Tag Archives: Dark Times

Singing in Dark Times – #9 in a series – Where Does the World Hurt – Everywhere. A Poem by Warsan Shire. And One More for Good Measure!

what they did yesterday afternoon they set my aunts house on fire i cried the way women on tv do folding at the middle like a five pound note. i called the boy who use to love me tried to ‘okay’ my voice i said hello he said warsan, what’s wrong, what’s happened? i’ve been praying, and […]

Singing in Dark Times – #7 in a Series – Derek Walcott’s Gratitude

The Morning Moon Still haunted by the cycle of the moon racing full sail past the crouched whale’s back of the Morne Coco Mountain, I gasp at her sane brightness. It’s early December, the breeze freshens the skin of this earth, the goose-skin of water, and I notice the blue plunge of shadows down Morne […]

Singing in Dark Times – #6 in a Series – Good and Bad Times for Poetry

Joy. The other taste in sorrow’s cup Guy Gavriel Kay from The Last Light of the Sun, Penguin Canada, 2004 Motto* In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing About the dark times. Bertolt Brecht(1898-1956): Poems 1913-1956, edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, Eyre Methuen, 1976 *Brecht titled […]

Singing in Dark Times – #5 in a Series – Why not Sing – Kevin Young

Epigraph from Motto In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing About the dark times. Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956, edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, Eyre Methuen, 1976 I think, okay, no more poems to post in this series for now and then a poem changes my mind. […]

Singing in Dark Times – # 4 in a Series – Today, a Voice That Might Have Been Banished – Emi Mahmoud

Epigraph from Motto In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing About the dark times. Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956, edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, Eyre Methuen, 1976 In November 2015 a young Sudanese/American woman, Emitithal (Emi) Mahmoud, rocked audiences at the individual world slam poetry championships, which […]

Singing in Dark Times – # 3 in a Series – What Do Poets Do? We Praise

Epigraph from Motto In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing About the dark times. Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956, edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, Eyre Methuen, 1976 This gorgeous, difficult, heart-breaking world. What do we poets do with it? Brecht says we must sing about it. His […]

Singing in Dark Times – #1 in a Series – Bertolt Brecht and Warsan Shire

Epigraph from Motto  In the dark times Will there also be singing? Yes, there will be singing About the dark times. Bertolt Brecht: Poems 1913-1956, edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim, Eyre Methuen, 1976 Potent words. Words, I see quoted a lot these days. So, a danger of over use. But considering that Brecht […]