Poetry of Connection

“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language,” wrote Lucille Clifton, and though the twenty poems featured below are certainly rich in language, they are even richer in their portrayals of what it is to be human, with all its worries and wins, loves and losses, struggles and salvations. From a young Native woman grappling with her heritage, to a gay man standing up to his mother’s bigotry, to a family coping with a son’s meth-fueled arrests, to a man’s affirmation of his blackness, to an impassioned testament to the love between spouses, and much more, these poets remind us of our shared experiences and awaken our empathy. What more could we ask of great poems?