poetry

The Embarrassment of Being in the World

Kathy Nilsson What Nature: Poems
Massachusetts poet Kathy Nilsson exposes feelings of alienation in the current state of the world: “I don’t recall being American, or even here.”

books

The Right Poetry Collection For Right Now

Walton Muyumba Los Angeles Times
This poet's sixth collection offers aims helping us reflect on our difficult times. Hayes, an African American poet, wrote this new collection during the first 200 days of the Trump administration.

poetry

Aftermath

Chad Davidson Green Mountains Review
“Our hearts go out/ but only as the yo-yo might,” writes Georgia poet Chad Davidson of the shock world we mostly live in.

poetry

Quartering

Seema Reza The Quarry: A Social Justice Poetry Database
What it means to bring a war back home is the subject of Seema Reza’s searing poem about our soldiers.

poetry

Boy White American

Amy O'Reilly Tar River Poetry Review
Amy O’Reilly’s “Boy White American” puts her finger not so gently on the dangers in a Trumpian universe of gender roles.

poetry

To Kneel

Kathy Engel The Root
As the moguls of the National Football League coerce the athletes to abandon their protests against racism, Kathy Engel’s poem reminds us of the larger stakes for us all.

poetry

Coal

Kerry James Evans Poet Lore
Coal may be a dying industry but, as St. Louis poet Kerry James Evans shows, the living miners go on working for less and less.

poetry

Lake Michigan, Scene 6

Daniel Borzutzky Lake Michigan
Chicago poet Daniel Borzutzky blends the surreal with all-too reality in depicting environmental pollution and political corruption.

poetry

Egg

By Joyce Peseroff AGNI
An egg is an egg is an egg but in Joyce Peseroff’s subtle poem, an egg is a marker of a person’s social conscience.

poetry

Dear Loan Director

Esther Kamkar Hum of Bees
When a loan officer turned down the poet’s request, she sent him this poem. He changed his mind. Happy Mother’s Day.
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