Kwame Dawes: Cleansing as Fire

Kwame Dawes introduces poems that interrogate loss and violence, transforming them in the flame of irony, elegy, and empathy. He discusses Lucille Clifton distilling “pure moments of tremendous poetry” (“lu 1958”), Michael S. Harper offering a haunting conclusion that serves as both memorial and gift (“We Assume: On the Death of our Son, Reuben Masai Harper”), and Terrance Hayes treading the line where outrage meets compassion (“Carolina Lullaby,” “A Poem That Does Nothing,” “The Poet Ai as D...