The Chaos Section Poetry Project

This project has always been about connection and community. Grateful to Melissa Lemay for this thoughtful interview on Collaborature and for being part of that spirit from the start. #RecordOfDissent #ProtestPoetry #Interview

Honored to have a new #poem, “Notes Toward an Autopsy of a Republic,” in the November issue of Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, published alongside such amazing work from @julielmoore23.bsky.social, David Lee, Jim Tilley, and more. Great fiction and editorial too! mobiusmagazine.com/index.html

The rainy sky the other night 🌙 🌧

That moment
when acceptance
stays,

folds itself
into your being,
no longer

wavering.

The back-
and-forth-ness,
the dissonance,
gone.

They fed the dark
and then wondered
why the dark -

ever hungry -

swallowed
them
whole.

#BlueSkyRelay #TheyFedTheDark #poem #poetry #grief #photography

Funny guys in your govt, USA.

Poetry That Breaks the Rules—and Works Broken Rengay: Unruly Poetry by Nolcha Fox, Melissa Lemay, and Barbara Leonhard(Prolific Pulse Press, 2025) Melissa Lemay, who readers will recognize from Record of Dissent, is back with a new coll…

Review of Broken Rengay: Unruly Poetry, a sharp, playful collaboration by Melissa Lemay, Nolcha Fox, and @barbaraleonhard.bsky.social, published by #ProlificPulsePress. It’s inventive, funny, and full of life. Like jazz in verse. thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/2025/10/28/b... #BrokenRengay #Poems

The Poetry Project is about, well, poems, obviously. But our essay division is reading too. If you’re interested in saying something in prose, we’d love to read it. #Essay #Submissions

Narrowing dozens of powerful poems down to 6 #Pushcart nominations was no easy task. Every poem in the collection was worthy. thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/2025/10/26/p...

@merrildsmith.bsky.social @mehpoeting.bsky.social @mother-poet.bsky.social @bartbarkerpoet.bsky.social @merhere.bsky.social

Congrats, Rachel!

The grey sky felt low,
like it ended in the
troposphere,

nothing
above and suffocation
below -

I drove, mind fogged
and, like the earth,
in a bell jar of my own.

I came upon
a neighborhood
destroyed by storm,

foundations still there
with thresholds leading
to naught.

#poetry #depression

Record of Dissent contributor Adam House thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/2025/07/04/m...

"In the dark times
will there also be singing?
Yes, there will be singing.
About the dark times."
- Bertolt Brecht

"We are the ones we have been waiting for."
- June Jordan

"Be joyful though you have considered all the facts."
- Wendell Berry

#TrumpProtest #NoKings #ProtestPoetry

“No, Speaker Johnson — the No Kings rally on October 18 is not a hate America rally. In fact, it’s quite the contrary: It’s a love America rally.” #NoKings

a man wearing sunglasses and a watch is making a funny face and says poetry snaps . ALT: a man wearing sunglasses and a watch is making a funny face and says poetry snaps .

Sitting down tonight to really dig into our Chaos Section Poetry Project submissions! Excited to read what was sent in.

@nickallison80.bsky.social I promise I will catch up to you!!! 😆

@chaossectionpoetry.bsky.social

#poetry
#chapbook
#booksky
#FDT
#Trump
#America

#Trump #escalator

I originally wrote this with the theme of the second Chaos Section #chapbook in mind, but ultimately I decided to use different poems for this issue - including one filled with simple joys. But right now... I am feeling this one.

@chaossectionpoetry.bsky.social

#poem #poetry #GunViolence #trump

Submissions for our next Chaos Section Poetry Project chapbook are now closed. Huge thanks to everyone who shared their work with us. Our little team will be reading over the next couple weeks and then getting back to everyone with decisions. Grateful for all the voices adding to this chorus!

Tomorrow, October 1st, is the final day to submit to Coping Mechanisms, the next Chaos Section Poetry Project chapbook.

Send us your poems on survival, resilience, rituals, humor, or whatever gets you through.

thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/submissions/

You have until October 1st! 😂

Reading Period Extended: Coping Mechanisms We’ve already received some strong submissions for our upcoming collection Coping Mechanisms, but we know September is a busy month — for us too! To give everyone a little more breathing …

Submission deadline extended: October 1st. Send us your poems on survival, resilience, humor, rituals, or whatever gets you through! #PoetryOfResistance #CopingMechanisms #Poetry #Submissions #Poems #Chapbook
thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/2025/09/18/r...

#Poetry #Submission deadline extended.

A few folks have asked for a little more time to send their submissions… and honestly, we could use a little more time too! Submission window open till October 1st.

thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/submissions/

Violence Begets Violence

Uncle Sam There was a manNamed Uncle Sam.He bucked a kingAnd claimed the land.Oversaw his family… Brotherhood of manTurned as Uncle SamSaw red for to sing,Trails of tears across the land.Educating the …

Uncle Sam as hypocrite, warrior, preacher, bigot…sing-song rhyme masking a brutal ledger of America’s sins. A sharp new #protest #poem by Adam G. House

#AntiFascistArt #SpeakTruth
#PoetryAgainstHate #UncleSam #JusticeAndPoetry #CopingThroughPoems

thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/2025/09/10/u...

Are We Still The People? My fellow Americans… The ones who would remind us of the Boston Massacre,and Washington’s winter soldiers,Who celebrate independence,Bucking despots ever bolder. Then light the fuse and swim …

History calls us to remember Boston, abolition, Normandy and asks if we’re still those people, or if we’ve bowed to an orange man-god. Adam G. House’s new poem is live.
#AmericanPoetry #Resist
#ProtestPoetry #WethePeople #PoetryOfWitness #Trump

thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/2025/09/10/a...

Wonderful poems submitted so far. Still time to get yours in!

Ellen Bass’s “The Thing Is" beautifully captures the stubborn strength it takes to carry on when things feel broken. Our upcoming collection is gathering poems that explore coping in all its forms. Submissions open through Sept 15. thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/submissions/
#poetry #submissions

Langston Hughes's poem "I look at the world" was written in 1930 but was not published until 2009 when it was discovered in pencil at the back of his copy of "An Anthology of Revolutionary Poetry" and published in Poetry magazine. #LangstonHughes #Protest #Poetry #BlackVoices #Resistance #Oppression

Submissions Submissions Are Open! Theme: Coping MechanismsSubmission Deadline: Monday, September 15, 2025Publication Date: Winter 2025 Our first publication, Record of Dissent: Poems of Protest in an Authorita…

We are collecting poems about Coping Mechanisms for our next publication. If you’d like to submit, follow the link below. Thank you.
#poetry #submissions #opencall #poets

thechaossectionpoetryproject.com/submissions/

“Ignorance allied with power is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
- James Baldwin

Understory: A Full-Color Anthology for Hurricane Helene Recovery Understory is a full-color print anthology created in the early months after Hurricane Helene devastated our region in Western North Carolina and beyond. $2 from every print copy sold goes directly to...

Friends! I am so excited that Loblolly Press is releasing a hard copy #book of last year's digital #zine titled "Understory." Like the digital release, this one also supports post- #Hurricane #Helene efforts. I and 86 other #poets have great work in there! Hope you'll check it out. #BookSky #poetry

#Minnesota is heavy on my mind, as is my fourth grader and children all across the US who have to deal with the real, daily possibility of being shot and killed at school.

This world is so broken.