Poetry Foundation & POETRY magazine

“When my young dog attacked and shredded a folder of poems I wrote in college I was relieved, yet I picked up the shreds and shoved them in a box which I haven’t opened since. Maybe someday I’ll try to tape the pieces together but I doubt it. My creative writing teacher told my class that none of us would be writing poetry in five years. Another one said that poetry was irrelevant. Were they of the Flannery O’Connor “try to stifle them” school? Or were they really embarrassed? Fortunately, all of the poetry I was discovering in and out of the classroom (most notably Adrienne Rich and Audre Lorde) showed me how to come to grips with disaster without becoming one, and how to live in an unjust world, and in a culture that loves to “not get” poetry, without becoming bitter.”

–Stacy Szymaszek on the Harriet blog. Read the full essay here