Poetry | Women's Voices For Change

Poetry Sunday: “Plunder: to a young friend,”
by Linda Pastan

By Rebecca Foust

I have lived in a house, in the middle of six acres of wood, for 45 years. But as my 86th birthday approaches, I am reluctantly thinking of downsizing. Thus the poem.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Prophesy,” by Jill Bialosky

By Rebecca Foust

I resonated with the poem’s clear expression of the fear that shot through me as a young mother when I saw rifts between mothers and sons, and its acknowledgement of my devastation the first time I realized I’d moved from the center into a distinct periphery of my child’s universe.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Wife’s Disaster Manual” and
“The Gulf, 1987,” by Deborah Paredez

By Rebecca Foust

In the hands of writers who have the confidence to depart from the rules, poetic forms can marshal tremendous power. Poems like today’s show us just how effectively this can be done.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “4:42 p.m. EST,” by Janet Jennings

By Rebecca Foust

We have a long tradition of upholding the principles of the founders of this country, even when we disagree on what those principles are, and the idea of an executive order saying we “must bear hostile attitudes” to those principles is shocking.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Empathy,” by A. E. Stallings

By Rebecca Foust

This is one of the best political poems I’ve ever read, and I hope you will find yourself as moved by it as I am.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday:
“Discussing Useful Life at the Tax Depreciation Seminar I Remember a Line by David Baker,”
by Jeanne Wagner

By Rebecca Foust

This poem was conceived during my last year working as an accountant. The partners had flown in an expert from New York who was presenting very sketchy strategies for shortening the useful life of assets, thereby increasing the deductions.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Sin,” by Forough Farrokhzad

By Rebecca Foust

Forough Farrokhzad wrote when, as now, Iranian women faced deeply-rooted and widespread discrimination and prejudice, and she is widely regarded as Iran’s leading women poet and an advocate for women’s liberation and independence everywhere.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: Four poems from Less Like a Dove
by Agi Mishol

By Susan Cohen

How can poetry so particular to Agi Mishol’s life—down to the name of the doctor who treated her father—touch mine so deeply?

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “The Dress Code” and “Wish,” by Caitlin Doyle

By Rebecca Foust

Both poems this week are in form, and together they help make a point I’ve been pushing for some time in these columns: form can set you free in your writing and reading of poetry.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “The Streaming,” by Elizabeth Spires

By Rebecca Foust

The poem’s intent is not to complain about or wish relief from all the bad-news bombardment, but a deeper concern about how that bombardment “hardens” us and so lessens our humanity.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Walking Through the Grass at Night,” by Ellery Akers

By Rebecca Foust

The poem is somewhat about being alone and a speaker who conjures life into inanimate objects to populate her world.

Poetry

“Not Elegy, But Eros,” “The Old City,”
and “Ode to the Joke,” by Nausheen Eusuf

By Rebecca Foust

All of Nausheen Eusuf's poems show an uncommon amount of mystery, subtlety grace, wit, and intelligence, but many—including the ones offered to you today—make me catch my breath.

Poetry

“On the Way to Grandma’s Funeral” and
“What the Confederate Flag Means to Me,”
by Glenis Redmond

By Rebecca Foust

Every poem in "What My Hand Say" is influenced by the poet’s historical and actual experience with racism, and some take it head-on.

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Making Zelnik at the Sibling Reunion,” by Karen Paul Holmes

By Rebecca Foust

My new book, "No Such Thing as Distance," was partly inspired by the Macedonian culture in which I grew up. How better to reflect that heritage, and also the closeness of my family, than through a cooking poem?

Poetry

Poetry Sunday: “Prepositional,” by Lorna Knowles Blake

By Rebecca Foust

“Prepositional” speaks of a long relationship between the speaker and her beloved and examines the stability of their unit (“us”) against (in relation to) the larger backdrop of history and the even larger backdrop of nature and time, creating a truly unique and universal valentine.

Women's Voices For Change

Articles onPoetry

Poetry Sunday: “Plunder: to a young friend,”
by Linda Pastan

Poetry Sunday: “Prophesy,” by Jill Bialosky

Poetry Sunday: “Wife’s Disaster Manual” and
“The Gulf, 1987,” by Deborah Paredez

Poetry Sunday: “4:42 p.m. EST,” by Janet Jennings

Poetry Sunday: “Empathy,” by A. E. Stallings

Poetry Sunday:
“Discussing Useful Life at the Tax Depreciation Seminar I Remember a Line by David Baker,”
by Jeanne Wagner

Poetry Sunday: “Sin,” by Forough Farrokhzad

Poetry Sunday: Four poems from Less Like a Dove
by Agi Mishol

Poetry Sunday: “The Dress Code” and “Wish,” by Caitlin Doyle

Poetry Sunday: “The Streaming,” by Elizabeth Spires

Poetry Sunday: “Walking Through the Grass at Night,” by Ellery Akers

“Not Elegy, But Eros,” “The Old City,”
and “Ode to the Joke,” by Nausheen Eusuf

“On the Way to Grandma’s Funeral” and
“What the Confederate Flag Means to Me,”
by Glenis Redmond

Poetry Sunday: “Making Zelnik at the Sibling Reunion,” by Karen Paul Holmes

Poetry Sunday: “Prepositional,” by Lorna Knowles Blake

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