it. It would continue on across the landscape, looking, as she put it 'for another poet.'

"And then there were times -- this is the piece I never forgot -- where she would almost miss it. So, she's running to the house, and she's looking for the paper, and the poem passes through her...and she grabs a pencil just as it's going through her...and then, she said, she would reach out with her other hand and she would catch it. She would catch the poem by its tail, and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page. And in these instances, the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards, from the last word to the first."
—
Big Magic / TED2009 “Your elusive creative genius”

16/04/2020

This poem has a lovely feel to it and we like it SO much 🌻🐝🤩!
Sarah Morris is an artist and Art History student living in Nashville. As in her ink drawings, her writing focuses on themes of the natural world, light and whimsical moments, and celebrating the small. She uses writing as a means of introspection, observation, and escapism.
Follow this wonderful poet on IG: . @ Nashville, Tennessee

12/04/2020

“Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.” – Paulo Coelho

12/04/2020

is a 2019 Q3 alum!
We had a hard time picking an excerpt for this one. A couple times I tried to share the whole poem it’s so good. Go sit with this one. It’s excellent and the perfect edition to your Safer At Home Friday night (It’s definitely Saturday, but who’s counting?). Page 5. Check it.
Ryan Gabriel Wilson is an undergraduate studying Creative Writing at Lipscomb University. His poetry explores the ideas and language surrounding relationships, growing to meditate on topics such as Darwin's finches, the killing of the moon, and the absence of the divine. Wilson hopes to begin pursuing a Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing in the Fall of 2020.
Follow the poet: . @ Nashville, Tennessee

10/04/2020

What’s on your TBR right now? Does reading fuel your writing?

07/04/2020

OPENING POEM 2019 Q4: 💪🏻📝🖤🎉 !!!
We cannot BEGIN to tell you how obsessed we all are with this poem. Last year, we requested poets to submit LGBTQ+ poems for us to feature digitally during Pride Week and I think we all collectively swooned when this one was read aloud. I swear I still randomly think “The corners of her mouth fold up like curtains” and I just start screaming wherever I am.
Read the full poem on our website (nashvillepoetsquarterly.com >> nashpoets.com will also get you there) & be sure to order your printed copy today!
Originally from Brooklyn, Stephanie Grattan is a children's Librarian and writer living in East Nashville with her giant black cat, Frank.
Her work is a stream of consciousness, trying to capture a moment exactly how it feels. Often funny, sometimes dark, always emotionally charged.
This is her fifth published piece. @ Nashville, Tennessee

06/04/2020

2019 Q4 is live on our website! Congratulations to our SIXTEEN poets. 🥳🎉 We can’t wait to share them with you all. You can see an image an bio for the entire quarterly on our website as well as read the winning entry of our featured poet, !
Go enjoy reading it easily on the mobile site, download your FREE PDF, & be sure to order your printed edition via the link on our homepage for just $2.35 + shipping.
No profits go to us, but the more we can get the word out for this edition, the better. Not being able to print and distribute as is customary for us has been a hard pill to swallow. Every like, share, and comment helps this editions poets get their words before the world! 📝🖤💫!!!
And during this time please don’t forget our partners whose doors are currently closed to the public! Liked follow, order to go/curbside, and donate as you are able to: , , .golden.co, , & . 🖤

04/04/2020

With this except from St. Rocco, we finish the digital features for 2019 Q3. What an EXCELLENT way to close this edition. It just feels right.
St. Rocco is many things, some holy and some perverse. It's been said of him that he is "an all together mess of a man", "insufferably kind", and "broad chested with the allure of a old lotarhio". You can spot this dancing saint roaming the streets of East Nashville looking for god knows what. If you want to join him in his pilgrimages of sin he would likely be delighted.
The poet would like to share his twitter handle: (🐥💙) and we would like to announce that we have also launched our twitter account! Our name was too long for the handle requirements and someone named Amanda Nash owns NashPQ, so we went with our other alias: !! If you use Twitter, follow us there!!
In more news, this week 2019 Q4 will be released on our website in lieu of print distribution. You can still receive a printed edition of the quarterly by visiting our chosen print vendor, . A direct link to all the available editions is on our website under FIND COPIES > FROM OUR VENDOR. These are available to you *at cost.* If you have questions, please DM me — the print staff is mostly unavailable for the time being. 📝🖤 @ Nashville, Tennessee

03/04/2020

To celebrate and commemorate our 2019 Q4 poets with every attempt to help their work reach a broader audience, we have launched our FB page.

Due to the unprecedented economic shifts in our local and global community due to the virus known as covid-19, we are currently unable to publish and distribute the quarterly as planned. The upcoming editions will still be available for all to purchase *at cost* ($2ish dollars/issue) through TheBookPatch -- the link to which can be found on our website: nashvillepoetsquarterly.com. The quarterly will also be available for all to view for free on our website in the next couple of days.

We would like to ask that, as you are able, please continue to support the small business that support our writers in the Nashville area: Stay Golden, CREMA, Steadfast Coffee, Americano Lounge, Sercy+Co.

So we extend our welcome and our thanks to you for being here. We hope you'll stay a while and share the compelling work you find here with your audience so these amazing artist can continue to grow theirs.

We are .

Nashville Poets Quarterly

14/01/2021

30/11/2020

06/11/2020

21/10/2020

06/10/2020

11/08/2020

29/07/2020

13/07/2020

14/05/2020

13/05/2020

10/05/2020

09/05/2020

05/05/2020

30/04/2020

28/04/2020

26/04/2020

18/04/2020

16/04/2020

12/04/2020

12/04/2020

10/04/2020

07/04/2020

06/04/2020

04/04/2020

03/04/2020

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