Poetry is not a luxury

Perhaps my favorite poet of all time is Audre Lorde. Long ago she wrote an essay entitled “poetry is not a luxury.” I read it while I was a confused and ambivalent undergraduate, a lost kid from Oshkosh, WI trying to find my way at Yale. Audre Lorde’s words kept me sane, focused me, spoke in a voice that was — for me — resonant with God’s love.

Here is a much more recent poem spoken by a poet -- Javon Johnson -- at a poetry slam in Boston. Again: poetry is not a luxury.