The Lonely Crowd will feature new work by a different poet each month throughout 2025. For October, we are delighted to publish three new works by Michelle Penn. The final installment of these, ‘Why acceptance is like sleep’, is published today.

I launch my arrows        — at the eye of sleep

— at the heart of sleep

— at the belly of sleep — and watch

each one bounce, tumble

to ground

this republic outside of which I stand, blue

as begging, as hope

outside the realm, the select borderland

where I long to place my head

the panic of an archer

fist at the bow, determined, yet

the body refuses to relinquish

— fearful

— vigilant

arrows scatter across the dark morning

I stand at the republic’s edge, clutching

a tattered flag

any rest

just spit in blue dust

Michelle Penn‘s new collection, Retablo for a door, is forthcoming from Shearsman Books in January 2026. Michelle is also the author of the book-length poem, Paper Crusade (Arachne Press, 2022), and the pamphlet, Self-portrait as a diviner, failing (Paper Swans Press, 2018).