Poetry is not a Luxury

The literary activists behind Poetry Is Not a Luxury believe that poetry best inspires the public when it is woven into the fabric of everyday life – making meaning and giving pleasure at both expected and unexpected moments. By choosing poems we find exceptionally readable, wonderful, and/or suited to the local context and placing them around campus, we seek to surprise, unsettle, and delight those who otherwise might not have any poetic light in their lives. Mainly, we operate during the month of April (National Poetry Month), but poems we’ve chosen may be found at Dickinson year-round, particularly on this website.

We are Carol Ann Johnston (English Dept.), Adrienne Su (English Dept.), and Brooke Wiley (Art & Art History Dept.), as well as student volunteers

Please add your own poetry, comments, questions, and discussion to this wiki. The pages can be formed into what ever the community decides it should be. Basic formatting help can be accessed at Help.

Poles want Pope's heart

carved away,

the spillway for a soul's desire

who rests where with a heart in Krakow

and a body with limbs gripping tightly

the Roman dirt