What are late nights for but worry? The gravel drive absent of the one car. She works at a scarf for colder seasons. He said she was a—. Said he was leaving her to it. Thoughts of flatter places with no birches, fields still not full throated, but soon. She walks only so far so as to hear if the baby cries. The lake is oil. The mosquitoes, thick, loiter near the ear. Little tune. The goldenrod won’t bloom for another two months. When this is due. And that is due. And she will count out too few ones, smoothing them on the table. In her grandmother’s garden: delicate peonies. Later: a different, windswept snow that covers windows with a different light.
Kelly R. Samuels is the author of two full-length collections—Oblivescence (Red Sweater Press) and All the Time in the World (Kelsay Books)—and four chapbooks: Talking to Alice (Whittle Micro-Press), Words Some of Us Rarely Use (Unsolicited Press), To Marie Antoinette, from (Dancing Girl Press) and Zeena/Zenobia Speaks (Finishing Line Press). She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee with work appearing in The Massachusetts Review, RHINO, River Styx, Denver Quarterly, and Court Green. She lives in the Upper Midwest.
10/3 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence K.T. Landon / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
10/3 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence K.T. Landon + local writer Deborah DeNicola / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:00 pm EST / Free
Sign up for our Workshop Series--SWWIM Lessons: From Prompt to Placement! They take place monthly, starting with Deep Dive with Mia Leonin – Delve into the depths of memory, magic, and imagination to discover poetic treasure on 10/15 (register here); continuing with Navigating Your Manuscript with Alexandra Lytton Regalado – What I learned from reading for (and winning) the National Poetry Series on 11/12 (register here); and concluding with Surfing Submittable with Jen Karetnick – Keeping your head above water in the poetry submissions process on 12/10 (register here). Price: $80/workshop OR $220 for all 3 (bundle and save! register here ). Time: 7:00–9:00 PM (EST). Where: Zoom.
Note: SWWIM Every Day is now accepting poetry translations for publication consideration. Please see swwim.org/submit for the full guidelines.
Are you a SWWIMmer with literary news to share (publication/feature/award/book/book review)? We’d love to shout out your accomplishments in our Weekly Spotlight! Please email swwimmiami@gmail.com with a link to your news. (No DMs on any social media platforms, please.)
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky for more updates—and visit our website to see past, present, and future readings & events.
**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.