Jun 06 How gardening makes this poet more observant By Mary Jo Brooks Ross Gay is passionate about poetry, gardening and basketball. “I guess you could say that I think all three things alter our notion of time," he said. Continue reading
May 30 How a WWII pilot explained the quiet moments after an enemy attack By Mary Jo Brooks William Meredith served as a Navy pilot in World War II and the Korean War. An esteemed poet, he wrote several poems about his war experience. Continue reading
May 23 When cancer changed everything, writing poems was an act of healing By Mary Jo Brooks Gail Rudd Entrekin and her husband Charles turned to poetry to deal with the frustration, fear and anger they felt during Charles' battle with cancer. Continue reading
May 16 The poetry of simmering Chicago summers By Mary Jo Brooks Parneshia Jones is a child of the North and grandchild of the South, and her poetry reflects that duality. The smells, tastes and sounds of Mississippi and Louisiana mingle with the rhythms and realities of the northern industrial city she… Continue reading
May 09 Advice to poets: get out of the ivory tower By Mary Jo Brooks The very first thing Kim Stafford does every morning is write. "It's a way to settle your accounts. If you're angry, if you regret something, put it down on a page. Sometimes it's a poem. Sometimes it's a consideration. But… Continue reading
May 02 How poetry helps us understand mental illness By Corinne Segal Poet Shira Erlichman writes about her relationship to Lithium to treat mental illness. Continue reading
Apr 25 How poet Shane McCrae learned to break the rules By Corinne Segal Shane McCrae's poems are often an experiment in form, built from nontraditional metrics and a focus on sound and texture. Continue reading
Apr 20 How poetry helped a Compton student survive trauma By Sarah Varney Compton student Kimberly Cervantes said that poetry helped her deal with trauma and the derision she faced at school for being bisexual. Continue reading
Apr 18 Poet delves into a Civil War spy’s hidden history By Corinne Segal A poem by Anaïs Duplan looks at the life of Mary Bowser, a former slave who was a Union spy during the Civil War. Continue reading
Apr 11 Ocean Vuong on why reading poetry is political By Corinne Segal Ocean Vuong subverts the historical erasure of stories like his: of immigration, of queerness, of the aftermath of war. Continue reading