"Light, my light, the world-filling light"

May 2, 2023

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

Rabindranath Tagore was born in Calcutta, India, on May 7, 1861. Throughout his career, Tagore not only wrote and translated poetry, but published numerous novels, short stories, plays, letters, essays, memoirs, and criticism. He was also known for his musical compositions. Read a selection from Tagore’s most notable work of poetry, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (Macmillan, 1912), for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913, including an introduction by William Butler Yeats.

“Gitanjali 1”
“Gitanjali 4”
“Gitanjali 7”
“Gitanjali 16”
“Gitanjali 18”
“Gitanjali 65”
“Gitanjali 57”
“Gitanjali 74”
“Gitanjali 88”
“Gitanjali 90”
“Gitanjali 99”

more at poets.org

“The poet is a servant of the poetry, so when we’re in service of the work, we can also help strengthen and create community. I’ve found, in my life, that there’s something really inimitable about the way in which poetry can allow people (the poet included) to hear, find, or affirm their voices and remind them that we’re all here together as humans on Earth.”

Read an interview with Ashley M. Jones, 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow, on her project in Alabama. Read more about Jones, including poems, on Poets.org:

“ALL Y’ALL REALLY FROM ALABAMA”
“Love Note: Surely”
“Summer Vacation in the Subjunctive”

more at poets.org

“For my curation, I sought out poems that, in their own way, made me feel less lonely.”

Join us as we welcome this month’s Guest Editor, Hieu Minh Nguyen, author of Not Here (Coffee House Press, 2018). The recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Nguyen is a lecturer at Stanford University. Read and listen to a Q&A with Nguyen about his Poem-a-Day curatorial approach, and enjoy a selection of poems from Poets.org:

“The Understudy”
“The New Decade”
“Confessional”

more at poets.org

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival, presented by Poetry Coalition member Mass Poetry, returns to Salem, Massachusetts. The three-day Festival will host more than 150 events and 75 speakers this Friday, May 5, through Sunday, May 7, at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) and a host of other Salem venues. Learn more and get tickets here. (Sponsored)

more at poets.org

Upcoming Deadlines

Publishers and presses, submissions will close on May 15 to the 2023 James Laughlin Award, given to a second book of poetry forthcoming in 2024, and the 2023 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, given to the most outstanding book of poetry published in 2023.

more at poets.org

The Equity Project Charter School in New York City is seeking a full-time English language arts teacher.
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in New Brunswick, is accepting applications for the David Bartholomae Postdoctoral Lectureship in Writing.
Milkweed Editions in Minneapolis is seeking a full-time senior publicist. Apply by May 8, 2023.

Revisit last week’s Poem-a-Day selections with us on Poets.org:

April 23: “Gift” by Hilda Conkling
April 24: “Alchemy Horse” by Natalie Diaz
April 25: “Someone Forgot to Whisper Your Death to the Bees” by Ansel Elkins
April 26: “Throwing Children” by Ross Gay
April 27: “The Splendid Body” by Rebecca Lindenberg
April 28: “Ledge” by Kevin Young
April 29: “Playing with Bees” by RK Fauth

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"Light, my light, the world-filling light"

Older messages

"In the House With No Doors" by Sarah Kay

"Poem" by Sandra Lim

"[The ringèd moon sits eerily]" by William Faulkner

"Playing with Bees" by RK Fauth

Before National Poetry Month comes to an end

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