“Poetry leaves something out,” our columnist Elisa Gabbert says. But that’s hardly the extent of it. By Elisa Gabbert I once heard a student say poetry is language that’s “coherent enough.” I love a ...

April is National Poetry Month, and this week we revive an old tradition by devoting an entire issue to the form. But first we ask a very basic question: What is poetry, anyway? There’s no simple ...

What is poetry? And what does it offer us? The recent winner of the Pulitzer Prize Carl Phillips, known for the beauty of his language and the depth of exploration, has some answers. Jeffrey Brown ...

From the sonnets of William Shakespeare to the writings of Walt Whitman and the rejuvenating words of Amanda Gorman, poetry is indelibly writ into the fabric of not only popular culture, but the ...

W. S. Merwin, who died last month at his home in Maui at 91, was probably the most highly acclaimed poet in this country and maybe the world. He is the one person I want with me to celebrate National ...