Newsletter sign up

Be the first to know when new American Life in Poetry columns are live.

Home

American Life in Poetry was a free weekly column for newspapers and online publications featuring a poem by a contemporary American poet.

Statement

Important Notice to Subscribers

For near­ly 18 years, the Poet­ry Foun­da­tion has sup­port­ed Amer­i­can Life in Poetry’s vision of bring­ing poet­ry to wider audi­ences by dis­trib­ut­ing con­tem­po­rary poems to news­pa­pers across the US on a week­ly basis. The efforts of this part­ner­ship have pro­vid­ed val­ue to mil­lions of read­ers, poets, and those who love poetry.

The pub­li­ca­tion of Amer­i­can Life in Poetry’s week­ly col­umn and dis­tri­b­u­tion to pub­li­ca­tions sun­set­ted on Decem­ber 31, 2022. How­ev­er, this web­site will remain active with full access to the poem archives for the fore­see­able future. To con­tin­ue receiv­ing poems reg­u­lar­ly, we encour­age you to sub­scribe to the Poet­ry Foundation’s Poem of the Day.

The Poet­ry Foun­da­tion thanks Dr. Kwame Dawes, Ted Koos­er, and the admin­is­tra­tive sup­port staff of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Nebras­­ka-Lin­­coln Eng­lish Depart­ment for fos­ter­ing a rela­tion­ship that allowed for the ampli­fi­ca­tion of poet­ry and poets.

The Poet­ry Foundation

west

West

southwest

Southwest

midwest

Midwest

Southeast

Southeast

northeast

Northeast

pacific

Pacific

Browse Poets by Region

Explore poetry by writers living in different geographical areas of America.

Browse Columns by Theme

Find poems that speak to different aspects of American life.

Featured

/