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Acts of Love

If endear is earned

and is meant to identify

two halves

then it composes

one meaning

which means

a token

a knot

a note

a noting in the head

of how it feels

to have your heart

be the dear one

41,493

poems

4,155

poets

207

poetic terms

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01

By feeling

Grief, desire, revolt, wonder. Start where the poem meets your life.

Emotions →
02

By form

Follow the sonnet, ghazal, villanelle, ode, and every shape in between.

The glossary →
03

By constellation

Move between a poet, their influences, peers, translations, and afterlives.

Poets →

Selected

Poems worth returning to

The gull flies white …

James Rorty

From IL PIANTO DELLA SCAVATRICE …

Pier Paolo Pasolini

A glimpse through an interstice caught, …

Walt Whitman

Six years ago, the big museum sold eight famous paintings …

Natalie Shapero

Chicken. How shall I tell you what it is, …

James Wright

I love these flowers that lie in the dust. …

Helen Dunmore

to mama who on the eve of my birth beat a bitch with a kool-aid spoon …

Amber Atiya

Why should a foolish marriage vow, …

John Dryden

The glossary

The language about poetry

From aubade to zuihitsu, 207 definitions of the forms, figures, and schools that shape the line.

Explore the glossary→
Accentual verseAccentual-syllabic verseAcmeismAlcaicAlexandrineAmbiguity