What’s New at PWPL: Poems for Our Time

It is April, and that means it is time to celebrate National Poetry Month. Starting on Monday, the fourth annual Great Lakes Poetry Festival kicks off at Peter White Public Library. The festival features readings by nationally recognized poets Kimberly Blaeser (former Wisconsin Poet Laureate) and Jeff Kass (author of the Michigan Notable Book Teacher/Pizza Guy). In addition, another Michigan Notable Book author, Cindy Hunter Morgan, will lead a poetry workshop for community members. Morgan will also screen short films from the Filmetry Festival–a film festival that pairs filmmakers with renowned poets. So there is no better time to explore new poetry offerings from the PWPL shelves.

If you’re in the mood for poetry with a Northern Michigan/Upper Peninsula flavor, look no further than Walloon Writers Review Ninth Edition (810 WA). This collection, featuring works of art, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by homegrown creatives, includes the words of many well-known local authors: Milton Bates, Lisa Fosmo, Ellen Lord, and Steve Hooper, to name a few. As Lord advises in her poem “Biker,” all you have to do is ” . . . ride north on empty highways–as that iron-hued silk of the Ontonogan River calls you home.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Phillips’ newest collection Scattered Snows, to the North (811.54 PH) is a revelation of memory and non-memory. This book explores the illusive nature of remembering and knowledge, embracing the vulnerability of experience. Phillips notes that revelation arises “[u]p from the bottom of wherever in the mind things go / to be forgotten, most of them forever . . .” These poems lodge in your mind like a piece of apple between teeth. You will not easily forget them.

For Swifties out there, check out Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift (811.609 IN). This collection features the works of Yusef Komunjakaa, Carl Phillips, Diane Seuss, and Jane Hirshfield, to name a few. Each poet embraces Swift’s penchant for dropping clues into her songs for her listeners to decode, and each poem skips across the surface of one of Swift’s releases, leaving it up to the reader to decipher the puzzle. Shake it off and read some great poetry.

Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s National Book Award-winning Something About Living (811.6 TU) is wounding and healing. The book focuses on a world where violence and cruelty have become as common as carrots. The poems explore the history of Palestinian and colonial oppression, with unflinching and nuanced language: “We bury the dead at the fence, let their roots reach the other side of home.” Give Tuffaha’s work a home in your heart, mind, and soul.

Since their first book, Danez Smith has made a name for themself as one of contemporary poetry’s most important voices. Smith’s newest collection, Bluff (811.6 SM), embraces modern life in all its ugly beauty. The book, composed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and murder of George Floyd, touches upon all the emotions that characterize human experience–fury and joy, grief and hope. From the first poem in the book, Smith reminds us all that “there is no poem greater than feeding someone / there is no poem wiser than kindness.” When you read Smith’s work, you will also know that there is no better way to embrace life than to read a great book of poetry.

By Martin Achatz

Adult Programming Coordinator