Poem-a-Day - "Words are loyal."

May 23, 2023

Memorial Day

In honor of Memorial Day weekend, read and share a selection of poems reflecting on war and loss:

“Memorial Day for the War Dead” by Yehuda Amichai
“Little Lead Soldiers ” by Giannina Braschi
“the sonnet-ballad” by Gwendolyn Brooks
“War Rug” by Henri Cole
“La Chapelle. 92nd Division. Ted.” by Rita Dove
“Ode for Memorial Day” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
“Words” by Jane Hirshfield
“‘You and I Are Disappearing’” by Yusef Komunyakaa
“At Bay” by Carl Phillips
“Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night” by Walt Whitman

Poet by Day, Sick by Night

“Poetic images, he felt, ‘are symbolic expressions of some conflict which is raging in the mind of the poet, and that the real underlying meaning or latent content of the poem is very different from that which the outward imagery would suggest.’”

Read an excerpt from Soldiers Don’t Go Mad by Charles Glass, to be published on June 6, 2023, by Penguin Press.

more at poets.org

The Totality of Causes: Li-Young Lee and Tina Chang in Conversation

“I had a teacher who early on tried to convince me that writing poems was akin to practicing meditation, or taking up a path like that. And I didn’t understand that, and he kept saying how language is a form of presence. And somehow language is infinitely referential.”

In honor of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, revisit this conversation from American Poets between Tina Chang and Li-Young Lee.

more at poets.org

“Being this public has also helped me think about how a poem travels and where it travels to. To think more intentionally about how a poem expands and contracts, how it travels, away from me and my experience, curiosities, and imagination, and out to others. How my own experience might be a vehicle to facilitate someone else’s healing or understanding, not only of me and my culture, but also of themselves.”

—Crystal Wilkinson, 2022 Poet Laureate Fellow in Kentucky

Read all interviews conducted with this year’s Poets Laureate Fellows on their writing practices, thoughts on poetry, communities, and fellowship projects.

more at poets.org

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

Join Poetry Coalition member Brooklyn Poets for the first annual Brooklyn Poets Poetry Festival, featuring workshops, craft talks, panels, and readings from May 25 to May 27 at Brooklyn Poets (144 Montague St., 2nd Floor, Brooklyn, New York) and on Zoom. Register for a one-day or three-day pass for in-person or virtual attendance here. Members take $25 off. (Sponsored).

more at poets.org

If you’re in New York City this weekend, join us for Fifth Avenue Blooms, a festival celebrating spring presented by Van Cleef & Arpels and the Fifth Avenue Association, in collaboration with the Academy of American Poets. Featuring readings by Joseph O. Legaspi, Cornelius Eady, Tina Chang, and Shanelle Gabriel. Saturday, May 27, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Pulitzer Fountain on Fifth Avenue and 58th/59th Streets. Free and open to the public. Learn more.

“It’s possible to look at melancholy and grief differently.”

This month’s Guest Editor, Hieu Minh Nguyen, is the 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.

more at poets.org

Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, is seeking a visiting assistant professor in writing, rhetoric, and technical communication and creative writing.
Library of America in New York City is seeking a full-time, two-year editorial fellow. Apply by June 16, 2023.
Mass Poetry in Boston is accepting applications for poet-educators.
W. W. Norton in New York City is seeking a full-time marketing manager.

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

May 14: “Noon” by Harindranath Chattopadhyaya
May 15: “My Mom’s Been Asking for a Happy Poem All My Life” by Jennifer Givhan
May 16: “Evening” by Jeremy Radin
May 17: “Selkie Weaning Young (Redux)” by Diana Khoi Nguyen
May 18: “To the Sea” by Anis Mojgani
May 19: “Mentor” by Rachel McKibbens
May 20: “Yellow Moon” by Angela Manalang-Gloria

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Paul Laurence Dunbar real underlying meaning Little Lead Soldiers Field One Night Memorial Day weekend

Poem-a-Day - "Words are loyal."

Poet by Day, Sick by Night

The Totality of Causes: Li-Young Lee and Tina Chang in Conversation

Key phrases

Older messages

"Blood Sex" by Crystal Valentine

"Someday, Again" by Jason Bayani

"Moonlight on Manila Bay" by Fernando M. Maramág

"Yellow Moon" by Angela Manalang-Gloria

"Mentor" by Rachel McKibbens

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