For a long time I wanted to write a poem after Anne Sexton's "Menstruation at Forty." Last August, alone and in the middle of my life, I wrote this one, which echoes not only Sexton but also Randall Jarrell's "The Player Piano." As well as the opening number from a musical in which, many summers ago, I once appeared.
Jameson Fitzpatrick on "The Tribute" |
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"Maya Angelou and Malcolm X Manuscripts On Show in Schomburg Center Centennial Celebrations"
"To celebrate, the new exhibition 100: A Century of Collections, Community, and Creativity will be one of the largest in the Center’s history, and will feature iconic objects from its holdings including manuscript pages from Maya Angelou and Malcolm X, Ossie Davis’s copy of the Purlie Victorious script, and the visitor book from the 1925 opening signed by Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, and artist Augusta Savage. The exhibition will run through Winter 2026."
viaFINE BOOKS & COLLECTIONS |
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What Sparks Poetry:
Peter Cole on Translation
"The Hebrew word tikkun means, simply, 'repair,' but it is best known beyond spoken Hebrew as a kabbalistic term that has seeped into the popular imagination. In that context it alludes to course corrections of consciousness that lead to tikkun olam—repair, mending, or even healing of a broken world. Rooted in the tradition of the biblical prophets, and critical to classic rabbinic considerations of social viability and harmony, tikkun has, arguably, become a core Jewish concept that calls for working toward a more compassionate social fabric, in part by identifying and combatting injustice." |
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