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This poem shows what sexual abuse looks like
Poet Yrsa Daley-Ward for Violet Magazine by Nicole Nodland When Yrsa Daley-Ward wrote the poem “bone” years ago, it came to her as many of her poems do: in the morning, just after waking up, and she...
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Mapping Seattle, poem by poem
Seattle has a new way of mapping itself — through the so-called “Poetic Grid,” an online map of the city from the voices of people who live there. Claudia Castro Luna dreamed up the idea in 2015, when...
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How the irreverent poetry of the ’60s helped spawn punk music
Rock star and poet Patti Smith in front of CBGB, New York’s most famous punk bar on its closing night in October 2006 after 33 years. Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images Where did punk rock come...
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Why U.S. Virgin Islanders feel there’s no place they belong
A resident of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands surveys his home on September 16, 2017, almost two weeks after Hurricane Irma wrought havoc to the island. Now, the islands are under hurricane watch...
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How death row inmates at San Quentin are using poetry to examine the prison...
An artwork from Tauno Waidla, an imate at San Quentin, published by the project San Quentin Artists. Courtesy of Nicola White Prison literature has a long and rich history, stretching back to Jack...
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This poet is making sure women of the Bauhaus movement get their due
“Dressing Room,” by Lucia Moholy. Courtesy of a private collection. The Bauhaus German art school of the early to mid-20th century is today associated with several things: its stark white modernist...
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After Charlottesville, people share poems to grieve, resist and understand
Following a weekend of fear and violence in Charlottesville — where white supremacists and hate groups descended on the city and a car plowed through a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and...
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What does it mean to be multiracial in America? This poet explores how it’s...
A man walks along a street in Marrakesh on March 28, 2008. Credit: REUTERS/Thomas White Charif Shanahan is the son of an Irish-American father and a Moroccan mother. Growing up black and Arab in...
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What these Southerners reciting Walt Whitman verses can teach us about America
Are we a nation divided? Filmmaker Jennifer Crandall doesn’t think so. For her new project, “Whitman in Alabama,” Crandall spent two years crisscrossing the state and asking Alabamians to recite Walt...
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This poet’s obsession with death led her to write about how to live
This undated illustration shows Tantalus, Sisyphus and Ixion, three kings from Greek mythology who were condemned by Zeus to eternal tortures in Hades. Tantalus reaches for the unreachable fruit,...
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The rage and rebellion of the Detroit riots, captured in one poem
Policemen arrest black suspects in Detroit on July 25, 1967 during riots that erupted in Detroit following a police operation. Credit: AFP/Getty Images Fifty years ago this month, a protest in Detroit...
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How we fail to humanize war
Destroyed buildings from clashes are seen in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq July 10, 2017. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani About six years ago, poet and playwright Harry Newman sat down to a write a cautionary...
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This poem grapples with America’s complicated identity
A boy watches the fireworks from his father’s shoulders during the 2016 Independence Day celebrations in Somerville, Massachusetts. Photo by REUTERS/Brian Snyder Fourth of July is among poet Dorianne...
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This writer is erasing ‘Infinite Jest’ to find the poetry left behind
Images by Jenni B. Baker For many, “Infinite Jest” is a kind of sacred work. A magnum opus that can challenge readers simply to finish. The “defining work of the 1990s.” One of the greatest books of...
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Have we been taught poetry all wrong?
Poetry can do a kind of “dream work,” says poet Matthew Zapruder. Credit: REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin “I have a confession to make: I don’t really understand poetry.” So goes the opening line of poet...
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Why this poet is posting meaningless verse on Instagram
A satirical poem by Thom Young. After it was posted to Instagram, it received 2,236 likes. When Texas-based poet Thom Young joined Instagram around 2010, he noticed a number of poets were already using...
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Watch this 7th grader use slam poetry to tell girls: ‘You are good enough’
When Olivia Vella’s seventh grade teacher asked every student to write a monologue on a topic about which they were passionate, Vella immediately knew what she wanted to say. She wanted to tell girls...
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How to savor a perfect summer day, in verse
Stone fruits that have ripened early because of the drought are seen at a farmers market in Los Angeles, California, on May 10, 2015. Camille T. Dungy’s new poetry collection “Tropic Cascade”...
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What these humble one-liners can teach us about the times we live in
International travelers arrive at John F. Kennedy international airport in New York City, U.S., February 4, 2017. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid “In the deep end, every stroke counts.” “Best not flirt with...
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In ‘Scranton Lace,’ nostalgia for a time and place that no longer exist
Scranton Lace Company, as pictured today. Photo by Francine Mackinder Douaihy After a century of operation, the Scranton Lace Company, one of the largest employers in the area, abruptly closed,...
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