“sacrifice nothing to seemliness”
All is rather rapt, simple, quick, effective—except for my blundering on at The Waves…Still I am not satisfied. I think there is something lacking. I sacrifice nothing to seemliness. I press to my centre. I don’t care if it all is scratched out. And there is something there. I incline now to try violent shots…shouldering my way ruthlessly—and then, if nothing comes of it—anyhow I have examined the possibilities. ...
Dreadful Wind & Rain by Diane Gilliam
Diane Gilliam was AROHO’s 6th Gift of Freedom winner. This stunning verse narrative is the first to be published of the three books Diane completed during the two years of the grant. This book is a river you will want to swim in. It is the hardest thing this holding open of everything with nothing —from “Some Things the Doorways Want to Tell Us” Buy on Amazon Synopsis So the story goes: Neglected and abused by her...
Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree: Stories from Ixcotel State Prison by Mary Ellen Sanger
Mary Ellen Sanger, who won the Orlando Prize for Poetry for her poem “Secrets of a Wooden Saint in a Church in Jalcomulco”, and who was a finalist for the 4th Gift of Freedom, has self-published a book of nonfiction. Read on for her AROHO story, and details about her book. When I returned to the US after my incarceration, I tried to write the stories I had lived with the women of Ixcotel, sitting in a cramped NYC apartment. The...
“my courage always rises”
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me. —Jane Austen
the reach of a poem
“In Chinese time, it’s circular – it’s not even circular, it can go backwards! It can go backwards, it can go forward. It goes all over the place, it looks more like an infinity sign, like that. So there is a myth that poets have that my reader will come a thousand years from now. . . . Poem can also reach reader born 1,000 years before the poem. . . . An act of love I do this morning saves a life on a far future battlefield....
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The Q: In this moment, how will I claim my artistic power?
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soundings Apr 24, 2026 -
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