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Poetry, yoga, and lots of reading are among the ways these kids are coping with being out of school and stuck at home under coronavirus restrictions. USA TODAY

As many reports suggest, living in a pandemic, as bad and frightening as it might be, can be made just a little easier by poetry.

That’s not surprising, as some of the themes that poetry circles and illuminates — grief, love, loneliness, grace and death — are strongly felt today, often all at once.

Poems help us contain, if not subdue, our fears, offering consolation by letting us know that we’re not alone.

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire, according to the New York Times and other publications, poems are supporting a whole community.

On Sundays in Portsmouth, an emailed COVID-19 update from the city manager to residents includes a pandemic-themed poem from the city’s poet laureate, Tammi Truax.

The poems, which vary in style and length, often have references from nature. And they often deal with sadness and loss, as in the July 26 poem, “Transitions,” in which Truax writes about a fellow poet entering hospice.

The poem begins:

Today I find the mask useful

along with sunglasses

to hide my tear streaked face.

And then the poem moves in surprising directions, ending with a calming image of baking zucchini nut bread.

On July 12, Truax wrote of living in isolation in a poem addressed to the artist Frida Kahlo, who was confined first by polio as a child and then later by injury.

The poem begins:

Pain and loneliness, companions you couldn’t send away

And then it moves on to imagine what Kahlo might think of the isolation people endure today.

Truax, a school librarian as well as a poet, is in the middle of her two-year term as Portsmouth’s 12th poet laureate.

I don’t think there is a similar position in Rochester, though, if not, there should be, especially as there are plenty of poets here, as well as BOA Editions, Ltd., the distinguished poetry press.

Regardless, I think we all could use a little poetry, so I’d like to have a Distant Days poetry fest, of sorts.

To participate, send me a pandemic poem. It should be short (haikus are great), no longer than 14 lines (sonnets are fine). And it should be on a subject that connects with our current situation. Along with the poem, include just a little information about yourself and a telephone number.

I’ll sort through the poems, and we’ll publish the ones that work the best.

Really, give it a try. In the process, who knows, we might find a poet laureate for Rochester.

When the Time is Right

By Tammi J Truax

What do you see from your kitchen window?

Do you look out on something lovely or bleak?

Upon the sill does a fresh tomato wait?

Sunning, ripening, completing,

(all having waited too)

I wish to send to your table,

wrapped in vintage linen,

that you might unwrap

when the time is right.

Then, please enjoy with your tomato,

sprinkled with salt and grace.

From his home in Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott will document the new normal of living in a socially distant world. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454.

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