P O E M S T H A T C H A N G E D M E
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January 6
Tarfia Faizullah, "Infinity Ghazal Beginning with Lice and Never Ending with Lies" January 13 Victoria Chang, "Obit" January 20 (Inauguration Day) Langston Hughes, "Let America Be America Again" January 27 Ada Limón, "Service" February 3 Michael Wasson, "This Dusk in A Mouth Full of Prayer" February 10 (Special Valentine's Day Episode) Margaret Atwood, "Variation on the Word Sleep" February 17 Wallace Stevens, "The Man on the Dump" February 24 Terrance Hayes, "Snow for Wallace Stevens" March 3 H.D., "Eurydice" March 10 Wendy Rose, "Alien Seeds" March 18 Emily Dickinson, [After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes] (379) March 25 Carolyn Forché, "The Colonel" March 31 Jorie Graham, "The Field" NATIONAL POETRY MONTH (A.K.A. RILKE MONTH) April 7 Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archäischer Torso Apollos" [Archaic Torso of Apollo] April 14 Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Erste Elegie [The First Elegy] April 21 Rainer Maria Rilke, Die Neunte Elegie [The Ninth Elegy] April 28 Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonett an Orpheus II, 29 [Sonnet to Orpheus II, 29) May 5 Nazim Hikmet, "Things I Never Knew I Loved" May 12 Kelli Russell Agodon, "The Sky Regrets to Inform You, It's Tired of Feeling Judged" May 19 Claudia Rankine, from Citizen May 28 Pablo Neruda, "Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines" June 2 LeAnne Howe, "The Indian Sports Mascot Meets Noble Savage" June 9 Paul Celan, "Todesfugue" June 16 César Vallejo, "Los Dados Eternos" [The Eternal Dice] June 23 Rita Dove, "Mirror" June 30 Marianne Moore, "An Octopus" July 7 Stanley Plumly, "The Iron Lung" July 14 W. S. Merwin, "When You Go Away" & Separation + James Wright, "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota" & "The Jewel" July 21 Georg Trakl, "De Profundis" July 28 Charles Wright, "Clear Night" August 4 Louise Erdrich, "Dear John Wayne" August 11 Li-Young Lee, "This Room and Everything In It" August 18 Julia de Burgos, "To Julia de Burgos" August 25 Sharon Olds, "The Promise" September 1 William Virgil Davis, "The Time of Year, The Hour" September 8 John Ashbery, "Paradoxes and Oxymorons" September 15 Edward Hirsch, "In Memoriam Paul Celan" September 23
Dana Levin, "Instructions for Stopping" September 30 Patricia Smith, "Undertaker" OCTOBER - BAY AREA POETS October 6 Brenda Hillman, "Sediments of Santa Monica" October 13 Aaron Shurin, "The Bride of Frank" October 20 Jane Hirshfield, "Those Who Cannot Act" October 27 Robert Hass, "Meditation at Lagunitas" November 3 Heid E. Erdrich, "The Theft Outright" November 10 Philip Levine, "You Can Have It" November 17 Mark Strand, "From a Litany" November 24 Lucille Clifton, "leda 1," "leda 2," "leda 3" December 1 Vicente Huidobro, Altazor |
2020 was a year of startling transformations: our sense of personal and public health, our awareness of structural racism and ongoing racial violence, our confidence in governmental authorities and programs, our notions of time and space, our ideas of freedom and security, and our relationship to each other all changed. For many, they changed dramatically.
As this year of transformation was plummeting to its demise and about to transform from one thing to another, I began re-reading poems that had transformed me. And, rather randomly, on New Year's Eve, as I was thinking about what I wanted for 2021, I got the idea for this project. What if I put together a selection of poems that had, in some way, altered how I see the world? And what if these poems can be as transformative for others as they were for me.
I do not for a moment believe my own transformations are particularly interesting, but I believe transformative poems are. My goal is to shine a tiny spotlight on works that make us think about our lives in relation to language, the past, the future, and each other. I hope to post a poem as well as a video of me reading and (briefly) talking about that poem every Wednesday during 2021. I have no illusions about my skills as a videographer. This project is the antithesis of high-tech and adheres to the one-take philosophy. Despite its low-fi quality, by the time 2022 rolls around, this page should have roughly 52 poems and videos that are a testament to the power of poetry to heal, connect, and harness. Thank you for reading, listening, and watching. Feel free to be in touch. |