Kelli Russell Agodon
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kelliagodon.bsky.social
Kelli Russell Agodon
@kelliagodon.bsky.social
2.9K followers 340 following 150 posts
(she/her) Poet. Editor. Paddleboarder. Easygoing Capricorn. Next book: Accidental Devotions (Copper Canyon Press, 2026)! Co-host of "Poems You Need" with Melissa Studdard. Faculty at Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University.🏳️‍🌈Bi/Queer
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Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
grousehollow.bsky.social
Poets, start your wild, precious engines.
merriam-webster.com Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 29d
'Astronomers' is an anagram for 'moon starers.'
October 27, 2025 at 3:24 PM
kelliagodon.bsky.social
A haunted house but an open mic where every poet reads past their time.
October 30, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
irishlittimes.bsky.social
"A collection of empty chairs is called an author reading."
October 12, 2025 at 4:48 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
cronutthebarbarian.bsky.social
We are on loan to each other.

Tell the one you love that you love them while you can.
kelliagodon.bsky.social Kelli Russell Agodon @kelliagodon.bsky.social · Oct 7
"her memory is a cloud she can't hold..."

Lots of feels with this poem for my mum. Sent with love for anyone with a parent or loved one with Alzheimer's/dementia. It's a journey.

(And thank you @poetsorg.bsky.social and Rick Barot for sharing this one. It means a lot.)
October 7, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
litbowl.bsky.social
Absolutely love that final phrase.

From @kathyfagan.bsky.social's book, Bad Hobby: bookshop.org/a/862/9781571315458

#poetry #books #writing
October 5, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
chenchenwrites.bsky.social
keep your wonder alive, keep your aliveness alive
October 7, 2025 at 1:59 PM
kelliagodon.bsky.social
"her memory is a cloud she can't hold..."

Lots of feels with this poem for my mum. Sent with love for anyone with a parent or loved one with Alzheimer's/dementia. It's a journey.

(And thank you @poetsorg.bsky.social and Rick Barot for sharing this one. It means a lot.)
October 7, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
irishali13.bsky.social
Today I'm reading - Magpies Recognize
Themselves in the Mirror
~ By Kelli Russell Agodon 🍂
America breaks my heart some days -
I watched a woman have a breakdown in the mall today/what l could see was all of us/Some days the sky is too bright. And like that, we were her-
Magpies Recognize Themselves in the Mirror Kelli Russell Agodon The night sounds like a murder of magpies and we're replacing our cabinet knobs because we can't change the world, but we can change our hardware. America breaks my heart some days, and some days it breaks itself in two. I watched a woman have a breakdown in the mall today and when the security guard tried to help her what I could see was all of us peeking from her purse as she threw it across the floor into Forever 21. And yes, the walls felt like another way to hold us in and when she finally stopped crying, I heard her say to the fluorescent lighting, Some days the sky is too bright. And like that we were her fock in our black coats and white sweaters, some of us reaching our wings to her and some of us flying away.
August 31, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
irishali13.bsky.social
For your Monday
Everyone Is Acting as if We're Not Temporary, and I Am Falling Apart in the Privacy of My Own Home
~ Kelli Russell Agodon
I am a body longing for someone to text me, "Hey, babe, I'm kind of into you." I miss you even though I don't visit. /and we butt dial the wrong person.
Everyone Is Acting as if We're Not Temporary, and I Am Falling Apart in the Privacy of My Own Home KELLI RUSSELL AGODON SHARE V When he said, Sometimes we learn the most from losing, I think how often I've been bamboozled by life, how I've dropped a quarter in a slot machine and instead of cherries got coffins. Got death? Yeah, I've seen the grim reaper wander my neighborhood in a Chanel suit and a diamond studded scythe because we all want to be overdressed for the afterlife, we all want to believe there is a special place for us. But when I watched the body of my nana fade into thinness I thought please let me leave early—in a plane crash, car accident, a lightning bolt, don't let me hold on so long I am a body longing for someone to text it —hey babe, I'm kind of into you. To say, I miss you even though I don't visit. Death and we butt dial the wrong person. Death on a good drunk of port. Once I remember my dad saying, You are worth more than you think, as I always sold myself off at a discount and I wish I didn't, I wish I didn't say how much I hurt on social media but sometimes I just want to believe I'm not alone like how we're all doing cartwheels on life's grass until someone lands in a sinkhole, until one of us decides it's late and the streetlights are telling us it's time to return back home.
October 6, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
vikkicwrites.bsky.social
"You know / I always need to save something, to control it."

'Aubade as Fuel' from LOVE PRODIGAL by Traci Brimhall (Copper Canyon Press) @coppercanyonpress.bsky.social

Sheer brilliance 🤍

#poetry #poetrybooks #poetrycollections
'Aubade as Fuel' from LOVE PRODIGAL by Traci Brimhall (Copper Canyon Press)
August 1, 2025 at 9:24 AM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
nikitagill.bsky.social
Launch night and I’m never shutting up about this look.
September 17, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
pw.org
Arthur Sze has been named the new U.S. poet laureate. He succeeds Ada Limón, who has held the position since 2022. During his term as poet laureate, Sze plans to have a special focus on translating poetry originally written in other languages. Read more: at.pw.org/ArthurSze
September 15, 2025 at 10:02 AM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
kelliagodon.bsky.social
"kindness in poetry is an act of rebellion" -- I stumbled about these words I said to @onlypoemsmag.bsky.social in an interview pre-election. It's funny your own word speak to you...
November 30, 2024 at 2:46 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
natallman.bsky.social
September 14, 2025 at 12:27 AM
kelliagodon.bsky.social
My gawd I love this poem:

"When you place a wet kiss on my nape while washing my back in the shower, I think of all good things and forget I am wounded. "

~ T. De Los Reyes @andhow.bsky.social
waxwingmag.org/items/issue3...
September 9, 2025 at 2:45 PM
kelliagodon.bsky.social
This happened to me last night in bed--I had 2 lines to a new poem. . .and I didn't write them down. (And they are now "dust") :-/

#LivingPoetsSociety #ShareLivingPoets
September 7, 2025 at 4:58 PM
kelliagodon.bsky.social
"Sometimes you don't want to love the person you love. . ."

Dang, sometimes I catch myself doing this too--protecting myself from the tenderness I actually crave.

~ Grace Paley's "Anti-Love Poem"
Anti-Love Poem by Grace Paley Sometimes you don’t want to love the person you love you turn your face away from that face whose eyes lips might make you give up anger forget insult steal sadness of not wanting to love turn away then turn away at breakfast in the evening don’t lift your eyes from the paper to see that face in all its seriousness a sweetness of concentration he holds his book in his hand the hard-knuckled winter wood- scarred fingers turn away that’s all you can do old as you are to save yourself from love
September 7, 2025 at 3:55 AM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
lesleymwheeler.bsky.social
Thanks for posting this beauty from @kelliagodon.bsky.social , Ali
irishali13.bsky.social Alison Birch @irishali13.bsky.social · Aug 31
Today I'm reading - Magpies Recognize
Themselves in the Mirror
~ By Kelli Russell Agodon 🍂
America breaks my heart some days -
I watched a woman have a breakdown in the mall today/what l could see was all of us/Some days the sky is too bright. And like that, we were her-
Magpies Recognize Themselves in the Mirror Kelli Russell Agodon The night sounds like a murder of magpies and we're replacing our cabinet knobs because we can't change the world, but we can change our hardware. America breaks my heart some days, and some days it breaks itself in two. I watched a woman have a breakdown in the mall today and when the security guard tried to help her what I could see was all of us peeking from her purse as she threw it across the floor into Forever 21. And yes, the walls felt like another way to hold us in and when she finally stopped crying, I heard her say to the fluorescent lighting, Some days the sky is too bright. And like that we were her fock in our black coats and white sweaters, some of us reaching our wings to her and some of us flying away.
August 31, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
davebonta.bsky.social
Polar bears in the pews, the secretary spider and more with
@maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social @kelliagodon.bsky.social @webbish6.bsky.social @collinkelley.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social @roguestrands.bsky.social 3/3
www.vianegativa.us/2025/08/poet...
Poetry Blog Digest 2025, Week 33
A personal selection of posts from the Poetry Blogging Network and beyond.
www.vianegativa.us
August 19, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
ibnturab.bsky.social
It seems to me that most of the time, we don’t see, understand, know or even realize the contours of Reality; instead we try to inhabit it the way we do our clothes or fashion accessories—“no, I think this red cashmere works better”—few people “get” & express that better than Kelli Russel Agodon.
August 1, 2025 at 12:59 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
darbylyons.bsky.social
#PoetryMoment
"Queen Me"
by @kelliagodon.bsky.social
from Dialogues with Rising Tides
Copper Canyon, 2021
QUEEN ME Playing chess I realize how tired I am of the patriarchy, how the winning move involves the king, the useless piece who can only skate square to square. When playing checkers, I taught my daughter to say as she slides her plastic red chip the full length of the board: Queen me. It returns to my youth when I wanted to play baseball and the coach said, Girls can only play softball and tossed me what looked like a small leather planet. Queen me, I wanted to say when I couldn't be captain of the kickball team, couldn't play Santa in the school show. Queen me, my daughter says to the neighbor boy, who without question places another checker on her piece. Later I hear him say to my daughter, Queen me, as they begin another game. Queen me, he says again and again as the universe begins to shift like a tilted tiara finally made right.
July 9, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
slowdownshow.org
“Today’s allegorical poem captures the staggering wisdom of finding and losing love. As we learn about another, we learn as much about ourselves — and the dialectical role of endings,” shares Major in today's encore episode.

Read “Hunger” by @kelliagodon.bsky.social: bit.ly/4eyZZ0P
An excerpt from “Hunger” by Kelli Russell Agodon A headshot of Kelli Russell Agodon A quote from today's community curator about the poem “Hunger” by Kelli Russell Agodon
July 11, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
vikkicwrites.bsky.social
I was reading this gorgeous poem 'At Times My Body Leans Toward Loss' by @kelliagodon.bsky.social in @poetrysociety.org - winner of the Lyric Poetry Award, 2019.

Just stunning ❤️

poetrysociety.org/award-winner...

#poetrycommunity #poetry
Kelli Russell Agodon At Times My Body Leans Toward Loss You don't remember seeing the deer give birth on the highway, so when I said, I worry about things I can't control, you told me the pitchfork I carry in mind stabs inwards, like the day was sun-filled, but what I saw was how I bumped the planter of Gerber daisies and the moth fluttered up into the beak of a bird. Death and dinner. A minor accident and something dies. Like the woman who drove to work crying in her car and when I saw her, she waved, a reflection in the glass, the good fortune of having a job to drive to, but the collision of sadness in the left ventricle of a heart. Who can hold a knife without thinking for just a second, which vein is the most useful to slice into? Most everyone, you say, as you dull-down the ends of my pitchfork, most everyone, you say as you unlock the door to our house.
February 8, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
coppercanyonpress.bsky.social
To each of you who supported our "It Takes All of Us" campaign with a donation, a share, or a kind word—

thank you for your community,
thank you for your grace.

Please enjoy this reading of "Grace" by Kelli Russell Agodon from DIALOGUES WITH RISING TIDES—it's our gift to you.
June 5, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Reposted by Kelli Russell Agodon
nicolecarusogarcia.bsky.social
🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Happy Pride Month! Here's a brand new poem from @kelliagodon.bsky.social, brought to us by @oneart.bsky.social 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

#PrideMonth #Poetry #Pride2025

oneartpoetry.com/2025/06/02/t...
June 2, 2025 at 3:03 PM