Three Years After — Katrina-inspired Poems

Poets are not only “the first responders of the imagination when a community is faced with catastrophic events” — they are the artists who put collective experience into words from the longer perspective of years later, shaping the communal memory. That is what is happening in New Orleans now, three years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina:

from The Times-Picayune (New Orleans):
“Three years later, poems are still putting the impact of Hurricane Katrina into words,” by Susan Larson
“Poets writing in response to Hurricane Katrina and the flood in New Orleans have risen to that terrible muse in virtually every way imaginable — some with humor, most with deep seriousness, all with a sense of responsibility. From the 2006 benefit anthology Hurricane Blues, edited by Philip C. Kolin and Susan Swartwout, to impassioned small-press efforts such as Katrina-Ku, published by the New Orleans Haiku Society in 2006, to Dave Brinks’ Caveat Onus, an intricate, three-part epic published over several months in 2006, the waves of poetry are still hitting this shore.”

Book editor Susan Larson’s survey of Katrina-inspired poetry also covers Andrei Codrescu’s new book from Coffee House Press, Jealous Witness, which comes with a CD of performances based on his Katrina poems by the New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, as well as Gabriel Gomez’ Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize-winning The Outer Bands (University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), and Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler (Coffee House Press, 2008) — a very fine reading/listening list.

Our earlier postings on poets in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina:
The Corpse Comes Back to Life in Louisiana
Stormy Words: Poets on Hurricane Katrina (April 2006, PBS NewsHour)
In the Arms of Words (January 2006, Sherman Asher book publication, poems for disaster relief)
If you believe books are a necessity, send some to the poets of New Orleans (December 2005, book collection project)
Tracking poets displaced by the storms (September 2005, Hurricane Poets Check-In blog)
Poets for Hurricane Katrina relief (September 2005, benefit readings)