Poetry

The destruction of apathy: how Emma Gonzalez mobilized the tools of poetry to empower the #NeverAgain movement

On March 26, 2018, at the ‘March for Our Lives’ demonstration in Washington D.C., one of the march’s organizers, Emma Gonzalez, took the stage to speak against the insane notion that nothing can be done to protect us and our children from gun violence.  People were shaken out of apathy and the #NeverAgain movement, organized …

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Epiphany: a collaborative poem for the sixth of January by Almut Furchert and me

Epiphany commemorates the visit of the Magi, or wise men who visited the infant child, whom the angels in Luke’s Christmas story announced as “a Savior, Christ the Lord.” They came bearing precious gifts. They were guided by a star to a divine manifestation, an awe-inspiring spiritual experience, the moment of aha—at last I see! …

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Susan Thurston's "Sister of Grendel": a cultural critique of the epic hero

“And I have at last accounted for this last part of my story.” Beowulf’s voice surrounds me, and his image again appears whole before me. Beowulf the warrior reaches out his hand as if to touch me. I extend mine toward him. “Which causes more pain, I wonder. The words unsaid or the words not …

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New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alice B. Fogel on How to Explore Poetry's Strange Terrain

“Language as a tool to manipulate both mind and heart…snapshot of the human condition; of our mortality reflected in nature; the staying of time.” Alice B. Fogel Why poetry matters “Poetry will bring you significant new interactions with the world around you, with ideas and sensations, with yourself and others,” poet Alice B. Fogel wrote …

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How to write a Sestina in 6 (not-so-easy) steps

You want to write a fine poem, don’t you? Poets.org says that the effect of a sestina, achieved through intricate repetition, is often spectacular. In a sestina, six words, repeated in a prescribed pattern, take the place of a rhyme scheme, weaving an enchanting web of sound for six, six-line stanzas plus one three-line stanza. I …

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