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" |
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. |