Pascale Petit: A Mother Sings
I will rebirth her on banks of the river of life.
Only I have to wade through the river of thorns
while she sleeps.
I am her country and her lagoon.
Baron Wormser: Agony
The agony I feel about the events in Israel, an agony shared by millions around the planet, many of whom may never have entered a synagogue, is very real. I wake up at night and lie there, held fast by grief, impotence, anger, and despair.
Yehuda Amichai: The Place Where We Are Right
From the place where we are right
Flowers will never grow
In the spring.
Video: Sales Per Hour
A sales associate for a high-end fashion brand in New York City is sent into a tailspin of uncertainty after she overhears an unsettling encounter in one of the dressing rooms at work.
Michael Simms: House
You want to lie down in the lost field
of your courage and sleep
beside the blurred road of snow
Gertrude Stein: Two Poems
All this and not ordinary, not unordered in not resembling.
A Teacher in NYC Tells the Children, “Look for the Helpers”
We all must demand a ceasefire now. Our witnessing and demanding change is how we can all be helpers for all children.
Lisa Suhair Majaj: The Poem
The poem was found in the rubble
of a six-story residential building
in Khan Yunis, destroyed by a 2000
pound bomb that sent fire to the sky
and death to the burning earth.
Tony Gloeggler: Knowledge
He’s unaware he’s built
like a bowling pin,
that his shaved head shines
like Mr. Clean and everybody
stares when he waddles
Edward Hunt: U.S. Officials Care More About Protecting Oil Tankers than Palestinians
The Biden administration opposes a ceasefire, even as it repeatedly demands that the Houthis end their attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.
Barbara Hamby: Athena Ode
Road diva, divine mixologist, cancan dancer
of the mandible wars, show me the way of mind
over what’s-the-matter-with-you, girl, swirling from mouths
of righteous dudes.
Barbara Hamby: St. Clare’s Underwear
there’s your average man, hirsute and raging with testosterone,
Godzilla incarnato, King Kong with big feet, Frankenstein
hovering over some delectable damsel with skin like fresh pastry
GEORGE YANCY: How Can Philosophy Speak to a World in Crisis? The Answer May Lie in Our Bodies
Whether we are ill, depressed, anxious, suffering from injustice, a refugee, incarcerated — having contact with beauty can lift our spirits, rehumanizing us.
Yehoshua November: Driving Back to College in a Storm
And as I entered the onramp and the highway curved,
I realized I’d forgotten the wayfarer’s prayer.
