Highly recommend you check out Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture Arch of Hysteria, the inspiration for McKinley Johnson’s poem “Rapture is a painful thing,” the final poem in our #SummerRiot series:
Louise Bourgeois. Arch of Hysteria. 1993 | MoMA
Audio from Louise Bourgeois: An Unfolding Portrait. Explore the prints, books, and creative process of this celebrated artist.
www.moma.org
August 28, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Highly recommend you check out Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture Arch of Hysteria, the inspiration for McKinley Johnson’s poem “Rapture is a painful thing,” the final poem in our #SummerRiot series:
hips skyward, limbs trailing behind,
shoulder ripped from socket by the drag;
friction makes you burn, a reverse comet,
a smoking censer chain-dragged through the sky
—McKinley Johnson, with a fierce ekphrasis #SummerRiot poem to close out our summer. Wishing y’all joy, rest, resistance. ☄️
shoulder ripped from socket by the drag;
friction makes you burn, a reverse comet,
a smoking censer chain-dragged through the sky
—McKinley Johnson, with a fierce ekphrasis #SummerRiot poem to close out our summer. Wishing y’all joy, rest, resistance. ☄️
“Rapture is a painful thing” by McKinley Johnson
after Louise Bourgeois’s Arch of Hysteria (1993)It’s no simple vanish, no snap of earth-forming fingers;when God takes you, it’s violent.Dissonant trumpets, burning chariots,angels grab you b…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 22, 2025 at 2:13 PM
hips skyward, limbs trailing behind,
shoulder ripped from socket by the drag;
friction makes you burn, a reverse comet,
a smoking censer chain-dragged through the sky
—McKinley Johnson, with a fierce ekphrasis #SummerRiot poem to close out our summer. Wishing y’all joy, rest, resistance. ☄️
shoulder ripped from socket by the drag;
friction makes you burn, a reverse comet,
a smoking censer chain-dragged through the sky
—McKinley Johnson, with a fierce ekphrasis #SummerRiot poem to close out our summer. Wishing y’all joy, rest, resistance. ☄️
🦉🙏💙💙 So glad for your poem in the #SummerRiot company, Jacqui!!!
August 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM
🦉🙏💙💙 So glad for your poem in the #SummerRiot company, Jacqui!!!
Any rain big enough, anywhere,
could sweep a house away.
I need to reacquaint myself
with the Earth I actually inhabit.
—Jacqui Zeng, with our #SummerRiot poem today! ☔️🔥
@jacquiz.bsky.social
could sweep a house away.
I need to reacquaint myself
with the Earth I actually inhabit.
—Jacqui Zeng, with our #SummerRiot poem today! ☔️🔥
@jacquiz.bsky.social
“I Search the Internet for Evidence to Justify My Melancholy” by Jacqui Zeng
Yes, headlights are 15% brighter nowand plane turbulence is actually worse.Birds crash into windows, little yellow packages droppedonto the sidewalks, announcingthe death of spring and the riseof b…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 20, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Any rain big enough, anywhere,
could sweep a house away.
I need to reacquaint myself
with the Earth I actually inhabit.
—Jacqui Zeng, with our #SummerRiot poem today! ☔️🔥
@jacquiz.bsky.social
could sweep a house away.
I need to reacquaint myself
with the Earth I actually inhabit.
—Jacqui Zeng, with our #SummerRiot poem today! ☔️🔥
@jacquiz.bsky.social
the swell of distant horse-shit & crop-rot
diesel fumes & freshly mown grass
& lo!
how the breeze comes on
like an afterglow
hopelessly blue
tragic
—Danielle McMahon, with just the perfect #SummerRiot poem today ☀️
diesel fumes & freshly mown grass
& lo!
how the breeze comes on
like an afterglow
hopelessly blue
tragic
—Danielle McMahon, with just the perfect #SummerRiot poem today ☀️
“boy crazy” by Danielle McMahon
summertime stings of honey-suckle & sweet sweet gasoline spilt on blacktopsneakersO how the hot tin roofs glint in harsh sunlight & our lovesick hearts answer to the creak of slick skin stu…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
the swell of distant horse-shit & crop-rot
diesel fumes & freshly mown grass
& lo!
how the breeze comes on
like an afterglow
hopelessly blue
tragic
—Danielle McMahon, with just the perfect #SummerRiot poem today ☀️
diesel fumes & freshly mown grass
& lo!
how the breeze comes on
like an afterglow
hopelessly blue
tragic
—Danielle McMahon, with just the perfect #SummerRiot poem today ☀️
Beauty is both ways,
All ways & always.
—Nicholas Viglietti splashing open our final week of #SummerRiot poems! 🌴🌊
All ways & always.
—Nicholas Viglietti splashing open our final week of #SummerRiot poems! 🌴🌊
“Stockton Blvd.” by Nicholas Viglietti
Northward,On Stockton Blvd. Cruisin’ under an ocean sky; It’s a sun blazed, kinda day. Strollin’ south – Thickness.That makes you drop Your mouth.On night-club heels. Beauty is both ways, All…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 18, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Beauty is both ways,
All ways & always.
—Nicholas Viglietti splashing open our final week of #SummerRiot poems! 🌴🌊
All ways & always.
—Nicholas Viglietti splashing open our final week of #SummerRiot poems! 🌴🌊
Catch up on the latest at Moist! 💦 #SummerRiot
If we’re lucky,
if the water
is clear enough,
if the light is right […]
—Andy Fogle with our #SummerRiot poem today!
if the water
is clear enough,
if the light is right […]
—Andy Fogle with our #SummerRiot poem today!
“THE SPEED OF THINGS AT SPRING RUN” by Andy Fogle
A green frog on the bank,and we just watch. Everyone knows thisfrom cartoons and/orbeing outside: the leapis a single, swift, arcfrom right there at our feetto somewhere elsewe don’t even know.It h…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 17, 2025 at 4:01 PM
Catch up on the latest at Moist! 💦 #SummerRiot
If we’re lucky,
if the water
is clear enough,
if the light is right […]
—Andy Fogle with our #SummerRiot poem today!
if the water
is clear enough,
if the light is right […]
—Andy Fogle with our #SummerRiot poem today!
“THE SPEED OF THINGS AT SPRING RUN” by Andy Fogle
A green frog on the bank,and we just watch. Everyone knows thisfrom cartoons and/orbeing outside: the leapis a single, swift, arcfrom right there at our feetto somewhere elsewe don’t even know.It h…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 15, 2025 at 1:16 PM
If we’re lucky,
if the water
is clear enough,
if the light is right […]
—Andy Fogle with our #SummerRiot poem today!
if the water
is clear enough,
if the light is right […]
—Andy Fogle with our #SummerRiot poem today!
imma die bout my queer niggas cause we
deserve a chance to live fruitfully
—Will Diggs, with two fresh #SummerRiot beauties this morning
deserve a chance to live fruitfully
—Will Diggs, with two fresh #SummerRiot beauties this morning
Two Poems by Will Diggs
Imma Die Bout My Queer Niggas ion wanna die bout my queer niggascuz i believe we should live. we all gon die eventually but if we can keep death waiting i really think we should.greedy bitch alread…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 11, 2025 at 2:25 PM
imma die bout my queer niggas cause we
deserve a chance to live fruitfully
—Will Diggs, with two fresh #SummerRiot beauties this morning
deserve a chance to live fruitfully
—Will Diggs, with two fresh #SummerRiot beauties this morning
Season of salmonberry then currant
raspberry
thimbleberry cherry almost
blackberry
—Deirdre Lockwood, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning!
@deirdrelockwood.bsky.social
raspberry
thimbleberry cherry almost
blackberry
—Deirdre Lockwood, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning!
@deirdrelockwood.bsky.social
“Porosity” by Deirdre Lockwood
Season of salmonberry then currantraspberry thimbleberry cherry almostblackberryof ants in the kitchenof napping while she napswriting undercoverthe blanket naked (its crimson sleeve whirling in th…
moistpoetryjournal.com
August 1, 2025 at 1:42 PM
Season of salmonberry then currant
raspberry
thimbleberry cherry almost
blackberry
—Deirdre Lockwood, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning!
@deirdrelockwood.bsky.social
raspberry
thimbleberry cherry almost
blackberry
—Deirdre Lockwood, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning!
@deirdrelockwood.bsky.social
I too, have more than
one name
I too, shift into
the transitioning season
—Kit Steitz, with our #SummerRiot 🍊 today!
@kitikins.bsky.social
one name
I too, shift into
the transitioning season
—Kit Steitz, with our #SummerRiot 🍊 today!
@kitikins.bsky.social
“Cocktail Grapefruit Tree” by Kit Steitz
I too, have more than one name I too, shift into the transitioning season becoming more me more defined by thirst as I grow away from the dirt Kit Steitz is a queer, non-binary poet, and the founde…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 31, 2025 at 4:12 PM
I too, have more than
one name
I too, shift into
the transitioning season
—Kit Steitz, with our #SummerRiot 🍊 today!
@kitikins.bsky.social
one name
I too, shift into
the transitioning season
—Kit Steitz, with our #SummerRiot 🍊 today!
@kitikins.bsky.social
the best conversations happen in a tavern but
the revolution doesn’t happen because you got drunk
—Chris Corlew with our fire poems this morning, dear ones #SummerRiot 🔥
@thecorlew.bsky.social
the revolution doesn’t happen because you got drunk
—Chris Corlew with our fire poems this morning, dear ones #SummerRiot 🔥
@thecorlew.bsky.social
Two Poems by Chris Corlew
I MAY NEVER BE STRAIGHT EDGE BUT IT IS PUNK ROCK TO QUIT DRINKING in the NOFX song Bob spends 15 years gettin loaded until his liver explodedsaying he wanted to think about nothingam I made of the …
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 29, 2025 at 12:10 PM
the best conversations happen in a tavern but
the revolution doesn’t happen because you got drunk
—Chris Corlew with our fire poems this morning, dear ones #SummerRiot 🔥
@thecorlew.bsky.social
the revolution doesn’t happen because you got drunk
—Chris Corlew with our fire poems this morning, dear ones #SummerRiot 🔥
@thecorlew.bsky.social
I love the work a kiss can do. The way
it leaves language
harmless, temporary.
The way it erases a whole history of distance.
—Amorak Huey, with a new poem in our #SummerRiot series 🌧️🪿
@amorak.bsky.social
it leaves language
harmless, temporary.
The way it erases a whole history of distance.
—Amorak Huey, with a new poem in our #SummerRiot series 🌧️🪿
@amorak.bsky.social
“I Wanted to Tell You about These Geese” by Amorak Huey
I love the work a kiss can do. The wayit leaves languageharmless, temporary. The way it erases a whole history of distance.It’s raining in Ohio this morning,roadside ditches filled to overflowing,a…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 25, 2025 at 3:03 PM
I love the work a kiss can do. The way
it leaves language
harmless, temporary.
The way it erases a whole history of distance.
—Amorak Huey, with a new poem in our #SummerRiot series 🌧️🪿
@amorak.bsky.social
it leaves language
harmless, temporary.
The way it erases a whole history of distance.
—Amorak Huey, with a new poem in our #SummerRiot series 🌧️🪿
@amorak.bsky.social
I want to collect all the love that loves me back and fill a house with it.
A new species of love that grows when exposed to sunlight.
—Nico Green, with a lovely polyam love poem this morning #SummerRiot 🌱💙
A new species of love that grows when exposed to sunlight.
—Nico Green, with a lovely polyam love poem this morning #SummerRiot 🌱💙
“Counter-clockwise” by Nico Green
I want you and I want you too.I want two loves around me. Swirling in a spiral, if possible.Counter-clockwise.I want to look up at the sky and see two faces.Two moons orbiting an alien planet.We le…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 23, 2025 at 1:54 PM
I want to collect all the love that loves me back and fill a house with it.
A new species of love that grows when exposed to sunlight.
—Nico Green, with a lovely polyam love poem this morning #SummerRiot 🌱💙
A new species of love that grows when exposed to sunlight.
—Nico Green, with a lovely polyam love poem this morning #SummerRiot 🌱💙
It was always the mountain
and me. Paris Mountain.
The woods were mine:
tree tops, rocks, creeks,
space between. I topped
for the first time on leaves
straddling felled trees.
—Tara Burke, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning 🍃
and me. Paris Mountain.
The woods were mine:
tree tops, rocks, creeks,
space between. I topped
for the first time on leaves
straddling felled trees.
—Tara Burke, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning 🍃
“I was a child, all body.” by Tara Burke
It was always the mountain and me. Paris Mountain. The woods were mine: tree tops, rocks, creeks, space between. I topped for the first time on leaves straddling felled trees. The way they laid acr…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 21, 2025 at 1:58 PM
It was always the mountain
and me. Paris Mountain.
The woods were mine:
tree tops, rocks, creeks,
space between. I topped
for the first time on leaves
straddling felled trees.
—Tara Burke, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning 🍃
and me. Paris Mountain.
The woods were mine:
tree tops, rocks, creeks,
space between. I topped
for the first time on leaves
straddling felled trees.
—Tara Burke, with a new #SummerRiot beauty this morning 🍃
while he used candles, i moused
computers, i watched tv. during covid, i witnessed
my relatives pray for the vaccine already in my body
waters away. watching is another kind of pain.
that’s why they use it as torture, too.
—Thanh Bui, with a riotous new poem for #SummerRiot today! 📺🔥
computers, i watched tv. during covid, i witnessed
my relatives pray for the vaccine already in my body
waters away. watching is another kind of pain.
that’s why they use it as torture, too.
—Thanh Bui, with a riotous new poem for #SummerRiot today! 📺🔥
“108 degrees, honey” by Thanh Bui
there will still be humans, my lover says though we might not be included in that.our kind isn’t just going to die out immediately,to which i envision the skin of the ones who’ll live. visit a Tita…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 16, 2025 at 2:18 PM
while he used candles, i moused
computers, i watched tv. during covid, i witnessed
my relatives pray for the vaccine already in my body
waters away. watching is another kind of pain.
that’s why they use it as torture, too.
—Thanh Bui, with a riotous new poem for #SummerRiot today! 📺🔥
computers, i watched tv. during covid, i witnessed
my relatives pray for the vaccine already in my body
waters away. watching is another kind of pain.
that’s why they use it as torture, too.
—Thanh Bui, with a riotous new poem for #SummerRiot today! 📺🔥
Posing for a selfie in the museum,
you pulled me in close for a kiss.
Motion sensors disengaged, alarmed wire quieted,
the security guard on a lunch break.
—Pam Yve Simon
Take a poem break for @pamyve.bsky.social’s new beauty in our #SummerRiot series! 🦋
you pulled me in close for a kiss.
Motion sensors disengaged, alarmed wire quieted,
the security guard on a lunch break.
—Pam Yve Simon
Take a poem break for @pamyve.bsky.social’s new beauty in our #SummerRiot series! 🦋
“Natural History Museum” by Pam Yve Simon
Posing for a selfie in the museum,you pulled me in close for a kiss.Motion sensors disengaged, alarmed wire quieted,the security guard on a lunch break. All at once, our love became visible and acc…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 14, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Posing for a selfie in the museum,
you pulled me in close for a kiss.
Motion sensors disengaged, alarmed wire quieted,
the security guard on a lunch break.
—Pam Yve Simon
Take a poem break for @pamyve.bsky.social’s new beauty in our #SummerRiot series! 🦋
you pulled me in close for a kiss.
Motion sensors disengaged, alarmed wire quieted,
the security guard on a lunch break.
—Pam Yve Simon
Take a poem break for @pamyve.bsky.social’s new beauty in our #SummerRiot series! 🦋
“you will, at times
find yourself in defiance
accidental or no
of grand celestial plans”
—Bridget Gordon, with a balm of a new poem today in our #SummerRiot series ✨
@thaumatropia.bsky.social
find yourself in defiance
accidental or no
of grand celestial plans”
—Bridget Gordon, with a balm of a new poem today in our #SummerRiot series ✨
@thaumatropia.bsky.social
“wonder-struck” by Bridget Gordon
you will, at timesfind yourself in defiance accidental or noof grand celestial plansregimes will rise to meet you vast empires of ruinwill array themselves against youall because you had the nerve …
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 12, 2025 at 2:52 PM
“you will, at times
find yourself in defiance
accidental or no
of grand celestial plans”
—Bridget Gordon, with a balm of a new poem today in our #SummerRiot series ✨
@thaumatropia.bsky.social
find yourself in defiance
accidental or no
of grand celestial plans”
—Bridget Gordon, with a balm of a new poem today in our #SummerRiot series ✨
@thaumatropia.bsky.social
July 10, 2025 at 5:04 PM
“i am through with structures
that seek only to support
their kin”
—nat raum
new #SummerRiot beauty by nat raum today! 🔥
that seek only to support
their kin”
—nat raum
new #SummerRiot beauty by nat raum today! 🔥
“poem for drinking down that gin and kerosene” by nat raum
my firespit slicks bridgesfor miles, i swear to you—i am through with structuresthat seek only to supporttheir kin. if my refusalto go on like this forevermeans i must build a townof my own edifice…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 10, 2025 at 4:09 PM
“i am through with structures
that seek only to support
their kin”
—nat raum
new #SummerRiot beauty by nat raum today! 🔥
that seek only to support
their kin”
—nat raum
new #SummerRiot beauty by nat raum today! 🔥
“Better
is the suggestion to pay attention
to right now […]”
—Matthew Murrey, with a new #SummerRiot poem this morning! ☀️
@mytwords.bsky.social
is the suggestion to pay attention
to right now […]”
—Matthew Murrey, with a new #SummerRiot poem this morning! ☀️
@mytwords.bsky.social
“Prepping” by Matthew Murrey
I’ve done some: a little extra food and toilet paper socked away,and cash in case cards won’t work. Better is the idea of cultivating being a neighbor—pitching in for the broken or the broke. She k…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 7, 2025 at 1:55 PM
“Better
is the suggestion to pay attention
to right now […]”
—Matthew Murrey, with a new #SummerRiot poem this morning! ☀️
@mytwords.bsky.social
is the suggestion to pay attention
to right now […]”
—Matthew Murrey, with a new #SummerRiot poem this morning! ☀️
@mytwords.bsky.social
The form of this poem gave me creative thrills: that feeling of discovering the structure before the content registers and needing to reread and reread because it's just so exquisitely done.
💖 @djvorreyer.bsky.social #SummerRiot
💖 @djvorreyer.bsky.social #SummerRiot
“But I’ve found here, in
shimmer and dirt, a slow sifting of time, a stalled second-hand, the quartz
of a Swiss watch stymied.”
—Donna Vorreyer, with a new, last poem in our #SummerRiot series!
@djvorreyer.bsky.social
shimmer and dirt, a slow sifting of time, a stalled second-hand, the quartz
of a Swiss watch stymied.”
—Donna Vorreyer, with a new, last poem in our #SummerRiot series!
@djvorreyer.bsky.social
“Summer Light with Migraine” by Donna Vorreyer
a horseshoe shovelSomething precious, pink shimmer of quartz in rough earth—precious glimmerseed of memory. No lie, things have been rough.Pink-cheeked fever, clustered stab of pain. But I’ve found…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 6, 2025 at 2:52 PM
The form of this poem gave me creative thrills: that feeling of discovering the structure before the content registers and needing to reread and reread because it's just so exquisitely done.
💖 @djvorreyer.bsky.social #SummerRiot
💖 @djvorreyer.bsky.social #SummerRiot
Please note that *LUSH autocorrected to *last on this sleepy editor. ☔️
We have so many more lovely poems coming in the next weeks, straight through August, in #SummerRiot!
We have so many more lovely poems coming in the next weeks, straight through August, in #SummerRiot!
July 6, 2025 at 12:33 PM
Please note that *LUSH autocorrected to *last on this sleepy editor. ☔️
We have so many more lovely poems coming in the next weeks, straight through August, in #SummerRiot!
We have so many more lovely poems coming in the next weeks, straight through August, in #SummerRiot!
“But I’ve found here, in
shimmer and dirt, a slow sifting of time, a stalled second-hand, the quartz
of a Swiss watch stymied.”
—Donna Vorreyer, with a new, last poem in our #SummerRiot series!
@djvorreyer.bsky.social
shimmer and dirt, a slow sifting of time, a stalled second-hand, the quartz
of a Swiss watch stymied.”
—Donna Vorreyer, with a new, last poem in our #SummerRiot series!
@djvorreyer.bsky.social
“Summer Light with Migraine” by Donna Vorreyer
a horseshoe shovelSomething precious, pink shimmer of quartz in rough earth—precious glimmerseed of memory. No lie, things have been rough.Pink-cheeked fever, clustered stab of pain. But I’ve found…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 6, 2025 at 12:07 PM
“But I’ve found here, in
shimmer and dirt, a slow sifting of time, a stalled second-hand, the quartz
of a Swiss watch stymied.”
—Donna Vorreyer, with a new, last poem in our #SummerRiot series!
@djvorreyer.bsky.social
shimmer and dirt, a slow sifting of time, a stalled second-hand, the quartz
of a Swiss watch stymied.”
—Donna Vorreyer, with a new, last poem in our #SummerRiot series!
@djvorreyer.bsky.social
And this morning, it's @martin65.bsky.social turn to undo me with this perfect kiss of a poem.
#SummerRiot indeed.
#SummerRiot indeed.
“But this morning two sparring sparrows flashed
past my dull head into a wet azalea […]”
—Catherine Rockwood, into the (meta)physical wilds with a new #SummerRiot poem for us! 🔥
@martin65.bsky.social
past my dull head into a wet azalea […]”
—Catherine Rockwood, into the (meta)physical wilds with a new #SummerRiot poem for us! 🔥
@martin65.bsky.social
“We may think Bede” by Catherine Rockwood
did or could not say what true speed was without impossible foreknowledge of jet-bombers, lasers, a crouched F1 car.But this morning two sparring sparrows flashedpast my dull head into a wet azalea…
moistpoetryjournal.com
July 2, 2025 at 2:02 PM
And this morning, it's @martin65.bsky.social turn to undo me with this perfect kiss of a poem.
#SummerRiot indeed.
#SummerRiot indeed.