NEW! You've Been Poemed! The Anthology is almost here!

I am delighted to have a poem included in this new Anthology, You've Been Poemed!

D.E. Shupe has a poem included too, which makes this double-trouble, plus there are many other wonderful poets we know included too! Over 100 poets are included within this book!

Thank you very much to Sandra Feen for creating this project and asking for our poems, to both Sandra and Dianne Borsenik for their considerable and considerate and creatively detailed editing work on this project, and to Sheila-Na-Gig Editions for publishing it.

(On a side note, I've submitted to Sheila-Na-Gig's online journal several times over the years and have never had poetry accepted there before, but I guess this anthology will now place me in Sheila-Na-Gig publication land.)

You can find out more about the You've Been Poemed! Anthology HERE (and consider pre-ordering a copy, at a discounted rate, that lasts through October 31) - https://sheilanagigblog.com/shop-sheila-na-gig-editions/feen_poemed/

NEW! Another one of my "Another Broken Mirror" poems is newly appearing in The Rye Whiskey Review!

"Then the mirror began to hate me.

Me and the mirror were smashed.
Stale breadcrumbs, vodka and glass
falling down into another
bathtub coffin."

the beginning of my poem "Another Broken Mirror", newly appearing in The Rye Whiskey Review!

read more here - http://ryethewhiskeyreview.blogspot.com/2026/08/another-broken-mirror-by-juliet-cook.html

(Yes this is a second recently published poem with the same title, but other than the title, it is its own poem. Both poems, along with others, currently appear within a  new chapbook manuscript in-progress...)...

NEW! "Another Broken Mirror" by Juliet Cook, another new poem up In Conversation at The Literary Underground!

"An elementary school gym teacher
told all the girls to lie down
on the floor and lift up our legs.
He said he was inspecting our shoes
to make sure they were appropriate
for his class. One girl would be chosen
by him to stand on the stage and cheer."

in my poem "Another Broken Mirror", newly appearing In Conversation at The Literary Underground!

(This is another poem of mine that also appears in a new chapbook manuscript in progress too...)...

read more HERE - https://theliteraryunderground.org/blog/2026/08/26/another-broken-mirror-by-juliet-cook/

NEW! "I Didn't Know Who I Was Yet" by Juliet Cook, a new poem, In Conversation at The Literary Underground!

"Or I wasn’t yet

able to express myself

the way I truly wanted to

unless I walked around in circles

in the basement, telling stories

inside my own head."

the beginning of my poem "I Didn't Know Who I Was Yet", which appeared In Conversation at The Literary Underground on Sunday

you can read more here - https://theliteraryunderground.org/blog/2026/08/16/i-didnt-know-who-i-was-yet-by-juliet-cook/

NEW! Happy Last Day of July and a short new poem!

Happy last day of July 2026. I have a short new poem up today at Drinkers Only.

Thank you very much to editor John Patrick Robbins.

Drinkers Only : Short and Not So Sweet By Juliet Cook - https://drinkersonly.blogspot.com/2026/07/short-and-not-so-sweet-by-juliet-cook.html

In Progress Poetry Manuscripts - dolls, dreams, nightmares, seizures, bodies, death, robots...

I am in the process of being overwhelmed by my own poems. Well not exactly the poems themselves, but organizing them/assembling them into collections (specifically chapbook manuscripts). I guess I've been writing more than I thought I was in the last few years and I guess I've somewhat drifted out of a sort of routine I had of tending to assemble new poems into chapbook manuscripts fairly quickly on an ongoing basis.

I haven't had a new chapbook published in over a year AND I haven't submitted a chapbook manuscript anywhere yet this year. For a while now, I've been working on and off on a small series of interconnected poems that I was thinking I might assemble into a chapbook manuscript and I finally made some significant progress on that this week. I also have a micro-chapbook manuscript that I assembled and submitted to one press over a year ago (from which it was rejected) and that I had been meaning to re-read/revise/add more poems to and so on. So I guess I have two different chapbook manuscripts in progress to an extent, but I've been focusing more on writing individual poems than organizing/assembling manuscripts.

So this past week, in addition to trying to focus on somewhat organizing those two possible chapbook manuscripts in progress, I've also been trying to re-read and somewhat organize all these other new-ish poems of mine, in order to decide which ones to possibly incorporate into which manuscript in progress and now I'm starting to think I'm going to have to create AT LEAST 3 (quite possibly more) different chapbook manuscripts. Regarding the two chapbook manuscripts in progress, half the stuff I'm reading doesn't really seem to fit into either one. One of those manuscripts is focused on women's bodies and I want it to stay short, interconnected, and pretty specifically thematic. The other one is focused on feeling invisible, unnamable, unimportant and out of place, and that one doesn't have to be quite AS thematically linked, it has SOME flexibility, but overall, I do like my chapbook manuscripts to be short, interconnected, and thematically linked to a significant extent. Not just a bunch of different poems semi-randomly placed in a chapbook length manuscript.

So some of my poems I'm reading might be able to fit into one of the current manuscripts-in-progress, but then I also have all these doll poems - dream/nightmare poems - seizure poems - death poems - and anti-AI poems. Some of these themes somewhat interconnect in certain ways and to certain extents, but not to the extent of fusing them all into two chapbooks. Again, I like my chapbook manuscripts to be short-ish, interconnected, and thematically linked in one way or another, so I'm thinking I need to assemble at least 3 (maybe more).

Anyway, I am just taking a break from reading/writing notes on my own poems to ramble a bit about my current overwhelmed feelings about assembling the poems into various interconnected entities. Mind you, I've been working on this quite a bit this past week, and some progress has been made, but it feels like it's taking forever. I feel like I should have made more progress by now. But at least I made a little bit of progress and I'll keep working on it.

To reiterate, the shorter version of this is dolls, bodies, brains, dreams, nightmares, seizures, death, invisibility, and being overwhelmed, which is way better than being replaced by robots.

NEW! I am delighted to have another new poem, "Rainbow Obsidian", newly appearing in The Rye Whiskey Review!

"My brain is a terrible rainbow

 obsidian with cracked edges
covered up by dark glass.
A strange combination
of natural and unnatural
elements fused together."

in my poem "Rainbow Obsidian"

I am delighted to have another poem newly appearing in The Rye Whiskey Review!

Please feel free to read more here - https://ryethewhiskeyreview.blogspot.com/2026/07/rainbow-obsidian-by-juliet-cook.html

NEW! I am very excited to share my poem "Damage Control/Internal Doll House", newly appearing in Trailer Park Quarterly, Volume 17!

"Now I often process inside my own head,
which turns me into a warped internal garden
growing dreams filled with hissing insects,
bittersweet birds, melting branches, conflicted
roots ripped out of the ground and thrown
in different boxes, bedroom drawers, body bags."

some lines from my poem "Damage Control/Internal Doll House"

I am delighted to have another of my "Damage Control/Internal Doll House" poems appearing in the new Volume 17 of Trailer Park Quarterly! I'm also excited to read all the other poetry in this issue and check out the art!

Here is a link to my individual poem - https://trailerparkquarterly.com/volume-17/juliet-cook/

Here is a link to the whole issue - https://trailerparkquarterly.com/volume-17/

NEW! I am pleased to have another new poem appearing in MasticadoresUSA!

"Based on what? Based on who?
I don't believe in the same god as you.

I sometimes believe in poetry,
even if hardly anyone seems to care or understand
what I'm trying to share or why."

in my poem "Traditional Assumptions", which is newly appearing in MasticadoresUsa today

you can read more here - https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2026/06/30/traditional-assumptions-by-juliet-cook/

NEW! Delighted to have another new poem in The Rye Whiskey Review, "Is Bird Song Better Than My Song?"

"Because their song is vibrant and pretty
right now whereas my song is quiet, invisible
to almost everyone else even though
it sometimes explodes inside
my own mind or across

the page or within an overpopulated
unorganized screen until
the computer dies or else I
become a repetitive mess,
page after page of dead birds,"

the beginning of my poem "Is Bird Song Better Than My Song?"

I am delighted to have another new poem appearing in The Rye Whiskey Review (this time in the last weekend of June 2026)...

you may read more here - https://ryethewhiskeyreview.blogspot.com/2026/06/is-bird-song-better-than-my-song-by.html

NEW! I am happy to share two new poems of mine, newly appearing in Rusty Truck!

"brains as porn storage bins
or locked units
or unlocked doors
busted into

grading bodies
like grading papers
degrading bodies
torn out of unread books

some brains think they understand
or have the right to judge
or attack other animals"

the beginning of my poem "human/ animal/ artificial hybridization"

one of two new poems of mine, now appearing in Rusty Truck

do feel free to read more here - https://rustytruck.wordpress.com/2026/06/19/juliet-cook/

NEW! I am delighted to have a new poem appearing in MasticadoresUsa!

"He asked me for my
medulla oblongata.
I told him I was

already missing
part of my brain."

the beginning of my poem "Missing Pieces", newly appearing in MasticadoresUSA, in which I am delighted to have another poem appearing.

You can read more by clicking this link - https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2026/05/26/missing-pieces-by-juliet-cook/

NEW! I am very excited to share that my poem "Too Much or Not Enough" is appearing In Conversation at The Literary Underground!

"We’re not bleeding yet, then we’re too bloody,
then we’re dried out, thrown away.

We’re too little or too big or
nothing special. We used to be
doll-like but kept growing bigger
and older and closer to disintegration."

the beginning of my poem, "Too Much or Not Enough", which is newly appearing In Conversation at The Literary Underground!

read more by clicking the link below...

https://theliteraryunderground.org/blog/2026/05/13/too-much-or-not-enough-by-juliet-cook/

***

Currently this is the first poem in a sequence of interconnected poems I've been working on for quite a while now, so I guess I shall see what happens with that. Maybe when it's finally semi-done, I may try to turn it into a chapbook length manuscript of sorts.

NEW! I am delighted to have a new poem appearing in The Rye Whiskey Review!

"My recent online research has involved
how to know if a cat likes you,
but also poisonous jellyfish,
inadvertently leading towards
a trending jellyfish haircut
combined with cancerous wigs."

within my poem "I Might Get the Jellyfish Haircut", which is newly appearing in the Rye Whiskey Review, the first of three new poems of mine chosen to appear there

read more here - https://ryethewhiskeyreview.blogspot.com/2026/05/i-might-get-jellyfish-haircut-by-juliet.html

NEW! I am delighted to have a new short poem, "Haunted Escape" appearing in Luna Luna Magazine!

"Grim husks drift apart
so the insides can escape
but where do they go?"

from my poem "Haunted Escape", newly appearing in Luna Luna Magazine 

read more here (and read the other poems there too) - https://www.lunalunamagazine.com/blog/poetry-juliet-cook

Thank you very much to Lisa Marie Basile. I am delighted to be included in Luna Luna.

NEW! I am delighted to share 3 new poems of mine, newly appearing in Burning House Press!

"Screaming internally then constricting
my throat with heaves and gasps and
compulsions, every membrane screaming
obsessive images about how men are looking

at creampie dripping down
younger women's thighs
and I'm a boring middle
aged woman his age"

in "Intrusive Obsession", one of my three poems in Burning House Press 

read more HERE - https://burninghousepress.com/2026/02/12/3-poems-by-juliet-cook/

NEW! I am excited and delighted that a new poem of mine, "Disengaged" is newly appearing In Conversation at The Literary Underground!

"I don't let anyone inside
if they don't reveal who they are.
I hide in my closet and wait
for them to leave a mannequin
in front of my garage or throw
stale bread across my lawn."

the beginning of my poem "Disengaged", which appears In Conversation at The Literary Underground today

 
read more HERE - https://theliteraryunderground.org/blog/2026/01/28/disengaged-by-juliet-cook/

NEW! Excited and delighted to have a new poem running around the darkly delicious Cul-de-sac of Blood!

"Old doll head cracked with
evil fossil stuck inside
like expired cream

filling spilling out."

in my poem "Another Pie in the Face"

Delighted this poem is running around the darkly delicious Cul-de-sac of Blood track, HERE! - https://www.culdesacofblood.com/juliet-cook-5

***

Speaking of Cul-de-sac of Blood and unsettling poetry, you can still acquire my poetry chapbook, "REVOLTING", which was published by Cul-de-sac of Blood last year, directly from the Cul-de-sac HERE - https://www.culdesacofblood.com/books

Or from my own Blood Pudding Press shop HERE - https://www.etsy.com/listing/1851916682/new-revolting-by-juliet-cook-2024-poetry

NEW! Excited and delighted to have another new poem appearing in MasticadoresUSA - “Old Photo Booth Inside a Box Inside a Basement”!

"This sort of semi-insomnia
inside which you're half

asleep, but not entirely
and it's hard to differentiate

between dreams and reality. Who are you?
You don't know what to believe.

Is anything real?"

I am delighted to have a new poem, “Old Photo Booth Inside a Box Inside a Basement”, newly appearing in MasticadoresUSA today. You can read more of my poem HERE - https://masticadoresusa.wordpress.com/2025/12/12/old-photo-booth-inside-a-box-inside-a-basement-by-juliet-cook/

I hope your December has glimmers of real if you want it to, in whatever way you want it to. 

NEW! Excited and delighted that FIVE NEW POEMS of mine are now available in Gargoyle Online #12!

"......Cheap amusement

park rides fall apart, toss those who were on top
down and then underneath the ground.
A neigh becomes a scream then nothing."

in my poem "Death is an Amusement Park Ride", one of five of my poems newly appearing in the new Gargoyle Online #12

read more of my poems HERE - https://gargoylemagazine.com/juliet-cook/

Partake of more of the new issue HERE - https://gargoylemagazine.com/2025/12/online-12/