The Poetics of Crisis: Poets in Dialogue

As part of the American University in Paris’ 2020 Conference on the Psychology of Global Crises, we collaborated in a panel discussion entitled the Poetics of Crisis in which we explored the role of poetry as a medium of personal and transpersonal expression during times of crisis, as well as a means for transmuting crisis into an opportunity, a platform, for generative change. Here, we continue the dialogue, three award-winning poets exploring how words—through our own approach to literary writing—can invoke human potential during challenging times. We reflect on poetry in form, as an offering to and conveyance of beauty amidst pain, as protest in the way that it can demarcate what no longer serves sentiment and survival, and as a spark of revolution—the inspiration and guide when the necessary changes are called out and called up for the sake of humanity. We conclude with a poetic invitation.