Here’s your recap of this week’s poems plus one new poem to carry us into the week ahead.

Dec 29 - Eclipse of the Self by Ruvaani @ruvaani.unclaimed on Instagram. Her book, The Sunken Daffodil, is out now.

Dec 30 - Cold Plunging by Kristin Yates @beautefantasy on Instagram. You can find links to her published work on her Linktree.

Dec 31 - Of love and hell by Kajal @mermaidspen_ on Instagram and @mermaidspen on Substack.

Jan 1 - New Dawn by Benedicta Kyeremaa Addai @Kyere_mah on Instagram. She was published in the anthology, Ancestors, answer me, a compilation of shortlisted poems entered into the 2025 New Voices Poetry Contest Curated by Creative Project Ghana. The New Voices Contest was born from a desire to give poetic voices in Ghana a platform to celebrate the richness of Ghanaian expression, language and imagination. A copy of the anthology can be found at the website of New Voices Poetry Contest or Creative Ghana Project on Instagram.

Jan 2 - January Born by JC @theincidentalpoet on Instagram and Substack.

Jan 3 - "My heart is a museum of every person I've ever loved" by Megan Phillips @metaphor_megg on Instagram. Her book, Uncomfortably Present, is available now.

Jan 4

Crawl Space

Maggie Devers

This was the year of the snake

But I didn’t realize it until the end

Now I feel free from my itchy skin

Like emerging from the steam room

Pores open, every ounce of old squoze out

The beginning of the year brought exit,

Retreat from our burrow until the fire subsided

This summer we saw a rattle on the trail

They sun themselves right in the middle of the footpath

Your vibrations alert them to exit before you see them

Unless they’re feeling particularly drowsy

And who hasn’t felt slow half napping in the midday light

We crashed out of fall and into winter with a jolt

It was impossible to move until we found release

In slithering along the sand to the sea

Where we could dig our toes in

And recall our feet, polish them new with the grit

And mummer to our insides how glad we were

To be cartwheeling as the sun set on the snake

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

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