The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.
Guidelines
Submission Guidelines: Send 1-3 unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.
I imagine my grandparents, who traded the Old Country for America, asking me today, Should we come? Should we come, given the chance? I try clearing the knotted throat of my mind, to find an answer. Would I want to start life over, tattered and patched, I ask myself, in a land, that didn’t want me?
I reel from today’s headlines, sleepless, as I wander the streets of my American Dream, comforting, familiar, welcoming no longer.
But where to go, begin anew? America, you’ve shaken the globe off its footings. Turned yourself, in many minds, into a nightmare of economic submission. Turned your back on those yearning, deserving, to be free.
I feel estranged, increasingly out of touch. The periodic table of my life— all the elements that spark mind/ body/spirit— my American Dream’s essence, runs riot.
Have I reached the terminus, where it’s no longer if you, my country, want me? I plumb the dark for harmony, once heart of the American Dream. The day’s unfurling, a rampage of dissonance, ravages my sleep.
Dick Altman writes in the high, thin, magical air of Santa Fe, NM, where, at 7,000 feet, reality and imagination often blur. He is published in Santa Fe Literary Review, American Journal of Poetry, Fredericksburg Literary Review, Foliate Oak, Landing Zone, Cathexis Northwest Press, Humana Obscura, Haunted Waters Press, Split Rock Review, The Ravens Perch, aming others. His work also appears in the first edition of The New Mexico Anthology of Poetry, published by the New Mexico Museum Press. Pushcart Prize nominee and poetry winner of Santa Fe New Mexican’s annual literary competition, he has authored some 250 poems published on four continents.
Where are the mayflies of years past? Or their descendants for that matter, missed for many a May? But hey, at least our windshield’s free of bug splatter.
Are night-blooming plants bereft of pollination by moths confused by light pollution? Praise be to LED lights, so productive, we splurge on ever greater wattage!
And how does the little busy bee keep up morale in its collapsing colony? Being a social insect is overrated, vastly, like being a seed-dispersing beasty.
The plants will learn to do without them. We’re all tightening our belts. In the long run we’ll concoct “honey” from sorghum and petroleum byproducts, Amen.
Tim Walker read, for pleasure, the complete novels of Charles Dickens while earning a BA in Environmental Studies, and the complete novels of Anthony Trollope while earning a PhD in Geological Sciences, and has worked as a computer programmer, healthcare data analyst, used book seller, and pet sitter. He lives largely in his own head, while he corporeally resides in Santa Barbara with his son Dana and their cat Cassiopeia. His essays and poems most recently appeared in Harpy Hybrid Review, 3:AM, Fatal Flaw, Rock Salt Journal, and are forthcoming in Sneaker Wave Magazine and TYPO: The International Journal of Prototypes.
“What a wretched day. Tomorrow has to be better.” In the morning I ride that hope. How it lifts up from this bitter earth. Maybe food will get through. Maybe safe walls will shelter the terrified and displaced. Maybe missiles will stay stowed in their crates.
How it leaves the ground. How wide the wingspan is. How I watch knowing this —like so much captured footage these days— does not end well. It climbs, then does not. Nose up, it goes down, more glide than plunge, until it disappears among low buildings on the ground.
A huge billow of fire and black smoke tells me more than I want to know.
Matthew Murrey is the author of Bulletproof (Jacar Press, 2019) and the forthcoming collection Little Joy (Cornerstone Press, 2026). Recent poems are in Dissident Voice, One, Anthropocene, and elsewhere. He was a public school librarian for more than 20 years and lives in Urbana, IL with his partner. He can be found on Bluesky and Instagram under the handle @mytwords.
US President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal authorities to ramp up deportation efforts in Democratic-led cities, doubling down on a politicized anti-immigration drive after major protests in Los Angeles. "We must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America's largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside," Trump said on his Truth Social platform. "These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center," he claimed, citing debunked right-wing conspiracy theories that undocumented immigrants are voting in US elections in significant numbers. —AFP News, June 16, 2025
Welcome to the New America Homeland Security will not be interrupted Agents stand ready with their zip-ties See? The Senator is thrown to the floor Homeland Security will not be interrupted No dissent, no questions are permitted The Senator is thrown to the floor Understand? You are powerless. You are all powerless No dissent, no questions are permitted Every immigrant is “the worst of the worst” Understand? You are all powerless. Don’t want the National Guard? Here are the Marines Every immigrant is “the worst of the worst” Every day laborer, janitor, and nanny—a criminal
Don’t want the National Guard? Here are the Marines Let’s be clear—there is nothing we won’t do Every day laborer, janitor, and nanny—a criminal Nowhere is safe—no school, courthouse, or church There is nothing we won’t do We have a mandate. You have no rights Nowhere is safe—no school, courthouse, or church We will take you, and you are gone. You have no rights. We have a mandate We will dispose of you as we please Our agents stand ready with their zip-ties We will take you, and you are gone We will dispose of your rights as we please Welcome to the New America
Pepper Trail is a poet and naturalist based in Ashland, Oregon. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Atlanta Review, Spillway, Kyoto Journal, Cascadia Review, and other publications, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. His collection Cascade-Siskiyou was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award in Poetry.
If everything is upside down and backwards, as it seems to be, then we should see fragility as virtuous, and hear the sound
of weeping love as strength. We should behold a penchant to break down with awe, and bless the hallowed ground of teary joy and childish good.
A guy I knew in grad school said, “I’d hate to see the freak who’s well adjusted to this world.” We tell ourselves that isn’t us, we’ve fed
our egos with a comforting belief that someone who adapts survives. But without a collapse, without an aching, broken string
of failures, we can never be resilient, never truly sing a harmony that makes a wing of sorrow, fluttering but free.
David Rosenthal is a public school teacher in Berkeley, California. He hascontributed to Rattle, HAD, Rust & Moth, Birmingham Poetry Review,Teachers & Writers Magazine, and others. He’s been a Nemerov Sonnet AwardFinalist and Pushcart Nominee. He’s the author of The Wild Geography ofMisplaced Things (Kelsay Books).
While tanks roll through our streets We want you to know We are vulnerable and resilient like you This police state wannabe is not us We are the fish jumping in the Potomac The magnolia filling the air We are fireflies testing the night The bullfrog and the cathedral bell The convergence of rivers As this martial maelstrom Storms land and sky Our osprey nestlings hope only to fledge
Melanie Choukas-Bradley is a Washington, DC naturalist and author of Wild Walking, A Year in Rock Creek Park, Finding Solace at Theodore Roosevelt Island and City of Trees. Her poems have appeared in The New Verse News, Writing in a Woman’s Voice, and Plenty Magazine.
Dana Yost grew up in southwestern Minnesota, an hour from Robert Bly’s farm, forty years after him. But Yost shares Bly’s early interest in taking on the establishment.
Suzanne Morris is a novelist with eight published works, and a poet. Her poems have appeared in online journals including The New Verse News and Texas Poetry Assignment, and anthologies including The Senior Class - 100 Poets on Aging (Lamar University Literary Press, 2024). A native Houstonian, she has resided in Cherokee County, Texas, since 2008.
Israeli forces killed at least 60 Palestinians in Gaza on Wednesday, most of them as they were seeking food from a US-Israeli distribution scheme, according to local health authorities. Medical officials said at least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded as they approached a food distribution centre run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), near Netzarim in central Gaza. Later in the day, at least 14 people were killed by Israeli gunfire as they were moving towards another GHF distribution site, in Rafah, at Gaza’s southern border. On Tuesday Israeli troops killed 17 Palestinians around GHF sites. –The Guardian, June 11, 2025
Resting silently on our couch
a pillow we have had for a long time
off-white woven fabric, hand embroidery,
four rows of a repeating pattern, star flowers
mingled with hearts that touch and overlap
stitched only in my favorite color, turquoise
purchased from a friend of a friend visiting
from the Middle East, selling handwork
by women, women sewing designs
to help their families survive
and thrive under difficult
circumstances.
Today, I gaze at our pillow
soft and lovely in its simple artistry
noticing only harsh edges and rough reality
seeing famished faces, bloodshot vacant eyes,
people devoid of hope, hungry, and destitute
and the silence of our gentle keepsake mocks
the unrelenting screams of unheard cries
ignores the daily suffering of all in Gaza
cruelty fueled by the fervor of revenge
an excess of indifference, what more
can we do to end war, change
circumstances?
Debra Orben is a retired elementary teacher who believes in life-long learning. She enjoys volunteering with children, gardening, reading, and writing. She works to plant trees, protect biodiversity, and address climate change. As a Quaker she believes that all people deserve a just, healthy, and peaceful world. She appreciates the beauty and diversity of human beliefs and cultures and the diversity of the natural world. She has much to learn and writes about it.