About

Curio is a journal of poetry that explores the world at a micro-level: tiny spaces, instants, individual objects, scraps of dreams and memories, et cetera. While we are as fond as anyone of epic poetry, ballads, political polemics, crowns of love sonnets, and other verse that captures whole oceans of human experience, the intention of this journal is to zoom in and look a bit closer at things. There are already enough poets out there doing rambling narratives and deep thought poems; we simply want to collect the bits that may seem at first glance too minor to deserve their own poem.

A shot of tequila. Pollen on the table from the drooping irises in the vase at the center. A marble abandoned on the driveway. The cat lapping up milk. An heirloom chess piece. Waking up naked on a cold winter morning. Napkins. Geometry in the world that you just noticed for the first time. We want to hear about your reactions and impressions in the moment. Don’t try to solve the great equations of the universe or unburden your soul completely; just be in that moment and transmute it into writing.

The journal is still in its infancy, so we hope that it will continue to grow and change and develop like anything else. We welcome various kinds of verse (see the Submissions page) and art; in the future, we may expand into fiction, essays, and other artistic output. You’re welcome to begin this journey with us and see where it leads; the nature of things is that it will probably end up where least expected.

If you would like to join our mailing list, to be notified when there are new issues up on the site, special announcements that need sharing, or just general news about the magazine, please send an email asking to be added to: curiopoetry [at] gmail [dot] com, where (obviously) you want to replace the [at] with a @ and the [dot] with a .

More to come…!

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Joseph Harker (editor) lives in New York, for now, and spends most of his time working instead of doing poems, for now. He blogs at http://namingconstellations.wordpress.com, and you will find him there most of the time. There isn’t enough time in the day to notice all the things he’d like to, let alone write about them.

Tessa Racked (assistant editor) gives herself worry lines thinking about things she’d like to change. She curates those things here: http://tessaracked.tumblr.com, with grace, wit, and aplomb.