iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

One main feature of American Institutional poetry is its lack of hard-won humor. Hard-won humor is an intellectual wit that's wrenched from bottled up social contradictions. Institutional poets' official tasks revolve around enforcing themes of "serious" individualist redemption.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Do we need any more purveyors of the miraculousness of poetry? Or do we want to see more fit and agile poetics meeting the historical moment we're living in? As American cultural dominance crumbles before the world, are we to be left with just personal salvation poetry?

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Almost in concert, the major poetry institutions decide who is to be elevated based on absorbable sociological categories (actual poetics comes second). Collectively, these construct a single Liberal Capitalist Subject that dutifully avoids class struggle. C'est là, c'est tout.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Seriously though, the vast majority of my poems are not sonnets. I only turn to the sonnet when brevity in argumentation is what I'm after. That said, here's another one. This one is in 12-syllable lines, an experiment. Takes more wind to belt it out. swiftslitmag.com/rodrigo-tosc...

swiftslitmag.com

rodrigo toscano — s w i f t s: a literary magazine

swifts literary magazine

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Thank you so much Tod Edgerton for publishing these poems in the very first issue of What Most Vividly. Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, 2026) can now be ordered online. Link in my bio profile. whatmostvividly.com/journal-issu...

whatmostvividly.com

Rodrigo Toscano - What Most Vividly

Gawkers II. Purposeful Glaciers Cat Lady __________ Gawkers II. Circling back to the 6th moon of Saturn And sweaty boobs swaddled in silver suits. At the right time, how the capsule rotates. What colo...

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Here's a review of Salvage Nation by Greg Bem for North of Oxford magazine, actually the very first one. northofoxford.wordpress.com/2026/10/01/s... Salvage Nation will officially be out during the first week of November, but can be pre-ordered now. www.wintereditions.net/home/salvage...

northofoxford.wordpress.com

Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets by Rodrigo Toscano

By Greg Bem Some sonnets manage to scamper awayOther sonnets, surrounded, immolateYet others, form a story of defense line. (from “Burning Idea,” page 70) Rodrigo Toscano’s socially-charged wit ret…

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Here's an interview about my formative years in San Diego and how poetry scenes evolve over time due to changing social-material conditions, plus two remembrances of Cole Heinowitz and Fanny Howe. www.peellit.com/issue3/3-2-R...

peellit.com

issue 3.2

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Thank you 128 Lit for publishing "Donuts", a poem from my new book, Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, November 2026). Every single verse line (1, 400) in this collection is exactly ten syllables. Link to book in pinned post. www.128lit.org/toscano

128lit.org

"Donuts" by Rodrigo Toscano — 128 LIT

"Donuts" by Rodrigo Toscano

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Great edition. I memorized several of those middle English poems back in the day. They still inform my sense of line and rhythm.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Confronting alienation from the means of production by highlighting constraints (from lived-life structures to aesthetics), can avail the blurry outlines of "freedom" (if Freiheit figures into your system of thought). But feigning direct access to it, just tells us you're a hack.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

I don't need poets playing at being political pundits on this app, I need to see their poetic works with the cultural-ideological downstream effects of their alleged politics skillfully woven in there. But alas, it's mainly "hot take" tweets paired with flat, normie poetry.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Dialectical materialist poetics lives by engaging ideological contradiction. The logic, the wit, the quirkiness of it flows from there. It is implicitly an affront to slop academic liberalism and its "I"-centered ritualisms. It has fresh surge potential, and thus, enemies galore.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Three from Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (pre-order from Winter Editions, November, 2026) (flip phone for best viewing) bulbregion.com/Three-Poems-...

bulbregion.com

Three Poems, by Rodrigo Toscano — The Bulb Region

Three Poems — Rodrigo Toscano Earthly Mood “Perhaps a million years that rock,...

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Grateful to be given the opportunity to contribute "Ceasefires" and "It's Sunday", two poems from my new collection, Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, 2026). Thank you to the editors!

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

This epistle written in 8-syllable couplets is a blend of a lighthearted homage to the New Orleans poetry scene, a stern critique of Louisiana politics, and a rather earnest, albeit imaginary outreach to poets in Shenzhen, China. poems.com/poem/poets-o...

poems.com

Poets of Shenzhen

Good morning poets of Shenzhen! whoever you are (we’ve no clue).

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

On matters like this, I default to the vernacular around me. And round here, it's "that's".

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Anti-Marxism is still at the root of contemporary American Poetry: perennial decay with evermore elaborate schemes to rebolster Liberal Capitalist Culture. From vainglorious "avant guardes" to the reign of stifling "I"-centered consumerist subjectivities, even this morning's dewdrops groan under it.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

For this anthology that just came out, I wrote a short poem in four eight-syllable tercets, titled "American Spirit".

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

"Europa" and "The Gronks" - two more from Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, 2026). Available for pre-order on my X pinned post. ritualdagger.neocities.org/zineposts/ro...

ritualdagger.neocities.org

two poems by rodrigo toscano

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

New Orleans is a bit like Paris in the early 20th century. Every coffeehouse you go to (in the Bywater and Marigny) you run into poets. Same for bars in the early evening. Little chats and strolls lead to spontaneous gatherings of five or more people. No planning necessary.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Happy to announce my 13th full-length collection: Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, 2026). Publication Date: November 5, 2026. Ready for pre-order now. www.wintereditions.net/home/salvage...

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

"Caravels out of Cádiz" from WHITMAN.CANNONBALL.PUEBLA. Not an academically fatigued "post-colonial" product, but a hyper-dense poetic précis on the living legacy of the viceroyalty of Nueva España: a complex, dialectical culture still in motion. coastlinesreview.org/issues/one/c...

coastlinesreview.org

Caravels out of Cádiz | coastlines review

a journal of documentary poetics

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

The literary institutional shadow government that rules over American Poetry tests runs several poets a year looking for potential in accommodating the bedrock reality of a Late Empire in full lash out mode. Potentates lash out. And the poets, they feather massage us to sleep.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

There's something even more minor than "minor poems". And I'm not afraid to lean into them - in the public square. wordpress.boogcity.com/2026/06/13/t...

wordpress.boogcity.com

The Portable Boog Reader 13/ Rodrigo Toscano – Boog City

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 02/06/2026

For years, waking up at sunrise to tinker with verses before the day's hectoring demands. Here's "National Nook" and "Realism" from the upcoming book, Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, fall 2026). nwreview.org/articles/nat... nwreview.org/articles/rea...

nwreview.org

National Nook - Northwest Review

From that nook, you can watch the pageantryUnder the covers, hunkered in pitch darkA Nebraska of your highest idealsA Boston of your basest impulsesYou

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

The most popular U.S. poets now are not avowed socialists, but off-the-shelf liberals. They lack the wit that comes with grappling with continuous social contradictions. They can't hold on to a telos for half a minute.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

"Routines" and "Novella 14". All of the 100 sonnets I wrote last year (in 100 days) were written between 5:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. That is, before "the world" and its "news" came crashing in, before the demands of my job highjacked my imagination. thegoodlifereview.com/issue-twenty...

thegoodlifereview.com

TGLR: Two Poems by Rodrigo Toscano

The Good Life Review presents two Poems by Rodrigo Toscano: Routines Novella 14, Issue #21 ~ Autumn 2025

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Indulging a randy curiosity for all sorts of phenomenon (seen and unseen) is also part of a thoroughgoing political poetics. Here's "Factoids" from "Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets" (Winter Editions, fall 2026). sixthfinch.com/toscano2.htm...

sixthfinch.com

Sixth Finch - Winter 2026 - Rodrigo Toscano - FACTOIDS

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Here's "Freak Flag" - on-line. I kind of imagined it as being found scribbled on a beer coaster at a quiet bar counter at 3:00 p.m. on a Sunday - or engraved on a bronze placard in the rotunda of a stately capitol. www.corporeallitmag.com/volume-xxiii...

corporeallitmag.com

Rodrigo Toscano — Corporeal

But let these loose objects lie for a bit. Notice thoughts ramble without a thinker

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Here's a one-thought flow-through sonnet on the need for a mass working class party. www.antiphonyajournalandpress.com/rodrigo-tosc...

antiphonyajournalandpress.com

Rodrigo Toscano Issue 10 — Antiphony: a journal & small press

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Thursday night, the final edition of The Splice Reading Series at the New Orleans Poetry Festival. Every year more poets are moving to New Orleans. Join us! Here's the sonnet I read "The Series".

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

No Likes is not enough. "One Like" is plenty. Two Likes or more is just an incentive to get back to a One Like mentality.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

Happy to share "Earthly Mood" "Xanadu" "Aliens 8" all from the fourth section ("Working The Quirk") of Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets. Thank you so much, Bethh! www.readbethh.org/toscano

readbethh.org

3 Sonnets by Rodrigo Toscano

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

Working with syllabics can be quite liberating. For one, the delusion of finding the-one-eternally-correct word or phrase falls away. Second, there's an endless number of compromises to wrangle with to make sense. Same as writing "without constraints". thepillmag.com/issue.iii/ro...

thepillmag.com

issue iii / RODRIGO TOSCANO

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Thanks so much to Bethh for publishing "Early Mood" and "Xanadu" from my upcoming Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

For sure, it's gratifying to be listed here alongside so many colleagues whose poetry I truly respect. "WHITMAN.CANNONBALL.PUEBLA. is a collection of poetic fables that aim to invigorate the emerging field of Globo-Poetics through Social Materialist lenses."

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Here's "Freak Flag", a sonnet that - well, like much of my poetry, strives to meld together ideas and things that normally would resist being, or rather speaking together. www.corporeallitmag.com/volume-xxiii...

corporeallitmag.com

Rodrigo Toscano — Corporeal

But let these loose objects lie for a bit. Notice thoughts ramble without a thinker

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

Thanks so much @BigOtherMag for publishing "Mystery Reader". This poem, of course, is not about "me", but about a speculative composite subject potentialized because of current material social conditions. Yeah, poems can propose its writers and readers. bigother.com/2026/03/30/m...

bigother.com

Mystery Reader, by Rodrigo Toscano

Downplaying entanglements with national interests and global affairs Blurring the lines between transparency and obfuscation This poet, nonetheless seems pumped enough to flip scripts This p…

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 22/03/2026

Two sonnets, "Aliens 8" and "Normies", from Salvage Nation: 100 Sonnets (Winter Editions, fall 2026). www.ghostharmonics.com/magazine/iss...

ghostharmonics.com

Rodrigo Toscano in Issue 01

Works by Rodrigo Toscano in Oscillations

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Poets without a deep erotic streak are terrible poets. Erotic poets without a deep political pull on themselves and others are doubly terrible.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Fresh out of high school, I went to work for a computer manufacturing plant. I made motherboards. I wore astronaut-like suits. It was grueling. Anyway, that's where I learned the word, "NAND", a digital logic concept. Alas, here's a sonnet by that name. www.summersetreview.org/26spring/tos...

summersetreview.org

NAND - poetry by Rodrigo Toscano

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

"Charms" from upcoming Salvage Nation: 100 sonnets. Written in 10-syllable lines. Form comes naturally to me, given my lifelong study of Bach's methods of developing multiple lines of inquiry and expression. It's a meditation on remaining human in the face of ceaseless violence.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

"These Lands" from upcoming Salvage Nation: 100 sonnets (Winter Editions, 2026). A desire (turned into aim) to capture fleeting moments of life to share them with people of "good will", those striving to not be captured by either propaganda nor by escapism. www.benningtonreview.org/fifteen-tosc...

benningtonreview.org

Rodrigo Toscano — Bennington Review

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

For poets like myself unaffiliated to a university, for whom AWP is out of pocket, a pause here to reflect on the outrageous registration fees, exorbitant hotel costs, airlines, steep price of Ubers to offsite readings, etc. Add poverty galore in Baltimore. It's a lot, y'all, to just, woo-hoo!

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Poetry in the U.S. ranges from being a pure product of higher education institutions to indy (less commodified) outputs. But they're both productivist endeavors. And so we can talk (straight or slantly) about poets and industrial relations. And about alienation. Infold it into poems even.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

Superfluous, presumptuous, indulgent, vain...this is what a lot of non-poet people think of our practices. The ephemerality of it all reminds them of their own superfluous, vain endeavors in the world. We're bent on riding out transformations, passionate about giving them form.

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 02/03/2026

These decasyllabic sonnets in the new issue of Waxwing. I wrote one a day for 100 days straight. Salvage Nation: 100 sonnets will be published in the fall of 2026 by Winter Editions. waxwingmag.org/items/issue3...

waxwingmag.org

Life vs. Living | Rodrigo Toscano

Captive to our species’ drive, in the main / The rest is details. Living is details.❡

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Rodrigo Toscano @rodrigo-toscano.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

The poets that the interlocking national institutions are currently elevating to be the public face of American Poetry are ill-equipped for this moment in history. Another way to look at it is they're plenty well equipped to act as the cultural attachés of a violent, predatory, decaying empire.

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