"This poem is part of a larger manuscript entitled "Well," written during my diagnosis and treatment for breast cancer. Alongside the invasive procedures my body underwent to rid it of cancer, Lorde’s "The Cancer Journals" was its own kind of treatment. Her work, and the work of other women writers grappling with their own diagnoses (Susan Sontag, Rachel Carson, Francis Burney, among others), buoyed me. No less than doctors who treated me, these women saved my life."
Sasha Steensen on "My Body, A Barometer" |
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Poetry Daily Thanks You
Many thanks indeed to all our readers and contributors, whose passion for poetry inspires us, and to all our generous donors, without whose support we could not continue. We look forward to sharing the very best contemporary poetry with you for the rest of the year. Stay safe and stay well. |
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"The Wonder of Wanda Coleman"
"'Come,' she bids all who doubted that she—a college dropout and a single Black mother from South Central Los Angeles—could write 100 sonnets, or win a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, and that National Book Award nomination. 'Glory in my wonder’s will,' she crows, laying down the gauntlet for every modern sonnet sequence to come."
via POETRY FOUNDATION |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Jason Schneiderman on W. H. Auden's “Musée des Beaux Arts"
"I remain amazed by how many rules the poem seems to break. The first stanza of the poem is a direct violation of that old dictum, 'show don’t tell.' Auden makes a lot of claims about how the Old Masters depict suffering, and he tells the reader how to interpret the paintings being discussed. The Old Masters might be showing, but Auden is quite definitely telling." |
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