Poetry and the 2020 election

Michael Ruby and Sam Truitt, curators

'Democracy Lessons'

Jennifer Karmin

Photo by Amanda Loch.
Note: This is our last Poetry and the 2020 Election post, opening the field to poets beyond our psychosm. We thank heartily the Hudson Valley poets who contributed to this effort, and Jacket2’s Kenna O’Rourke and Jessica Lowenthal for their continuous presence and care in making what we have done sing.

— Michael Ruby and Sam Truit


 

In the diamond at the heart of the moon: An item and sixty-nine notes on the US elections, part 2

by Sam Truitt

"American Eclipse," Omar Pérez, 2020.
“American Eclipse,” Omar Pérez, 2020.

An Item: The Only Way to Freedom is Song 

As afore (in Part 1), the only way to freedom is song.

I enacted this recently:

Song is whatever you make of it, which is its power (you), even the star-spangled one of the doomed empire, as in one of my cocurator Michael Ruby’s interruptions:

O magic property say the stunning can people perform you break and see the svelte

Writing poems about presidential elections

by Michael Ruby

In the newsroom, Inauguration Day 2017
In the newsroom, Inauguration Day 2017

Many American poets have written poems about presidential elections, and many are likely to write about this 2020 election, which was frightening. For years, I have written poems about elections, some of which can be found in my recently published book, The Star-Spangled Banner, including the 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016 elections. I took somewhat different approaches in these poems, which are linked here to recordings on PennSound.