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Poetry

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Photo of a bookshop exterior with green columns and a window displaying books. A person reads inside.

Stories and literature

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Reading books is not just a pleasure: it helps our minds to heal

Through my own struggles and in teaching bibliotherapy to students, I know that books can help to heal minds and hearts

by Peter Leyland

Ancient Roman mosaic of four people gathered around a reclined figure on a bed with draped fabric overhead.

Poetry

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Love’s contradictions: Catullus on the agony of infatuation

Behold a man tortured on the rack, pulled apart by love and hate: how to understand Catullus’s best-known poem

by Armand D’Angour

Daguerreotype of a woman in a dark dress seated with hands on her lap in a gold frame next to a red velvet case with a leaf design.

Poetry

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Emily Dickinson and the creative ‘solitude of space’

For the poet Emily Dickinson, sequester was a feminist act of independence: it gave her mental and literal space to write

by Magdalena Ostas

Black and white photo of seagulls flying over a calm sea with distant hills in the background.

Rituals and celebrations

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Mourning is a leap to freedom, inviting new dreams of living

Mourning is a leap in the dark, but not into darkness. It’s a leap to freedom that invites us to dream of living once more

by Alexander Hirsch

Watercolour illustration of an Aztec person walking, holding a flowered staff, speech glyphs surrounding their head.

Poetry

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Learning Nahuatl, the flower song, and the poetics of life

Learning to think and feel in Nahuatl, the poetic language of my ancestors, broke me down and remade me

by David Bowles

Black and white photo of a person in 19th-century attire with a hat and cape, hand on chest.

Stories and literature

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There is nothing so deep as the gleaming surface of the aphorism

The aphorism has been a way to express strong feelings without placing emotional demands on the listener

by Noreen Masud

Photo of Sufi whirling dervishes in white robes spinning in a dimly lit room during a traditional dance performance.

Poetry

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Sufi love poetry is in vogue, but few grasp its radical meaning

The Sufi path to love in the poetry of Rumi and ‘Iraqi styles the body as a bridge to the divine in deeply erotic ways

by Matthew Thomas Miller

Ancient Greek vase with red figure painting depicting a ship and mythological scene against a black background.

Music

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Bach’s piano music is intimate precision and Homeric epic in one

A hero on a journey; a circular movement; a melancholy of homecoming: why Bach is an epic poet in the Homeric tradition

by Dan Moller

Photo of a person singing passionately into a microphone with a historic sculpture in the background.

Poetry

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How poetry casts a spell through the rhythmic magic of metre

Poetry meets the raw needs of our most vulnerable selves in a primal way, with a simple tool: predictable, rhythmic metre

by Annie Finch

Photo of an open book with scattered text, held by hands. The text appears as a poetic or artistic composition.

Poetry

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The long poem is just right for our confounding, fractured age

The long poem is the right literary form for the unmanageable scale, the messy confusion and the epic ambivalence of our age

by Tess Somervell

Marble relief sculpture of eleven ancient figures in draped clothing, showcasing detailed expressions and intricate designs.

Friendship

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Horace’s lyrics of friendship offer hope to our troubled world

In the poetics of Horace, friendship is the best way to seek the good life even in the midst of crises beyond our control

by Stephanie McCarter

Poetry

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Why spoken word poetry is so much more than a poetry reading

As poetry returns to its roots as a performance art, it’s providing many with a powerful source of healing and community

by Erica Fletcher