Trish Hopkinson may describe herself as a “selfish poet,” but her site is an indispensable community hub for poetry lovers, with news and event listings, writing resources, and much more (including her own poems, of course).

“Not all of what I write makes sense to me. It never will. And that’s fine. In fact, that’s kind of the point. If I could explain it readily in a Power Point, there’d be no reason to write a story. It’s hard work, these acts of creation, of willing nothing into being.”

“The concept of authenticity is much over-hyped these days, and it seems to me a sad state of affairs that it’s something we need to cultivate — as if being authentic is just another act.” 

“Maybe banned books are such a problem because when your tokens of diversity are so limited, losing even one is a huge blow. So the solution isn’t saying ‘unban this book!’ The solution is to make more books like it.”

The tighter you clamp your heart shut, the more you are constricting blood flow to your brain. Emotion has to go through your heart to get to your mind. Insight requires migration through your mind and back down to your heart.

“The scariest thing about these stories is not that they are lies, but that there is a tiny bit of truth to each of them. Dictatorships do not do away with veracity. They do away with proportionality.” Reflections from Tajikistan, within the captions of a photo essay, by Michael Hobbes.

“I will never give in to fear that is based on Twitter logic. I will never develop policy with bigots who masquerade as Twitter experts. I will not connect random dots between violence downtown and the brown neighbour next door.” Reflections on violence, Twitter, and politics, from a Canadian looking south.

Mandy Len Catron on her ongoing struggle: “And maybe a good way to think about my place in the world is to consider how often I am inconvenienced by injustice — to make space for it, to welcome it in.”