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Poems Submitted for April 30, 2021

  1. (Re)Emergence: Asian American Histories and Futures
  2. High Stakes Culture Series
  3. Humanities Without Walls Predoctoral Career Diversity Summer Workshop
  4. High Stakes Art
  5. Jill S. Harris Memorial Lecture
  6. Marc and Constance Jacobson Lecture
  7. Norman Freehling Visiting Professorship
  8. Past Programs & Projects
    1. Humanities Without Walls
    2. 2022 HWW Career Diversity Workshop
    3. 2022 Poetry Blast!
    4. Octavia Butler Week
    5. 2021 Poetry Blast!
      1. Prompt a Poem!—A Daily April Poetry Challenge
      2. English Translations
      3. 2021 Poetry Blast Prompt a Poem Submissions
      4. Poems Submitted for April 1, 2021
      5. Poems Submitted for April 2, 2021
      6. Poems Submitted for April 5, 2021
      7. Poems Submitted for April 6, 2021
      8. Poems Submitted for April 7, 2021
      9. Poems Submitted for April 8, 2021
      10. Poems Submitted for April 12, 2021
      11. Poems Submitted for April 9, 2021
      12. Poems Submitted for April 13, 2021
      13. Poems Submitted for April 14, 2021
      14. Poems Submitted for April 15, 2021
      15. Poems Submitted for April 16, 2021
      16. Poems Submitted for April 19, 2021
      17. Poems Submitted for April 20, 2021
      18. Poems Submitted for April 21, 2021
      19. Poems Submitted for April 22, 2021
      20. Poems Submitted for April 23, 2021
      21. Poems Submitted for April 26, 2021
      22. Poems Submitted for April 27, 2021
      23. Poems Submitted for April 28, 2021
      24. Poems Submitted for April 29, 2021
      25. Poems Submitted for April 30, 2021
    6. The Humanities at Work
    7. 2018-19 Year of Humanities and Environments
    8. 2017-18 Year of Archives & Futures
    9. 2016-17 Year of Humanities & Public Policy
    10. 2015-16 Year of Conversions
    11. Early Modern Conversions Project
    12. MCubed Humanities Projects
    13. 2023 Humanities Afrofutures

Take one of your poems that you’ve not fully appreciated and devote as much time as you have today to show it how great it can be—someday, if not today. Tidy it up. Cut out the unnecessary stuff and add to it what’s missing. Shape it. Read it out loud to yourself to see if the right words are in the right order. Call it a Real Poem, even if deep down you think it’s not a real poem. Feel astonished with yourself for writing poems, and for having been so brave and so creative and so willing to take risks. Thank yourself, as I think you, for sharing this time, and yourself, with us. Rest afterward, for a week or so, and then give the same honor to all of your freewrites. Come back to them and be surprised at all the things you’ve written that you didn’t know you could write. Linger as long as you like over your freewrites. Eventually you’ll recognize in them the poem they’ve prepared you to write. Then rip them to pieces or dip them in liquid gold. You’ve got this. You don’t need prompts now. Now you need to call yourself a poet and write poems.

Out the Window
By MP

The cedar and the birch stand framed in the windowpane;
The sun dances upon wet needles
And paints the paper curls;
See our color,
Feel our texture --
There is good within your reach.

Floral inspiration: An example of persevering in the face of adversity v. 1
By Renée Szostek


The brave crocus grows
even when it snows. Steadfast,
it knows spring will come.

Floral inspiration: An example of persevering in the face of adversity v. 2
By Renée Szostek


The brave crocus grows
even when it snows. Steadfast,
it knows winter goes.

Ash Tray Lies
By Deborah Rebeck Ash

I didn’t know they were lies when told we were expected to take them
Even though no one in our family smoked, that I knew of.
Grandmother acquired a collection of little dishes with tri-cut edges.
I remember their acquisition, presence, smoky aroma though washed.
Restaurants gave us “doggie” bags to take our uneaten food home
Even though we did not have a dog in our family.
You can understand why I took the interesting check-out counter item.
Age three in my parent’s arms, no one noticed until we got in the car.
Back inside we went to return my trinket. I did not get to buy it.
That’s when I learned not to take things. Even ash trays.

Time-Wounds
By Deborah Rebeck Ash

Time heals wounds and hurts.
It cannot comfort or soothe my aching spirit.
Overlooked, lost wounds pile in distant heaps
Locked. Tightly secured in my memory vault.
Does time do anything but continually pass?
Merely marching moment by moment
Immeasurable minutes memento mori.
Time wounds. Healing hurts.
Muscle memories stand guard.
Soul shields raise ready
Shutting out harm.
These are my time-wounds.
Closed. Sealed not healed.
Days, weeks, months, years pass
Distancing my pain from secret settled scars.
The body rebuilds and rectifies past damages.
Revealed, reckoned and released injuries repair.
Healing happens when we allow it.