Erica Etelson: In order to transcend Trumpism, we must tend to suffering — not celebrate it
Our survival as a species depends on our ability to turn away from the delusion of sweet revenge, and show compassion for those we may dislike or detest.
T. R. Hummer: Think
It’s impossible sometimes to make your way
through the undergrowth—think of Desoto,
Think of Cabeza de Vaca hacking down briars
Carolyn Miller: By the Time
By the time the light reaches us, empty
sunflower fields are pitted with more craters.
Video: The Opposites Game
An English teacher asks his class: ‘What’s the opposite of a gun?’
Abby Zimet: Concerned Collins Calls Cops On Constituents Committing Communist Chalk Crimes
Susan ‘Snowflake’ Collins was so troubled by chalk-wielding desperados who hate-crimed the (public) sidewalk outside her house by (politely) asking she protect the rights of those women that she called the cops on them – this, while her party of neo-fascists and Christian zealots works tirelessly to drag us all back to the 1300s…
Stephen Dobyns: Can Poetry Matter?
Heart feels the time has come to compose lyric poetry.
No more storytelling for him. Oh, Moon, Heart writes,
sad wafer of the heart’s distress. And then: Oh, Moon,
bright cracker of the heart’s pleasure.
Jon Queally: Buffalo Gunman’s Racism Directly Tied to Mainstreaming of White Nationalism
White nationalism is the greatest threat to our nation’s security and we must hold everyone who spreads this hate accountable before anyone else is harmed.
Nina Kossman: Valley of Closed Eyes
Dipping my cheekbones
into the blind substance,
into the cooling water of the maternal yes
The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Egyptian Middle Kingdom 2000 BCE)
A poor peasant, Khun-Anup, is traveling to market with his donkeys heavily laden with goods to exchange for supplies for his family when Nemtynakht, a vassal of the high steward Rensi, notices the peasant approaching his lands and devises a scheme to steal Khun-Anup’s donkeys and supplies.
Enheduanna: Seven Sumerian Temple Hymns (2300 BCE)
The temple seems to listen as she describes its resident: “your lady a water bird — sacred woman of the inner chamber,” she says to the temple in the intimate conversation that characterizes each hymn.
Mary Jane White: Friend, You Count Yourself Faithless,
…the Sea and all her ships
are women you are too certain of —
who would not marry you for love.
Video: Philip Levine reads Federico García Lorca (text included)
Philip Levine reads Federico García Lorca’s “New York (Office and Denunciation)”
Baron Wormser: A Poetry Proposal
There is no shortage of poems and no shortage of strategies to deliver the poems. The failing lies in our wariness. It’s true: to embrace poetry is to embrace a degree of uncertainty. Yet what else is life?
Bhikshuni Vijaya: Keep Going
Sometimes the most direct path is not a straight line.
Vox Populi 