lê thị diễm thúy is the author of the poem “sans papiers,” a poem written in response to The Swimming Pool by Henri Matisse. It is hard for me to interpret poems and their meaning because I am someone who likes to rely on facts and what is known, but…

In an excerpt from “Always on the side of the Egg” by Haruki Murakami, the author explains how each person is like an egg with a “unique, irreplaceable soul enclosed in a fragile shell.” …

In the Poem “My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears”, I was very shocked at how confidently the author’s grandmother went to wash her feet in the public sink. Doing such a thing would be embarrassing for me and seem backwards; against all social…

Billy Collins wrote a poem called “Introduction to Poetry” where he uses metaphors to uniquely describe ways to examine a poem. I thoroughly enjoy his use of language and effective imagery because it allowed me to understand his perspective towards understanding the meaning of poetry. I often feel that analyzing…

In Seth Godin’s piece called “Getting Picked,” I was reminded of our society’s culture and mindset towards this subject. As a student and teenager, being picked is at the forefront of my mind. I am constantly worried about being picked by my friends, my teachers, and eventually by colleges. Our…

Vera Pavlova’s poem “To converse with the greats” is very well written and creative. I love how short it is while still packing a very powerful message to its readers. Reading her poem made me wonder what “greats” the author, Pavlova, would want to “converse” with. It also made me question what “greats” I would want to know more about. This poem is concisely decadent and carries a yearning that really touched me. I was also left wanting more. I wanted an explanation for each and every line, which caused me to think and come up with my own. I would argue that great poetry has that effect on its readers and is often up to interpretation. Overall, this poem made me think not only about its meaning, but how it would feel “to converse with the greats” and the lessons to be learned from the wiser.

Sophie Ding writes about the lesson that failure teaches us in her essay “Lessons from Failure.” She mentions that many parents attempt to “snowplow” the path of their children’s lives. However, Ding points out that this is not how kids will become successful in the real world. Failure is scary…

The Anthropocene Reviewed is a podcast narrated by John Green in which he reviews various artistic pieces. In Episode 24, he talks about the artist, Agnes Martin, and her series of paintings called “With My Back to the World.” In this episode, there is mention of how difficult it is…

In the podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed Episode 24, John Green reviews visual art pieces by Agnes Martin, specifically a series of six paintings she completed called “With My Back to the World.” The podcast emphasizes Martin’s belief that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. …