Poets
Where the Light Gets In: Slam Poetry Artist Zachary Kluckman on single parenthood, depression, and the power of art-making in community
Before I knew it, I was working with undocumented students, and people in recovery, activists, artists, even elected officials. All of this because I started writing poetry.
Read MoreNow We Bow Our Heads: Interview with Poet Ralph Pennel
But I believe that we all, at the very least,
should have some. Beauty, that is.
Maybe even just a little more. That
even in a poem about beauty
we must be moved to see its two sure hands
and how our own fit perfectly inside them.
The Natural Tension Between Creativity and Constraints
“Math is inseparable from nature, from us; and, as the search for numbers went on for thousands of years, numbers represent the human search for knowledge. “
Read MoreSam Roxas-Chua, Eugene, Oregon: “Poetry is a Raft”
“Poetry is a raft for me. A safe raft that allows me to go into great depth and explore all the scary stuff. To make sense of what happened. Because if I wasn’t able to make sense of what happened, I would be mute.”
Read MoreJohn L. Stanizzi, Poet: “Teaching didn’t do anything for my soul. It gave me a soul.”
“Teaching didn’t do anything for my soul. It gave me a soul.”
Read MorePenelope Scambly Schott: "It Is The Human Condition To Be In Love With Language"
More women than you might think have turned to prostitution to survive; sometimes it’s called marriage.
Read MoreThe Place for Unhappiness: Interview with Bulgarian poet, Peycho Kanev
I am part of the Balkan tradition. All of these dark memories are part of me, they are inside my blood, inside my mind. They dwell inside me. And, of course, they become part of my poetry, too.
Read MoreCensorship and the Sins of Omission: The Plight of the Independent Presses
But there is another type of book banning – a banning by omission, rather than commission – that goes unnoticed. Marketplace censorship, the de facto banning of books by independent presses that don’t have advertising budgets, or distribution deals with one of the few book distributors who have a virtual monopoly on distributing to bookstores and libraries.
Read MorePostcard From Pakistan: Cross-Cultural Friendships Drown Out the Silencing
Many American friends might be even surprised to know that despite a big public outcry about US drone attacks and high civilian casualties, a large number of Pakistanis don’t blame or hate the American people. They understand that Americans are as much victims of this present ‘war’ as we are. This understanding, this acceptance, is born of the deep spirituality permeating most of our society.
Read MoreCensorship in the High School: Missing the Point About What We Deem Offensive
This was no student vandal…much worse. This was the work of one of my colleagues.
Read MoreThe Primordial Dreams of Aron Wiesenfeld
Many artists enter the dream world, but few can so inhabit it as to give us not only its semblance but the meaning of the dream. Wiesenfeld’s genius lies both in the interiority of his figures and in the exteriority of his dreamscapes.
Read MoreIs Writing Poetry Akin to Taking a Shamanic Journey? Interview with Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D.
“After having personally practiced shamanism, shamanic healing, and shamanic journeying for more than half a century, I can say that there is nothing I have encountered in reports of the spiritual experiences of saints, prophets, psychedelic drug experimenters, near death survivors, avatars and other mystics that is not commonly experienced when following classic journey methods using a drum.”
—Michael Harner, The Foundation for Shamnic Studies