Poetry & Spoken Word

‘Cycle’: A Poem to Remind Us of Lives Lost Before the #BlackLivesMatter Movement

Staff / Truthdig Feb 18, 2015 Before Michael Brown was shot in Ferguson, before Eric Garner was choked to death in New York and before the #BlackLivesMatter movement had even begun, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell and countless other unarmed black men had been slain by police. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

That Bird Has My Wings: An Acrostic Pantoum About Death Row Prisoner Jarvis Jay Masters

Staff / Truthdig Feb 4, 2015 Carolyne Wright's touching poem echoes the powerful words of Jarvis Jay Masters, an African-American on death row in a California prison. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

A Report to the City Commissioners: A Poem About Freedom and Privacy in the Surveillance Age

BLANK Jan 22, 2015 At a time when the surveillance state seems stronger than ever, award-winning poet David Wagoner reminds us that sometimes even the most regimented pursuits may lead to a freedom that can only be found in unexpected places . Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )