Layli Long Soldier — WHEREAS my eyes land on the shoreline
When you feel like crying, do you cry? Or do you stifle it? Why? The U.S. Congress 2009 “Joint resolution to acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the Feder...
27 Nov 202017min
Chen Chen — I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party
In this poem, a son writes to his parents and invites them to a meal, letting them know that his boyfriend will also be there. He gives instruction to his parents on how they should behave, parenting ...
23 Nov 202018min
Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill — Ceist na Teangan (The Language Issue)
Are there languages that once were spoken in your family that are not anymore? What caused those changes? This poem considers the plight of a language, how it — like the child Moses in the biblical st...
20 Nov 202012min
Aracelis Girmay — Consider the Hands that Write this Letter
When you’re writing by hand, where is your other hand? What story is the space between your two hands — your dominant hand and non-dominant hand — telling?This poem considers the posture of the body w...
16 Nov 202012min
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 Nov 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 Nov 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 Nov 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 Nov 202011min
