I felt very bad in Washington...I didn't like my job, and I didn't know what was going to happen to me, and I was cold and half-hungry, so I wrote a great many poems.

          - Langston Hughes

When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

          - John F. Kennedy

So Why Poetry and Politics?

What other publication focuses on poetry and politics? No other. So we're unique.

From its very conception, The Potomac was determined to become a nonesuch literary review. But as we broke more ground, we realized that no true review in Washington D.C. would be complete without politics. Then we were faced with leaning left or right, and we opted for doing neither, i.e., our editorial policy will remain apolitical. We don't believe in dichotomizing issues into left or right. We are more in favor of right or wrong. For example, we know the tax-and-spend system of government is incredibly corrupt (but that doesn't make us conservatives), and we realize campaign finance reform on all levels is necessary to restore true democracy (but that doesn't make us liberals).

On the literary side of things, we publish an eclectic mix of poetry, along with prose poems and quictions (quick + fictions) from some of the best writers in the area, and around the nation. And from time to time, we'll surprise you with book and art reviews, as well as other stuff we find hard to categorize. We're here to provoke as well as amaze.

Stay with us.

- Michael Neff
  Publisher and Creator

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Poets and politicians are alike in the frantic force of their opinions. When either speaks his mind, he is like the Ancient Mariner; he seizes the public by the collar as if to say: Accept my perspective and be converted.

   - Roger Rosenblatt