“If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger.”
– Muriel Rukeyser
“In the Opinion Pages of the New York Times on July 20, 2014, seven poets were asked to respond to the question, “Does poetry matter?” Perhaps no other art form is asked to defend its value, impact, relevance, and existence as often as poetry. Through the centuries poets have explained how poetry connects us to ourselves. With a mastery of language and its possibilities, poets elevate the material of everyday communication to art that requires reflection and contemplation, and ultimately elucidates our location in the world.”
Check out the Utah Poetry Festival:
In addition to heading up Utah’s poetry festival, our own talented Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal, invited any and all Utahns to film themselves reading or performing all styles of poetry. Paisley was pleasantly surprised at the large influx of submissions. After curating them, two poems a day will be posted on the Utah Humanities YouTube site under “playlists” for the month of April.
I’d love to hear who your favorite poets are. And what poetry does for you.
