SWWIM sustains and celebrates women poets by connecting creatives across generations and by curating a living archive of contemporary poetry, while solidifying Miami as a nexus for the literary arts.

The Lesson

It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day's archives!


I hated the lesson more than
I hated the teacher who preached,
revealing his yellow teeth,
and told the whole class that
we were revolving around the sun.
Why? It was a popular question
the teachers loved to ask.
I wanted to ask him the same then:
Why teacher, tell me, why do we
revolve around the sun, while he,
sun of a beach, sits as if he is
the lord of fire, all crimson,
orange, yellow, and white,
heating, simmering, burning,
and doing nothing?


Ayşe Tekşen lives in Antalya, Turkey. Her work has been included in Gravel, After the Pause, The Write Launch, UutPoetry, The Fiction Pool, What Rough Beast, Scarlet Leaf Review, Seshat, Neologism Poetry Journal, Anapest, Red Weather, Ohio Edit, SWWIM Every Day, The Paragon Journal, Arcturus, Constellations, the Same, The Mystic Blue Review, Jaffat El Aqlam, Brickplight, Willow, Fearsome Critters, Susan, The Broke Bohemian, The Remembered Arts Journal, Terror House Magazine, Shoe Music Press, Havik: Las Positas College Anthology, Deep Overstock, Lavender Review, Voice of Eve, The Courtship of Winds, Mojave Heart Review, Foliate Oak Literary Magazine, Tipton Poetry Journal, Rigorous, Rabid Oak, The Thieving Magpie, Headway Quarterly, The Roadrunner Review, Helen Literary Magazine, The Ilanot Review, Pensive, The Hamilton Stone Review, Room, and The Manifest-Station.

The Keeper

Garter Snake