THE COPPER QUILL

April is known as National Poetry Month! To honor this beloved art form, the staff here at The Copper Quill have (belatedly) compiled a few of our favorite poems. These poets come from across the world and include works in multiple languages. Please find them below:

• Refaat Alareer (1979-2023) was a writer, poet, professor and activist from Palestine. Alareer earned his BA in English from the Islamic University of Gaza in 2001, his MA from the College of London in 2007 , and his Ph.D. in English Literature from the Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2017. He also returned to the Islamic University of Gaza to teach as a professor. Many of Alareer's poems and essays focused on the current occupation and hope for liberation of Palestine, and more specifically, the Gaza Strip. Alareer was assassinated on December 6th, 2023 by Israeli airstrikes upon his sister's apartment. He had moved there after sheltering at a UNRWA school and receiving a call that revealed his location alongside threats of violence. April 24th, 2024 marks the two-hundredth day of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. "If I Must Die" was Alareer's last poem written.

  • • Click here to read "If I Must Die" in the original Arabic and English versions

• Jessica Greenbaum (1957-) is the author of Inventing Difficulty, The Two Yvonnes, and Spilled and Gone. She has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Poetry Society of America. She currently lives and teaches in New York City.

  • • Click here to read "The Yellow Star that Goes with Me"

• Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was a prominent Spanish poet, playwright, and theater director. Lorca moved to Madrid in 1919 and met with a group of avant-garde artists. This group, including Salvador Dalí, introduced him to Surrealism, a movement that would reshape his writing forever. He initially rose to fame with his book, a collection of poems, called "Romancero gitano" (Gypsy Ballads, 1928). He continued to publish poems, eventually expanding his influence to theater. He published hia own plays, including Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding, 1933) and cofounded the traveling theater company, La Barraca. Lorca's plays and poems became a controversial, outspoken voice during the Spanish Civil War for gay desire and political revolution. Lorca was arrested in his home in August, 1936, and was later assassinated by the Nationalist Faction.

  • • Click here to read the English version, "Sleepwalker's Ballad"

    • Click here to read the original Spanish text, "Romance sonámbulo" 

• Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was a renowned Chilean poet-diplomat and politician.  Travelling around the world, and becoming friends with other famous poets, such as Lorca, Neruda was employed on the behalf of Chile as a diplomat, visiting Spain during their civil war, Mexico City, and Peru. He later involved himself in Chilean politics, elected as a Communist Senator in 1945. He would remain outspoken, until a controversial speech in 1948, calling out corruption in the government, would lead to a warrant for his arrest. Neruda was on the run in Chile for thirteen months, until his 3 year exile from the country. He returned in 1952 to the government in shambles, weakened by many scandals. Neruda returned to politics with his support of the popular Socialist Party and their presidential candidate, Salvador Allende. Neruda was pardoned and was free to travel to and from the country, which he proceeded to do, writing over three thousand poems in his lifetime. He was nominated for Chilean presidency in 1970, but gave his support to Allende, who ended up winning.  He later won the Nobel prize in 1971. Neruda eventually passed away in 1973 due to heart failure.

  • • Click here to read "Tonight I Can Write (The Saddest Lines)" in English

    • Click here to read the original Spanish text

• Mary Oliver (1935-2019) was well known for her countless poems about the natural world. She began writing at age fourteen, and was later the the recipient of the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. In 2007, she was declared by The New York Times to be America's best selling poet. She lived with her late partner Molly Malone Cook until 2005, where she then relocated to Florida until she passed away due to lymphoma in 2019. 

  • • Click here to read "Wild Geese"