Poetry
![Black and white photo of a boy walking across a littered street, with signs saying ‘No Hang Out Here’ and ‘Keep Away!’. Behind him, a man lies on the ground under a fire escape.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/cbb9da28-f009-49d8-aece-5cab5069340f/rt-final-par157371.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Transcendent experience
idea
Our days are both rough and slippery. Hope brings traction
I want to defend and buoy hope – it’s a fragile, quirky thing, but it has the power to help us act in the face of finitude
by John Lysaker
![A man gesticulates and recites poetry at a club event](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/c67db614-97f2-4de7-8d29-4afa6700ee6e/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Poetry
idea
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
![A young woman in her bedroom sits at her desk holding flowers and a letter and looks back at us over her shoulder and smiles](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/6e0fd35f-e4be-4f01-afc7-5f88a9da7980/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Poetry
guide
How to write a love poem
Flirtatious texts are soon forgotten. Learn to express your feelings in a beautiful way that will make a lasting impression
by Dan Simpson
![A painting of a woman with wide, dark eyes and expressionless face, holding a lit match. She wears a red dress with white polka dots.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/fa6b7c39-8bce-4931-aa23-9d936fd35a84/the-hangman-at-home-landscape-1.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Poetry
film
The unseen lives of others take centre stage in this surreal poetry adaptation
Directed by Michelle Kranot and Uri Kranot
![Person reading a book inside a bookshop with tall bookshelves filled with various titles, seen through a large window framed by green painted wood.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/9c0d6007-8aa9-4473-b3ac-4412616ecab2/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Stories and literature
idea
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
![A large spider sculpture with St. Paul’s Cathedral and cranes in the background on a cloudy day in London.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/070941c9-6e92-4654-8251-3c6456894695/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Poetry
idea
A conversation with my spider Maman and Louise Bourgeois
Woman made of braided steel, monster I call Maman: why am I so scared of you? An imagined conversation with Louise Bourgeois
by Pascale Petit
![Cubist artwork depicting a fragmented still life with a book, glass, and other abstracted objects in earthy tones and muted greys.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/b0025b1e-a2ba-4252-9691-46810b823c4d/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Stories and literature
guide
How to gain more from your reading
There’s more to words than meets the eye. Deepen your appreciation of literature through the art of slow, attentive reading
by Robert DiYanni
![Abstract illustration of a person with eyes closed, wearing glasses, surrounded by cosmic elements on a blue and black background.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/a3268bd1-8685-401b-87f9-4b0f261ebafd/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Poetry
film
Enter a dreamy French surrealist poem, where love and reality never quite touch
Directed by Emma Vakarelova
![Hands holding an open book with unconventional text layout, words scattered across both pages forming abstract poetry. Dark background, lit by soft light.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/f36c9a2e-18b8-42d2-ba7d-46da13aa7dba/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Poetry
idea
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
![Two men wearing hats, seated on a kerb, engaged in conversation. One is in overalls, the other in a short-sleeve shirt with suspenders. Background shows a brick building.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/56414eeb-8d81-4361-9f06-15445324b03d/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Civic life
idea
The power of Langston Hughes’s ‘melancholy citizenship’
Langston Hughes’s poetry offers a guide to the sort of melancholy citizenship that can help us weather democratic heartbreak
by Robert L Tsai
![Monichrome drawing of a bearded man with a hat, holding a pole, facing a striped lighthouse on an island, both reflected on a calm body of water.](https://images.aeonmedia.co/images/78987ca7-6d4b-4730-8464-ddeb39a4caac/original.jpg?width=3840&quality=75&format=auto)
Poetry
film
Sail through Shakespeare’s melancholic soliloquy on life’s seven stages
Directed by Jérémie Balais and Jeffig Le Bars