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COVID Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit New Hampshire in March, it became clear that April—National Poetry Month—would not be celebrated with live poetry readings and writers’ workshops as in past years. In an effort to provide a channel for creatively navigating our common experiences, New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary set out to host two virtual poetry writing groups each week in April. At the end of the month, New Hampshire residents were invited to submit their work for consideration in an anthology of poems addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 100 writers submitted their work—each with a unique voice and a fresh perspective on the pandemic’s impact in New Hampshire.
In her introduction, Alexandria writes, “Fifty-four of the state’s poets are represented in this anthology, writing of job loss, loneliness and love, masks, social distancing, surreal visitors, uncertainty, graduations deferred, grief, neighborly and less-than-neighborly acts, observing the beginning of the pandemic and making projections about the future, recalibrating or confirming what it means to be human, to be a resident of this region. In a remarkable range of poetic form and style, these writers provide a thirty-day snapshot of what life was like in the Granite State in April of 2020."
In her introduction, Alexandria writes, “Fifty-four of the state’s poets are represented in this anthology, writing of job loss, loneliness and love, masks, social distancing, surreal visitors, uncertainty, graduations deferred, grief, neighborly and less-than-neighborly acts, observing the beginning of the pandemic and making projections about the future, recalibrating or confirming what it means to be human, to be a resident of this region. In a remarkable range of poetic form and style, these writers provide a thirty-day snapshot of what life was like in the Granite State in April of 2020."
- GenresPoetry
97 pages, Paperback
Published September 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 29, 2021
A Covid April In New Hampshire
The poet T.S. Elliot's claim that "April is the cruelest month" was brought home in April 2020 when the pandemic hit full stride. An intrepid group of poets in New Hampshire creatively responded to poetry, pandemic, and April in this anthology, "Covid Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems" edited and introduced by New Hampshire Poet Laureate, Alexandria Peavy. The anthology was conceived as a way of celebrating National Poetry Month during the pandemic. Poets in New Hampshire were invited to submit a poem written in April on a pandemic-related theme. More than one hundred poets responded, and poems by 54 poets were included in this volume. This New England State is fortunate to have an active community of poets who are able to maintain contact with one another through the Poetry Society of New Hampshire.
The poets in this volume live in almost 20 different towns and communities. Each poem offers a perspective on the early days of the pandemic and of how the poet and the community responded. The broad themes of illness, isolation and loneliness combine with specific features of the pandemic, masks, social distancing, tense shopping in grocery stores, unemployment, food lines, dashed plans, and many more to capture particularized and communal aspects of how life changed with covid. With the death, loss and fragmentation, the poems also suggest a gritty determination to move forward and to strengthen community ties in these New Hampshire cities and towns. Each poem is followed by a short prose passage in which the poet describes responses to covid in the community.
The poems are in a variety of forms, modernist to traditional. For example, the anthology opens with Robert Manchester's sonnet, "Dreaming in the Time of the Virus" and it includes an ambitious poem by Amber Rose Crowtree in the elaborate form of a sestina, "Sestina of the Isolation, 2020". There are a number of short prose poems in the volume as well.
I was familiar with the writing of a few of the poets in this anthology. I had read Eric Poor's memoir of his career in journalism "Working at the Word Factory" and enjoyed the short poem he wrote for this volume "In the Interim":
"Car ascending on the lift
Elevator descending
Floor by floor by floor
It's all pending
One more head to go
Getting to the barber's chair
Receiver to ear, on hold,
Two grocery carts more to reach the register
In line for the teller
Idling at the traffic light
We've been put on pause."
I have become a Goodreads friend of Jimmy Pappas, who is active in the New Hampshire poetry community. Pappas' poem in this anthology "The Tunnel in my Living Room Floor" draws an analogy between a prisoner patiently working to escape from his cell and the restless poet imprisoned in his home by the pandemic. "I will make my getaway, Ivory soap gun blasting", the poet vows.
This anthology reminded me of the power of art to transform and to help overcome hard times. I was inspired to see a group of poets in a small New England State binding together in support of their shared commitment to writing. Even with the pandemic, April may become more than "the cruelest month" that T.S. Eliot described. The anthology concludes with brief biographies of each of its poets. I was fortunate to read this volume through the publisher, Hobblebush Books, which kindly sent me a review copy.
Robin Friedman
The poet T.S. Elliot's claim that "April is the cruelest month" was brought home in April 2020 when the pandemic hit full stride. An intrepid group of poets in New Hampshire creatively responded to poetry, pandemic, and April in this anthology, "Covid Spring: Granite State Pandemic Poems" edited and introduced by New Hampshire Poet Laureate, Alexandria Peavy. The anthology was conceived as a way of celebrating National Poetry Month during the pandemic. Poets in New Hampshire were invited to submit a poem written in April on a pandemic-related theme. More than one hundred poets responded, and poems by 54 poets were included in this volume. This New England State is fortunate to have an active community of poets who are able to maintain contact with one another through the Poetry Society of New Hampshire.
The poets in this volume live in almost 20 different towns and communities. Each poem offers a perspective on the early days of the pandemic and of how the poet and the community responded. The broad themes of illness, isolation and loneliness combine with specific features of the pandemic, masks, social distancing, tense shopping in grocery stores, unemployment, food lines, dashed plans, and many more to capture particularized and communal aspects of how life changed with covid. With the death, loss and fragmentation, the poems also suggest a gritty determination to move forward and to strengthen community ties in these New Hampshire cities and towns. Each poem is followed by a short prose passage in which the poet describes responses to covid in the community.
The poems are in a variety of forms, modernist to traditional. For example, the anthology opens with Robert Manchester's sonnet, "Dreaming in the Time of the Virus" and it includes an ambitious poem by Amber Rose Crowtree in the elaborate form of a sestina, "Sestina of the Isolation, 2020". There are a number of short prose poems in the volume as well.
I was familiar with the writing of a few of the poets in this anthology. I had read Eric Poor's memoir of his career in journalism "Working at the Word Factory" and enjoyed the short poem he wrote for this volume "In the Interim":
"Car ascending on the lift
Elevator descending
Floor by floor by floor
It's all pending
One more head to go
Getting to the barber's chair
Receiver to ear, on hold,
Two grocery carts more to reach the register
In line for the teller
Idling at the traffic light
We've been put on pause."
I have become a Goodreads friend of Jimmy Pappas, who is active in the New Hampshire poetry community. Pappas' poem in this anthology "The Tunnel in my Living Room Floor" draws an analogy between a prisoner patiently working to escape from his cell and the restless poet imprisoned in his home by the pandemic. "I will make my getaway, Ivory soap gun blasting", the poet vows.
This anthology reminded me of the power of art to transform and to help overcome hard times. I was inspired to see a group of poets in a small New England State binding together in support of their shared commitment to writing. Even with the pandemic, April may become more than "the cruelest month" that T.S. Eliot described. The anthology concludes with brief biographies of each of its poets. I was fortunate to read this volume through the publisher, Hobblebush Books, which kindly sent me a review copy.
Robin Friedman
February 5, 2021
We saw this book featured on New Hampshire Chronicle and were intrigued. It’s an incredible little anthology with something for everyone. You can relate to or at least empathize with each person’s pandemic experience.
October 12, 2021
It's a little unfortunate that poetry isn't really my thing. I'm sure someone who reads poetry more often would have gotten a lot more out of it (and thus rated it much better). There were some good poems that I did specifically enjoy though. It also was interesting since I read it ~20 months after COVID started, and I was reading these people's poems that they wrote only a few months into the pandemic.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews