A Polish poet was taking her exam on the History of Humanity. It was still winter, but the first snowdrops had pushed Their way through the hard earth. The grass was still brown, But there were bushes with leaves. Inside, a pencil scratched Stubbornly against a sheet of cheap paper. The questions On the exam […]
George Franklin
George Franklin’s most recent poetry collections are Remote Cities (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions) and a collection in collaboration with Colombian poet Ximena Gómez, Conversaciones sobre agua/Conversations About Water (Katakana Editores). Individual poems have been published in South Florida Poetry Journal, Another Chicago Magazine, Rattle, Cagibi, New York Quarterly, Cultural Daily, Thimble, and Nueva York Poetry Review. He practices law in Miami, teaches poetry workshops in Florida prisons, and co-translated, along with the author, Ximena Gómez's Último día/Last Day. In 2023, he was the first prize winner of the W.B. Yeats Poetry Prize. His website: https://gsfranklin.com/
Teaching Walt Whitman in a Prison in Florida
I thought of you, Walt Whitman, three summers ago, When I stood on that hill in Brooklyn, looking down on the river, Considering how you might be standing there as well, Or under my boot-soles, except I wasn’t wearing boots. Now, I think of you again, this time in the parking lot of a prison […]