Paying for it again felt dirty. I didn’t want to. Didn’t mean to. Tried so hard to just move along, but my fingers edged in that direction, teased at where they wanted to be. And I gave in. Closed my eyes, relaxed. Took out my debit card, and gave into the demons. Continue reading POWER OF POETRY: EDITOR'S EDITION – CHRIS MARGOLIN
The whole time, I thought I was alone. But there were people just as pained and confused as I was. I found my community. I found my church. I kept returning every Sunday, sharing work I had written during the week. Continue reading POWER OF POETRY #44: GREG GERDING, EiC OF UNIVERSITY OF HELL PRESS
I don’t only want people to be entertained, but also for them to feel something. And the fastest way to do that is through poetry; you are framing a feeling and passing it on, even if it’s only for a brief moment. Continue reading POWER OF POETRY #39: JOSEPH HAEGER
REVIEW: Most of My Heroes Don’t Appear on No Stamps
Walker gives us our “Window Seat” to the world, as we consider why we are where we are – the good and the bad, the understood and ignorant, the anger and excitement, the love and passion of the way the world is today. Continue reading REVIEW: Most of My Heroes Don’t Appear on No Stamps – Ran Walker (University of Hell Press)
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 of the headliners, Major Jackson and Robert Wrigley. It was a poem about my father dying. I read it from memory so the page wouldn’t shake. After the show, I was flooded with enthusiastic praise. … Continue reading THE POWER OF POETRY #30: LAUREN GILMORE
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 father had. One Saturday, when no one was around, I stole the book away to my corner of the back yard—a place where I spent many hours as a kid in the solitude that only-children … Continue reading THE POWER OF POETRY #29: A.M. O’MALLEY
“The Power of Poetry: I Want to Keep Happening” Sarah Xerta I’m hesitant to write about the power of poetry because I don’t want to romanticize anything. Anne Sexton said “It’s the poetry that seems to be saving me” and she still eventually killed herself. I can’t forget this. I can’t talk about the power of poetry without recognizing the limits of the power … Continue reading POWER OF POETRY #22: “I WANT TO KEEP HAPPENING” – SARAH XERTA
I am hesitant to include quotes from the book in this review. Not that it is a bad book, completely the opposite actually. I had such fun reading the book that I feel like any lines or poems I could use would be short changing the book as a whole,almost like watching a few scenes from True Detective and not watching all of the first season. … Continue reading REVIEW: HERE COMES THE NEW JOY – JOHN BARRIOS (UNIVERSITY OF HELL PRESS)
