To a poet, it's quite ruinous to have a poem distorted, out of shape, or squeezed, shall we say, into this tiny screen. But I'm not sure big digital companies are sensitive to the needs of poets.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.

Don't ask me any questions. I've seen how things that seek their way find their void instead.

In a world where cultures and religions are recklessly facing off, Sholeh Wolpé writes careful poems that cast a light on some of what we all hold in common.

That young man with the long, auburn hair and the impudent face - that young man was not really a poet; but surely he was a poem.

The first line is the DNA of the poem; the rest of the poem is constructed out of that first line. A lot of it has to do with tone because tone is the key signature for the poem. The basis of trust for a reader used to be meter and end-rhyme.