Kim Stafford

cantfindit

Kim Stafford has published a dozen books, including Singer Come from Afar (Red Hen Press, 2021), and was Oregon’s poet laureate from 2018–2020. He teaches and travels to raise the human spirit through poetry. Source 

At the Student Poetry Reading

 

I guess you could call me broken,

says one. I’m still lonely, says another,

but now I can name it with a song.

 

In my poem, says another,

I can forget I am forgotten. Now

I understand being misunderstood,

 

says another. And another says,

in a bold, undeniable voice of power,

I won’t step down from myself again.

 

And they are beautiful, beautiful,

standing one by one at the mic

where they have come forth at last

 

from behind the curtain.

Published:

2021

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Contemporary

Anthology Years:

2023

Themes:

Agency

Identity

Literary Devices:

Dialogue

conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie

Juxtaposition

the fact of two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect

Repetition

a recurrence of the same word or phrase two or more times