Here’s a wistful take on what we have lost since the pandemic began. You can find out more about this international contributor from Wales, Des Mannay, here on a previous poem he published for this project.
Please also see this accessible MS Word doc: Des Mannay.
What a great poem this is riffing on Gwendolyn Brooks! You can find out more about this international contributor from Wales, Des Mannay, here on a previous poem he published for this project.
Please also see this accessible MS Word doc: Des Mannay.
Here is a poetry film by Ohio State University student Maya Griffith which captures the way in which we have been forced to reassess the way we look at the world during the pandemic. It is an adaptation of the poem, ‘Beauty of Life’, by Edwina Reizer.
This is a great poetry film by Ohio student Bethany Baker. It adapts a defiant poem by Carly Lockwood: ‘Be Unapologetically You’! It’s a kind of spirit that we need during a pandemic, a world event which puts everything in context. You’ll find the poem text here.
This is a very effective poetry film which interprets James’ Cihlar’s poem ‘The Way Words Echo In Our Heads’ for COVID times. See the poem and follow along with the words here. With thanks to James Cihlar.
The Way Words Echo In Our Heads
What a hopeful shot in the arm this poem is! International contributor Carla Scarano D’Antonio lives in Surrey with her family. She obtained her Master of Arts in Creative Writing at Lancaster University and has published her creative work in various magazines and reviews. Her short collection Negotiating Caponata was published in July 2020. She worked on a PhD on Margaret Atwood’s work at the University of Reading and graduated in April 2021.
Also see this poem as an accessible Word doc: Carla Scarano D’Antonio
This rip-roaring poem by Rodney Wood with its lacerating commentary feels apt this week with COP 26 taking place. International contributor, Rodney Wood, lives in Farnborough, England. He has been published in many magazines, including Magma (the Deaf Issue) and is currently co-host of a monthly open mic. He says: “After a month long bout of COVID I started reading “SOVIET TEXTS” by Dmitri Prigov (translated by Simon Schat with Ainsley Morse). His world was unsettling but also familiar and it started me thinking about the various details, events, which took place ‘in my reign, under me’.”
Also please see this accessible MS Word doc: Rodney Wood.
What an eerily beautiful poem from Michael Lyle, the author of the poetry chapbook, The Everywhere of Light (Plan B Press, 2018). A sense of loss shimmers through these images. Michael’s poems have appeared widely, including The Carolina Quarterly, The Hollins Critic, Mudfish and Plainsongs. He lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Also see the poem in this accessible MS Word doc: Michael Lyle.
Here is a poem of warning from an international contributor, Des Mannay. Des dsecribes himself as a Welsh writer of colour. His first poetry collection, Sod ’em – and tomorrow, was published by Waterloo Press. He is co-editor of The Angry Manifesto poetry journal. He has won prizes in 4 poetry competitions and shortlisted in 7 others. Having performed at numerous venues/festivals, and published in various poetry journalsm, he has work in 31 poetry anthologies. He was a judge in the Valiant Scribe poetry competition.
Also please see this poem in a MS Word accessible document: Des Mannay – after_Humanity.
This next poem looks back on the anguish of the pandemic year that was 2020. It is written by a literature student from India, Aaliya Sehar, who is 22 years old. She writes: “More than the desire to pen down the spontaneous overflow of overbearing emotions, poetry helps me to execute my agonies … I’m a single child of a divorced mother, and since childhood I’ve been blessed with the first hand experiences of loss and alienation. My poems are an echo of my … lack of ability to locate a sense of belonging.I write about raw emotions that touch not just the soul but the body too.”
The Year is 2020
Sailing in a sea of tar
My ship is falling apart
I’m sinking
There’s no way
To the surface.
I’m hung in between
Can’t sink
Can’t crawl up
The tar is cloggy
And meshy
Like my mind
That tells me
About the nature of things
“This too shall pass”
“Better days are coming”
I know they aren’t
Not anywhere near
But what if there’s a submarine?
Oh, please!
The quicksand
That I am stuck in
Is way too heavy
Than all of the iron
In the world.
Somethings are
Just so inconspicuous.
But, I might get
Stranded one day
By the shore or an island
Of this sea of tar
Drenched in black
Smelling gross
My skin would illuminate
With particles
Of the black hole
And I’d be a Goddess
Radiating the abyss
Of the bleak world.
But that’s not what I want to be
I’d rather be a creature
Mystical yet disgusting
Cruel to the eye
And piercing to the soul
And when I’ll collapse
And assassinate my being
I’ll break free of the tar
That sulks deep within my bones
My corpse would be
An effigy
Of mud, tar and despair
Beaming with glorious pride
And Saudade
Then I’d drip down slowly
-begging of you
To burn me down
Like dead pig on a skewer
roast my blood
all black and thick
For, I belong to the tar
-I’m nowhere near.