Reviews
These poems, varied in form and content, beautifully capture the global experience of this pandemic as well as the individual emotions and struggles that are, at the same time, unique and universal: fear, defiance, longing, grief, anger, loneliness, gratitude for time and respite, hope―and often, joy in life’s small, continuing gifts. Editor Elayne Clift has gathered a community of poets whose words are haunting, moving, charming, surprising and, finally, comforting. Reading this anthology, you might find yourself saying, Yes, yes, I understand―I’ve felt that way too. I’m not alone.
Cortney Davis, Nurse Practitioner;
author of “I Hear Their Voices Singing: Poems New & Selected”
The Covid-19 pandemic will be dissected by epidemiologists, sociologists, politicians, and historians. Now it’s time for the poets. The pandemic struck every sliver of society, so it’s only fitting that Elayne Clift has gathered poems from all walks of life. These writings will make you stop and think, which is perhaps the very prescription we need to help move us forward.
Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD, Clinical Professor of Medicine,
editor of Bellevue Literary Review, and author of When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error
Poetry has the power to lift us out of our current states, expand our consciousness, and remind us that we are not alone in our feelings. Elayne Clift has compiled a delicious anthology of poetry in her latest book “A 21st Century Plague: Poetry from a Pandemic,” which accomplishes this uplifting. These poems make us smile, laugh, cry, and feel by revealing the heartaches and the unexpected boons of living in a time of plague. The poems raise our awareness, help us feel more deeply, and remind us that we are in this shared experience together. This anthology illuminates the power of mind over body and our innate power to heal. I am grateful for that.
Michael Gigante, PhD, Psychotherapist;
Co-Founder/Director of the North East Psychoneuroimmunology Institute, Brattleboro, VT
Publication Date: June 7, 2021
Pages: 92
ISBN (print): 978-1-939686-76-3
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-939686-77-0
Foreword by Glenna C. Burton MD, PhD
Introduction
Plagues by Rai d’Honore
Daily News by Barbara Crooker
November 18, 2019 by Barbara Crooker
Anger in the Time of Covid by Thomas Smith
The Long Summer by Thomas Smith
Early Days by Irene Sherlock
Lockdown Days, Early Spring 2020 by Miriam Weinstein
Making a Garden While the World Falls Apart by Anna Citrino
The End of Summer 2020 by Judith Adams
Covid-19 by Gloria Murray
Summer of 2020 by Gloria Murray
Pandemic Trilogy by Elayne Clift
Pandemic Pleasures
Pandemic Liberation
Pandemic Pain
Hands by Miriam Aroner
Deer Mouse by Carol Barrett
Morning Assault by Norm Baxter
Tiny Terror by Norm Baxter
Nearness by Michael Bosworth
Plague Litany by John Bradley
Remote Spring by Sue Crouse
Villanelle 2020 by Gabriela Brand
The Invisible Enemy by Denise Buschmann
What We All Want by Denise Buschmann
Jogging the Loop, Unmasked by Charles Butterfield
Things I do More of These Days by Marion Cohen
Her Eyes by Ginny Lowe Connors
Love in the Time of Plague by Brian Daldorph
Social Distancing by Brian Daldorph
After the Pandemic by Brian Daldorph
Baking Cookies During the Pandemic by Julie Danho
After Months Missing the Crowded Subway by Charlotte Friedman
Oh, Covid-19 by Joan Gerstein
Fewer Cars, More Birds by Melanie Green
Metamorphosis in the Unseasonable Season of Dis-ease by Jo Hausam
Lockdown by Brother Richard Hendrick
Okay Right Now by Roxy Hornbeck
Riddle by Paul Hostovsky
Face Mask by Paul Hostovsky
Tomorrow was Yesterday by Jim Kates
This Moment by John Krumberger
Space by Sandra Larson
Driving to the Lek in the Pandemic by Joel Long
Virus by Joel Long
That’s What Happens by Lynn Martin
The Watch by Pamela Mitchell
Morning in the Time of Plague by Michael Moos
A Magnolia Bedsit by David Olson
Are You Lonely or Bored Tonight? by Marge Piercy
Suffocating in Routine by Marge Piercy
You’re Exhausted Because of by Burt Rashbaum
The 11th Plague by Burt Rashbaum
Quarantine by Jennie Reichman
Distance by Kathryn Sadakierski
Covid-19 by Frank Salvidio
Ode to Covid-19 by Mary Hartwell Sayler
Not the Apocalypse I Was Expecting by Karen Schubert
After “Story” by Richard Blanco by Stephanie Shafran
To Give Thanks by Lali Sri
Shut In by Lali Sri
What if I admitted I Like It by Alison Stone
American Hunkers Down by Alison Stone
Discarded Glove by Vincent Tomeo
Pandemic Blues by Vincent Tomeo
The New Bucolic by Moira Trachtenberg-Thielking
Like No Other Suicide by Moira Trachtenberg-Thielking
Covid Times in Prison by Tony Vick
Vikings by Daniel Williams
Novel Virus by Daniel Williams
When This is Over by Mary-Lane Kamberg
Acknowledgments
Contributor Biographies
About the Editor
An award-winning writer and journalist, Elayne Clift’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Salon.com, and numerous international magazines, periodicals, and anthologies. She is a regular columnist for three New England newspapers and a reviewer for The New York Journal of Books. She is the author of two memoirs, two books of poetry, three short story collections, three essay collections, a travel memoir, and the editor of three edited anthologies. Her poem “I Listen and My Heart is Breaking” was set to music and performed by the world-renowned a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. She conducts writing workshops at venues ranging from conferences, local libraries, and arts programs to the noted destination spa, Rancho La Puerta in Tecate, Mexico.
For more information, please visit www.elayne-clift.com.
