Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Poetry as Insurgent Art [I am signaling you through the flames]
Nemesis is knocking at the door.
What are poets for, in such an age? What is the use of poetry?
Matt Hohner: Viral
Imagine someone with nothing left to lose as a virus
armed with a gun and desperate to spread its bullets.
Danusha Laméris: The Cat
After my brother died, his wife was sure he was living
inside their cat, Rocky. He’s in there, she’d say, staring into
those blank, yellow eyes. Isma’il? Isma’il? Can you hear me?
Robert Okaji: Postcard from Pandemic
They stack their cart with essentials:
frozen garlic, six packages of grilled
mushrooms, fifteen cans of garbanzo
beans, three bottles of truffle oil
Ellery Akers: Our Grief for the Earth is Hidden
When I was born
I thought I’d be taken from the earth
I didn’t think the earth would be taken from me
Video: Leonard Cohen — Tower of Song (Live in London)
Well, my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not comin’ on
I’m just payin’ my rent every day in the Tower of Song
Joel Christensen: Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales
As someone who writes about early Greek poetry, I spend a lot of time thinking about why its performance was so crucial to ancient life. One answer is that epic and tragedy helped ancient storytellers and audiences try to make sense of human suffering.
David Adès: One Manifestation of Compassion
I did the only humane thing left
Marc Jampole: Weinstein Enters the Courtroom
slithering through deep mud
in concentric circles of power-tied lawyers
Robert Gibb: A Paragraph for W. Eugene Smith
“The infinite mistake of Pittsburgh does not take from the fact that the set of photographs is among my finest.”
Judith Vollmer: For Aaron Sheon
“The body doesn’t make sense by itself,” you said, pointing the red-tip
wand at the chalky nudes of Ingres.
Majid Naficy: Corpse of the Revolution
I do not wait for poetry
But go in search of it
Because my wings are broken
And I am left far from my nest…
Molly Fisk: Elegy (for Leah)
her infinite soprano
and my street drawl voicing words that could
depress a saint
Video: Godka Cirka (A Hole in the Sky)
Alifa has reached the age when girls in her village undergo a ritual cutting she fears.
