Thrush Poetry Journal

15/07/2024

Please enjoy the July issue of THRUSH!

Intaglio Mike Bagwell Then Gone Clara Carl Action Adam Deutsch The Heron Anna Girgenti All Good Here Charlotte Maiorana The Eyes of Christ in a Splinter of Stained Glass Stacy R....

20/05/2024

Please enjoy the May 2024 issue of THRUSH!

grief is born of fullness Jane Attanucci Winter Reckoning Michelle Bitting carnage of a furred mammal Sophia Holtz Two Poems Sophie Kaiser Rojas Broken Hearts Greg McBride

13/05/2024

Our May issue will be available Monday, May 20!

18/03/2024

Our March issue is now live! Enjoy!

[a woman who is part-mother tells me, if you had gotten pregnant ] Mackenzie Kozak Marcescence Natalie Martell Aubade with Urban Stallions Jared Jimenez Maxilom This Place of Broken Words...

09/03/2024

The March issue of THRUSH will be released - Monday, March 18!

22/01/2024

Please enjoy our January issue!

Maladaptive Dana Blatte Last Attempt Sophie Klahr Postdrome: Another day lost Annie Pittman Self-Portrait as Three Cubic Feet of Compost Hayden Saunier Since You’re Alive Martha...

12/01/2024

Our January 2024 issue will be live on Monday, January 22, 2024!

02/12/2023

"Reading Jane Hirschfield at 6AM"

After the rain all night, Jane crosses my silent path
to continue hers.
I follow her across the room
to reach the lamp—​
turn it on, turn it off, turn it on.

Anastasia Vassos, November 2023 issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal

At the Corn Maze, I Wait —​ Rebecca Brock Before/After Adam Deutsch Per Diem Heath Joseph Wooten How Is It Fitting Susan Grimm Two Poems Talia Isaacson Reading Jane Hirschfield...

30/11/2023

"Economy of Scale"

At the wash station,
J explained how get the greens dry: crank

the orange spinner against your sternum. So hard
it leaves a mark. I love when that bruise

comes back, she said.

Talia Isaacson, November issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal

Georgic: Stutter I knew what I wanted. Train anything enough and it’ll fit into...

27/11/2023

"Georgic: Stutter"

I knew what I wanted. Train anything enough and it’ll fit into place.
On Tuesdays, we trellised with rolls of twine and a square knot.
Pinch the suckers, stretch the vine. Little yellow flowers, right where
we expected them. The woody bases, bare as my wrist.

Talia Isaacson, November 2023 issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal

Georgic: Stutter I knew what I wanted. Train anything enough and it’ll fit into...

27/11/2023

We're pleased to announce our Pushcart Prize nominees. Please join us in congratulating these wonderful poets:

Triin Paja, "Windswept Field Whispering"

Jeff Whitney, "A Place You Once Lived"

Anne Champion, "Time"

Matthew Gellman, "So Much Light"

Roseanna Alice Boswell, "On Seeing a Man Open-Carry Into An Ice Cream Shop"

S. J. Ghaus, "Birthday Poem For A Dying World"

Bronwen Butter Newcott, "Outlines"

Pushcart Prize 2023 Nominations Windswept Field Whispering Triin Paja A Place You Once Lived Jeff Whitney Time Anne Champion So Much Light Matthew Gellman On Seeing a Man Open-Carry...

25/11/2023

"How Is It Fitting"

It’s probable that Olympus is fenced off like Stonehenge or the Glacial
Grooves which have their own state park. Yet still Eros and Athena

show up in people’s poems. Cupid. The wrath of Zeus/Jupiter—​whichever
name. It makes a good story and everyone loves to have stuff explained

by the flawed power of the gods.

Susan Grimm, November issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal

How Is It Fitting ​ It’s probable that Olympus is fenced off like Stonehenge or the Glacial Grooves which have their own state park. Yet still Eros and Athena show up in people’s poems....

22/11/2023

"Per Diem"

Seeing you, I regretted my fascination
with fruit. I tried to believe I was divine.
I found I was atomized like language or
spit. You, meanwhile, remained a
molehill. A ripe night.

Heath Joseph Wooten, November issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal

Per Diem ...

20/11/2023

"Before/After"

A three-year-old is pushing his own
wind at birthday candles,

everyone talking to everyone else
in a candid phone photo, each

glass jar at windows’ sills
is a tiny ecosystem...

Adam Deutsch, November 2023 issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal

​ Before/After A three-year-old is pushing his own wind at birthday candles, everyone talking to everyone else in a candid phone photo, each glass jar at windows’ sills is a tiny ecosystem,...

18/11/2023

"At the Corn Maze, I Wait—​"

My firstborn—hesitates.
For a moment, he tends
toward me. But, yesterday,
he shouted, like a man:
I am a different person than you!
And I said, looking up at him,
like a fool: I know that, I know.
A mother knows everything.
And then, nothing.

--Rebecca Brock, November 2023 issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal

At the Corn Maze, I Wait —​ My body an old wound, always healing. I am used to waiting. My husband, my youngest son, go without looking back. My firstborn—hesitates. For a moment, he tends...

15/11/2023

The November issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal is live. Please enjoy the poems!

At the Corn Maze, I Wait —​ Rebecca Brock Before/After Adam Deutsch Per Diem Heath Joseph Wooten How Is It Fitting Susan Grimm Two Poems Talia Isaacson Reading Jane Hirschfield...

06/11/2023

Please look out for the newest issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal on November 15!

14/10/2023

"I Need to Tell You Something"

I need to tell you something
I've always had my own ideas
pay attention

Kelly Cressio-Moeller, September 2023, THRUSH Poetry Journal

The Body Golden ​

09/10/2023

"Psalm for the Wolf and the Lamb"

He leaps
whatever path he wants to wilderness.

He leaves the ninety nine for one. Are you
the wolf or wandered sheep?

John Poch, September 2023, THRUSH Poetry Journal

Psalm for the Wolf and the Lamb The sheep sense what the wolf would love but cannot do because the shepherd keeps his eyes upon the flock. Anonymous, he needs no introduction or word of his...

05/10/2023

"Notes for a New Poem"

Speak as
you were
meant to speak.
Let it be
pre-language.
Let a stone
be only a stone.
A moon hung
uncommitted
in a velvet sky.
Avoid the big
questions.

Alicia Hoffman, September 2023, THRUSH Poetry Journal

Notes for a New Poem Let it dwell in infinite possibility for a while. Have patience for the threshold. Good luck making it sublime. Eschew structure, but more important, eschew words like eschew....

03/10/2023

"Birthday Poem For A Dying World"

Tomorrow is my birthday, and our collective decline rails
quick as a robin’s beak, gulping down a hatchling worm.
There’s a math to this. Every day, the ocean a little warmer,

the land a little more quiet. All around me, people
are dying.

S. J. Ghaus, September 2023, THRUSH Poetry Journal

Birthday Poem For A Dying World I say my thanks: to teaspoons of bleach, to the cotton mask hanging on a nail. I’m quarantined and the sun still sets. I still run, every day, past the...

30/09/2023

"So Much Light"

To know my mother before the mishap
of her early marriage, how she walked

to school each morning of her girlhood,
a rudiment, wringing ice from her hair,

her head turned down and silent
as a sacrifice to wind.

--Matthew Gellman, September 2023,THRUSH Poetry Journal

So Much Light The cracked blue leaf of cemetery that used to make me falter. Where else could my mind slow-hum its hours of practiced evasion? Childhood’s smell of tin-bright cold and...

27/09/2023

"the body, golden"

the body
golden
sparkled
sacred
Then vanlished.

--Kelly Cressio-Moeller, September 2023, THRUSH Poetry Journal

The Body Golden ​

25/09/2023

Please enjoy the September issue of THRUSH Poetry Journal.

​Two Poems Kelly Cressio-Moeller So Much Light Matthew Gellman Birthday Poem For A Dying World S. J. Ghaus ​ Notes for a New Poem Alicia Hoffman Psalm for the Wolf and the...

21/09/2023

If you visited our Thrush Poetry Journal website today, we apologize for the site being down intermittently due to technical issues with our web host. We worked with the provider to get back up and running at 100%. We appreciate your patience!

21/09/2023

Please look out for our brand-new September issue on Sept. 25!

17/08/2023

"Ode to Effexor"

I can remember my history of feelings-
I have a long record of heartbreak
and fear, but I can't feel them
in the part of me that feels things,
that deep inner sob place has a fence built
around its edges.

—Stevie Edwards

15/08/2023

"March, the Garden"

The catmint and lamb's ear have already spread far past
what we intended, but we aren't merciless enough to trim them,

and though there has been little rain, the desert willows
leaf out. The bees dance their maps
before there is nectar anywhere.

—Chera Hammons

13/08/2023

"The Stillness"

The wings' slow spread, the mist-
webbed field:
our day began like a horoscope

or dream scattered with archetypes
in which your teeth fall into a well

—Christine Marshall

11/08/2023

"The world sings, wild with the light"

Easy come, easy gone
deluge blues
the world sings

--James Diaz
July 2023, THRUSH Poetry Journal

The unyielding light ​