Poetry for and from the pandemic

What did you turn to for solace during the pandemic? Cooking and baking? Reconnecting with nature, your inner athlete or the bookworm you were while growing up?  

The poets among us turned to language, and they wrote. Some of that outpouring has been gathered into an anthology called “A 21st Century Plague: Poetry from a Pandemic.”

Four of Minnesota’s beloved poets are included in the book, and they joined host Angela Davis on Wednesday to talk about writing their way through the stress and pain of the pandemic. 

Guests:

• Sandra Larson has published three chapbooks in addition to “Ode to Beautiful,” which was published in 2016. 

• John Krumberger has published a volume of poems: chapbook “The Language of Rain and Wind,” “In a Jar Somewhere” and poetry collection “Because Autumn.” He is a psychologist in St. Paul.

• Thomas Smith teaches at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. His poetry collection, “Storm Island,” appeared in 2020. He has also published a prose book, “Poetry on the Side of Nature: Writing the Nature Poem as an Act of Survival.”

• Miriam Weinstein has published poetry in several anthologies including “Reflections on Home: The Heart of All That Is,” “A Little Book of Abundance” and “Broken Atoms in Our Hands,” plus a chapbook called “Twenty Ways of Looking.” 

Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or RSS.

Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.