One Poem More gathers all of this week’s poems from One Poem Only—an unhurried chance to listen again, or catch what you missed.

This week’s poems

1. Operating Instructions for the Day After Your Best Friend Tells You He Supports Genocide by Jané Dowd
2. Swan Dive by Maia von Maltzahn
3. Cycles by S. Salazar
4. An Emblem of Wounds by Henry Opeyemi
5. mortal perch by Amanda Thuy
6. A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe

Plus one new one to carry us into the week ahead

Cling to Me

Maggie Devers

I lay on the California coast

Listening to the waves

Looking out to the Santa Monica mountains

And nestle into the earth like a lover

hunting out the soft spot near your collar bone

Or a toddler, shyly hiding behind your knee,

peering out only to retreat into the smooth safety of a joint

The parts where we come together are the most tender

I realize as I drag my fingers through the damp sand, bits of ocean foam clinging to its surface

Life unfolds in the crevices

At first we grow curled up and long for the pressure of the womb once we are born

Then we learn to grow by stretching

To unfurl our limbs

So when we find ourselves in a tight spot we burrow deeper to feel safe

We grow roots that entwine with the roots of those we love

We learn to trust the tender parts as we come together

More from Maggie Devers ↓

1. My debut poetry collection, For My Daughter, available as an audiobook.
2. Purchase a signed copy of For My Daughter or get one free by subscribing to the podcast: One Poem Only on Patreon
3. Follow me on Instagram for more poetry @rembrandts.cure

More from this week’s poets

Find links to each poet’s work, books, and social accounts in the show notes for the individual episodes.

Support + Stay Connected to OPO

If you’d like to support the show, Substack and Patreon members receive a copy of my book, For My Daughter, along with episodes from the audiobook.

Poetry is better when it’s lived with. Thank you for listening.

Mentioned in this episode:

Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem Only

Write After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.

#WriteAfterOPO