June text archive update: new poets and poems to explore
In times of change and crisis, poetry is more essential than ever: it's a place to find solace, a source of courage and inspiration, and a vital means of encountering perspectives beyond one's own. This June, we're expanding our archive of text poetry for the first time, adding 58 outstanding poems from 26 different poets.
Top row: Jericho Brown, Dorianne Laux, Gwendolyn Bennett.
Bottom row: E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), Richard Wilbur, Amy Lowell.
Encounter the work of 11 poets new to our site, including contemporary poets Jericho Brown ("The Tradition"), Maryann Corbett ("State Fair Fireworks, Labor Day"), Dorianne Laux ("Heart," "Life Is Beautiful"), A. E. Stallings ("Autumn Botany"), and Sarah Stewart ("The Dalry Road Piano Showrooms").
We've also begun to enlarge our collection of poems by 19th- and 20th-century poets. These include poems by formative Black and Indigenous poets often excluded from the canon, such as Black artist and writer Gwendolyn Bennett ("Fantasy," "Nocturne"), Mohawk poet E. Pauline Johnson ("In the Shadows," "Marshlands," "The Lifting of the Mist") and Ojibwe poet Jane Johnston Schoolcraft ("Invocation," "Lines Written at Castle Island, Lake Superior"). Poems by Imagist Amy Lowell have also been added to the site, including lesbian love poems perfect for Pride Month ("Madonna of the Evening Flowers," "The Weather-Cock Points South"), as have works by Archibald MacLeish and Richard Wilbur.
Poet Hannah Lowe reads "Reggae Story"
Also ready for you to discover are newly added poems from poets already in our archive. These include works by Ariel Francisco ("The Sea Can Stand Anything—I Can't"), Hannah Lowe ("Chick," "Yellow River, Milk River"), and Aimee Nezhukumatathil ("Upon Hearing the News You Buried Our Dog").
Plus, we've added further poems by Matthew Arnold, Countee Cullen, Emily Dickinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Thomas Hardy, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Helen Hunt Jackson, John Keats, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Alice Dunbar Nelson, William Shakespeare, and W. B. Yeats.
Our collection will only continue to grow over time, with upcoming films planned of poems by Mary Jean Chan, John Donne, Tyehimba Jess, Tiphanie Yanique, Sylvia Plath, and many more, plus text poems by poets from the U.S., UK, and beyond. Visit us again soon for more to explore!