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This week's poem - April 6-12, 2026
Stay with the painful thoughts
One poem, chosen from the archive each week. A slower way to return.
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Read by feeling and subject
These shelves gather the archive around grief, family, memory, tenderness, parents, longing, and the other ways readers actually come looking.
Memory
What stays. The moments that surface years later, uninvited.
No. 115
Access Revoked
A girl skipped a stone across a crystal lake, the ripples shatter the surface of your skin. You look down at the puddle in the starless darkness—
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No. 112
The dream
The plan and execution— A fool's errand: demanded retribution. A lust for justice that only exists,
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No. 111
On the steps outside of music class
On the steps outside of music class You taught me how to jump through time. The wrought-iron handrails,
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No. 104
The high-pitched call
The high-pitched call that escaped your chapped lips into the nighttime winter wind,
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Body
The physical fact of being alive — breath, skin, hands, sleep.
No. 113
Lightning Bug
I wish I could cup your tiny hands Around the shape of the lightning bug And hold that lonely glow—
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No. 107
The Champagne Ship
The champagne ship sailed through the night returning to a home washed over by the waves of the unknown.
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No. 33
Coruscate off her skin
One day you'll echo the never-ending Structures you built as a child In a meticulously conceived sanctuary,
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No. 21
The shards that slice your hands
Each pivotal moment, Each crucial scene, frozen in time, Buried deep beneath the protective membrane
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Survival
Getting through. The poems that sit with endurance.
No. 75
Or did you stay on the floor?
She disappeared down the hallway, And you watched her close the door. You walked back into your apartment
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No. 12
Those wounds stung
There will come a time When you must walk with the weight
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No. 111
On the steps outside of music class
On the steps outside of music class You taught me how to jump through time. The wrought-iron handrails,
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No. 77
I'll learn one day
To even think that I could teach you, When you already know so much. You'll know how much I'll need to hold you
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Shorter reads
The full archive
115 poems. Search, sort, or filter by number, theme tag, or lyric shelf.
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Lyric shelves
◆ Essential marks the ten anchor poems. Lyric shelves are a second way into the same room.
Showing 103 of 103 poems.
No. 1
The journey begins
Imagine I was right there with you
No. 2
Come back to you
One day you'll stand on the ledge of a rooftop
No. 3
You can
One day you'll meet a person
No. 4
And you are magic
Imagine a crystal vase
No. 5
In your arms
One day, when you're six years old
No. 6
So slip away
It's okay to
No. 7
Or leave before you
What if you got so good at lying
No. 8
You will achieve
One beautiful early fall day
No. 9
Yet the surface still, remains so perfect
The surface of the giant lake before you
No. 10
A word is worth one coin. Silence is worth two.
Sometimes, you just have to
No. 11
You're such a beautiful child
One day you'll watch
No. 12
Those wounds stung
There will come a time
No. 13
Remember the feeling
You look down
No. 14
Comes from love
I watched you with a 4-crayon pack,
No. 15
To shape your heart
When you leave home for the first time,
No. 16
The painting of paradise
Yesterday, through my translucent looking glass
No. 17
Bring your past selves to their feet
Treasure the time you have on stage,
No. 18
How will you begin?
Nights, years—nights, years—
No. 19
The greatest party you've ever seen in your life
The blank, beige canvas stands before you—
No. 20
Fill the shape
One day, you'll watch a friend receive
No. 21
The shards that slice your hands
Each pivotal moment,
No. 22
From the source
Don't pause, don't interrupt the flow
No. 23
Your warm breath
There's something you will do,
No. 24
The soft shadow
You see the shadow of the
No. 25
The shadow dance for your escape
Shut your eyes when you know
No. 26
Tangled up inside
It's not someone else's job
No. 27
What can you do now to prepare?
The real test will come
No. 28
Let's walk together
You don't yet know me, but I know
No. 29
Hold close the messenger
One day, you'll discover a way to
No. 30
What did the man in the black cowboy hat say?
The truth of certain words
No. 31
The real prison
Don't let your power of choice
No. 32
Know that it's coming
Know that it's coming:
No. 33
Coruscate off her skin
One day you'll echo the never-ending
No. 34
That syncopated rhythm
Listen closely to
No. 35
That only you can feel
The absence of a guiding hand,
No. 36
Cherish the click
Cherish the click.
No. 37
So use your own
You never yearned to hear
No. 38
What happens next
The flame begins to burn
No. 39
Don't let it build
There are so many reasons.
No. 40
A calculated leap across the darkness
Remember the vision
No. 41
Stay with the painful thoughts
Imagine compassion built from the
No. 42
The inner spark
Don't let the thing you needed most,
No. 43
Think deeply before you
Think deeply before you
No. 44
The times you were held
The times you were held
No. 45
The life that you escaped
A thousand fun-house mirrors arrayed
No. 46
The underground snake-ship,
The underground snake-ship,
No. 47
The jacket you wore all last
The jacket you wore all last
No. 48
Invisible prisons you locked yourself in
The long coupon bus rides
No. 49
The domino cascade
How can you enhance the vision of
No. 50
Your intuition knew
You'll never forget when you feel magic.
No. 51
Until you find the color
Can you arrange the blocks
No. 52
Notice the tremors in your
Notice the tremors in your
No. 53
Out of any other
How does it look through
No. 54
But you still needed
I'm sorry I never spoke to you on the steps.
No. 55
Revisit the darkness
What force draws you back to walk
No. 56
All the times you felt the music stir
All the times you felt the music stir
No. 57
Remember when you
Remember when you
No. 59
One day you'll wake up from a
One day you'll wake up from a
No. 60
As the fire grew within
The Walkman on the long rides throughout
No. 61
Sleeping on the couch in the old house
Sleeping on the couch in the old house
No. 62
Indistinguishable from silence
Sometimes the screams grow so loud
No. 63
I want to see you after you practice for
I want to see you after you practice for
No. 65
Conceive the next magic trick
The energy you spent dismissing
No. 66
Imagine you could watch
Imagine you could watch
No. 67
She appeared like a sparkling shimmer
She appeared like a sparkling shimmer
No. 70
Use your instrument
You understood the sound of
No. 71
How special it is when you find the
How special it is when you find the
No. 73
In the ghost light
You jumped the fence
No. 74
You touched the cloud
Butterflies and secret sparks
No. 75
Or did you stay on the floor?
She disappeared down the hallway,
No. 77
I'll learn one day
To even think that I could teach you,
No. 79
And everyone is transformed
When you hear the piercing cry for help
No. 81
Let the wind die down
What you didn't have—
No. 83
As if you both knew
You can't grasp what you'd most wish.
No. 84
As your lungs fill
The pull of return from the
No. 86
The escape with no roadmap
The escape with no roadmap
No. 87
The dewdrops of your dreams
It's the words scrawled past the margins
No. 88
How'd you know the echo of colors
How'd you know the echo of colors
No. 89
Beyond the override
When the clouds wash off your face
No. 90
Freeze-frames
Each of the freeze-frames of your worst
No. 91
Where dreams emerged...
Please don't take away the early mornings
No. 92
Ribbons
Ribbons unfurl and dance across
No. 93
Tracing the beautiful illusion of control
The mazes you drew in red and orange
No. 95
A chamber of the overcome
You'll be taken back one day
No. 97
The argument against war
To dance beneath the moonlight
No. 98
One day, on a corner, waiting for the light to change,
One day, on a corner, waiting for the light to change,
No. 99
The shadow of a dark cloud you felt
The shadow of a dark cloud you felt
No. 100
The bars, the windows,
The bars, the windows,
No. 101
One summer night, you'll glimpse infinity.
One summer night, you'll glimpse infinity.
No. 102
Off the Avenue
Oh, how I wished I could have been driving
No. 103
Disrupt the continuum
There may be days
No. 104
The high-pitched call
The high-pitched call
No. 105
If one kid reads this
I wish I could have warned you.
No. 106
Don't fucking listen.
You don't have to lie.
No. 107
The Champagne Ship
The champagne ship sailed through the night
No. 108
The unexpected voice only sounds familiar
The unexpected voice only sounds familiar
No. 109
Only by stripping the partial shrouds
Only by stripping the partial shrouds
No. 110
Bougainvillea
I watched her hair catch fire
No. 111
On the steps outside of music class
On the steps outside of music class
No. 112
The dream
The plan and execution—
No. 113
Lightning Bug
I wish I could cup your tiny hands
No. 114
She wrote
She wrote
No. 115
Access Revoked
A girl skipped a stone across a crystal lake,
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