December 18th forum announcement

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog



It's dark this week in Poetry and Poets in Rags, because in the northern hemisphere, we are approaching the solstice. Emily Dickinson's Slant of light is addressed by Eric G. Wilson in his article Poetry Makes You Weird, and Sam Jordinson takes a look at Michael Rosen's Sad Book. Those two articles are in our News at Eleven section. In Great Regulars, Sarah Crown takes up this subject in her article Darkness in literature: Kathleen Jamie's Darkness and Light. Scrolling down a bit further, and you find a link to Mary Oliver's poem Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness. If that's not enough darkness for you, our Back Page link this week contains six poems on the end of the world. So we may not get to Christmas, which is also a topic for the week.

But let's begin before the darkness and before the end. News at Eleven kicks off the week with a link into Guernica, to an article called David Foote interviews Paul Stephens. This may give us a hint of what's developing in poetry for the coming years, if the world does not end, that is. And there is positive action you can take for imprisoned Qatari poet Muhammed ibn al-Dheeb al-Ajami, and an update on his case, which has been our headliner the last two weeks.

Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

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