![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/ArchivalIssue_2023_Roundup_1800_02_Poetry.jpg)
Over the past twenty years, The Walrus has been a steady bellwether of must-read writing. For our 20th anniversary, we’ve collected works that still surprise us, impress us, move us.
Here are some of the best poems that we’ve published.
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/1260_MichaelFraser_poet-e1562796550639.jpg)
Three Poems
BY MICHAEL FRASER
A series about the lives and experiences of African Canadians who joined the Union army in the American Civil War
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Tucker_Nichols_08_MAR08crop.jpg)
Tractor
BY KAREN SOLIE
It silences the arguments of every living thing / and our minds in that time are not entirely elsewhere
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Ormsby_Poetphoto_735.jpg)
Lord Mayor Magpie
BY ERIC ORMSBY
There he waltzes, / this debonair / line dancer in mid-air
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Czaga_Poetphoto_735.jpg)
The Peace Lily
BY KAYLA CZAGA
To say the peace lily died / would be an understatement.
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Crawford-3-735x490.jpg)
Theses on the Hydrology of Sweet Tea
BY LUCAS CRAWFORD
I pray only to wordplay. Am I wrong to fetishize fluidity? Strength?
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Spot_Poetry-735x490.jpg)
In Cloud Country
BY MICHAEL PRIOR
Within our borders, / your hair frays cirrus into sky, while that bride, / so serious in every photo, never had to be you.
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/contributors-10-8.jpg)
Waves
BY RICHARD GREENE
Rebuilding is a matter of cinder / block and thickets of rebar rising up / the mountain’s steep face.
![](https://walrus-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/img/Contributors3-735x490.jpg)