This poem came about after years of interviewing Indigenous librarians over Zoom. I rankled at the algorithm distorting our Indigenous languages. Subtitles, captions, and transcriptions make media more accessible for users, but I haven’t used any recording or transcription software that is equipped to accurately translate my accent, let alone speech in te reo Māori. This piece recasts the absurdities of the algorithm as the poetry of hope and failure.
Nicola Andrews on "Colonization Via Transcription Algorithm" |
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Eileen Myles on the Poetic Core of Everyday Life
"I remember the first time I read a poem and I knew it was good. The room changed. I was like oh. It was an orgasm of sorts. I no longer had the job. I had work. That was the craft. Doing this. I had it. I had the rest of my life. Suddenly my life had a measure—in and out. You know what I mean. Cause you can put anything in a poem. Nothing is irrelevant here."
via LITHUB |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Lesley Battler on "redundant"
"I chose to feature 'redundant' as this is one of my first poems written as the pandemic started to unfold. It marks a shift in my work, from a focus on resource industry capitalism to a more interior world, mapping the psychological dissonance caused by the virus along with the greater issue of climate change. In this poem, and in all my post-COVID writing, I have continued working with found texts and I think this poem’s language and boxed-in structure reflect a sense of diminishment and claustrophobia." |
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Write with Poetry Daily This April, to celebrate National Poetry Month, we'll share popular writing prompts from our "What Sparks Poetry" essay series each morning. Write along with us!
Take a specific moment from recent headlines in which the State has inflicted violence upon an individual. Allow the poem to enter and exit the minds of both victim(s) and perpetrator(s) with equal access and clarity. In the midst of creating this narrative, meditate on the power and limits of poetry itself in public life in the face of persistent trauma, injustice, and inequality. Eric Pankey |
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