Very brief thoughts on Dodge

Taha Muhammad Ali, the Palestinian poet, got the year’s Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival off to a great start for me. The poet was fresh and expressive, his poems vibrant and beautiful — Middle Eastern poets, both Arab and Israeli, have found a way to connect the world to the I with passion and are a growing influence on my own work.

In addition to Ali, others who electrified me — and the crowd — and drew me into their work for the first time included the African-Americans Kurtis Lampin and Sekou Sundiata, the Iraq war vet Brian Turner (his eulogy to a soldier who blew his head off was riveting) and Linda Hogan.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet