What We Do—Now
By Ellen HaganWe mourn, we bless,
we blow, we wail, we
wind—down, we sip,
we spin, we blind, we
Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Ellen HaganWe mourn, we bless,
we blow, we wail, we
wind—down, we sip,
we spin, we blind, we
By Darrel Alejandro HolnesIn the film, both parents are Mexicans as white as
a Gitano’s bolero sung by an indigena accompanied by the Moor’s guitar
bleached by this American continent’s celluloid in 1948
when in America the world’s colors were polarized into black & blanco.
By Caits MeissnerI am 13 hours in the future & it is night / the rain is holding her breath
my friend, isn’t Penang opening to us! / a lotus unveiling a carnival
the paper lanterns are skirts / or balls pushed along by tiger’s nose
our smoke is a canon / dare devil on its way to an unnamed star
By Heidi Andrea Restrepo RhodesWake. Wake.
These the nights we sing. These the folds,
unborn reverie, ambition marbled mud & shine,
raging anthem born like diamonds out darkest ash & rain
By Mahogany L. Browne& then the poet became G_D/like
just’a rolling his tongue everywhere
like G O D must’ve
when the earth got birth(ed) & even
By Rachel Eliza GriffithsI pick you up
& you are a child made of longing
clasped to my neck. Iridescent,
lovely, your inestimable tantrums,
By Galway KinnellGalway Kinnell performs the poem "To the States" by Walt Whitman at the 2008 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
By Cornelius EadyCornelius Eady performs the poem "My Body Elizabeth" at the 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
By Patricia SmithPatricia Smith performs "The Letter Over" at the 2010 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.
By Kathy EngelKathy Engel performs the poem "Inaugural" at the 2012 Split This Rock Poetry Festival.