[  P  A  S  T      C  O  N  T  R  I  B  U  T  O  R  S  ]

MADISON APONTE graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“As If”: Five Questions with Julie Kane

 

RYAN BAIRD graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Great Poem Series: Nin Andrews’s “The Art of Drinking Tea”
Completely Subjective: James Tate’s “The Baby”

 

CAT BATES graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak To Us: “The Afterlife,” “Pill,” and “The Imagined”
Poem Bomb: Rae Armantrout’s “Accounts”
“The Imagined”: Five Questions with Stephen Dunn
Completely Subjective: Stephen Dunn’s “The Imagined”
The Great Poem Series: Bruce Bond’s “Pill”

 

JAMES FINDLEY BATSON graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

Completely Subjective: Denise Duhamel’s “Humanity 101”

 

EMILY BERGWALL graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak To Us: “Perfect Front Door,” “Reunion,” and “Self Portrait With Critic”
Poem Bomb: Nathan Whiting’s “In Charge”
Completely Subjective: Louise Gluck’s “Reunion”
The Great Poem Series: Nathan Whiting’s “In Charge”

 

BRENDAN BUMGARDNER graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak To Us: “Love,” “How It Will End,” “The Happy Majority”
Completely Subjective: Christine Marshall’s “Sweat”
 

 

LIZA BURKE graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Great Poem Series: Elizabeth Alexander’s “Rally”
Poem Bomb: “Bird, Singing” in the Art Department
Completely Subjective: Alan Michael Parker’s “Family Math”

 

PATRICK BURKE graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Ku(na)hay”: Five Questions with Charles Bernstein

 

CHRISTINA CHALIS graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak to Us: “Eating Walnuts,” “There are Birds Here,” and “Anxieties”
The Great Poem Series: James Galvin’s “On the Sadness of Wedding Dresses”

 

KAYIN CHISOLM graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Great Poem Series: Kay Ryan’s “Home to Roost”
Completely Subjective: Jessica Goodheart’s “Advice for a Stegosaurus”

 

CHARLES HURFF CHRISTENSEN graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Poem Bomb: John Ashbery’s “Some Trees”
The Great Poem Series: Kathryn Starbuck’s “The Shoe”
Completely Subjective: Alan Sullivan’s “Divide and Conquer”

 

RYAN CORNELL graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak to Us: “The Shoe,” “Untitled,” “Men”
Poem Bomb: Joshua Beckman’s “In Colorado, In Oregon, upon”
The Great Poem Series: Joshua Beckman’s “Untitled”
Completely Subjective: David Young’s “The Dead From Iraq”

 

KOMAL DHULL (Editor) graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

“Almost”: An Interview With Rae Armantrout
Poem Bomb: D. Nurske’s “Psalm to be Read with Closed Eyes”
Completely Subjective: Jericho Brown’s “Hustle”

 

MAEVE DONOGHUE graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

Poem Bomb: Oni Buchanan’s “The Walk”
His “Pleasure”: Six Questions with Carl Phillips
The Great Poem Series: “Chicken” by Kim Addonizio
Completely Subjective: Alan Bernheimer’s “20 Questions”

 

BRETT DURBIN graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Poem Bomb: Elaine Equi’s “A Story Begins”
The Three That Speak to Us: “Collision,” “The Imagined,” “The Afterlife”
The Great Poem Series: Reginald Dwayne Betts’s “At the End of Life, a Secret”
Six Questions: An Interview With Brenda Shaughnessy
Completely Subjective: Steven Heighton’s “Collision”

 

LUCAS EVANCHICK graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Great Poem Series: Tom Clark’s “Fidelity”
Completely Subjective: Charles Simic “Carrying On Like a Crow”

 

GRACE FAY graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“My One”: An Interview with Heather McHugh”
Completely Subjective: Adrienne Rich’s “The Architect”
The Great Poem Series: Billy Collins’ “Snow Day”
 

 

LINDSEY FERREIRA graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak To Us: “20 Questions,” “Chicken,” and “Dog That I Am”
Poem Bomb: Kim Addonizio’s “Chicken”
Completely Subjective: Alan Bernheimer’s “20 Questions”
Her “Poem”: Five Questions with Noelle Kocot
 

 

KIRSTEN FRY (Editor) graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak To Us: “Skin,” “Dear Alter Ego,” “Song With A Child’s Pacifier In It”
The Great Poem Series: David Wagner’s “On Being Asked to Discuss Poetic Theory”
Completely Subjective: Michael S. Collins’s “Six Sketches: When A Soul Breaks”

 

EDWARD M. FULLER graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak to Us: “Bodhisattva,” “Eating Walnuts,” “In Memory of My Parents Who Are Not Dead Yet”
The Great Poem Series: Jericho Brown’s “Homeland”
Mobile Poem Bomb: Jericho Brown’s “Homeland”
Six Questions: An Interview with John Hennessy
Completely Subjective: Charles Simic’s “So Early in the Morning”

 

SIGURD GLAD graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Great Poem Series: David Trinidad´s ¨Black Telephone¨
“Not Codes to be Broken”: Five Questions for A.E Stallings
Completely Subjective: Anne Carson’s “Wildly Constant”
 

 

DAPHNE GRAY graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“By Accident”: An Interview with Amit Majmudar

 

NICHOLAS GREEN graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Yet Another Blanket of Snow”: Five Questions for James Longenbach
 

 

PETER GUTTUSO graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak to Us: “What You Have to Get Over,” “Black Telephone,” and “Grave”
The Great Poem Series: Billy Collins’s “Grave”
Completely Subjective: Dick Allen’s “What You Have to Get Over”
 

 

FAITH HELMS graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

Completely Subjective: Jill Bialosky’s “Daylight Savings”
 

 

LILLY JOHNSEN graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Poem Bomb: Lucie Brock-Broido’s “Bird, Singing”
The Great Poem Series: Sherman Alexie’s “Terminal Nostalgia”
Completely Subjective: Elaine Equi’s “A Story Begins”

 

JACK JOYCE graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Complex and Wrought”: Five Questions with Eric Pankey
Completely Subjective: Stephen Dunn’s “The Imagined”
The Great Poem Series: Lynne Sharon Schwartz’s “The Afterlife”

 

JONATHAN KIM graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Citrus Freeze”: Seven Questions for Forrest Gander
The Great Poem Assignment: Tony Hoagland’s “In a Quiet Town by the Sea”
Completely Subjective: Amy Gerstler’s “Watch”

 

HAILEY KING graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“It’s Always Better to Read Between the Lines”: An Interview with Susan Terris

 

MORGAN KENNEDY graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak to Us: “Family Math,” “Morning on the Island,” “A Voice on an Answering Machine”
The Great Poem Series: Michael Cirelli’s “Dead Ass”
Poem Bomb: “Coffee”
Five Questions: An Interview With Alan Michael Parker
Completely Subjective: Carolyn Forché’s “Morning on the Island”

 

VICTORIA KLARER graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Poet Who Married Her College Sweetheart: An Interview with Danielle DeTiberus

 

DAVID KRISTOF graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Six Questions (and a Poem): Interview with Shara McCallum
Poem Bomb: “Eating Walnuts” in Downtown Darien
Five Questions: An Interview with Chase Twitchell
The Great Poem Series: Stephanie Brown’s “Roommates: Noblesse Oblige, Sprezzatura, and Gin Lane”
Completely Subjective: Andrew Feld’s “19—” : An Elegy”

 

EMILY LASHENDOCK graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak to Us: “The Call,” “Sects From A to Z,” “A Worldly Country”
Five Questions: An Interview with Robert Wrigley
Poem Bomb: Robert Wrigley’s “Religion”
The Great Poem Series: Laura Kasischke’s “At Gettysburg”
Completely Subjective: Krista Benjamin’s “Letters From My Ancestors”

 

JENELSY LOPEZ graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Great Poem Series: Kwame Dawes’s “Vagrants and Loiterers”

 

OLIVIA LEW (Editor) graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Completely Subjective: Traci Brimhall’s “Dear Thanatos,”

 

RYAN LUTTRELL graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak to Us: “Do Unto Others,” “Country Western Singer,” “Dead Critics Society”
Poem Bomb: Elaine Equi’s “Etudes” At Mobil Gas Station
Six Questions: An Interview With Christian Bök
The Great Poem Series: Robert Pinsky’s “Stupid Meditation on Peace”
Completely Subjective: Daniel Johnson’s “Do Unto Others”

 

CARA MALIZIA graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak to Us: “A House is Not a Home”, “The Happy Majority”, and “Concerning the Land of the South of Our Neighbors to the North”
Poem Bomb: Thomas Lux’s “The Happy Majority”
“Eve in the Fall”: An Interview with Debora Greger
The Great Poem Series: Debora Greger’s “Eve in the Fall”
Completely Subjective: Barbara Hamby’s “Ode to Airheads, Hairdos, Trains to and from Paris”

 

LOGAN MCGOVERN graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“A Loving Friendship”: Five Questions for Nicole Beer

 

JEREMY MERRIFIELD graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak To Us: “Humanity 101,” “Meet Me at the Lighthouse,” and “Ode While Awaiting Execution”
The Great Poem Series: Dana Gioia’s “Meet Me at the Lighthouse”
“Meet Me at the Lighthouse”: Seven Questions for Dana Gioia”
Completely Subjective: Charles Fort’s “One Had Lived in a Room and Loved Nothing”

 

MATT MEYJES graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Poem Bomb: Dick Allen’s “See the Pyramids Along the Nile”
The Great Poem Series: Kim Addonizio’s “Verities”
Completely Subjective: Mark Kraushaar’s “Tonight”

 

BRIAN MINICUS graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Great Poem Series: Jennifer Keith’s “Eating Walnuts”
Completely Subjective: Saeed Jones’s “Body & Kentucky Bourbon”

 

KELLY MORAN (Editor) graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak to Us: “Decoded,” “Conspiracy (to breathe together),” and “Masticated Light”
Poem Bomb: Rae Armantrout’s “Control”
Six Questions: An Interview with Steve Scafidi
The Great Poem Series: Cate Marvin’s “An Etiquette for Eyes”
Completely Subjective: Gregory Pardlo’s “Wishing Well”

 

CHARLES OLSEN graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“The Answer”: Five Questions with Susan Parr

 

MARIE OSTRAND graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Art Can Do That”: Seven Questions for Philip Metres
“The Three That Speak to Us: “Perfect Front Door,” “Reunion,” and “Self-Portrait With Critic””.
Poem Bomb: “Ends of the Earth” by Adrienne Rich
The Great Poem Series: Bill Kushner’s “Great”
Completely Subjective: W.S. Merwin’s “To My Father’s Houses”

 

WILLIAM REHM graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Risks in My Work”: An Interview with Jill McDonough

 

HANNAH RIEGEL graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Host”: Five Questions for Jericho Brown

 

CARLY RUTLEDGE graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“All Me”: Six Questions with Mark Halliday

 

A.J. SCOLARO graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Three That Speak to Us: “What We Heard About the Japanese,” “Time,” and “I Stopped Writing Poetry”
The Great Poem Series: Sarah Manguso’s “The Rider”
Poem Bomb: Rae Armantrout’s “Up to Speed”
Completely Subjective: James Richardson’s “Vectors: Forty-five Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays”

 

PHOEBE SLAUGHTER graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Six Questions: An Interview with Amy Gerstler
The Three That Speak to Us: “Adam and Eve’s Dog,” “For a Man Who Wrote C— on a Motel Bathroom Mirror,” and “Seesaws”
Poem Bomb: R.S. Gwynn’s “Sects from A to Z”
The Great Poem Series: Samuel Hazo’s “Seesaws”
Completely Subjective: Mary Ruefle’s “How I Became Impossible”

 

CONNOR SULLIVAN graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak to Us: “Pachyderm,” “Stupid Sandwich,” “The Art of Drinking Tea”
Completely Subjective: Jericho Brown’s “Hustle”
Completely Subjective: David Wagoner’s “Casting Aspersions”

 

MARIE TANEY graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“Take Yourself Seriously”: Another Five Questions with Stephen Dunn

 

LUCAS THOMPSON graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

Completely Subjective: Terence Hayes’s “A House is Not a Home”
The Great Poem Series: Debora Greger’s “Eve in the Fall”

 

CAROLINE TRAGER graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

“A Good List”: An Interview with Brad Leithauser

 

HANNAH VOGEL (Editor) graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Poem Bomb: Walt Whitman’s “O Captain! My Captain!”
Ten Questions: An Interview With Victoria Kelly
The Great Poem Series: Daniel Nester’s “Poem for the Novelist Whom I Forced to Write a Poem”
Completely Subjective: Linda Gregg’s “Beauty”
 

 

CANDICE WANG (Editor) graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Great Poem Series: Ron Silliman’s “For Larry Eigner, Silent”
The Three That Speak to Us: “‘Broken World’ (For James Assatly),” “Trail,” “For Larry Eigner, Silent”
Jean Valentine’s “Do Flies Remember Us”
Five Questions: An Interview with Jenny Boully
Completely Subjective: Jackson Mac Low’s “And Even You Elephants? (Stein 139/Titles 35)”

 

TED WOLL graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Five Questions: An Interview with Donald Revell
Completely Subjective: Amina Calil’s “Blouse of Felt”
The Great Poem Series: Sarah Manguo’s “The Rider”

 

E.A. WRIGHT (Editor) graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

The Great Poem Series: James Galvin’s “On the Sadness of Wedding Dresses”
Completely Subjective: Dora Malech’s “Party Games”

 

KATIE WRIGHT graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2017.

Completely Subjective: Martha Silano’s “Love”
Poem Bomb: Lucie Brock-Broido’s “Bird, Singing”
Five Questions: An Interview with Thomas Lux
The Great Poem Series: Denise Duhamel’s “How It Will End”

 

SHEENA ZHOU graduated from Darien High School in the Class of 2018.

The Three That Speak to Us: “The Diagnosis,” “Snow Day,” and “Here”
Poem Bomb: Sarah Marguso’s “The Rider”
“The Rider”: Five Questions with Sarah Manguso
The Great Poem Series: Donald Hall’s “Her Garden”
Completely Subjective: Louise Glück’s “Time”

 

FRANCIS JANOSCO teaches English at Darien High School.

Poetry and Protest: Speaking Out on the Eve of the Inauguration
Completely Subjective: Kay Ryan’s “Home to Roost”
Five Questions: Juliana Gray
Defining Poetry: Lawrence Raab’s “The Great Poem”
Poem Study: Fanny Howe’s “9-11-01”

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Completely Subjective: Steve Scafidi’s “Thank You Lord for the Dark Ablaze

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Completely Subjective: Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones” 

Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones,” published in July of 2016, depicts the conflict between the ugly world and the delicate innocence of a child. A mother of two herself, Smith grew up and still lives near the city of Columbus, Ohio. It was there that she explored the various corners of life, trying to discover the…

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Completely Subjective: Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones” 

The year is 2020. So far, the world has dealt with the glowing fires in Australia, the hyped-up threat of World War III, and the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter. Oh, and the coronavirus pandemic. It seems as if tragedies are happening all around us, and we are just waiting for the next…

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The Great Poem Series: Rajiv Mohabir’s “Dove”

Rajiv Mohabir’s “Dove” spirals the reader down a rollercoaster of a love story. The title itself plays with the reader’s expectations; doves are symbols of peace, hope, and purity, so the reader starts the poem with expectations of a positive experience. This is not so different from love. Going into love for the first time…

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Completely Subjective: Jill Bialosky’s “Daylight Savings”

I have never been close with my family. Any road trip is awkward, filled with broken down cars and arguments in the restaurant that make everyone else feel uncomfortable. There were times when I wished for a new family like the confused six-year-old that I was, but now I am plainly used to it, tired…

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Completely Subjective: Jill Bialosky’s “Daylight Savings”

Daylight savings, the event, not the poem, annually both bequeaths upon and steals away from us an hour. The significance of one hour has been rapidly both declining and growing over the years. With the increase in technology, more and more can be done in one hour. In the olden days, an hour could buy…

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“Ku(na)hay”: Five Questions with Charles Bernstein

Charles Bernstein was born in Manhattan in 1950. He has published more than twenty collections of poetry and three collections of essays. From 1978 to 1981 he co edited the magazine L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. He co founded and directed the Poetics Program at the State University of New York, Buffalo. He is the co director of PennSound…

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The Three That Speak to Us: “Eating Walnuts,” “There are Birds Here,” and “Anxieties”

This year my partner and I looked through The Best American Poetry 2015 and narrowed it down to three poems we feel strongly about.  The purpose of this assignment is to get high school students to take a look at these poems because we feel these three poems say something worthwhile to our generation. In…

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“Citrus Freeze”: Seven Questions for Forrest Gander

Forrest Gander is an award winning poet, essayist, novelist, critic, and translator. Born in the Mojave Desert to a single mother, Gander’s childhood was financially difficult. Gander developed his love for travel, language, and culture when he and his family would tour extensively across the United States on summer road trips. He is known for…

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The Great Poem Series: Donald Hall’s “Her Garden”

Donald Hall’s poem “Her Garden” is published in the 2001 Edition of The Best American Poetry. The poem describes a dying garden, slightly melancholy, but implies some sort of release that was holding him back. What stood out to me first about this poem was the amount of imagery embedded in each stanza. For example,…

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Completely Subjective: Alan Bernheimer’s “20 Questions”

Ever since I can remember, I have always been a very curious child. Why is the sky blue? How do fireflies make light? Do dogs see color or black and white? These are all questions I would constantly ask my mom, hoping she would have an answer that would blow my mind. Most of the…

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Completely Subjective: Daisy Fried’s “This Need Not Be a Comment on Death”

By the time my grandmother started handing out her lladros, her memory was already erratic at best. I gathered with my sister and cousins in their squat living room, prepared to accept the heirlooms dutifully as if sworn to protect a legacy encased within the tiny figures. While granted, I was a relatively emotional child, I…

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“Almost”: An Interview With Rae Armantrout

Rae Armantrout, who is from California and a current poetry professor at UC San Diego, is a prolific member of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets, a group that arose in the late 1960s and emphasized a poem’s use of language, often employing stylistic techniques not seen in mainstream poetry to do so. She has received significant recognition…

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The Three That Speak to Us: “Do Unto Others,” “Country Western Singer,” “Dead Critics Society”

Daniel Johnson’s “Do Unto Others,” Alan Shapiro’s “Country Western Singer,” and Mike Dockins’ “Dead Critics Society” are three of the greatest, most thought-provoking poems featured in Best American Poetry’s 2007 edition. Nick and I read each poem in the volume looking for underlying themes, tone shifts, creative new ways of conveying messages, and other characteristics to narrow down the…

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Six Questions: An Interview With Christian Bök

Christian Bök is a renowned modern poet that hails from Toronto, Canada. “Vowels,” featured in the 2007 version of Best American Poetry, is arguably his most well-known poem. Mr. Bök spends most of his time as a professor at University of Calgary, but still writes poetry as often as he can. Nick Trager and I conducted an interview…

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The Great Poem Series: Cate Marvin’s “An Etiquette for Eyes”

Featured in the 2014 edition of Best American Poetry, Cate Marvin’s, “An Etiquette for Eyes”, analyzes a man with blues eyes who the speaker, a brown-eyed woman, had tried to win over in a bar. In it she reveals the pain she feels from her breakup with her past partner. I view the poem almost…

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Completely Subjective: Jericho Brown’s “Hustle”

As I looked through the 2013 edition of Best American Poetry in search of a poem to write about, Jericho Brown’s “Hustle” caught my eye because there was so much of it that I did not understand upon my first reading, and I wanted to figure it out. It is a brutally honest commentary on life as…

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Completely Subjective: Krista Benjamin’s “Letters From My Ancestors”

American writer and poet Krista Benjamin grew up in Lake Tahoe, CA, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Literature from the University of California in San Diego. Benjamin spent the early part of her career writing and publishing for various literary magazines, journals, and newspapers around the California/Nevada region. Later, Benjamin was awarded with an Artist Fellowship from…

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Completely Subjective: Kay Ryan’s Playacting

Ideas and actions wear their significance like a brightly colored shirt. With too much repetition, the color fades. Ideas become cliché. Actions become mechanical, rehearsed: playacting.  Kay Ryan’s poem by that name begins with a short excerpt of prose from W.G. Sebald’s Campo Santo, which explains that participants in tribal rituals of initiation or sacrifice…

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Completely Subjective: Ada Limón’s “The End of Poetry”

I love poetry, but sometimes it frustrates me in the way it inevitably falls short, language unable to measure up to reality. Good poetry is a good approximation of the real world, but it’s still an approximation. Ada Limón’s “The End of Poetry” rejects that approximation — or, at least, it approximates a rejection (how…

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Completely Subjective: James Galvin’s On the Sadness of Wedding Dresses”

I came across the poem “On the Sadness of Wedding Dresses” by James Galvin first published in The Iowa Review. Upon first reading it, I was moved by the poem and appreciated the nostalgic tone Galvin instills in each word. The personification of the wedding dresses “weeping in their closets” was beautiful; the comparison of the dresses to women who were separated from and left by their husbands or just living through unhappy marriages was intriguing. The dresses were described as “luminescent with hopeless longing,/like hollow angels,” unwanted and under-appreciated since the days of their glory. This sad description prepares…

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“Elegy with Table Saw & Cobwebs”: Five Questions with Patrick Phillips

Patrick Phillips is the author of three collections of poetry and a work of nonfiction. His 2004 collection, Chattahoochee, won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and his 2015 collection, Elegy for a Broken Machine, was a finalist for the National Book Award. He was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Phillips earned his PhD in English Renaissance…

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The Great Poem Series: Lucia Perillo’s “Samara”

Lucia Perillo’s “Samara” is a celebration of small and simple beauty. Perillo died at 58 in 2016, shortly after this poem appeared in the 2012 edition of The Best American Poetry. She died from complications of multiple sclerosis, a disease which inspired much of her poetry. Perhaps the awareness that her life might soon come…

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Completely Subjective: Kim Addonizio’s “Verities”

The world is full of countless theories about the processes of attaining the ultimate goal of happiness. Upon first reading Kim Addonizio’s “Verities,” found in Poetry Magazine, I was immediately captivated by the dark tone. Phrases like ”every dog has its choke chain,” “better dead than fed,” and “sticks and stones will break you,” flooded me with emotion. These violent words “break,” “dead,” and “choke” convey the feeling of pain and the hopeless notion that all people will suffer at some point or another. Though unconventional, I feel like people can find comfort in the fact that Addonizo deems bad…

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