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 on the Help page.
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
Poet Charles Bukowski, beloved of many who are not necessarily interested in the traditional literary canon, sometimes gets letters from readers who say that they, having read about Bukowski's own troubles in his poems, decided not to commit suicide.
To this I say, Poetry is not a luxury.
