William Stafford Poems

 

William Stafford was a much-published writer who grew up in America’s mid-West at the time of the Depression.  He was a well-educated man who came relatively late to further education which was interrupted when the United States joined the Second World War.  Stafford, though, was a dedicated pacifist and spent the war years working on special camps for conscientious objectors.  Following this ...

James Weldon Johnson Poems

 

James Weldon Johnson was a man of immense and varied talents, who was a novelist, poet and noted civil rights activist. He was born June 17th 1871 in Jacksonville, which is located in Florida, USA to James Johnson and Helen Dillet who was a musician and grammar school teacher. His father was a head waiter at a luxury hotel and it was the ...

Tupac Shakur Poems

 

Tupac Shakur, rap artist, actor and poet, was one of the best-selling music artistes ever, selling over 75 million records worldwide. Rolling Stone magazine rated him 86th out the top 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He was nominated twice in his career; in 1995 for best actor in Poetic Justice and in 2004 for best song – Resurrection. He was born Lesane ...

Nizar Qabbani Poems

 

Nizar Qabbani was a Syrian-born poet, lawyer and diplomat who lived for much of his life outside of the middle east where he was able to express himself with a great deal more freedom than would have been allowed in his homeland.  His work was often seen as a homage to womanhood and he campaigned staunchly for their equal rights.  Losing his ...

Mark Twain Poems

 

Imagine, if you can, writing something that will one day be known universally as "the Great American Novel."  Mark Twain did just that with Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was published in 1885.  It’s predecessor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, came out nine years earlier and both became worldwide favourites and are still read today over a century later. Mark Twain ...