“Pyriscence” by Angelique Zobitz
As a Black Woman, I needed to tell this story of Black Women adapting, thriving, living, and/or dying in suboptimal conditions.
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“Private Collection,” by Shelley Wong
“Private Collection” by Shelley Wong perfectly captures the experience of museum-going. Standing in a museum gallery, our speaker sifts back through other galleries, thoughts, and experiences as a woman and as a partner, a private (re)collection of sorts.
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MK Chavez: “Little Red Riding Hood/Companion”
MK Chavez empowers Little Red Riding Hood, an innocent damsel in distress if ever there were one, by giving her autonomy over her body and destiny and, ultimately, recognizing her multiplicity.
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Myra Viola Wilds: “Thoughts”
“Thoughts” strikes me as a perfect poem to consider around the end of one year or the beginning of another as we take stock of what has come to pass, and make plans and resolutions for the future.
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Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: “Aunt Chloe’s Politics,” and Marilyn Chin: “19th Amendment Ragtime Parade”
Today poems feature works by women about voting, and about our country. They emphasize the urgency and potency of the vote, reminding us of the difficult paths many have walked to secure our representation.
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“Poem,” by Joan Naviyuk Kane
In today’s poem, “Poem,” by Joan Naviyuk Kane, the speaker’s search for a word in Inupiaq, the language of her mother, uncovers compounded losses—natural, cultural, ancestral, and personal—that have accrued over time and echo through generations.
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Poetry Sunday: “Blackbody curve,” by Samiya Bashir
As enriching as it is to consider “Blackbody curve” in terms of its scientific allusions or placement in Samiya Bashir’s collection, it’s important to note that the poem stands on its own as an enjoyable and rewarding literary experience.
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‘Blood Dazzler’ by Patricia Smith
In Patricia Smith’s exquisite collection 'Blood Dazzler,' I find myself drawn to the stories of resilience even more for the comfort and reassurance they provide. The durability of the collection speaks to the hope and lingering fear in this pandemic moment.
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“I Am Writing This in My Head,
My Hands Inside Gloves That Don’t Match,”
by Silvina López Medin
Silvina López Medin’s poem is from her newly published book 'Poem That Never Ends,' itself a study of loss, multiplicity, and containment in terms of form, language, and content.
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“Private Collection,” by Shelley Wong
“Private Collection” by Shelley Wong perfectly captures the experience of museum-going. Standing in a museum gallery, our speaker sifts back through other galleries, thoughts, and experiences as a woman and as a partner, a private (re)collection of sorts.
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“Portent with Moonset & Blackbirds,”
by Kelly Cressio-Moeller
As a visual artist and poet, Kelly Cressio-Moeller knows what she is leveraging when she evokes the color blue in the title of her debut poetry collection, 'Shade of Blue Trees' -- a word that describes not just color but also emotion and language.
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“You Bring Out the Emerging QTPOC (Queer Transgender Person of Color) Poet in Me,”
by Yeva Johnson
In today’s poem by Yeva Johnson, the word “emerging” is expansive, busting through conventions, resisting binaries, and declaring an evolving sense of self that encompasses a complex life, fully lived.
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M. Soledad Caballero: “The Myths We Live”
Though themes and narrative evolve, “The Myths We Live” is not about just one thing, and this expansiveness is enhanced by a form that inherently offers at least twenty perspectives—kaleidoscopic indeed.
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Monica Youn: “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado)”
In Monica Youn's “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado),” the longing of a speaker who seeks to connect and make sense of so many threads, lessons, myths, and messages is stirring.
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Shirley Geok-lin Lim: Ars Poetica for the Day
Shirley Geok-Lin Lim’s poems are set in the circumscribed worlds of home and Academia, but this is merely the way the author accesses larger issues of exile, identity, and artistic inspiration.
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