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April 9 - 22, 2021 43
American Life in Poetry BY KWAME DAWES I have heard so many poets say that thy feel like outcasts, until they meet other outcasts and dreamers, people who seem to feel like them, and suddenly they feel affirmed in their difference, and, as it turns out, their place in community. It is likely what Safiya Sinclair means in her elegant poem, “The Ragged and the Beautiful” published in the always engaging “immigrant and refugee” journal, The Bare Life Review, when she declares being “strange/ and unbelonging” as, being, at the same time, “perfectly” beautiful. The Ragged and the Beautiful By Safiya Sinclair Doubt is a storming bull, crashing through the blue-wide windows of myself. Here in the heart of my heart where it never stops raining, I am an outsider looking in. But in the garden of my good days, no body is wrong. Here every flower grows ragged and sideways and always beautiful. We bloom with the outcasts, our soon-to-be sunlit, we dreamers. We are strange and unbelonging. Yes. We are just enough of ourselves to catch the wind in our feathers, and fly so perfectly away. American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems. The sole mission of this project is to promote poetry: American Life in Poetry seeks to create a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. There are no costs for reprinting the columns; we do require that you register your publication here and that the text of the column be reproduced without alteration.
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Songs for your next road trip BY GABRIELLE GASSER
“She was not a slowpoke grownup. She was a girl who could not wait. Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next.” - Beverly Cleary, “Ramona the Pest”
The last time I went on a road trip with friends was in prepandemic times, and I miss it. I miss driving through wide-open fields, over mountain passes and towards what promises to be a great adventure. A large component of the road trip mood is, of course, the tunes you jam to on the way. In a fit of nostalgia, I gathered together a collection of songs that are best heard with the windows rolled down driving in the middle of nowhere. Or, if you prefer to stay stationary, they are a great relaxation playlist for lying outside and appreciating the great views. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
“Blame it on the Tetons” by Modest Mouse “Mountain Sound” by Of Monsters and Men “Blue Ridge Mountains” by Fleet Foxes “Colorado” by Sam Burchfield “As We Ran” by The National Parks “All The Debts I Owe” by Caamp PHOTO BY EBERHARD GROSSGASTEIGER ON UNSPLASH “Morning Light” by Wilderado “Rivers and Roads” by The Head and the Heart “Ends of the Earth” by Lord Huron “Walden Pond” by Atta Boy “Humbug Mountain Song” by The Fruit Bats “Rainbows and Ridges” by Whitney “Dead Sea” by the Lumineers “Tomorrow” by Shakey Graves “June” by Briston Maroney
