Brian Czyzyk
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bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
Brian Czyzyk
@bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
170 followers 230 following 16 posts
Poet | PhD Candidate | Editor-in-Chief of American Literary Review | Mitten Man in Cowboy Country | Words in Poetry Magazine, Ninth Letter, Gulf Coast, and more | he/him 💖💜💙
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bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
So grateful to have my poem, "Chewing the Green," included in this gorgeous issue of @creamcityreview.bsky.social! 🌱
October 18, 2025 at 3:10 PM
bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
Got a poem in this gorgeous issue of South Carolina Review! Sorry to any Hoosiers for this Michigander's depiction of Indiana. I do miss it sometimes.
Title: "Lafayette, Indiana" by: Brian Czyzyk Poem: I say “home,” but what I mean is the building in which I live. The walls were cracked when I moved in, and once a cricket scrambled up from my shower drain. I am thankful for snow-bright winter, for my beloved, who holds me when I shiver, but yesterday I watched a man chuck a paper coffee cup against a diner’s front while a trash can waited five steps to his left. The river slugs its brown along. What used to be glacier now breeds fish without gills, ducks with lead-heavy bones. Styrofoam chokes the city drains, while spiders feel safe only in the corners ... (continued from previous page) ... of my home. And Lord, I don’t want to kill them, but each day I wake with red pips patterned across my elbows. Every day, I’m reminded, is packed with tiny violences— pigeons peck at cigarette butts, kids with clear plastic backpacks are shuttled into school by troops of teachers. Every house I pass seems to slump, each side raised like shoulders mid-shrug. What can you call this time other than a screech of notes from shattered vinyl? I press my lips to my beloved’s ear and taste the throat of a Coke bottle. I can picture the plots where the future will stash our bodies—the upturned dirt veined with plastic shreds, the earth weeping beads of glass. Cover of The South Carolina Review, Spring 2025 Volume 57, Issue 2, depicting thick, colorful lines that resemble both spools of yarn and roses in shades of pink, green, and yellow, on backgrounds of various solid colors including orange, pale blue, forest green, and hot pink. A rose-like wheel of yellow, green, and pink paint on a hot pink background next to South Carolina Review Volume 57.2's list of contributors
May 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM
bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
Absolutely thrilled that this ridiculous, weird, goofy poem of mine found a home in this gorgeous issue of Fairy Tale Review and that I get to share space with absolutely amazing writers like Aimee Bender and Sabrina Orah Mark!!
April 30, 2025 at 1:46 PM
bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
Got to share my thoughts on Emily Van Kley's haunting poem, "Vital Signs," for
@poetrydaily.bsky.social 's "What Sparks Poetry" feature: poems.com/.../our-read...

This poem has stuck with me ever since I first encountered it 7 years ago. Check out "Vital Signs" here: poems.com/poem/vital-signs
April 28, 2025 at 2:10 PM
bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
Just learned it's Song's 30th anniversary this year. Was lucky enough to have been gifted this magical book and have been revisiting it over and over. Brigit Pegeen Kelly was a marvel.

"Our endless lust for spectacle to rouse / The stupored sight."
January 18, 2025 at 8:09 PM
bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
My poem "Atmospheric Conditions" is up at @theoffingmag.bsky.social!! Thanks to Nabila Lovelace and the editorial team for giving this anxiety spiral a home 💙

link: theoffingmag.com/poetry/atmos...
I too want / to be wrapped / in gravity pulse / licking the table’s edge / where wishes / coalesce into spilt sugar / sweet milk pouring / over the kitchen floor I’ve stained / my days the same color / as basement rugs where / thrums my dad’s Strat the one / I could never / learn to play / to pluck / each string and hear a dissonant throat / opening into water / he tries to tell me the flood / isn’t coming but / it’s already here / not because I say it / is but water / has its own mind and its own / premonitions swallowing into itself / pebbles and shoreline and pelican / bones the clouds sweat / out a winter that turns the world / brown what can I know / of cold when my skin / is closer to snow / I’ve forgotten what it means / to be / warm / how to shuttle in slippers / toward a morning / lidded eye / no matter how / hard I try every day / is an outpour listen / to it clatter / and writhe / against the house it’s coming / from outside it’s coming out / the corners of my eyes it’s...
September 22, 2023 at 1:30 AM
bczyzykwrites.bsky.social
If you're interested in reading my work, here are some poems published in the February 2022 issue of Poetry Magazine!

link: www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/brian-...
September 9, 2023 at 4:52 PM