A journal of poetry and poetics that seeks to add to the world more poems and more poems and more poems. Ballast keeps the ship afloat as it navigates toward the horizon. Ballast keeps the train on its tracks as it hurtles down the mountain in a blaze.

Ballast wants your stabilities in a topsy turvy world. 

Ballast wants your musings on the wreckage of the earth.

Send us your linguistic explosions. Your textual objects. Your darings. Your darlings.

Send us your ports in the storm. Send us your storms.

Ballast does not aim to fill a niche in poetry publishing — we just want to add more.

Jacob Schepers

Sara Judy

Ballast

General call

jp thorn is a queer, neurodivergent artist raised in and returned to the south. you'll usually find them in a peaceful flow state of adhd hyperfocus or ping-ponging between cat parent and hobbyist. they believe in de-stigmatization and open communication as means to bridge divides between folx from varied backgrounds. their work is largely inspired by reframing traditionalism, therapeutic processes, unlearning patriarchy, and global patterns.

third person bio

I Saw You (Western EST vs. Eastern EST)

My mother might say      it embroidered me in wax
like a bee left     image        center      of the icon visible.
Offstage      deformity gallop     tethered
my two true mouths & one eye.

Ballast

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