Poetry

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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.

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

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

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 pregnant woman with wide, dark eyes and scared face, holding a lit match. She wears a red dress with white polka dots.

Poetry

film

The unseen lives of others take centre stage in this surreal poetry adaptation

Directed by Michelle Kranot and Uri Kranot

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.

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 objects in earthy tones.

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.

Poetry

film

Enter a dreamy French surrealist poem, where love and reality never quite touch

Directed by Emma Vakarelova

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.

Civic life

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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.

Poetry

film

Sail through Shakespeare’s melancholic soliloquy on life’s seven stages

Directed by Jérémie Balais and Jeffig Le Bars