Shelter In Place: Poems in a Time of COVID-19

by Stanley Kusunoki

What do you do when you are a teacher/writer and you lose your classroom because your world is locked down? Following the order to stay home because of the exploding Coronavirus contagion, Stan Kusunoki’s response was to keep a journal in poetry form. From the grim early days of late March 2020 until Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz, allowed a limited opening on May 18, Kusunoki recorded daily the joys and frustrations of teaching online, and the ordinary activities of living under the “Shelter in Place” order. When things began to open up, Kusunoki realized he had a day-to-day history of this time, and enough poems for a new manuscript. The result is this book. He invites you to join him as he takes on the challenges of teaching online, discovers the meditative calm of walking the labyrinth at Como Park, observes back-yard critters living their normal lives, and performs sidewalk concerts for the neighbors. Here are the ups and downs, fears, and celebrations of one poet’s experience with COVID-19.

110 pages, Paperback

Published September 6, 2021

Reviews

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a time capsule. It does a nice job of capturing all the conflicting emotions of the first couple months of the pandemic. The fear and uncertainty, the sparks of hope, the longing for normality. Kusunoki writes from a teacher's perspective, chronicling the ups and downs of those first few months when everyone came together by staying apart