A Journal of Short Verse

Every world
in three lines.

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

Zoo camels munch grass
And stare beyond
The concrete highway.

Hanah Brading

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Recently Accepted

From Some of the World's Finest Poets

The latest poems to earn a place in our pages.

tracers weave red threads in the quilt
of night. bodybag makers wear thin--
they can’t keep up with the figures.

Kerry Rawlinson

ant volcanoes
on sidewalk cracks—
you never call.

Dave Earnhardt

Cinnamon hots & a single food stamp
Sweating cha-ching & a tilted smile
Yield: 80 cents or paper on a roll

Deirdre Fagan

I drank my coffee and burned my tongue,
one thought came to me as I sat...
morning once a day....grateful for that.

Lynn Assimacopoulos

Wind flows, as old as mother earth,
wafts through grass, flirts with leaves.
But has that vigor slowed of late?

Katie Dunbar

street musician
chipped tip jar
overflowing moonlight

Nicholas Gentile

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.

2,914 Accepted

45,675 Declined

48,589 Submissions

6% Acceptance Rate