Cleveland Poets Share the Local Writing That Inspires Them

Every April, National Poetry Month is a reminder to give greater attention and appreciation to poems — the short, compact writing that keeps the world of literature spinning. While typically short in format, Cleveland’s place in the poetry world stands tall, with working poets consistently penning notable pieces and collections.

A few Northeast Ohio-based poets weigh in on other local authors’ poems and poetry collections worth celebrating every day.

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Jeanette Beebe

Beebe is both a journalist and a poet. She has written for media outlets like TIME and Forbes, and she’s done audio reporting for BBC and ProPublica. She is also the current poetry editor at Gordon Square Review.

(Photographed by Kyo Morishima)

“To read Dream Work by Mary Oliver (Grove Paperback, 1986) is to be in awe. It asks so many big questions, finding so many small moments with answers. In Dream Work, I adore the poem ‘Trilliums,’ with its I believed in the world.

“And also, of course, ‘Wild Geese,’ especially its ending: Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, / the world offers itself to your imagination, / calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting— / over and over announcing your place / in the family of things.”

Dave Lucas

Lucas is one of Cleveland’s most decorated modern poets, most notably as Ohio’s second poet laureate in 2018 and 2019. His writing has been published by The Paris Review, CNN, Cleveland Magazine and The Kenyon Review, and he’s authored two poetry collections: Weather and All of Me, All of the Time. He’s also founded writing groups and taught workshops at John Carroll University, Case Western Reserve University, Oberlin College and Oklahoma Arts Institute. 

(Courtesy Dave Lucas)

“Favorite Cleveland poetry book is awfully, awfully difficult. Instead, can I offer a poem I've been thinking about? It's this one by the late Russell Atkins, called ‘Night and a Distant Church’ (from World’d Too Much, Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2019).

“I love the sounds of it, the humming vibrations of the ‘mmm’s echoing those of the bells. It loses something on the page, but say it in your own voice and you can hear it and feel it, just as you can imagine — from almost anyplace in this city — hearing those bells sometime in the night.”

READ MORE: Cleveland Poetry Spotlight: "Good Friday" by Ray McNiece

Alyssa Perry

As an avid supporter of small, independent publishers, Perry is inspired by up-and-coming authors every day. She serves as the poetry editor for Cleveland Review of Books and the assistant editor for Rescue Press. She is also an assistant professor at the Cleveland Institute of Art and acts as coordinator of the school’s Writing + Learning Center. Her first poetry collection, Oily Doily, was released by Bench Editions in 2024.

“Hilary Plum, Important Groups (Community Mausoleum, 2025): Perhaps my favorite book of the year from my favorite new press, Important Groups is a deeply felt, funny, and researched investigation into justice and what we owe each other, looping in local circumstance, pop culture (come for the title from Law & Order, stay for James Cameron's Titanic) and more.

“Zach Savich, Momently (Black Ocean, 2024): Evergreen brief meditations on everyday continuing. Each read opens another window to breathe and see and exist a little more. Bonus appearances from Cleveland Heights.

“Caryl Pagel, Free Clean Fill Dirt (University of Akron, 2022): Find Severance Center, Lakeview Cemetery, Tav Co, Lake Erie and other local haunts in these beautiful, hypnotic meditations on new life and death, as in ‘A History of the Color Orange.’”

Michelle Smith

Smith was recently inducted as Cleveland Heights’ latest poet laureate, but she has long been a pioneer in the local writing scene since authoring her first poetry collection, Ariel in Black, in 2015. Her second collection, The Vagina Analogues, followed in 2021 — both books exploring Black feminism in new ways. Smith currently works as the programming director at Literary Cleveland and the creator, co-producer and director of the annual artist showcase, Blax Museum.

“Unto Dogs by Stephanie Ginese (Grieveland, 2022): Stephanie writes so intelligently, viscerally, bravely, irreverently, unapologetically, deeply, beautifully, truthfully, of what it means to be an American woman that is not white, not rich, not privileged, not protected and thus not valued, but steeped in her history, her community, her femininity, her mythology, her creativity and ultimately herself. This collection is gut-wrenching and gorgeous. 

“Urbanshee by Siaara Freeman (Button Poetry, 2022): This poetry is so Black, so beautiful and so brilliant, it can only have arisen from the insides of a Cleveland siren like Siaara Freeman. She is a truth sayer, ear bender, word wender like none other, and I absolutely love this book. It has such a definitive voice, and you cannot tear yourself away from it.

“We Look Better Alive by Ali Black (Burnside Review Press, 2025): Ali writes very clearly in the tradition of Lucille Clifton. In the tradition Nikki Giovanni. In the tradition of Gwendolyn Brooks. No tricks. No needless frills. No obscurant pomposity. Just real, elegant, womanly poetry. Stories that touch all the parts of you. That lay hands to all the hurts that need healing. This is her second book, and it is every bit as good as her first. I recommend both actually. The first one is called If It Heals At All (Jacar Press, 2020).”