Exploring Diversity with Poetry

Poetry is a powerful medium for exploring and celebrating diversity. It allows us to delve into the unique experiences and stories of individuals from various backgrounds, fostering empathy and understanding.

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National Cowboy Poetry Gathering : The Anthology

The National Cowboy Poetry Gathering is the granddaddy of all cowboy poetry events, recognized by the US Senate for its pioneering role in the preservation and revitalization of this important American tradition. In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the event, this commemorative volume collects over 100 poems by various cowboy poets who have appeared at the gathering over the last three decades. In addition to poems that will make you laugh, sigh, or sit up straight in your saddle, the anthology features expressive photos, biographical head notes, artwork from the Folklife Center's archives, and illuminating sidebars on topics such as working cattle; life on the land; the relationship between cowboy poetry and song; gear and horses; and profiles of important poets from earlier times. A foreword by cowboy poet extraordinaire Baxter Black and an introduction give context both to the event itself and to cowboy poetry in general from the days of the trail drives in the nineteenth century to the lives of the hardworking men and women who still ranch and live on the land in the West today.

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The Colors Of Dawn: Twentieth-Century Korean Poetry

Throughout the twentieth century, few countries in Asia suffered more from foreign occupation, civil war, and international military conflict than Korea. The Colors of Dawn brings together the moving and powerful voices of over forty Korean poets from these turbulent years. From 1903 to 1945, the Japanese Empire occupied the Korean peninsula and instituted measures to annihilate the nation and its culture. After Japan's defeat in WWII, Korea became a killing ground during the Korean War (1950 to 1953). During this period and into the 1980s, South Korea was controlled by a military dictatorship, and today it remains on war footing. In the midst of internal and external conflicts, Korea's poets--threatened by the authorities with torture, imprisonment, and death--found ways to express their fierce desire for freedom and self-governance. The result is a century of outstanding poetry, from Sim Hun (1901) to more familiar modern and contemporary poets, such as Kim Chi-ha and Ko Ŭn.

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