Poetry

Imitation of Michael Torres’ “The Very Short Story of Your Knuckles” from An Incomplete List of Names by Audra Dale

Imitation of Michael Torres’ “The Very Short Story of Your Knuckles” from An Incomplete List of Names by Audra Dale

About the piece: I wrote this piece for my Reading As Writers Across Media class with Professor Angie Johnson. We had to imitate works from three different poets: Michael Torres, Sandra Cisneros, and Brian Doyle. This particular piece is based off of “A Very Short […]

Talking about Richard Blanco: 5th Inaugural Poet and My New Obsession by Libby Kassuelke

Talking about Richard Blanco: 5th Inaugural Poet and My New Obsession by Libby Kassuelke

Mr. Richard Blanco is a former engineer turned poet and has found great success. He received both his undergraduate degree as well as his MFA in creative writing from Florida International University and has gone on to publish five successful collections of poetry including Looking […]

The Seat of All Our Souls: Lenten Reflections on Poetry and Penitence by Davis Smith

The Seat of All Our Souls: Lenten Reflections on Poetry and Penitence by Davis Smith

This is the time of year for reflection. The sun-soaked, breeze-cooled April evenings are punctured with carilloning birds and the scent of burgeoning lilacs. These expectant days, teetering on the verge of tulips and triumph, always seemed ideal for meditation on renewal and redemption. The […]

Walls by Sabrina Seiwert

Walls by Sabrina Seiwert

About the Piece: “Walls” was originally a poem called “A Hill in Vernon,” but I wanted to try and see if I could write it as prose, while still keeping the flow and lyricism. This piece is about my childhood home in Vernon Hills, a […]

Three Prose Poems on Minnesota Moments by Davis Smith

Three Prose Poems on Minnesota Moments by Davis Smith

Author commentary: I am a passionate devotee of poetry, but sometimes I feel as if words refuse my sainted efforts to wrest them into lines and meter. For this reason, the concept of a prose poem appealed to me as I attempted to express my […]

Wild Geese and Soft Mornings: A Poetry Analysis by Libby Kassuelke

Wild Geese and Soft Mornings: A Poetry Analysis by Libby Kassuelke

Between bites of very-late-night tepid ramen, in an attempt to escape my never-ending internal to-do list, I’ve been reading a lot of Mary Oliver’s poetry. Her work is a comfort object akin to warm milk, and I prefer my belly to be full of it. […]

Seeing That Child’s Smile, by Annaliese Emmons

Seeing That Child’s Smile, by Annaliese Emmons

Writer Commentary: In the spring semester of my sophomore year at Bethany, I was in a class called Reading As Writers Across Media, and in this class, we spent time reading various books, one of which was Mary Oliver’s American Primitive and that is where […]

Conscientious Writing: Lessons Learned from a “Failed” Poem by Amber Murry

Conscientious Writing: Lessons Learned from a “Failed” Poem by Amber Murry

Like many other young adults, I still hold on to a great many ideals when I think about the way the world should work, especially when it comes to my chosen field of English and literature. As a student, I am constantly becoming more and […]

Danez Smith: Coding Poetry by Elli Gifferson

Danez Smith: Coding Poetry by Elli Gifferson

On November 7-8, the Minnesota State University’s Good Thunder Reading Series hosted St. Paul-born poet Danez Smith. Smith’s most recent book Don’t Call us Dead earned the United Kingdom’s Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection and also contended in the United States as a finalist […]

Two Found Poems by Lars Johnson with Author Commentary

Two Found Poems by Lars Johnson with Author Commentary

The Joy of Stealing Why the hatred of poetry, when its reading and making is like playing a black piano, stealing sugar from the castle, wearing the mask of God. An ancient oriental myth teaches loss of poetry is loss of paradise. Its reading and […]