Poetry Journals are Published in the Spring
I’ve been posting a new set of poems every quarter going back nearly six years. I don’t typically speak in terms of business calendars, but I started thinking in terms of quarters when my ex—a former Microsoft engineer and now do-gooder entrepreneur—asked me without any irony: “What quarter do poetry journals usually publish?” and I answered gleefully: “Poetry journals are not published in quarters? Poetry journals are published in the spring!”
You’re not supposed to post your poems publicly if you want them to appear in literary journals; I’ve been submitting my poems to journals regularly since March 2019, and I only posted my quarterly sets on a private blog. I’ve written 27 of these secret collections since starting with the 28-poem set Opposite Hex back in November 2017.
I just finished writing my Q1 2023 collection, This Sounds Perfect I Want to Find It. Again: I can’t share it here because I’ve submitted several of the poems to a bunch of literary journals.
As a way to catalog all these quarterly sets, though, I’m listing them below: The title of the collection (bolded and underlined), the date, and the titles of the individual poems; 289 poems to date.
A handful of these poems have since been published in the real world too, either in journals or in one of my two books. I’ve bolded those too and have noted where and when they appeared.
This Sounds Perfect I Want to Find It, January -March 2023
280. Weekend Crowds
281. Saturday, January 7
282. Parking Lot Orchestra
283. Vines
284. Metamorphoses
285. Tuesday, February 14
286. Hermes, I’m Only Dancing
287. The Turnstile Market RN
288. This Sounds Perfect I Want to Find It
289. Saturday, March 11
Let Your Side Hustle Shine, October – December, 2022
266. Biking and Woo-woo (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
267. Teenage Fragment
268. The Partridge Family Underworld Liberation Front (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
269. The Kindness of a Pharmacist
270. Vinyl, Mirror, Papyrus
271. Are They Friends of Your Daughter, Demeter? (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
272. By Possibility, I Mean
273. The Trip to My Parents’ House Used to be a Palindrome (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
274. Catasterism (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
275. I’m Not Telling Anyone I’m Here
276. Lust
277. Hermes, I’m Only Dancing
278. Thursday, December 22 (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
279. December 27th Thru January 1st
Isabel Eyeballs & Other Poems, July-September, 2022
248. The Woman in the Tide Pools Smiles (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
249. Mother of Demeter, Four Letters
250. Reaganism
251. Mistaken for Parks
252. Loops of leaves —Pentheus and Bacchus, Ovid’s Metamorphoses
253. The Scene of Scenes
254. Scene of Scenes
255. Last Night in Rockville, Pt. 1. Last Night in Rockville, Pt. 2
256. Testing for COVID at Midnight
257. When Poetry Arrives
258. Field of My Own
259. The Weight of Tram Wires in Lisbon
260. 14 Lines for Metropolitano de Lisboa
261. Isabel Eyeballs (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
262. Into the Parallel World
263. When Poetry Arrives
264. Uh oh. Someone Spilled Some Euros
265. Biking and Woo-woo (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
Only in Malady to Discover, April-June, 2022
240. To the 7-11
241. Saturday Night in the World
242. Only in Malady to Discover (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
243. Data Kid Dared Fate (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
244. Gifted
245. Five Best Falling Asleeps This Month
246. The Mystery of Mahmoud Hassan Pasha (revised)
247. The Woman in the Tidepools Smiles (publshed in my 2nd book, May 2023)
I’m Living My Best Sylvia Plath Life, January -March, 2022
230. Synesthesia Mistaken
231. A Tanka to Remember a Particular Friday Afternoon
232. The First View of the Earth from the Moon
233. Ancient City
234. A Tanka to Remember Our Ancient City (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in Novus Literary Arts Journal, May 2022)
235. Your Fine Beginnings
236. I'm Living My Best Sylvia Plath Life (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
237. The Spirit of the Food Truck
238. The Drum Machine at the Union
239. Aerodynamics
Lambent in the Hey Day of Different World, October – December, 2021
221. Coming Home Safe
222. What was Chuck Berry Thinking?
223. Vamp Philosophy
224. Instructions for Sabbath
225. Nervous System
226. The Night of Lady Day
227. Original DJs in Strife
228. U. District Station Tanka (published in my 1st book as “Infrastructure,” September, 2022 and published in Novus Literary Arts Review, May 2022)
229. It’s Projected to be the Biggest City in the World (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
The Night of Electric Bikes, July-September, 2021
213. Inevitably, Bildungsroman (published in my 1st book as “Athena Dethroned, September 2022 and published in my 2nd book as “Athena Dethroned,” May 2023)
214. These Flowers (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
215. Shadow Bus (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
216. Time at City Spectacles (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
217. Maybe Anemones
218. The Night of the Electric Bikes
219. City Exegesis (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in Novus Literary Arts Review, May 2022)
220. For New Year's Eve You Drew a Diagram (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
The Sidewalk is Parallel to the Sky & Other Poems, April -June, 2021
207. The Mystery of Mahmoud Hassan Pasha
208. The Sidewalk is Parallel to the Sky (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in High Shelf, April 2022)
209. Sonnet #5,659,674
210. A Different Kind of Light Left on, May Sarton (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
211. Having Just Been to the Graveyard Yourself
212. Obstacle Course (published in my 2nd book, May 2023 and published in Change Seven, October 2021)
I Swear They Were Here, January – March, 2021
200. Celebrant
201. Your Only Witness
202. Who’s Afraid of Susan Sontag?
203. New Year’s Resolution, January 2021
204. Urban Moon
205. Falsework (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
206. Evelyn McHale Chooses the Tallest Building in the City (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and in my 2nd book, May 2023)
Headstands with Nehru, October – December, 2020
189. In the Parking Garage Below, 16 Spots Open
190. Headstands with Nehru
191. Donald Trump Does Not Understand Elvis Presley
192. Seeking Narratives
193. The Young Pharmacists
194. Come In (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
195. L'histoire des émeutes
196. The Opposite of Fainting
197. Friday Per Se
198. Wayfinding (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
199. We are Now as Far Away
Essential Trips Only, July – September, 2020
177. An Epigraph Grows in Brooklyn
178. How to Change the Conversation
179. The Need for Renunciation (published in my 2nd book, May 2023 and published Vital Sparks, November 2021)
180. Adjusting Levels
181. An Appointment to Keep
182. Outer Space
183. Two City Perspectives (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
184. The Most Charming Time of Youth
185. Ode to My Teen Pottery Barn Faux-Fur Bean Bag Chair
186. Ms. DeMatteo's Art Class
187. There's No Longer an Excuse Not to Read the Autobiography of Malcolm X
188. Dave's Algorithm
Parks Without Fail, April – June, 2020
167. The Blooming Economy
168. Cities Not Gods
169. In the Course of Life’s Events (published in my 2nd book, May 2023 and published in Cathexis NW Press, December 2021)
170. In the Fields Upstairs
171. Arterial Turns
172. Leave This Meeting
173. Parks Without Fail
174. Electric Music for the Mind and Body
175. A Vegan’s Praise of Slaughter
176. The Defector
We Climb the Wild Hill Wary, January – March, 2020
157. Wayfinding on a Date with My Weird Girlfriend
158. The Airbnb of Innisfree (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
159. The Encyclopedia of Heresies (published in my 1st book, September 2022, published in my 2nd book, May 2023, and published in CircleShow, May 2020)
160. A Food Truck in the Old City (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
161. Bus Stop (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in Not a Press, October 2021)
162. Waveforms as They Are and as They Are Transformed
163. The Sound of the City
164. Sabbath Blesses Time Not Space
165. We Climb the Wild Hill Wary
166. Linc Wheeler Parking Lot
164. The Pizza Principle
165. Guest House
166. The Innisfree Light Rail Extension (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
I Decided to Take the Day Off Work, October-December, 2019
150. A Question of Their Own
151. Teen Titans
152. Afternoon at Rest
153. Upside Down Cross of Gold Speech
154. "What are the Words to White Man?" (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in the Halcyone Literary Review, June 2020)
155. Reliquary
156. Ric Ocasek Dream
Enchiladas are Served, August-October, 2019
144. The Transcontinental Railroad
145. Such a Great Ass Saturday
146. The Coronation of Summer (published in my 2nd book, May 2023, and published in the Lily Poetry Review, February 2020)
147. Linger Factor (published in my 1st book, September 2022, published in my 2nd book, May 2023, and published in Vallum, April 2021)
148. Sidewalk Plaque (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
149. Orange Julius
Shops Close Too Early, June & July, 2019
134. Home Remedy
135. Doldrums
136. Leave of Absence
137. From the Airport
138. If I Were Rich, I Would Commission Artists to Save the Cities (published in my 1st book as “Patron of Geography,” September 2022)
139. Word on the Street
140. Bunna Café
141. TBONTB (To Be or Not to Be) 1983
142. Dreaming After Reading Louise Glück
143. Dreaming after Reading Sylvia Plath
The Light Rail Blues & Other Planning Poems, Spring 2019
124. Teen Vogue Published My Villanelle
125. Station Access Planning (published in my 1st book as “Blue Balcony,” September 2022 and published in Bee House as “Blue Balcony” in August 2020)
126. Five Years
127. 1981
128. Not Even the Bernie Sanders/Hillary Clinton Debate Can Ruin This Perfect Day
129. 300 Riverside Drive
130. The Pedestrian Blues
131. Concerning Human Remains
132. The William Carlos Album Blues
133. The Green Piano
Outside, They’re Making All the Stops, February, March, April, 2019
116. I'm Delighted, My Young Avant-Garde Friend (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in Cathexis Northwest Press, December 2021)
117. Tehran Mary
118. Threepenny Policy Paper
119. Revelation to Genesis (published in Cathexis Northwest Press, October 2019)
120. On & Off
121. Lapsed Vegetarians
122. Lunch w Your Ex
123. City Planning Pantoum (published in my 1st book, September 2022, published in my second book, May 2023, and published in High Shelf, July 2019. This was the first poem I got published.)
Seven Modes of Thanksgiving, b/w Listen Closely Robot, November-December 2018
Seven Modes of Thanksgiving
97. Seven Modes of Thanksgiving
98. Tuesday
99. Wednesday
100. Thursday
101. Friday
102. Saturday
103. Sunday
104. Monday
Listen Closely, Robot
105. West Side Side Story
106. Feminism
107. The History of Fare Enforcement
108. Elf Power (published in my 1st book, September 2022, published in my 2nd book, May 2023, and published in Spillway, September 2019. This is the first poem I got accepted. It was accepted in April 2019.)
109. Marxist Decision
110. I’m Trained to See These Things
111. Sunday Night in a Blue City
112. Hafiz is the Guest of Honor at Hanukkah Dinner
113. Dinner (published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
114. Friday Night Orchestra
115. Safe House (January, 2019)
Center Platform, October-December, 2018
90. A Poem for My Daughter
91. Phenomenon
92. Whoever is Running Sound for this Dream
93. Center Platform
94. Pay Attention
95. Johnny Forget Keeps Track
96. Amy, Sad, Ranjit, Alyssa, Ann, & Paul
Flip the 26th, September-October 2018
80. Design Build
81. Jerry Garcia, You’re Tagged in this Tweet
82. A Science Fiction Novel I Will Write
83. Amplitude in the Micro Apartment
84. After the Dynasty
85. A Side of Black Beans Saves the Universe
86. On a Device Similar to a Ouija Board
87. Dead Sea Sonnet
88. Lax as AF
89. Bonus Single: 13 Ways of Seattle (Dub Version Remix)
The Subway Arts Movement, July -September, 2018
65. The Subway Arts Movement (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
66. Mode Fetishist
67. Fainting Spells
68. Art Transit
69. Down in the Tube Station at Midnight, East Coast Time
70. Families in Motion
71. City Arts Movement
72. Split Level
73. Stealth 4-Plex
74. Witchcraft Oriented Development
75. Peace in the Middle East or at the Columbia City Farmers Market, at Least
76. The City, Pro Se
77. A Good Ass Saturday
78. Welcome to the Night Market
79. Playing Hooky
When Headways are No Longer Measured in Buses, April-July, 2018
49. When Headways are No Longer Measured in Buses
50. You Had Me at Transport, Emily Dickinson (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in An Evening with Emily Dickinson/Wingless Dreamer, June 2021)
51. Crush Load (published in my 1st book, September 2022)
52. Last Night, the Mentalist
53. You May Also Like, 2018
54. Thirteen Ways of Seattle
55. Jewish Book Store, 11250 Georgia Ave. Wheaton, MD., 1971
56. Governance
57. Dance of the Seven Veils
58. Jews Will Not Replace Us
59. This Ain't No Disco
60. The Piano Teacher Said
61. Wrap My Arms Around the Parking Lot
62. A Tale of 2 Picnics & 1 Day-Glo Satanist
63. Heading Out the Door
64. Pedestrian Contradiction
Fear of Memphis, January –April, 2018
39. Dwell Time (published in my 1st book, September 2022, published in my 2nd book, May 2023)
40. Fear of Memphis
41. Ons & Offs
42. Advice to Robert Mueller (April, 2018)
43. I Can Never Quite Explain Why
44. Dub Shabbat
45. Chet Baker Version
46. The Official Remix
47. Nostalgia
48. Jenny Says to Revelate
Five More Poems, December, 2017
34. 1356 flat7 653
35. A History of Smart Girls
36. Dear, Bar Stool Historians
37. After Extensive Research
38. A History of the City
The Neighborhood Planning EP, December 2017
29. I Didn’t Predict Any of This (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in The Halycone Literary Review, June 2020)
30. Downtown is an Offset
31. How is This Year Going to End?
32. Neighborhood Planning
33. I Don’t Miss Journalism
Opposite Hex, August -November 2017
1. The Suburbs
2. Down with it, Innocence
3. Absolute Flâneurs
4. Piano Teachers Row
5. Checklist for Her Setlist
6. Opposite Hex
7. Water the Plants
8. Teenage Time Machine
9. Five Examples of Urban Alchemy
10. 22nd Avenue Greenway
11. Cosmic Lee & Me Still Hate Reagan
12. Seamless Summer
13. Annual Report
14. Desire Bench (published in my 1st book, September 2022 and published in Not a Press, October 2021)
15. Three Penny Theory
16. Purge City
17. The Case for Making Drivers Pay to Enter Downtown
18. I’m Looking Forward to What You Do
19. Environmental Benefits Statement
20. When You’re Sad on Sunday Night
21. Rebellions Embedded in Infrastructure
22. When the Cement Falls Off My Face
23. For the Worse?
24. Parking Dharma
25. Incidental Use
26. The City Canon
27. I Want to be Close
28. City Council Endorsement