Here are the participating poets listed in alphabetical order of last name; the list will be updated over time as more poets participate. Click on the poet's name to read their contribution. Also next to the poets' names will be the months their entries were posted; this should allow readers over time to determine new entries since their last visits (the date of this "Home" post also is updated whenever there's a new contribution):
Anonymous November 2011
("Neither of my books accepted for publication in 2008 will be issued....I have more than ten unpublished manuscripts.")
Alan Baker November 2011
("England's lamentable slaverie // the kettle’s boiled")
Ed Baker November 2011
("which recession goes with which poem? I just don't know. I'm still trying to figure out what the hell Language Poetry is!")
Lawren Bale December 2011
("How have we come to a juncture in history where a few bond traders can systematically bankrupt whole nations?")
Danny P. Barbare January 2012
("Reciting my poetry as I work as a janitor. Poetry about work.")
Michelle Bautista November 2011
("...it's important for me to be present, forgiving, truthful, and loving.")
Mike Berger March 2012
("Now it was hot dogs instead of prime rib.")
John Bloomberg-Rissman November 2011
("The lower the level of education, the more likely a voter is to take seriously racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-science, religiously fanatical, etc etc candidates.")
Susan Briante November 2011
("... a new confessional—an economic confessional. What’s in your bank account, Poet? Who paid for your down payment? What do you owe? ...we have to locate our place in an economic continuum before we can honestly define our needs, understand the needs of others, activate our sympathies, act for change.")
Linda M. Crate February 2012
("broken dreams litter the ground / obliterating the vision of my own")
Mary Krane Derr December 2011
("I morbidly wonder how I will lug around my laptop and journals and protect them from the snow and rain if I ever become homeless.")
Lisa M. Drago January 2012
(" This recession has inspired me to start writing poetry for the first time in over 25 years.")
Liam Duffy November 2011
("...my recession experience is that of the Irish narrative returning to emigration. The youth of whole villages has disappeared.")
Adam Fieled November 2011
("...two things that have always disturbed me about the American psyche: the juvenile competitiveness which is never far from the surface, and the sense that intellectuality is not valued on any level.")
Robert Gibbons January 2012
("people are coming out of port authority / like water; see them in a place / that will spit them out like a cough; people / are walking into nowhere; into a place / as tall as steal")
Ed Go January 2012
("'It takes a certain kind of person to be an activist'")
Howie Good January 2012
("...utterly ineffective our so-called 'leaders' have been in addressing the economic suffering engulfing the country.")
Anne Gorrick November 2011
("The Great Recession set up a situation where I can say 'yes' to many, many things that make my own work bigger.")
j/j hastain November 2011
("This is a pledge to ever couple with and to never cripple.")
Michael Helsem December 2011
("...something i had not been used to seeing: ... an air of brokenness.")
Lori M. Izykowski January 2012
("Insidious Recession // Quietly invading, present without presence.")
Karen Llagas November 2011
("Let no one say / it’s just about the money, / that slender, / grief-stricken thing, / so thirsty for company")
Annmarie Lockhart November 2011
("...the idea that books can be a luxury instead of a necessity saddens me.")
Marie Marshall December 2011
("The recession has driven me (back) into the arms of Emma Goldman and Durruti, back to Revolutionary Barcelona in 1936, back to the political works of Bakunin, but also to the words of Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and even those of Thomas Jefferson,...")
Karla Linn Merrifield January 2012
("I make a last call for action / on Facebook and LinkedIn: Submit now. // Time is of the essence to the movement / as time always is. I channel // Ginsberg to howl, Ferlinghetti to roller- / coaster us into archetypal dream. // I implore Snyder to bow / from his mountainside, embracing // us in spirit in these pages. / We shall Occupy the Universe ...")
Faith Pascua November 2011
("Mommy, you are not an ATM...")
David S. Pointer January 2012
("The current recession just drives home to me that most Americans don't know what happened to political poetry.")
JP Reese January 2012
("I have never written more poetry or with as much power as I have in the last two years. The acceptance of possibly losing just about everything in the material world has concentrated my vision.")
g emil reutter November 2011
("Young mothers watch the old folks / purchase one meal at a time, learning / how it is done.")
Barbara Jane Reyes November 2011
("...surviving this recession as an artist requires that artists do away with a sense of entitlement...")
Sarah Sarai January 2012
("When a Wedgwood saucer is held to light / to see its roses bloom, a foreclosure gets its wings.")
Jared Schickling (with Alec Maslowski) November 2011
("My art becomes life, stains; “consequences” aside, they’ve proven extremely adept. Hell, successful. Thus my slurp has been unaffected by this “recession” ")
Ray Sharp January 2012
("If corporations are people / and loves are lives that are born and die, / we were downgraded to junk bond status / ... / I gave you 99 percent of my heart, / more than I could afford, and still / we ended up bankrupt.")
Hal Sirowitz January 2012
("It doesn’t cost much to be creative. Ted Berrigan said if you’re a writer and the choice is between buying a book or a meal, always go for the book.")
Leny M. Strobel November 2011
("Decolonization is not just for the post-colonial subject anymore.")
Chris Stroffolino November 2011
("Congress Should Enact Legislation for Publicly Financed Elections And Reverse the Effects of the Unconstitutional Citizens United SCOTUS decision by passing an amendment to prohibit any private financing of elections and ELIMINATE "PERSONHOOD" LEGAL STATUS FOR CORPORATIONS, and restore the 14th Amendment to its original purpose.")
Eileen R. Tabios November 2011
("Gold for Poetry....I consider Poetry to be priceless.")
Dee Thompson November 2011
("Who is not comforted by eggs and cheese?")
Elizabeth Treadwell November 2011
("male dominance obscures / the true contributions of men.")
Erin Virgil November 2011
("Babies never made me sad before.")
Ed Zahniser February 2012
("The Great Recession has brought to the fore the satirical and ironic strains of my poetry.")
Harriet Zinnes November 2011
("There are no outcasts in history. / We are all in its throes.")
We are always looking for more poets to participate in this project. The Call for Participation is HERE; Participants are asked simply to answer the following three questions:
What is (part of) your Great Recession experience?
How has the Great Recession affected your poetry?
Please share a poem(s) addressing your Great Recession experience.
If you are a poet who would like to participate, feel free to email me at GalateaTen@aol.com
My Curator's Statement is my own participation in this project, HERE.
Eileen R. Tabios
Curator, Poet, M.B.A.
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