Stephen K. Kim

The sky’s lurid vermillion tells of faraway wildfires.

We're closing out the day, the week, the sneak peek at issue number 89 with a poetry party. A kind of end-of-the-world type poetry party. Seems fitting these days. This is from "Supplication" by Stephen K. Kim @skimperil.bsky.social and you need to read it on Sunday!

A Gay Hammer Poem | Stephen Kim @skimperil.bsky.social | Frozen Sea - Issue Nine

The image is a screenshot of a quote from the poem "Notification" by Stephen K. Kim, presented in a visually appealing format. The quote is displayed on a white background with rounded corners, resembling a card or a pop-up window. - *Title and Author* - The title "Stephen K. Kim" is prominently displayed at the top of the white background in large black text. - Below the title, the phrase "from 'Notification'" is written in smaller black text, indicating the source of the quote. - *Quote* - The quote itself is presented in gray text and reads: "it had nothing to do with how I would just be a means to scratch his itch, it only mattered that my reverie of a clandestine liaison with this dapper, chiseled stranger was attainable, which propelled me onto his doorstep." - The quote is centered within the white background, making it the focal point of the image. - *Buttons* - Below the quote, two buttons are visible: "SNOOZE" and "OKAY." - These buttons are not interactive elements, but appear to allow the user to respond to the quote or notification in some way. - *Background and Footer* - The background of the image features a pastel-colored gradient, transitioning from pink to green. - In the bottom-right corner, the text "ballast 3.3" and "ballastjournal.com" is displayed in small black font, providing information about the source or context of the quote. In summary, the image presents a quote from "Notification" by Stephen K. Kim in a clean and modern design, accompanied by non-interactive buttons and contextual information about the source.

Contributor features from ballast 3.3!

Here’s Stephen K. Kim with “Notification” @skimperil.bsky.social

www.ballastjournal.com/stephen-k-kim

#contributorfeature
#poetry
#poem
#poems
#ballast
#StephenKKim

Thrilled to have a poem in this volume! Many thanks to the editors @ballastjournal.bsky.social!

Meet the Poets: Stephen K. Kim Stephen talks to us about his Issue Two poem, "Elegy for Joe", his writing practice and community.

Thank you @cilloyd.bsky.social, Jack Westmore, and Luís Costa for my first poet interview in the Seaford Review! www.seafordreview.com/p/meet-the-p...

#queerpoet #newpoet

Color photo of a white man in a dark suit, sitting on a bench on a boardwalk or other outdoor wooden space. He's eating lunch on top of a briefcase and has a sandwich in one hand, but hold up a little tin in his other hand for a shorthaired brown tabby cat that is stretching up to reach the bench next to him. It looks like it could have been a sardine tin or something similar. Overall it looks like this man is on his lunch break from work but also giving a treat to a friendly stray. It looks like there is a large red boat in the background.

Business lunch. This is from a negative in my collection, ca. 1970s. When I posted this to Bluesky previously, a sharp-eyed follower identified the likely location as the dock in front of the Lightship Ambrose in NYC!

and in case you want to read the other incredible writers in the issue! ghostcitypress.com/january-2025-1

Are prose poems allowed for #smallpoemsunday? Posting one of mine published earlier this year with @ghostcitypress.bsky.social

CW: grief

#poetsofbluesky #poetry #newpoet #chappellroan #mathclass

Black ink illustration of a shorthaired cat standing on its hind legs to looking into an overflowing trash can. Text at the bottom left reads "But I was hungry!"

But I was hungry! From The Adventures of Nip and Tuck: Just Cats. By Elizabeth Francis and illustrated by Barbara Roe Hicklin, 1959.

Many thanks to @narioli.bsky.social and Thimble Lit Mag for publishing "When Ruth Recounted How" in Volume 7.4 -- this will be the first time I'll see one of my poems in print!

#queerpoem #aapiwriting #newpoet

Thank you to editors @cilloyd.bsky.social, Jack Westmore, and Luís Costa for publishing my poem "Elegy for Joe" in Vol 2 of the Seaford Review! Thrilled my work is included alongside such incredible poems.

www.seafordreview.com/p/issue-two

#poetry #queerpoem #elegy #newpoet

A pretty shorthaired calico cat reclining on her side and back in a strong window sunbeam that is baking across a carpeted surface. She is positively glowing in the light and it’s a gorgeous contrast to the stark edge of the sun where the carpet appears to become almost completely black. She’s in a rectangular island of light.

Sun roasted potato. 🥔 Photo from my collection, 1954.

And to Nude Bruce Review for the same! nudebrucereview.com/wp-content/u...

#poem #poetry #newpoet #writers #queerpoem #queerpoetry

Thank you @neologismpoetry.bsky.social for publishing my poem this weekend!

www.neologismpoetry.com/February-202...

#poem #poetry #newpoet #writers #thundercloud #catpoem

A shorthaired white cat with tabby patches, looking disgusted while walking on what seems to be a stony beach.

“Go outside” they said. “You’ll enjoy the fresh air” they said. Photo from my collection, no documented date/info.

increasingly i like to describe the writing i love most as “soulful.” full of seeking. full of reaching for another’s hand. techniques of verbal restraint or seeming coldness serve always an underlying vulnerability and warmth and tenderness (or a deep longing for these)

3 DAYS LEFT TO SUBMIT!! SUMMER SERIES SUBMISSION GUIDELINES HERE: ghostcitypress.com/microchap-su...

to hold, to gentle, to warm, to carry, to tend, to hold and hold

Postcard to dan — By Stephen Kim — The Palisades Review I thought of you at the top of Haleakala, the dormant volcano in east Maui, summit towering above the clouds. It’s so otherworldly inside the crater. Some hills the color of rust, others gray speckled...

new piece out on in the palisades review! first attempt at flash creative nonfiction (or is it supposed to be called flash memoir?)

Stephen K. Kim — Ghost City Press “I’m calling about your daughter”

new poem out in ghost city review! thank you @ghostcitypress.bsky.social

ghostcitypress.com/poetry0125/2...

Volume IV — Pornstar Martini Magazine

And thank you to Pornstar Martini Magazine for taking a poem and then helping me edit into something much better. My work felt so respected throughout the process. Link to full volume here. pornstarmartinimagazine.squarespace.com/read/volume-iv

The Age of Bronze by Stephen K. Kim Andrew is astonished by how he can gaze upon another man’s body so openly in the museum. Back home, such looking would invite hostility. Before he left, his father sat him down. H…

In case you're curious, also placed recent work in mags not on Bluesky. Thank you to The Lit Nerds, who took a flash fiction piece about queer desire in the museum. I appreciate how the magazine prioritizes hope, joy, and human connection. thelitnerds.com/2025/01/02/t...

2024 was the year I started writing in earnest, and my only new year's resolution for 2025 is to continue writing. Grateful to have work forthcoming in a few places, including @ghostcitypress.bsky.social!

What matters to me even more than the shapeliness and the dance of language is what the poem discovers deeper down… I respond most to what is found out about the heart and spirit, what we can hear through the language.

—Linda Gregg, from “The Art of Finding”