
Limelight Poetry
Where poetry meets in NYC
Limelight Poetry is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting world poetry, founded in 2024 in New York City by poet Wang Yin. It invites outstanding poets and artists from around the world to share their work in various forms, with the goal of showcasing poetry in underrepresented languages. Drawing on the city's rich cultural resources, Limelight Poetry connects poetry with other art forms, fostering a global exchange of poetic expression. It welcomes audiences into a vibrant and inspiring world of poetry, music, and beyond.

POET
Colm Tóibín

MUSICIAN
Martin Hayes

HOST
Leonard Schwartz

Location
Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library
Join The New York Public Library and Limelight Poetry at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) for our World Poetry Salon!
Join The New York Public Library and Limelight Poetry at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) for our World Poetry Salon!

UPCOMING
Latest Recap
World Poetry Salon II
Victoria Chang with yuniya edi kwon and Patricio Ferrari









POEM OF THE DAY
Out of Touch
I thought it would be good
Since my father had come back
From the dead after all the years,
To take him to places
He had known or studied in.
We began in London, walking up
Charing Cross Road, heading towards
The British Museum.
‘It was so strange
About your mother,’ he said.
‘No matter what book I found for her,
She wanted something else,
With more, more – what’s the word? - until I could find
Nothing that she liked.’
And then he turned, suddenly curious:
‘Is she dead, Colm? Is that what happened?’
Yes, more than twenty years ago, I told him.
‘Of course,’ he replied, ‘we’ve been out
Of touch. I didn’t even know she was sick.’
by Colm Tóibín
On a clear day,
the horses
they had been
fed were left.
across the field
and had
people found them,
they still
people who
hunched over
But the sounds
of their
a clear day, all the
sounds fit
day, all my
thinking fits into
What if our
thinking was
If it only
remains thinking
When out, it
becomes
shapes with
sharp points.
of thinking but all
the thinking
Today, I am hungry
but all the
only 48. On
clear days
48 people,
and 48
And 48
apples.
But no
matter how
6 dead
Asian women who
All night, my
thoughts are
morning, I lean in
closer to the
drawn lines
across my face.
both the
outline and the
not meant
to hold in
disappeared. Just
the apples
The apples
were strewn
become
rectangles. When
gathered and
ate them. The
their apples were
far away.
chewing were
over here. On
into the boxes.
On any clear
boxes that can’t
be opened.
never meant to
come out?
within
boxes?
weapons, takes
on different
Today, there is
no shortage
is divided
into portions.
portions are gone,
there are
there are only
48 birds,
houses. And
48 wars.
I keep counting
grids.
I try, I still
get
don’t fit into
48 boxes.
shaped like
birds. In the
mirror and
someone has
I realize that
failure consists of
outlined. That
lines are
our
emptiness.
Поема на денот
ПО НАС
Еден ден некој ќе ги здипли нашите ќебиња
и ќе ги прати на хемиско чистење
од нив да го истрие последното зрнце сол,
ќе ги отвори нашите писма и ќе ги реди по датуми
наместо по исчитаност.
Еден ден некој ќе го размести мебелот во собата
како шаховски фигури на почеток од нова игра,
ќе ја отвори старата кутија за чевли
во која ги чуваме паднатите копчиња од пижамите,
недотрошените батерии и гладта.
Еден ден ќе ни се врати болката во 'рбетот
од тежината на хотелските клучеви и
сомнежот со кој рецепционерот ни го подава
далечинскиот управувач.
Туѓите сожалувања ќе тргнат по нас
како месечина по заталкано дете.
од Никола Маџиров
Photo by Peng Yu