It’s precisely because of my student’s general disinterest in literature that I’ve been grappling with the question of what it means to be a good steward of poetry for young people encountering it for the first time. In search of an answer, I signed up for a seat in Ada Limon’s one-time afternoon workshop this semester. I’m finding that most of my questions around teaching can be answered by returning to being a student.

To be honest, when I encounter an erasure poem, my initial reaction is a hurried inward nod, like—yes, I get it, okay. As if, grasping the concept, I’ve already read and grasped the poem itself. When I actually read it, of course, there’s usually plenty that’s of interest.

The question of forgiveness is a tricky one, especially in today’s world. As I reflected on Simon Wiesenthal’s The Sunflower and its exploration of forgiveness, I found myself drifting between the historical context of the Holocaust and the ways similar moral dilemmas echo into the present. The moments when harm feels so vast and personal […]