June Jordan died in 2002, an American child of Jamaican immigrants whose remarkable poetry is collected in “The Essential June Jordan,” a new collection published by Copper Canyon Press. This eloquent ...

Lindens smell fine on fine June nights! Sometimes the air is so sweet that you close your eyes; The wind brings sounds—the town is near— And carries scents of vineyards and beer. . . II. —Over there, ...

The lines in June Jordan’s “These Poems” explain the poet’s modus operandi. Her poems are made “in the dark,” as if by subterranean or subversive means. They are composed of words that glide away from ...

What is poetry for? It might be the overwhelming question of poetry, to borrow Prufrock’s turn of phrase. What does it do, why does it matter, how can it matter, what is it for? Because reading a poem ...