A Journal of Short Verse

Every world
in three lines.

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

mosquito bite–
a dark star
after midnight

Elliot Diamond

Read Issue 60 Submit Your Work

Recently Accepted

From Some of the World's Finest Poets

The latest poems to earn a place in our pages.

Chasing the fireflies
eyes wide open at fireworks
nights to remember

Lorraine Cipriano

In the Autumn distance,
the spire of a white clapboard church
floats in a Serrat background of leaves.

Paul Bluestein

We are ants marching
Carving cities through the dirt
Steered by unseen hands

Chris Wood

We teach children not to stare;
to hide their wild curiosity, and count
as blessing, relief from observance.

David Hershhorn

Restless nocturnal wanderings
Soft light etches the horizon
Weary eyes, heavy limbs walk on

C L Killgore

The curtain falls, silence…
Numerous seasons haunt this stage
In ghost light silhouette

Robert Baldwin

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.

Browse all issues →

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 5.9%, every poem in our pages has survived a rigorous editorial process. Settle in for a reading experience that is unmatched anywhere.

2,962 Accepted

46,865 Declined

49,827 Submissions

5.9% Acceptance Rate

Every worldin three lines.