Thirteen Ways of Looking at Life Before the Virusby Lesléa NewmanI.I remember shaking hands:damp sweaty hands and dry scratchy hands,bone-crushing handshakes and dead-fish handshakes,two-handed handshakes, my hand sandwiched between a pair of big beefy palms.I...
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? When I was growing up, I could get lost in books and this escapism was very comforting, but I didn’t write poetry until college. When I entered college majoring in music, I...
exist by Naomi JonesBlack people let’s write you a love letter 1,For the way you never dim, always vibrant,Laughing.Exploding.Let’s let you experience joy and waterFor the width of an ocean and the depth ofreleasePressure.Let’s cause an earthquake with your laughbring...
A conversation between Erica Charis-Molling and editor Elizabeth Murphy
For those who don’t know, tell us about your history with Mass Poetry. What have you been up to since your time as our Executive Director? I started working with Mass Poetry in February 2013 as the temporary Coordinator of Outreach, Development, and Volunteers for the...
by Heather Hughes On July 18, “Breath and Matter” opens at the Boston Sculptors Gallery in the South End. The exhibit—which grew out of Murray Dewart’s anthology Poems About Sculpture and draws its title from a Robert Pinsky quote, "What has art made of breath...
featured project: New Post occupancy In the building industry, post-occupancy evaluations are commonly used to understand how a building performs. It's been eighty years since the New Deal when the federal government built a slew (1,500) of new post offices among...
10+ Questions! is a series in which we catch up with poets who have been featured in our programming. Below, we speak with Krysten Hill and Kurt Klopmeier.
“5+ Questions With” is a new series in which we learn more about Mass Poetry’s partners throughout the region, particularly those that are also members of the Poetry Coalition. This week we’re hearing from Jennifer Benka of the Academy of American Poets, which oversees the Poetry Coalition.
10+ Questions! is a series in which we catch up with poets who have been featured in our programming. In this installment, we hear from Ben Berman, who recently led our 2018 Professional Development Summer Seminar.
5+ Questions With” is a new series in which we learn more about Mass Poetry’s partners throughout the region. This week we’re hearing from Meg O’Brien, the Interim Co-Director of Education at Huntington Theatre Company.
“5 Questions With” is a new series in which we learn more about Mass Poetry’s partners throughout the region. In this interview, we spoke with Janaka Stucky, Publisher at Black Ocean. Tell us a bit about your organization’s engagement with poets and poetry, and why a...
Available now from Presa Press When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover you wanted to write poems? The songs of Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Dion and the Belmonts were the first poems I paid attention to, though none of them would admit they were...
Breath and Matter Exhibit Brings Together Poetry and Sculpture (Part 1) by Heather Hughes On July 18, “Breath and Matter” opens at the Boston Sculptors Gallery in the South End. The exhibit, which grew out of Murray Dewart’s anthology Poems About...
Available now at Amazon When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? I fell in love with poetry as a high school senior in Ms. Benz’s English class. It was an immediate and sudden revelation. We were each assigned a poet to...
Flowers for Sarah by Talia Grossman David says “flowers might be nice.” His face, a worn map of waiting rooms.His eyes, reels of prescriptions,tired of doctors playing the slots. He can’t decide between tulips or canterbury bells,between yellow, pink, or purple. I...
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? I began writing poems in a high school creative writing class. Back then I thought I wanted to write fiction, but as soon as I started writing poems, I was hooked. There...
Angel Oak by Therese Gleason CarrGreat treeteach me how to live,to bear thousands of days and nights,how to witnessand survive.What your hollow eyes have seen—how heavy your twisted limbsoutstretched in tortuous pursuit of heaven,how sinewy your rootsmooring you to...
When did you first encounter poetry? How did you discover that you wanted to write poems? I slunk into my first open mic when I was 18. Some guy read and everyone responded with “Mmm”s and claps and snaps. People started talking with each other about his poem! I...
Marjorie Thomsen’s “Haloed” & Christine Jone’s “This, Too, Shall Pass”
Nevertheless Jessica Jacobs This time is sacred for the good or bad it could become but isn’t yet. For the 4 a.m. phone that doesn’t ring but might. Ma nishtana ha’laila ha’zeh mi-kol ha’leilot? Why is this night different than all other nights? It’s not. It’s only...