Poems I like and why I like them.

Many of my friends want to know more about poetry, so I wrote these entries for them. It's been their holiday gift, and now I want to share it with the whole world. In each entry I explain what the poem means (at least to me), what appeals to me in the poem, and what I notice about the craft. I hope you'll be intrigued by the poets and want to explore them further.

You are in the dark, in the car

Claudia Rankine

what it means

Racism is endemic in the United States. It is in every fiber of our beings. The stress of racism is killing Black people.

why I like it

Sure, there are plenty of stories about racism that happens in worlds totally different than mine—the South, the hood—but this work is about racism in my upper middle class academic world. It hurts. It hurts like hell, but I want to know it.

Claudia Rankine is one of the most important poets writing in America today. I heard her read in 2016. She was incredible. She combined videos and photos with these poems.

craft

Let’s not argue about the definition of poetry right now, shall we. This is some hybrid—a lyric essay, a book long poem, an argumentative essay made of poems— this is in the poetry world right now.