Bloodroot Poetry Journal started its journey along the lengthy beachfronts along highway A1A and the Atlantic Ocean in Southeast Florida where its founder lives. To produce an intimate journal of poetry and photography was its goal—nothing splashy (pardon the pun). Our slogan is “words matter” which may seem blatantly obvious, but its meaning is often lost by considering it a cliché. Bloodroot Poetry Journal showcases work featuring a diverse array of voices and styles from different countries and cultures. 

A poet’s greatest gift is the gift of seeing where a poem lies, like a stone before a sculptor sculpts it into drama, or the exact framed scene that will allow a photograph to say as much as the greatest painting. The writer Diana Goetsch teaches that writers need to continually surprise themselves on the page, that art is saying what you didn’t intend to say. She speaks of the “golden thread,” we must follow throughout each of our pieces (from William Stafford). From the hundreds of submissions we receive, this golden thread is what we look for. We also believe both the reader and the writer need to be surprised by the poem.

We believe words matter and we provide a platform for exemplary writing and photography. We’re interested in what you see in this world; perhaps it will be startling or, perhaps, quietly profound.

We welcome all styles of well-crafted writing and particularly admire poems written “in response to…” that engage in the world around the poet—poems that are more than solipsistic writing—for instance, poetry in conversation with other forms of artistic creation including painting, films, and other literature or in response to social issues, historical figures and events, or defining moments of transformation in human existence.

We do not seek poems that are political diatribes of any sort, or rambling work (philosophical or otherwise) that demonstrates none of the facets of poetic discourse such as figurative language and imagery.

Our journal may be humble, but it does its best to search out the essential, the timeless, and the endless potentialities of existence as experienced by poets from all over the world.