Voicemail Poems

last call for submissions for our fall issue! ⌛️ call & send in a poem by midnight pacific time to be considered ✨

one week left to submit! ⌛️ send us a poem 👻

“I dreamed of a canoe, and of the two of us”

- Devan Murphy

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/t...

The Urge is open for poetry and art!

Deadline: Sept 22nd!

engineidling.net

Flyer for Pigeon Pages Poetry Contest Deadline Extended! September 19 Winner receives $250 and publication Judged by Cecily Parks (There is also a photo of Cecily and images of yellow flowers)

Extension alert! We added a couple more days to our Poetry Contest! Send your poetry for our judge, Cecily Parks by this Friday; the winner will receive $250 and publication.

Find details in the nest and on Submittable: pigeonpagesnyc.submittable.com/submit

Stream "The Dawn Raids" by Cindy Kurukaanga by VOICEMAIL POEMS | Listen online for free on SoundCloud Chocolate Polynesian brown was beckoned to the land of the long white cloud to work in factories, freezing works, docks, was beckoned to work hard, send money back to islands of hibiscus and frangipa

Listen to Cindy's reading here:

“But dawn,
Because you hid behind the horizon
torches blazed, blinding,
breaking sleep and families
as parents were taken from screaming kids
to be jailed then charged then sent back to the islands
 
Dawn,
because you were silent,
because all murmurings were silenced.”

- @kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social

two more weeks to submit! ⌛️ send us a poem 🎃

A poem that’ll be in my forthcoming book, This Elegance, in the summer issue of @voicemailpoems.bsky.social ☕️

“My neighbor listens patiently, amused by my young life.
We’re the only Black gay men in our building,
so he has me over for Sunday tea. I fill our cups.
For the heart, he says, adding whiskey to his.”

- Derrick Austin (@paradiselaust.bsky.social)

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/s...

“sometimes at 10:37pm you need to change your life / so you do the next best thing / and you cut your hair”

- Sarena Brown

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/s...

we are currently accepting submissions for our FALL 2025 issue, & we'd love to hear from you! ✨🍁✨

voicemailpoems.org/submit

🧡 deadline october 1st 🧡

“There was happiness in 1930s Germany and at the end of Rome, too."

- Jill McLaughlin

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/p...

“we talked about the final moment
and how I might not make it
(I did, he waited)
 
we talked about how a summer would never
be enough time, as the days stretched out
my son, his namesake, waited in the cherry tree”

- Annie Powell Stone

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/m...

Stream "Let's Be Monsters" by Maia Brown-Jackson by VOICEMAIL POEMS | Listen online for free on SoundCloud Let’s be monsters. Let’s be witches and bitches and crones and just hideous. Let’s be powerful. Let’s take and take and take and grab the world, just fucking hold on with claws and teeth and refuse t

Listen to Maia's reading of "Let's Be Monsters" here:

soundcloud.com/voicemailpoe...

"Let's say,
This is for me.
This is because I want.
This is because I exist.
This is because I take up space,
as much as I want, & more,
& I survive despite your best efforts
to tamp me down,
& I will fucking wear my defiance
like a punch to the gut"

- Maia Brown-Jackson (@andyetpoetry.bsky.social)

“On Fridays, management makes movie popcorn
to celebrate the end of the week.
Why are we always so hungry?
The smell of fake butter is rich.
We follow it. We eat.”

- Jaime Jacques

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/k...

“the olive jar says you should take only nine, yet seventeen have passed through your teeth. it is okay. it will all, one day, be okay.”

- Annabelle Chen

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/g...

“Lake Berryessa, azure at our backs / the man from / Toluca slips me / lozenges from under his tongue / Spanish alive / in my mouth”

- Tatiana Chaterji

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/f...

"b/c one day i will want for nothing
b/c one day i will not want"

- Diandra Williams

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/d...

"What song do you serve your ears
the morning after your mom sends you home
with a peace flower
and you say goodbye in the dark
because it hurts to see?"

- @marissadesantis.bsky.social

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/b...

Excited to have a poem from This Elegance in the latest @voicemailpoems.bsky.social. Follow the link below to hear me read it as well as read and listen to the other fab poems in the summertime issue!

The Summer issue of Voicemail Poems is out and I’m over the moon to be in it!

#poetsofbluesky
#poetrycommunity

So excited to be included here!

🌊 summer issue's up! 🌊

ft. @marissadesantis.bsky.social, @paradiselaust.bsky.social, @kakapowhakatoi.bsky.social, @darkwebtofu.bsky.social‬, @andyetpoetry.bsky.social‬, & more!

voicemailpoems.org/2025/08/14/s...

last day to submit a poem for our summer issue! ⌛ call & send in a poem by midnight pacific time to be considered 💛

one week left to send us a poem for our summer issue ⏳

give us a call! 📞✨

"First rule of depression:
We don’t talk about depression."

- David J. Schast

voicemailpoems.org/2025/05/13/w...

glad to hear it! :)

“Uncle Loser taught his parrot all the best curse words to use on everyone except grandma & his daughters / We thought that damn bird was gonna outlive us all but she died early from lung cancer / Family Tradition”

- RJ Equality Ingram

voicemailpoems.org/2025/05/13/u...