“He opens my throat, a disposable gutter and I know I’m empty or full or which one he wants me to be”
Don’t miss this poem from Hieu Minh Nguyen
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Performed NorthBeast Regional 2023 Finals
“That’s the thing about a direct English translation there is never anything correct about it.”
Don’t miss this poem from Ren L[i]u, performing NorthBeast Regional 2023 Finals
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Performed at Project Row Houses in Houston, TX
“There will be ease, soft breathing, and your favorite foods, a warm animal crawling into bed to sleep with you.”
Don’t miss this poem from Ariana Brown, performing at Project Row Houses in Houston, TX
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Performed at IWPS 2015
“What is the word for taking bathroom breaks at your retail job to cry?”
Don’t miss this poem from Melissa Lozada-Oliva, performing at IWPS 2015
Get Melissa’s book, peluda.
“Love arrives exactly when love is supposed to, and love leaves exactly when love must.”
Don’t miss this week’s Best of Button playlist. Today’s additions: E.L. and Lily Myers! Congrats Poets!
Come back each week to see our newest and most popular videos.
While you’re here, head over to the Button store to check out our books and merch, or check out our newest release from Zach Goldberg!
Performed at Albany Barn in Albany, NY in 2023.
“I am a mural tagged overnight, something made more and less of itself.”
Don’t miss this poem from Sierra DeMulder, performing at Albany Barn in Albany, NY in 2023.
Get Sierra’s book, Ephemera.
Performed NorthBeast Regional 2023 Finals
“And it’s the first time all day my little bean runs into my arms when I call them.”
Don’t miss this poem from Christopher Clauss, performing NorthBeast Regional 2023 Finals
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Performed in NYC
“Thirty days of flyers. Thirty days of prayer and deli platters. Thirty days of missing. Thirty days, and dead the whole time.”
Don’t miss this poem from Sean Patrick Mulroy, performing in NYC
Get Sean’s book, Hated for the Gods.
Performed at WOWPS 2023 in Baltimore, MD
“For every good time to sing its tune throughout my cheeks it took a trail of skulls and spilled marrow to build a body worth continuing to sing to.”
Don’t miss this poem from EL, performing at WOWPS 2023 in Baltimore, MD
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It’s Publication Day for I’d Rather Be Destroyed!
Grab a copy of Zach Goldberg’s collection.
We have limited SIGNED copies still available!
ABOUT THE BOOK
Earnest and darkly funny, this collection rebuilds the self from its broken pieces. Playing with dynamic and experimental forms, Goldberg explores modern Jewish identity, familial and cultural inheritances, and managing mental health. Its historical and religious allusions navigate modern and personal conversations, reflecting how we embrace and reject the legacies that shape us. Sharp and captivating, I’d Rather Be Destroyed’s honesty and artistry make it a must-read.
PRAISE FOR ZACH
Zach Goldberg writes like an inventor, making the page his play ground. I’d Rather Be Destroyed is as brilliant as it is easeful. Each page is a home we are invited into. Each line is a table we sit down at, grateful.
—Andrea Gibson, You Better Be Lightning
Dexterous and innovative, Goldberg’s poems traverse between intimate struggles to geopolitical conflicts. Moving from aching present to past and back again, these poems reach towards the possibility of healing, inviting us to reach for “Home, the place you leave / to find.” A beautiful debut!
—Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, 40 Weeks
I’d Rather Be Destroyed is an intricate map shepherding its reader into possibilities of home. Goldberg shows us that diaspora can be a nesting doll of ghosts, that correlations and revelations share a piercing proximity; a split-atom I understand more through its blaze.
—Junious ‘Jay’ Ward, Composition
