Chen Chen

keep your wonder alive, keep your aliveness alive

the great adventure of living while very very gay

love a crisp fall day with a high of 82°

When someone dies, we go searching for poetry.

But I want elegies while I’m still alive... I want ballads, I want ugly, grating sounds, I want repetition, I want white space... and even center-aligned italicized poems that rhyme, and most of all — feelings.

—Jenny Zhang

something that can be so tough is Everything

Sixth Finch Books Sixth Finch Books

from Rick Barot’s gorgeous new chapbook, The Emperor of the Cut Sleeve, out now from Sixth Finch: sixthfinch.com/store.html

Write into the smudge in the painting where the pink lays into the green. Write into the plush of his lower lip. Write into the light pouring from the oculus above the baroque courtyard. Write into the whippoorwill that sings each morning, bringing in the morning. The two old balloons caught in the branch outside the fourth-floor window. The sky and its gray flannel suit. Write into the person practicing scales but practicing them out of order. Write into the honey. The story he told about the hierarchies of honeybees. The story he told about the man mummified in honey. Write into his white hands. Write into the smell of pomade. Write into the smell of August, a thug of a smell. Write into each trivial but astonishing trick, like roller-skating backwards or snipping thread with your teeth. Write into the rain. Write into its fall, knowing that the only god you can know is gravity.

Write into the honey.

...

Write into the rain.

—Rick Barot

i am meant to be cute at cute cafes, like that’s my destiny, and too much time away makes me despondent, like it makes me fucking wither

eavesdropping on the homosexuals as well as the bisexuals: a craft essay in the form of community gossip

🪶 ✨ Join us Thurs, 10/23 @ 7 PM ET on Zoom for a workshop with @chenchenwrites.bsky.social! We'll explore a poetry form using only the letters in your name. Discover how this constraint boosts creativity through examples and hands-on creation. 🎟️ More & Register: chenchen2025.eventbrite.com?aff=Bsky

thinking about luke and lorelai

no i love the temperature love it i just need the sun to keep setting at 8:00pm thanks

Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.

—Lucille Clifton

📣 NEW RELEASE ALERT! 📣 Boa Editions is thrilled to announce that Aracelis Girmay's new collection of poetry GREEN OF ALL HEADS is out now! We have signed paperbacks and hardcovers for sale on our store in limited supply! Purchase yourself a copy today at boaeditions.org. Spread the word🍃

p.s. i am very much working on my third book of poems 🥸

thanks to Jeff for taking this pic (once i remembered it was my book bday on the next day lol)

thank you to everyone who’s supported this book in one way or another 🫶

thank you @boa-editions.bsky.social & to @bloodaxebooks.bsky.social for publishing the UK edition (see my IG for more pics)

thank you Vincent Chong (crystalmonkeycalligraphy on IG) for the US cover art. & to Muriel Leung (murmurshewrote on IG) for the UK cover art

i’m standing outside holding a copy of my second book, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency. i’m wearing a black cap, black glasses, a black, partially see-thru shirt, black shorts, white socks, & black sneakers. i’m also carrying a small bag with colorful floral design

oh! my second book just turned three!! happy third bday, emergency contact!!!

love caring about commas in the, uh, current landscape

love getting to the "But is this comma right" stage of editing and losing my mind

i have no memories: a memoir

but i can't remember a thing: a memoir

what a weird week

title of the poem: "When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities"

love teaching this poem by @chenchenwrites.bsky.social so much and cannot wait for students to dive in today!

so important to be hot AND funny AND sad

i love how if just one line is wrong in a poem the whole thing is wrong (currently trying to revise One Line)

i love a long meandering conversation about the heart with a friend. about OUR HEARTS. and outfits

i am not nonchalant about anything, i am so chalant, the chalantest guy who's ever chalanted

ugh there really is Something about late summer. a joy that is a sad at the same time

we need more queer lactose intolerant representation in the arts