Leonard Kress
@lkress.bsky.social
Poet, fiction writer, translator (Polish). PAN TADEUSZ by Adam Mickiewicz on website: www.leonardkress.com
Craniotomy Sestinas (2021) Poppy Seeds (2023) Foxholes (2025)
Craniotomy Sestinas (2021) Poppy Seeds (2023) Foxholes (2025)
Please check out my poem about shotputters and discus throwers on VERSE-VIRTUAL. (Much thanks to editor Jim Lewis.) www.verse-virtual.org/2025/Novembe...
Leonard Kress Verse-Virtual November 2025
The poetry of Leonard Kress
www.verse-virtual.org
November 1, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Please check out my poem about shotputters and discus throwers on VERSE-VIRTUAL. (Much thanks to editor Jim Lewis.) www.verse-virtual.org/2025/Novembe...
At the Philadelphia Orchestra today with Anya Kress. Pieces by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and Jennifer Higdon (BGSU connection), Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting. And this otherworldly rendition of a Finnish folk song by guest violinist Lisa Batiashvili… www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWW9...
Evening Song (Riihimäki) / Lisa Batiashvili · Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks · Hrůša
YouTube video by Fan of Lisa Batiashvili
www.youtube.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:08 AM
At the Philadelphia Orchestra today with Anya Kress. Pieces by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky, and Jennifer Higdon (BGSU connection), Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducting. And this otherworldly rendition of a Finnish folk song by guest violinist Lisa Batiashvili… www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWW9...
Please check out my poem "Time Out of Mind" on the Kent State University. "Poets for Science" site.
Fitting that a poem about higher math would be a sestina.
poetsforscience.org/time-out-of-...
Fitting that a poem about higher math would be a sestina.
poetsforscience.org/time-out-of-...
Time Out of Mind - Poets for Science
Everything you think you know about time is wrong. You imagine it’s just another dimension, no different from the other three. And space (as Minkowski argued a century ago) is in love with time, fused...
poetsforscience.org
September 18, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Please check out my poem "Time Out of Mind" on the Kent State University. "Poets for Science" site.
Fitting that a poem about higher math would be a sestina.
poetsforscience.org/time-out-of-...
Fitting that a poem about higher math would be a sestina.
poetsforscience.org/time-out-of-...
Please check out my new poem (as well as the other fine work) in the new issue of MINYAN. (Special thanks to editor Liz Marlow.)
It should be easy enough,
just choose a psalm, any psalm,
say #19 for starters…
www.minyanmag.com/leonardkress...
It should be easy enough,
just choose a psalm, any psalm,
say #19 for starters…
www.minyanmag.com/leonardkress...
How Poets Pray by Leonard Kress | MINYAN
How Poets Pray by Leonard Kress from Issue Sixteen
www.minyanmag.com
August 31, 2025 at 4:38 PM
Please check out my new poem (as well as the other fine work) in the new issue of MINYAN. (Special thanks to editor Liz Marlow.)
It should be easy enough,
just choose a psalm, any psalm,
say #19 for starters…
www.minyanmag.com/leonardkress...
It should be easy enough,
just choose a psalm, any psalm,
say #19 for starters…
www.minyanmag.com/leonardkress...
Please check out my short story, "Rubies," in the new issue of Litro. Clearly, a quarter century living in the Midwest affects one's writing...
www.litromagazine.com/usa/2025/06/...
www.litromagazine.com/usa/2025/06/...
Rubies - Litro Magazine USA
A ruby earring, a mall, a buried past. “Rubies” is a tender, aching story about abortion, motherhood, and Midwestern memory.
www.litromagazine.com
August 1, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Please check out my short story, "Rubies," in the new issue of Litro. Clearly, a quarter century living in the Midwest affects one's writing...
www.litromagazine.com/usa/2025/06/...
www.litromagazine.com/usa/2025/06/...
Always important to commemorate Bastille Day—equally necessary to note “The Day After Bastille Day.”
Please check out my poem published in Helix…
helixmagazine.org/2022/03/16/t...
Please check out my poem published in Helix…
helixmagazine.org/2022/03/16/t...
The Day After Bastille Day || Leonard Kress
It’s quiet here, where the river broadens, by the dropped drawbridge and the distant eight-girl crews, coasting to the finish line, forming a bar graph that could represent favored activities (list…
helixmagazine.org
July 15, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Always important to commemorate Bastille Day—equally necessary to note “The Day After Bastille Day.”
Please check out my poem published in Helix…
helixmagazine.org/2022/03/16/t...
Please check out my poem published in Helix…
helixmagazine.org/2022/03/16/t...
As always, George Eliot out-Kants them all...(from Chapter 27, MIDDLEMARCH).
July 5, 2025 at 2:48 PM
As always, George Eliot out-Kants them all...(from Chapter 27, MIDDLEMARCH).
Please check out my poem, “STRING BEAN MORITIFICATION” in the new issue of Stick Figure Poetry Quarterly. (You would be too.)
stickfigurepoetry.com/issue-18/#st...
stickfigurepoetry.com/issue-18/#st...
Issue #18
Lead Pipe Replacement Project by James Croal Jackson C Street by Azure Brandi Woods by Pulkita Anand Thoughts About Golf While Reading William Blake by Charlie Brice Post-midlife Crisis by Er…
stickfigurepoetry.com
July 1, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Please check out my poem, “STRING BEAN MORITIFICATION” in the new issue of Stick Figure Poetry Quarterly. (You would be too.)
stickfigurepoetry.com/issue-18/#st...
stickfigurepoetry.com/issue-18/#st...
Much thanks to JP Laughing Bear for including my poem, “Orpheus Listens to Black Orpheus” on his website, versedaily.org. And I urge you to subscribe to his substack for a new poem daily. (This is from my new collection FOXHOLES.)
www.versedaily.org/2025/orpheus...
www.versedaily.org/2025/orpheus...
Welcome to Verse Daily!
Verse Daily, a quality web anthology of poetry. A poem a day, along with our complete archives, and poem selections from the web.
versedaily.org
June 3, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Much thanks to JP Laughing Bear for including my poem, “Orpheus Listens to Black Orpheus” on his website, versedaily.org. And I urge you to subscribe to his substack for a new poem daily. (This is from my new collection FOXHOLES.)
www.versedaily.org/2025/orpheus...
www.versedaily.org/2025/orpheus...
Please check out my poem, "A Night at the Opera" in the new issue of AIOTB (As It Ought To Be). Fine poems in this issue, edited by Chase Dimock.
asitoughttobemagazine.com/leonard-kres...
asitoughttobemagazine.com/leonard-kres...
Leonard Kress: “A Night at the Opera”
A Night at the Opera(Leoš Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen)We have such great seats at the operain the first balcony and the first thingmy wife asks–to switch places becausethe woman’s perf…
asitoughttobemagazine.com
May 19, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Please check out my poem, "A Night at the Opera" in the new issue of AIOTB (As It Ought To Be). Fine poems in this issue, edited by Chase Dimock.
asitoughttobemagazine.com/leonard-kres...
asitoughttobemagazine.com/leonard-kres...
Kent State shootings--45 years ago, May 5, 1970. (Photo from the Philadelphia Bulletin of the protest at Temple U on North Broad Steet. After breaking into the National Guard Armory and before a National Guard tank broke down in the middle of the street. Yes, that me--all fired up--on the right...)
May 4, 2025 at 5:52 PM
Kent State shootings--45 years ago, May 5, 1970. (Photo from the Philadelphia Bulletin of the protest at Temple U on North Broad Steet. After breaking into the National Guard Armory and before a National Guard tank broke down in the middle of the street. Yes, that me--all fired up--on the right...)
Battle of Grunwald--(1410) between the villages of Grunwald and Tannenberg n northeastern Poland that marked a major Polish-Lithuanian victory over the Knights of the Teutonic Order. (Defeating the Nazis early)
April 25, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Battle of Grunwald--(1410) between the villages of Grunwald and Tannenberg n northeastern Poland that marked a major Polish-Lithuanian victory over the Knights of the Teutonic Order. (Defeating the Nazis early)
Visit to Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw..
April 24, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Visit to Nożyk Synagogue in Warsaw..
Kościół Mariacki, Kraków, Polska. (Altarpiece by Wit Stwosz)
April 20, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Kościół Mariacki, Kraków, Polska. (Altarpiece by Wit Stwosz)
My very unorthodox way of marking Passover—in lieu of a Seder. These two flashes—and featuring Elijah, the invisible, invited, longed for dinner guest and in this case fully embodied….
anotherchicagomagazine.net/2024/03/12/f...
anotherchicagomagazine.net/2024/03/12/f...
Flash Fiction by Leonard Kress
The synagogue of my youth wandered throughout the city, from the basement of the Methodist church on the Manayunk hills to the East Falls nursing home…
anotherchicagomagazine.net
April 12, 2025 at 1:11 PM
My very unorthodox way of marking Passover—in lieu of a Seder. These two flashes—and featuring Elijah, the invisible, invited, longed for dinner guest and in this case fully embodied….
anotherchicagomagazine.net/2024/03/12/f...
anotherchicagomagazine.net/2024/03/12/f...
RIP Val Kilmer, forever Jim Morrison of the Doors. Perhaps the confusion is appropriate and necessary.... plumepoetry.com/not-the-way-...
Not the Way it Was - Plume
Not the Way It Was Today I overheard a conversation about the 1969 incident when Jim Morrison exposed himself onstage at the Coconut Grove in Miami and for a good half-hour I was sure I had been at th...
plumepoetry.com
April 3, 2025 at 12:44 AM
RIP Val Kilmer, forever Jim Morrison of the Doors. Perhaps the confusion is appropriate and necessary.... plumepoetry.com/not-the-way-...
My new poetry collection has finally arrived—FOXHOLES. If anyone out there would like a review copy or simply a copy to read, please message me with your mailing address. Here’s a sample poem from the book.
March 30, 2025 at 3:20 PM
My new poetry collection has finally arrived—FOXHOLES. If anyone out there would like a review copy or simply a copy to read, please message me with your mailing address. Here’s a sample poem from the book.
Reposted by Leonard Kress
'It’s the one I’m looking at this morning: the boy bleeding / into the snow painted over with slabs of cheese and meat; / the boy being led away from parents who appear / to offer his sister in his place painted over as a swan'
'The Feast of the Holy Innocents' by Maurice Riordan
'The Feast of the Holy Innocents' by Maurice Riordan
'The Feast of the Holy Innocents' by Maurice Riordan | Original poem | The TLS
28 December 2023 On the good rug with the Bible open I’m learning to read. The words are hard, I turn to the pictures: Belshazzar’s Feast, the Golden Calf, Holofernes, Moses Smashing the Tablets,…
buff.ly
February 21, 2025 at 9:22 AM
'It’s the one I’m looking at this morning: the boy bleeding / into the snow painted over with slabs of cheese and meat; / the boy being led away from parents who appear / to offer his sister in his place painted over as a swan'
'The Feast of the Holy Innocents' by Maurice Riordan
'The Feast of the Holy Innocents' by Maurice Riordan
Not half-bad--this description of the Superbowl (via Robert Graves' I CLAUDIUS).
February 12, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Not half-bad--this description of the Superbowl (via Robert Graves' I CLAUDIUS).
My Story, the first page at least, "DISPLACED PERSONS" in this Ohio Writers' Association collection, Should This Book Be Banned? Given the current state of affairs, the title of the story would get it banned. It purports to be about living in Kensington (Philly) when I lived there...
February 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
My Story, the first page at least, "DISPLACED PERSONS" in this Ohio Writers' Association collection, Should This Book Be Banned? Given the current state of affairs, the title of the story would get it banned. It purports to be about living in Kensington (Philly) when I lived there...
Reposted by Leonard Kress
How do artists sustain themselves year after year? Two recent books ask a wide variety of people—dancers, writers, filmmakers, architects—why they keep creating.
Are You an Artist?
The creative life is shrouded in mystery. Two new books try to discover what it takes.
nyer.cm
February 9, 2025 at 3:25 PM
How do artists sustain themselves year after year? Two recent books ask a wide variety of people—dancers, writers, filmmakers, architects—why they keep creating.
Pleased to announce the immanent publication of my new poetry collection--FOXHOLES (Moonstone Press). Coming any day now.
January 29, 2025 at 7:38 PM
Pleased to announce the immanent publication of my new poetry collection--FOXHOLES (Moonstone Press). Coming any day now.
For International Holocaust Remembrance Day: This Way to the Gas Ladies and Gents („Proszę państwa do gazu”) by Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951)
drive.google.com/file/d/0B5do...
drive.google.com/file/d/0B5do...
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen.pdf
drive.google.com
January 27, 2025 at 3:09 PM
For International Holocaust Remembrance Day: This Way to the Gas Ladies and Gents („Proszę państwa do gazu”) by Tadeusz Borowski (1922-1951)
drive.google.com/file/d/0B5do...
drive.google.com/file/d/0B5do...
Please check out my poem “Swordfish Mounted on the Paneled Rec-Room Wall.” Thanks to the editors at Poetry Catalog. These things may or my not have taken place in the suburbs of my adolescence.
poetrycatalog.com/swordfish-mo...
poetrycatalog.com/swordfish-mo...
Swordfish Mounted On The Paneled Rec-Room Wall, By: Leonard Kress - Poetry Catalog
Swordfish Mounted on the Paneled Rec-Room Wall, By: Leonard Kress: My girlfriend’s father hooked and hauled it aboard a chartered cabin
poetrycatalog.com
January 24, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Please check out my poem “Swordfish Mounted on the Paneled Rec-Room Wall.” Thanks to the editors at Poetry Catalog. These things may or my not have taken place in the suburbs of my adolescence.
poetrycatalog.com/swordfish-mo...
poetrycatalog.com/swordfish-mo...