A Journal of Short Verse

Every world
in three lines.

Celebrating 15 years of publishing the finest short-form poems in the world

elevated subway train
penetrates metropolitan dusk
fleeting New York silhouette

Robert Hunt

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Recently Accepted

From Some of the World's Finest Poets

The latest poems to earn a place in our pages.

The west is dim, the sun departs.
And I, a soul half lost in its hue,
ask God to take his shadow too.

Nabila Annisa Nurbaiti

A limousine just slipped
through this clotted street
like some sleek white otter god

Nancy Kangas

bag of gloves, single sneaker
lost and found shelf overflows
poor kids keep losing coats

Anne Moore Odell

statue buried in our yard
our anniversary burning in the Texas sun
one hundred and eight months ago

Jenni Nachtwey

gossamer is a word we used to use
largely in describing fairy wings
back when fairies still existed

Abigail Stokes

my old man
hums in his throat--
winter is late

Dan Bodah

The shortest poems
carry the longest shadows.

Three Line Poetry is a journal devoted to the art of the compressed image — poems that arrive complete in three lines, that hold their breath and say everything in the space of a moment.

We draw on the tradition of the haiku and the senryū, of Bashō and Issa and Buson, and we carry that spirit into the present: contemporary voices, global perspectives, the full weight of human experience in the fewest possible words.

We believe the short poem is not a lesser poem. It is a harder one. We publish the poets who understand that.

3 Lines. That's all.

Every word earns its place or it goes
The image does the work the statement cannot
Silence between lines is part of the poem
Short is not simple — it is ruthless
The best three-line poem leaves a fourth line unwritten

Read

Every issue is free to read online — a full gathering of voices from poets around the world. Browse the archive going back to our first issue. No subscription, no paywall.

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II.

Submit

We welcome original three-line poems from all writers, anywhere in the world. Read our guidelines, check your line lengths, and send us your best work. We read everything.

Submission guidelines →

III.

Collect

Each issue is also available in a beautifully printed paperback edition — a physical object made to last. Take the poems off the screen and put them on your shelf.

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Highly Competitive

Publication in Three Line Poetry is earned, not given. With an acceptance rate of just 6%, every poem in our pages has survived a rigorous editorial process. Settle in for a reading experience that is unmatched anywhere.

2,947 Accepted

46,580 Declined

49,527 Submissions

6% Acceptance Rate