Poems for Persons of Interest

 Usually it's just poems and announcements here, but for a change here's a slice of life -- my life. It originally appeared on our Substack (which features a new poem of mine almost every day and which you might want to subscribe to). About three months ago, I found myself unable to pay my rent. My work as a freelance instructional designer, writer and editor had been becoming increasingly less lucrative for years, and the rise of AI tools meant that more and more clients now had a way to produce “good enough” training materials for far less than I could charge for better materials. The math wasn’t mathing, as they say. I applied for time-limited provincial income support (less than half my rent). I signed up for Food Bank hampers. I worried I would end up on the street. In the end, a friend who’s also a struggling freelancer and an artist (in her case a visual artist) came through with a place to live — a room in her house for far less than the two-bedroom suite I’d been renti...

 We have a Substack! For a month now, Editor-in Chief Alex Rettie has been posting a poem a day, along with news from Poems for Persons of Interest. Check it out here , and if you like what you see, consider subscribing.

We're very pleased to announce that Sarah Adeyemo is PFPOI's new Poetry Editor, working with Editor-in-Chief Alex Rettie to create a venue for poets and poems from around the world. Sarah, a  Nigerian poet, and spoken word artist, has authored one poetry collection  The Shape of Silence, and has   work in or soon to appear in  The Muse Journal ,  The Weganda Review ,  Everscribe Magazine ,  The Shallow Tales Review ,  Northern Writers Forum Journal ,  Eboquills , Rinna Lit. Anthologies, and elsewhere. 

Eric Thomas Norris is a poet living in Portland, Oregon. His poems have appeared in:  Impossible Archetype, One Poetry Journal, Trinity House Review, Ambit, Foglifter, Assaracus, E-Verse Radio, Soft Blow, The Raintown Review , and many other journals. His book publications include:  Astronomy for Beginners  and   Letters from Oblivion .   Eric writes: This is a reworking of W.H. Auden’s poem ‘A Walk After Dark.’ I continue Auden’s poem from darkness into a more doubtful morning in America. This poem was originally published in Lovejets: Queer Male Poets on 200 years of Walt Whitman, by Squares & Rebels Press, in 2019. A Walk in the Park (after W.H. Auden) Midnight, mackerel, pearly pink, More colors than two eyes can count, Send my spirits soaring through The stratosphere, astonished by How easily last night became Today. Yes, the stars go out, Like clockwork, as they always do, At dawn. Walking off my run, A young Marine sprints past — light speed — G...

B. N. Faraj  is a writer and poet living in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Detroit and a master’s from the University of Michigan. He is currently putting the finishing touches on a translation of a collection of classical Arabic poems. His latest work appears in the literary magazine  Transference  and the anthology  Mother, a Title Just above Queen. B.N. writes: " The appointment is not for life anymore. And that invites others to start calling him “Former Laureate,” once the appointment is over. But it gets even worse when he starts calling himself so. And that’s something no poet should be subjected to. One would think the Fifth Amendment afforded such protection. With sincere sympathies to Billy Collins, hoping that he wasn’t completely damaged by the experience and that he’s finding life bearable as a former laureate!" Former Laureate It’s such a fleeting thing that thing      One day you have it, then ...