Saturday Poetry This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘When Giving Is All We Have’ by Alberto Ríos ‘. Born in 1952, Alberto Ríos is the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona and the author of many poetry collections, including  A Small Story about the Sky (Copper Canyon Press, 2015). In 1981, he received the Walt Whitman Award for his collection Whispering to Fool the Wind (Sheep Meadow Press, 1982). He served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2014 to 2020. I have matched mobile art by @krimzenphotography. To view her Instagram account please go here. If you would like to be featured in our…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Mr. Macklin’s Jack O’Lantern’ by David McCord. David Thompson Watson McCord was born on December 15, 1897, in New York. A poet and fundraiser, McCord grew up in Portland, Oregon. He received both a BA and MA from Harvard University and briefly served in the military at the end of World War I. In 1922, McCord became associate editor for the Harvard Alumni Bulletin, where he served as editor from 1940 to 1946. He was also executive director of the Harvard College Fund for thirty-eight years. McCord, who has been widely recognized for his children’s poetry, wrote and edited over fifty works of poetry and prose. He…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘The poem is a dream telling you its time’ – Marwa Helal. She is the author of Ante body (Nightboat Books, 2022), Invasive species (Nightboat Books, 2019), and the chapbook I AM MADE TO LEAVE I AM MADE TO RETURN (No Dear, 2017). This poem uses syntax to explore simultaneous fields of thought and existence. It also reflects on how poems are a tool of both transformation and travel through time and space. The practice of poem-making results in its own and new form(s), and, if successful, includes the changing and transport of both the writer and reader. I have matched…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Calling on All Silent Minorities’ by June Jordan. Jordan was born in New York City on July 9, 1936 and attended Barnard College. She was an activist, poet, writer, teacher, and prominent figure in the civil rights, feminist, antiwar, and LGBTQ movements of the twentieth century. Jordan’s numerous books of poetry include The Essential June Jordan (Copper Canyon Press, 2021); We’re On: A June Jordan Reader (Alice James Books, 2017); Directed by Desire: The Collected Poems (Copper Canyon Press, 2007); Kissing God Goodbye: Poems, 1991–1997 (Anchor Books, 1997); Naming Our Destiny: New and Selected Poems (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989); Living Room: New Poems (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1985); Passion: New Poems, 1977–1980 (Beacon Press, 1980); and Things That…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Kindness’ by Naomi Shihab Nye. She gives voice to her experience as an Arab-American through poems about heritage and peace that overflow with a humanitarian spirit. I have matched mobile art by Oola Cristina @oolacristina entitled ‘A New Day’. To view her account please go here. If you would like to be featured in our Saturday Poetry section, please ensure you include the hashtag #theappwhisperer to any images posted to Instagram. This will mean we will be able to consider it. To view the others we have published in this section, go here. via Poets.org ‘Kindness’ by Naomi Shihab Nye Before you…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Love in a Time of Covid-19’ by Craig Santos Perez. He is a native Chamorro from Mongmong, Guam and writes about themes such as Pacific life, immigration, ancestry, colonialism, and diaspora. This poem “is a variant of Pablo Neruda’s famous love sonnet XVII, in which he uses the natural world as a metaphor to describe love. In my poem, this metaphor mutates into things that we would associate with the pandemic, such as medicine, vaccines, and masks, in order to explore how to write about love in a time of Covid-19“, he explained. I have matched mobile art by Jill Lian –…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Like the Japanese cherry blossoms wedded to the soil’s palm’ by Luther Hughes. He says of this poem, “I wanted to write a different type of love poem than the ones I have in A Shiver in the Leaves. This poem is one of the few I have attempted and written since finishing the book. I was eager to address different types of danger—the endangerment of one’s relationship, yes, but also the endangerment of the Northern spotted owl. Who knows where I’ll go from here?” I have matched mobile art by @ja_graham, entitled “ Sunlight, moonlight, Twilight, starlight — Gloaming…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled The Piano by Stephen Gibson. Gibson is the author of several poetry collections, including Self-Portrait in a Door-Length Mirror (University of Arkansas Press, 2017), selected by Billy Collins as the winner of the 2017 Miller Williams Poetry Prize; Rorschach Art Too (Story Line Press, 2014), winner of the Donald Justice Prize; and Rorschach Art (Red Hen Press, 2001). Of his work, the poet R. T. Smith writes, “A master of surprising and unforgettable juxtaposition, Gibson invokes myth, history and the crises of the moment to reveal both ‘the anonymous connection to all damage’ and the necessity of empathy.” Gibson, who…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘True Kindness Is A Pure Divine Affinity’ by Henry David Thoreau. Although he thought of himself as a poet, Henry David Thoreau’s most defining work was his book, Walden. “True Kindness Is A Pure Divine Affinity” appeared in The Collected Poems of Henry Thoreau (Hendricks House, Inc, 1943).  I have matched mobile art by @amandathomsonscotland, entitled ‘keys that jangle in your pocket…’ To view her Instagram feed, please go here. If you would like to be featured in our Saturday Poetry section, please ensure you include the hashtag #theappwhisperer to any images posted to Instagram. This will mean we will be able to consider…

This weeks Saturday Poetry, matched with mobile photography/art is entitled ‘Night at the Roller Palace by January Gill O’Neil. She is the author of Misery Islands (CavanKerry Press, 2014), winner of a 2015 Paterson Award for Literary Excellence, and Underlife (CavanKerry Press, 2009). She lives in Beverly, Massachusetts. I have matched mobile art by @ilemusi – Ileana Montaño. To view her Instagram feed, please go here. If you would like to be featured in our Saturday Poetry section, please ensure you include the hashtag #theappwhisperer to any images posted to Instagram. This will mean we will be able to consider it. To view the others we have published in this section, go here. via Poets.org