About

Poetose's mission is to contribute to the literary landscape of Boston and beyond to make the world a more beautiful home for us all. We believe in spreading the love and creating beautiful things. Everything ought to have an element of the poetic.

Poetose publishes works of poetry, prose, and art, and also sells bookish items. We love work that lives at the intersections of everything. Poetose is a neologism combining the words "poetry" and "prose;" we are interested in poetry + prose with an emphasis on the toes.

As writer Derek Walcott said, "What I mean is to be barefoot in spirit." We wish to explore the ground between fields and disciplines. We value language and the book as beautiful objects. We celebrate the exploration of our collective toes. Fittingly, the Poetose logo is a toe print. We are open to submissions to be published both online and in print.

Submit to Poetose

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Poetose Journal

Cages — George Genovese

Take This Body — Sherre Vernon

July writing, No. 17 — Abigail Donovan

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Poetose Literary Creatures Animal Notebooks

Bunnies in a Reading Room Small Notebook

Bookbinding Cats Small Notebook

Chickens Reading on Clouds Small Notebook

See Notebooks

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Poetose Book Earrings

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Poetose Boston Map Notebooks

Cambridge and Somerville Map Notebook

Boston Map Notebook

Plan of Boston Map Notebook

Colorful Boston Map Notebook

Boston and Boston Harbor Map Notebook

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Debut Chapbook

Poetose · Sky Chapbook Excerpt by George Genovese

Sky by George Genovese

$10.00

Poetose proudly presents its debut chapbook by Australian writer George Genovese! Sewn along the spine, this blue beauty has the title and author in shimmering gold foil.

Sky is the account of a bygone age in which an array of long-forgotten zealots and seekers propound contending visions of the firmament characterized in terms of gemstones peculiar to their schools. For many among them, the Sky is suggestive of an unnerving intruder mysteriously withholding itself in their midst like a speechless stranger, spurring unease unless it is tamed by an ingenious, if unconscious, dialectics. For others it hints of limitless splendor, no less mysterious and overwhelming, yet which they welcome as the benign otherness ushered in upon them by the sky-bearing lovers in their presence. And so begin the exchanges between those of profound learning in search of what terrestrial metal, jewel, or gemstone best distils and fixes the essence of Sky and those of rawer sensibility who seek its true meaning with an instinctive ardor making up for their want in erudition.

Much of the material here will be foreign to contemporary sensibility and likely to exude a quaintness that may well elicit an indulgent smirk from those of us belonging to an age – an enlightened age – that has long since consigned abstruse meditations and reveries such as these to oblivion. That may well be, but whilst we might laud ourselves on having transcended much of the unsophisticated mindset witnessed in these pages it nonetheless remains a truism that only by reacquainting ourselves with the past can we hope to understand the present, and, indeed, orient ourselves toward the future.

See Sky

Poetose Books

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Bookstores & Gift Shops

Poetose is proud to have our wares at bookstores and gift shops across the nation. These are just some of our local partners. Visit your local bookstore today! If you are a bookstore interested in carrying Poetose books or bookish items, please email [email protected] for discount rates.

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On the Publisher as Ferryman and Gardener

“During their conversations, [Vladimir] Dimitrijević used two words to describe the job of the publisher: ferryman and gardener. Those two words, to an untutored ear, might seem like signs of modesty. On the contrary, I think they reveal the highest ambition. Both the ferryman and the gardener are involved in something that already exists: a garden to be cultivated or a traveler to be transported. But that thing usually called creation also involves something that preexists. Every writer possesses within him a garden to be cultivated and a traveler to be transported: nothing more. Otherwise, he would end up involved with something much less interesting: his own ego. But the two words used by Dimitrijević are not just an indication of the highest ambition. For me they are also the manifestation of an ancient dream. I believe that unless someone has an image of paradise it is very difficult to be a great publisher. And a paradise—whatever form it takes—will always be a garden with flowing water.”
-The Art of the Publisher (FSG, 2015) by Roberto Calasso, translated by Richard Dixon