2026
Big Iron
An Arizona Ranger rides into the town of Agua Fria to confront the outlaw Texas Red. Townspeople expect the Ranger to become the outlaw’s twenty-first victim, but their duel ends almost instantly when the Ranger proves faster.
Poem archive
Poems
Read poems by Arizona and Southwestern writers, plus classic work preserved in the AZPoetry literary archive.
Search by poem title, poet, or a phrase you remember. Each archive page is designed to lead readers toward more poets and related work.
2025
Haiku from Seventeen Syllables
A single sentence captures the ease—and emotional cost—of outwardly agreeing when one’s true answer is no.
2025
If The Drum Is A Woman
Cortez develops the drum as an extended metaphor for women, repeatedly asking why something capable of voice, rhythm and power is subjected to domination, violence and disrespect.
2025
Desert
Shelton observes moon, wind, stones, mountains and a hidden scorpion as participants in an ancient desert order. By remaining in that landscape, the speaker hopes eventually to exchange language for a deeper form of understanding.
2025
Benedicto
Abbey offers an unconventional blessing: may the reader encounter crooked trails, dangerous journeys, endless rivers, wild forests, red-rock deserts, storms, canyons and ultimately something more wondrous than imagination can predict.
2024
The Giant Cactus of Arizona
Monroe imagines a giant Arizona cactus as an ancient sentinel that has silently witnessed stars, mountains, civilizations and geological time while refusing to reveal what it knows.