Tayi Tibble — Our Nan Lets Us Smoke Inside
Who is in your chosen family? This poem considers the lines of loyalty in families and how particular memories, like a grandmother keeping “wishbones from chicken carcasses / in an empty margarine con...
13 Marras 202013min
Paul Tran — The Cave
What have you had to explore on your own? What, or who, helped? This poem explores the archetype of the cave — a cave that calls, a cave that contains secrets and perhaps even information. “Someone st...
10 Marras 202011min
Philip Metres — One Tree
What do you notice about how you behave in times of conflict? Do you tend toward avoidance? Or compromise? Or collaboration? Or competition? Or accommodation?This poem describes a conflict between nei...
6 Marras 202015min
Roger Robinson — A Portable Paradise
How do you hold onto hope? And who helped you find it? This poem is about holding onto paradise in the midst of an environment that seeks to steal or quash it. Roger Robinson praises his grandmother w...
2 Marras 202011min
Seán Hewitt — Suibhne is wounded, and confesses
In times of isolation, what stories have you turned to for comfort? This poem is an exploration of isolation as seen through the mythical Irish character, Suibhne. Suibhne was cursed and lived a life...
30 Loka 202013min
Meleika Gesa-Fatafehi — Say My Name
What is the story of your name? In this poem, the poet calls on place, ancestors, and history to bear witness to the dignity of their name. They recall how their ancestors “acknowledged my roots grew ...
26 Loka 202014min
Lucille Clifton — song at midnight
In strength and defiance, Lucille Clifton celebrates her Black body and her survival. When have you said or heard words like this? Calling herself “both nonwhite and woman,” Lucille Clifton glories in...
23 Loka 202012min
Chris Abani — The New Religion
How do you speak of — and to — your body? This is a poem dedicated to the body. “The body is a nation I have never known,” Chris Abani writes. Throughout the 21 lines of this work, he describes lungs,...
19 Loka 202012min
