Six Poets Recite (Ani Jones, Siavash Saadlou, Keith Mark Gaboury, Sara Femenella, Kelsey Kessler, Marianne Tefft)

and I dipped my hand 
into the pond of them
swimming like fish...

Excerpt from You left a box of neckties

Ani Jones is an emerging poet based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They hold a BA in English from the University of Cincinnati. Their work is featured in the Playful Porpoise Magazine, Irshaad Poetry, and other publications. Their work centers around grief, queerness, and the active discovery of the self and the world.

Instagram: @anijonez

My cousin Meysam says that my father wasn’t exactly made for war. 
“He would get misty-eyed,” he says, “as soon as you read him a poem.”

Excerpt from Words and Lives

Siavash Saadlou is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer whose poems have appeared in Porter House Review, Ignatian Literary Magazine, and Saint Katherine Review, among other journals. They have also been anthologized in Odes to Our Undoing: Writers Reflecting on Crisis (Risk Press) and Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora (Green Linden Press). His translations of contemporary Persian poetry have earned him the 55th Cole Swensen Prize as well as an honorable mention in the inaugural Stephen Mitchell Prize for Best Poetry in Translation. Saadlou is currently living in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Flush out of Kaiser Medical, 
I’m a single mother 
with Bluejay’s cerulean clothed body
a twin to the sky’s wavelength blue.

Excerpt from My Blue Affront

Keith Mark Gaboury earned a M.F.A. in creative writing from Emerson College. He has two full-length poetry collections forthcoming from Kelsay Books and Falkenberg Press. Keith is also the president of the Berkeley Branch of the California Writers Club. Learn more at keithmgaboury.com.

Twitter: @GabouryKeith
Instagram: @keithmgabourypoet

I was his wife from the very start. His beauty was my job, duty-bound I swore 
allegiance, I stayed the first night, then every night. A nightingale with her last 
drop of blood.

Excerpt from A Brief History of Obsession

Here is a brief bio: Sara Femenella’s poems have been published in Pleiades, The Journal, The New Orleans Review, The Saint Ann’s Review, Denver Quarterly, Salamander, The Shore and Seventh Wave, among others. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and son.

The color of bloody Mary is so beautiful. 
The color of Shirley temple is so devastating. 
My favorite color has always been coughing syrup.

Excerpt from A Pair of Ruby Red Slippers Threw Up All Over My Dining Room Table

Kelsey Kessler is a queer poet, social worker, and artist from Baltimore, Maryland and is currently based in Boston, Massachusetts. She has been published in Ariel Magazine and Pink Disco Magazine. She writes poetry about queerness. Kelsey enjoys using imagery and personification to discuss the theme of queerness. She currently performs poetry at poetry open mics at Cantab Underground. You can find her poetry on:
Instagram @kelssey.anne and on TikTok @kelseyakwrites

Before I became a woman whose gaze reached toward infinity
I walked hand in hand with my father in the fragrant market

Excerpt from Astrolabe

Marianne Tefft is a poet and voiceover reader who daylights as a Montessori teacher on the Dutch Caribbean island of Sint Maarten. Her poems appear online and in print in North America, Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. She is a regular contributor to online Open Mic events, such as Inspired Poetry Corner (Toronto) and Nuyorican Poets Cafe (New York City), and her audio poems have aired at Wednesday Night Poetry (Arkansas USA), CIUT-FM Howl (Toronto) and Eat the Storms (Ireland). She is the author of the 2022 poetry collections Full Moon Fire: Spoken Songs of Love and Moonchild: Poems for Moon Lovers. You can follow Marianne here:

Instagram: @mariannetefft
Facebook & YouTube: Marianne Tefft