Category: Uncategorized

Read Poem: What is life?, by Vrinda Nair

An illusion
or an introspection of our deeds
We are puppets in someone’s hands
Starting with aught and
ending with griefs
Restless souls, brooding over past
Lost in the mayhem of snippets of life
To be believed in nurturing
but become wayfarers of thoughts
Crossing many paths, handed aid to several
That was the mission
but juncture fiddled in like an alibi
Approaching the end-
What do we do?
Nowise…!

Interview with Poet Kirsten Warner (GRITTY, DANGEROUS DOLL) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

1) What is the theme of your poem? The theme of this poem is how to turn disappointment into something useful for myself, how to transform that deadly blow into art. 2) What motivated you to write this poem? I was not long-listed for the New Zealand book awards which I expected, although I later […]

via Interview with Poet Kirsten Warner (GRITTY, DANGEROUS DOLL) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

Interview with Poet Paul O’Donnell (PASSING) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

Matthew Toffolo: What is the theme of your poem? Paul O’Donnell: Despair, frustration, poor decisions and their consequences, hope 2) What motivated you to write this poem? All my poetry is prompted by what I feel or see. It’s my way of thinking about social change and doing something about it with the power of […]

via Interview with Poet Paul O’Donnell (PASSING) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

Interview with Poet James Morgan-Jones (Demoiselle) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

Matthew Toffolo: What is the theme of your poem? James Morgan-Jones: The beauty of the natural world, of difference and of the individual. 2) What motivated you to write this poem? A visitation by the demoiselle as I sat in the garden on a beautiful spring day. 3) How long have you been writing poetry? […]

via Interview with Poet James Morgan-Jones (Demoiselle) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

Interview with Poet Janelle Barker (9/11 ATTACKS) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

1) What is the theme of your poem? the theme of my poem is finding your strength to stay strong 2) What motivated you to write this poem? this event changed the world and affected all of us deep into our heart, whether we were there or not. 3) How long have you been writing […]

via Interview with Poet Janelle Barker (9/11 ATTACKS) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

Interview with Poet Franco D’Alessandro (LEOPARD CLUB LOVE) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

1) What is the theme of your poem? That transformative power of -what the Greeks called- Storge/Philia love, especially when found in an unlikely place and between unlikely people. 2) What motivated you to write this poem? My relationship with a student who has become a son to me. A rather tricky thing as I […]

via Interview with Poet Franco D’Alessandro (LEOPARD CLUB LOVE) — Matthew Toffolo’s Summary

Read Poem: FOREST COMPOSURE, by Marck Riggins

Wing’s bright song staid forest realm
Shrill, dripped notes from soft breeze staff
Commandeered ear’s thirsting helm
Had raised my sight to branches, aft

Sweet ribbon air, thus quivered joy
To penetrate ‘ere sonnance ran
Imbibed each drop creature employed
Where sun’s shy rays dared not fan

My eyes run by beauty’s reason
For reverie, embrace this wild
Among mute trees placid season
I stand alone, an entranced child

Through glades, new dressed in morning’s sash
Invades his song to heart defiled
No more to burn the rebel ash
Such uncaged heart bowed to his, mild

Read Poem: Breathe, by JoHill

I was born into a mess and although we protest changes has not come
So I think back to where this came from and as I began to ponder my mind is left to wonder if this disease will ever be healed
We sit in a nation of riches and power,
yet hour after hour I watch as the very people that brought this to be
beg and plead for justice, change, equality
from a land that was built on their backs
full of welps, slashes, and blood filled cracks, as it poured down to fertilize the soil that is enjoyed to this day
there must be a way
to turn back the hands of time of a mentality that remains till this very day
where our family structure is broken with psychological hurts that go unspoken by lips too swollen to speak to the lies and deceit that have survived throughout the years
Silenced as my cries fall on death ears
I can’t breathe!!!!
forgive me, because sometimes I wear my feelings on my sleeves and I’m sure my actions are sometimes hard to receive
so if I act like a uncaged animal in the streets remember that is what I was trained to believe as a man thinketh and such,
Because as a people we have endured so much in hopes of change,
only to be disappointed time and time again
held down and slowly suffocated by the hand of injustice
left injured, heart broken, and disgusted at the outcome
meanwhile, my brothers and sisters are out hung to die and as hard as I try to understand why… that question remains…and evil maintains to kill, steal, and destroy another day.
So there must be a better way
To simply just love

Read Poem: Depression, by Jade Wankhruea

Depression… Is like being in a dark room that you just can’t get out of no matter how hard you try.

No lights
No windows
No doors;
There’s nothing in it but you and dark emptiness
And it’s suffocating.

So cold,
So numb,
Yet it tingles at the same time
Like an electric current running through your body
Waking up motivated one day
And empty the next.

I’d rather die than be stuck in this deep darkness,
I’d rather die than be stuck in this never ending sadness that I call hell!

But if I did that…
Then it would win.

This disease that constantly puts you down,
Tells you you’re not good enough,
And makes the simple task of waking up every morning…
One of the hardest things to accomplish.

It would win…
The never ending battle with your own mind
The constant fight to keep pushing through all the pain-
when the only thing you really want to do is let it take over
It would all be for nothing.

I am not a quitter
This spell that my brain has cast over my body…
It will not be the end of me.

Every day,
The struggle will continue
But I will know that I am a fighter
And I won’t let it win.

Read Poem: giving thanks, by Dan Brook

over the centuries
indeed the millennia
too little thanks giving
too much thanks taking

I give thanks
to those who give thanks
to those who give care and comfort
to those who give themselves
not to those who take lives and things

I give thanks
to those who make and pursue peace
to those who help and heal
to those who make whole
not to those who practice violence

I give thanks
to those who teach and learn
to those who share and smile
to those who create
not to those who degrade and destroy

I give thanks
to those who build and rebuild
to those who care and construct
to those who make homes
not to those who dispossess and evict

I give thanks
to those who pause and protect
to those who serve and save
to those who give and sustain life
not to those who take it

I give thanks
to those who set free
to those who encourage and emancipate
to those who love and liberate
not to those who oppress and imprison

I give thanks
to those who joke
to those who smile
to those who laugh
not to those who scowl and scorn

I give thanks
to those who sing
to those who dance
to those who create art
not to those who silence and censor

I give thanks
to those who inspire
to those who uplift
to those who help out
not to those who crush down and suppress

I give thanks
perhaps too little thanks
to those who give thanks
to those who give themselves
grateful for them all

Dan Brook teaches sociology at San Jose State University.