Status Updates From To Be the Poet (The William...

But the poet can:

pay attention
remember
witness
imagine
connect
mourn
celebrate
speak
listen
preserve stories
challenge silence

poetic consciousness.

The poet pays attention to:

language
memory
metaphor
history
ordinary objects
human relationships
political events
cultural contradictions

what language belongs to you
what traditions you inherit
how family shapes your imagination
how race and ethnicity affect your literary identity
what poetry can do politically
how private experience becomes public art
how a poet participates in community
how history enters the imagination

Light easy read - very peaceful - it at times felt more like I was reading Maxine's journal