Submissions are CLOSED.
We are indefinitely on hiatus.

Submissions are CLOSED.

At Poetry Breakfast, our goal is to be a sort of literary soup kitchen.  Each day we deliver a poem that nourishes our humanity.  In a world where politics, opinions, misinformation, and downright total madness are tossed at us from the moment we wake and check our Facebook feed until the second we go to sleep, Poetry Breakfast delivers something with genuine human compassion. 

Our focus is on the truth of how we are all the same on the inside.  We aim to help people begin their day by helping them connect to our collective humanity through poetry.  Anyone anywhere in the world can stop in at our website for a literary bite to eat.  We also have a daily morning delivery service to email inboxes.  (We even sneak some nourishment into social media feeds.)  

Think of the audience for and purpose of Poetry Breakfast when selecting which poems to submit.  There are plenty of great pieces of work that do not fit our menu.  Send those elsewhere. 

Remember that most of our readers are taking a very quick moment to get a fix of poetry .  15 to 50 lines tend to be just the right length for poems. 

Pay close attention to the attitude of your poems. We want our readers to feel connected on a deeply human level.  Send the rants, complaints, and debates to another journal.  They won’t fit here. 

While it is with love that we do this, that doesn’t mean we want romantic love poems.  We don’t publish falling in/out of love, sex, obsession, odes to the flesh, or break-up poems. Think of all the other kinds of love – family, friends, nature, special interests that one has, community, etc. 

Also, remember that we are an international journal.  Our readers come from over 100 countries and reflect a vast array of religions, political backgrounds, and cultures.  Poems should go beneath the surface of those external differences and focus on the similarities we all have within us.