Fig and Thistle Poetry

"Poetry isn’t a profession; it’s a way of life. It’s an empty basket; you put your life into it and make something out of that." Mary Oliver

[figandthistle]

[figandthistle]

A close reading of 'Ariel'

Mark Ford describes how physical and emotional experience interact in Sylvia Plath’s 'Ariel'.

[figandthistle]

Why You Should Aim for 100 Rejections a Year

Last year, I got rejected 43 times by literary magazines, residencies, and fellowships—my best record since I started shooting for getting 100 rejections per year. It’s harder than it sounds, but a…

[figandthistle]

No Soap, Poetry

by David Ebenbach The way I remember the “No Soap, Radio” prank, it went like this: You’re in elementary school and you gather a bunch of kids, all of whom are secretly in on the joke except for on…

[figandthistle]

Jo Cox and Philip Larkin's The Mower: why internet mourners turn to poetry

As waves of shock and sadness broke across the country after the murder of Jo Cox last week, it was hard for anyone to find the right words for what had happened.

[figandthistle]

Poet Maggie Smith on Watching Her Poem Go Viral in the Wake of the Orlando Shooting

Poet Maggie Smith, author of 2005’s Lamp of the Body, 2015’s The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison, and of the forthcoming collection Weep Up, has been on ...

[figandthistle]

The love affair between science and poetry

Rhyme and reason are not opposites or rivals. They even use the same parts of the brain.

[figandthistle]

Is ‘Confessional Poetry’ still a relevant term

By Momina Mela Confessional poetry has always faced the difficulty of carving out a definition for itself, particularly due to the auto-biographical elements attached to it and the various psycholo...

[figandthistle]

Writer, Mother, Both, Neither

I saw them in the backs of crowded auditoriums, standing and rocking their cooing babies, and in the great booksellers’ hall, racing after toddlers: parents, mostly moms, caring for their children …

[figandthistle]

Poetry by Lilian Ha

Stillwater, MN. we ripped stockings into veils for a bruise wrapped lace around each finger, counting glitters painting one another gold in sweet roughness. every first Monday we would explo…

[buttonpoetry]

[buttonpoetry]

We’ve been posting about books a lot lately. That’s partly because we have TWO NEW AMAZING BOOKS coming out in the next two months. But also, from our recent survey, we found out that almost half of our tumblr followers didn’t even know that we publish books or have Button t-shirts available for order. We have books from Neil Hilborn, Danez Smith, Sierra DeMulder, Cam Awkward-Rich, Mahogany L. Browne, Sam Sax, Nate Marshall, J. Scott Brownlee, and Aziza Barnes, in addition to Jacqui and Hanif’s forthcoming books. We have awesome t-shirts. We have other merch, too! Check it all out at the Button store.

[figandthistle]

The Long Dry

Madness “hath builded her house in the high places of the city.”

“The Long Dry” by Amanda Joy

[figandthistle]

For the last few weeks I’ve been steeping in some mighty fine poetry by two phenomenal female poets, Ada Limón and Beth Ann Fennelly. Bright Dead Things is Limón’s most recent co…

My review of Bright Dead Things and Open House.

[figandthistle]

Beth Ann Fennelly: A Reckoning of Kisses

The Kiss: A lot of different kisses, for very different reasons, that linger in the memory.

[figandthistle]

[figandthistle]

When, At Night, You Stir |

When you sleep you clutch at yourself. Your hands move to seize and curl into your torso like willful roots as if to wage, to own, to cherish, take and win, folded up in weary walls of silt, too small … Read More

This poem, though.

[figandthistle]

Literary Juneteenth (or Why I Left The Offing) | The Offing

An Essay by Casey Rocheteau