POWER OF POETRY #34: “Some Slightly Connected Thoughts on Crafted Vulnerability, Stage Fright, Beauty, and Gratitude” – STEVIE EDWARDS
I am trying to write poems that stand inside of uncertainty and still find things to praise. And I don’t think it matters if I praise my sore legs that keep walking me home from work each night, or if I praise the relief of night rain in my first Carolinian July, or if I praise an idea of a home I miss, or if I praise the mild infection in my right nipple for not being cancer, or if I praise my friend who has stomach cancer but keeps living beyond the rational limits doctors have suggested—it is all praising living. It is all beholding the terrible beautiful uncertainty of being human and saying thank you. I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than gratitude, and poetry helps me to access it.
THE POWER OF POETRY #33: AMY SAUL-ZERBY
THE POWER OF POETRY – Amy Saul-Zerby In order to explain the power of poetry to you, I need you to understand about metaphors. EXAMPLE: TIME IS AN … Continue reading
REVIEW: GUNMETAL BLUE – JASON ALLEN (JANE’S BOY PRESS)
Because I did not die in the log cabin where I was born I shoulder the Green Mountains everywhere I go, breathing best when the leaves turn to flame. … Continue reading
THE POWER OF POETRY #32: LEE ANN RORIPAUGH – SOUTH DAKOTA’S POET LAUREATE
LEE ANN RORIPAUGH – SOUTH DAKOTA’S POET LAUREATE Poetry is the shape-shifting ouroboros of language, image, sound, form, and content held in infinite tension. It is the muscular pulse of … Continue reading
THE POWER OF POETRY #31: SARA HENNING
The Power of Poetry – Sara Henning I’d like to tell you a story about life’s untamable narrative that leaves us transformed. In other words, I’d like to tell … Continue reading
THE POWER OF POETRY #30: LAUREN GILMORE
Two years ago, as part of my hometown’s annual literary festival, I competed in a teen poetry slam. For winning, I was given the opportunity to open for two … Continue reading
THE POWER OF POETRY #29: A.M. O’MALLEY
THE POWER OF POETRY — A.M. O’Malley I first found poetry when I was nine years old in a beat up paperback copy of Alfred Tennyson’s collected poems that my … Continue reading
THE POWER OF POETRY #28: “Warrendale, a Chance Medley with Lines from “Brother of Leaving”” – Cal Freeman
Warrendale, a Chance Medley with Lines from “Brother of Leaving” The Warrendale neighborhood sits on the far west side of the city of Detroit. I describe my childhood home and … Continue reading
REVIEW: THE CRYING BUCK – DONNEY ROSE
I have been competing at the National Poetry Slam for almost ten years. During that time there are people who you see on a consistent basis and never hear any … Continue reading
THE POWER OF POETRY #27: Shannon Elizabeth Hardwick
Poetry, like any art, is about connection, either to our inner-self or to another being. In the darkest or most joyous times of our life, everything is meaningless unless our … Continue reading
