100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

February 23, 2022 - Image 4

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Michigan Daily

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
4 — Wednesday, February 23, 2022

POETRY HAS THE ability to give us
strength in our darkest times and reflect
our joy in our happiest moments. For
evidence, just look at the outpouring of
gratitude for Amanda Gorman — Presi-
dent Biden’s inaugural poet — and the
virality of her poem “The Hill We Climb.”
The line “For there is always light, if only
we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re
brave enough to be it,” seemed to encom-
pass both the despair and the hope so
many Americans were feeling on that
day, just two weeks after armed rioters
stormed the capitol. That is the power
of poetry. So if you feel like you’re living
through an apocalypse — the seemingly
never-ending COVID-19 pandemic, polit-
ical turmoil, deep divides in American
society, threat of war, climate change,
police brutality, a collective mental
health crisis or whatever other calamity
you can think of — here’s some poetry to
help carry you through.
“Dearly” by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is perhaps best
known for her 1985 novel “The Hand-

maid’s Tale,” a searing criticism of
Western rape culture and restrictions
on reproductive freedom. She turns that
same keen eye to her poetry — though in
the several decades that have passed, it
has been molded, not dulled, by age’s wis-
dom. Now 82, Atwood speaks to today’s
crises in her most recent poetry collec-
tion, “Dearly,” with both her character-
istic wit and anger and a sort of gentle,
pleading hope. Her poetry encapsulates
what this era is and could become: the
ongoing fight for women’s rights, the
looming climate catastrophe, the grief of
losing a loved one and our current politi-
cal situation. But despite its heavy topics,
her poetry does not produce a helpless
feeling; instead, it makes you want to
fight even more.
“What the Living Do” by Marie
Howe
“What the Living Do” tells the frag-
mented story of youth, how our child-
hoods shape us into who we are and
how we come to learn what living is
all about. Written for her brother, who
died of AIDS-related complications in
1989, “What the Living Do” is imbued
with a sense of wonder for life — all of
its pain and joy and in-betweens. It does

not attempt to make everything rosy; it
knows how difficult this all is, how tiring
it can be to keep going day after day with
the small frustrations and regrets piling
up. But it also shines light onto the under-
side, the part that we often let collect dust
as we alternate between slogging away
and sleeping: the heartwrenching beauty
of this short, short time we have together.
Howe’s poetry speaks best for itself: “We
want the spring to come and the winter to
pass. / We want / whoever to call or not
call, a letter, a kiss—we want more and
more and then / more of it. / But there
are moments, walking, when I catch a
glimpse of myself in the / window glass, /
say, the window of the corner video store,
and I’m gripped by a cherishing so / deep
/ for my own blowing hair, chapped face,
and unbuttoned coat that I’m / speech-
less: / I am living. I remember you.”
“Unearth [The Flowers]” by Thea
Matthews
“Unearth [The Flowers]” is a book for
today’s moment of collective outrage and
action. Matthews, a Black Indigenous
Mexican poet, does not shy away from the
grief and anger born from colonization,
militarism and patriarchy. This is not an
easy read — the violence she describes

left a sickening feeling in my stomach. But
the poems are, at their roots, vignettes of
survival and resilience. How does one
heal when the injuring is ongoing? How
does one reclaim their body, their life?
With each poem named after a flower,

Matthews shows how people can bloom
even through the darkest moments,

how we will always plant our roots and
reach towards the sun: “My roots now
/ strengthened my bones in formation /
I emerge slowly uprising in the night. I
rise / in the glimmer of untamable waters
/ I live.”

Content warning: Character death, vio-
lence, spoilers for “The Walking Dead”
THE GLOBAL PHENOMENON AMC
television series “The Walking Dead”
(Robert Kirkman) was once one of the
most highly rated television series on
air. “The Walking Dead” follows zom-
bie apocalypse survivors Rick Grimes
(Andrew Lincoln, “Penguin Bloom”),
Maggie Greene (Lauren Cohan, “Invinci-
ble”), Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun, “Minari”)
and an ensemble of a few dozen other
characters as they clash with the brain-
eating monsters and other survivors alike.
Despite its acclaim, the show has some-
what faded from the public eye in recent

years. The adventures of protagonist Rick
Grimes and company inevitably become
dull as similar plot threads are repeated
and a large portion of its original cast
is killed off. Still, “The Walking Dead”
remains a guilty pleasure of mine, regard-
less of this decline in quality. Watching
the world end for Rick Grimes, though
often a complicated viewing relationship,
has taught me how to prevent my own
from ending.
It all started one blistering summer
afternoon some four or five years ago. In
search of an escape and a quick thrill, my
mother and I embarked on our first epi-
sode of the acclaimed series, not know-
ing what lay ahead of us. One episode
was enough to have us wrapped around
Grimes’s finger. A weekly routine became
a nightly binge which became an insatia-

ble obsession.
We turned into Walkers ourselves, des-
perate to feast on any Walking Dead con-
tent we could get our hands on. Thanks
to my mother’s Netflix subscription and
the DVD section of my hometown’s pub-
lic library, this hunger engulfed our sum-
mer with an intensity akin to infatuation.
Now, years later, I am both proud and
embarrassed to say that I have watched 10
seasons of “The Walking Dead,” six sea-
sons of the spinoff-prequel series, “Fear
the Walking Dead” and (unfortunately)
one season of “The Walking Dead: World
Beyond.”
As time went on, the magic of the first
five or six seasons wore off, and watching
“The Walking Dead” became increasing-
ly daunting. I was continually force-fed
unnecessary character deaths and con-

trived storylines. There have been mar-
ginal improvements in recent seasons, but
too many aspects of the show are twisted
unrecognizably from their origins; all
but two original cast members have been
killed off or left the show. “The Walking
Dead” became the television embodiment
of the Ship of Theseus. I was no longer
watching the same show I fell in love with.
As “The Walking Dead” has experi-
enced somewhat of an apocalypse of its
own, the COVID-19 pandemic raged on
and created a world that was hauntingly
similar to the desolate landscape depict-
ed in the show. At its best, “The Walk-
ing Dead” underlined the importance of
found family and connection through
adversity. Like Rick Grimes and his group
of survivors, the only way I could weather
this apocalypse was with the aid of fam-

ily.
My mother and I watched every single
episode of the nearly 200-episode series
together; we cried together, we screamed
in terror together, we expressed our
disappointment together. When a gut-
punching cliffhanger left us in awe, we
would revel in it. When a string of bad
episodes left a sour taste we could always
turn to each other to complain. Sharing
the strenuous viewing experience made
it more than bearable, even when “The
Walking Dead” was at its worst. Watch-
ing the show with my family during the
pandemic was one of the only things that
kept me sane; the escapism of a fictional
apocalypse helped me cope with the real-
ity of the global pandemic.

Poetry to get you through the 2020s (and your 20s)

Life lessons from Rick Grimes and his zombie apocalypse

Our current apocalypse
can’t be escaped in fiction

THE APOCALYPSE OF the past
two years was marked in my life, not
just by the COVID-19 pandemic, but
by the subjects of the books I read.
I began reading more consistently
during this time and found myself
deep in a genre of existential stories
that, whether or not I realized it at
the time, added still more apocalyp-
tic material to my darkening view
of the world. After Kurt Vonnegut’s
“Slaughterhouse-Five,” the injustice
of war was stamped into my brain
on top of the rising COVID-19 cases.
After Michael Cunningham’s “The
Hours,” it was sickness and sadness
and the fact that the human condition
had begun to appear fractured. These
and other novels left me unsettled by
the passage of time for longer than
I’d care to admit. I loved books like
these, anxious and pessimistic as they
made me. They altered my thinking.
I felt changed by the authors’ use of
language, which was powerful and
mesmerizing. They were beautifully
written, and they meant something.
There was no question for me that
they were worth my time.
Yet as the pandemic dragged on in
the real world, and the insurmount-
able worldly problems and existential-
ism piled up in the fiction I consumed,
I began to long for an escape. I loved
these books, but I needed a break
from them. I wanted to be happy
while reading, not because I liked the
writing or because of Vonnegut’s dry,
satirical humor, but because the sto-
ries themselves were happy. I wanted
a book that was cozy and exciting.
I wanted fluff. I wanted romance. I
wanted characters to root for who got
what they wanted in clear-cut ways
that I didn’t need to struggle to wrap
my mind around.
So, I set out to find a cute, fluffy
romance novel. It couldn’t be too hard,

I thought. Not a big romance reader
myself, I turned to the BookTubers
I watched, and they almost unani-
mously recommended Talia Hibbert’s
“Get a Life, Chloe Brown.” I checked
it out from the library with perhaps
unattainably high hopes.
I liked “Chloe Brown” well enough,
but it wasn’t everything I had dreamed
it would be. I tried to be invested in the
story, to care whether the characters
ended up together, but the reality
was that I wasn’t. I couldn’t shake the
feeling that the story didn’t matter. I
doubted it would deeply affect me in
any way. I didn’t want this to be true.
I certainly didn’t want to be someone
who couldn’t enjoy romance novels
because they weren’t heavy and dense
and “serious.” I desperately wanted to
care about Chloe and her love interest,
Red. I tried to fend off my ambiva-
lence to the story, but in the end, it
was impossible. I looked for other
romance novels, but none appealed
to me much more. I followed this fail-
ure with a string of thrillers — a genre
I once loved — but the ones I chose,
highly recommended as they were,
felt generic; they felt like nothing spe-
cial and I stopped reading most after
a few chapters. I didn’t want to read
another heavy book yet. I still wanted
something fun, but for one reason
or another, I didn’t enjoy the books I
thought would fit this description.
While deciding to write this for
The Michigan Daily, I realized that
I needed to think of a book that had
saved me. A book that had felt both
meaningful and worthwhile and
been truly energizing to read — fun
in a non-depressing way. I knew that
I must have read such a book during
this time, and finding it was the logi-
cal conclusion to this piece. Racking
my brain, thinking of every piece of
fiction I read in the last two years, I
could not find anything that fit the bill.

Design by Reid Graham

BRENNA GOSS
Daily Arts Writer

ERIN EVANS
Daily Arts Writer

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Judy Hughes
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/23/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/23/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, February 23, 2022

ACROSS
1 Pierre’s st.
5 Retro ski area
sight
9 Sounding
amazed
14 Dance at Jewish
weddings
15 Slippery
16 Not exactly a
company person
17 Like a GI doing
dishes
18 It starts the pot
19 Former
Portuguese
territory in China
20 Train vigorously
23 Obscure
24 Worldwide
cultural org.
27 Part of a play
29 Like wee bairns
30 Street-paving
goop
31 Show eager
anticipation
35 Citrus drinks
37 Brazil __
38 Cookies-and-
cream ingredient
39 Search
everywhere
44 Timeworn
45 Paddle relative
46 Honor society
starter
47 Subject of the
Book of Proverbs
49 Neither early nor
late
54 Work really hard
for victory ... and
a hint to the start
of 20-, 31- and
39-Across
58 Classic mother-
and-son statue
60 Pub projectile
61 Yellowish green
62 Primp
63 Geometry
product
64 Techie, say
65 Cline of country
66 Sail support
67 “Get lost!”

DOWN
1 Exhibited, as a
home for sale

2 Hawaiian singing
legend
3 Alan of “Argo”
4 Honor society
ender
5 Town where
the New Jersey
(now Brooklyn)
Nets played
home games for
their first year
6 Twisted
7 The “A” in SATB
8 Bar shelf lineup
9 Annual fact book
10 Act bonkers
11 Family tree
members
12 North __
13 Play-for-pay
21 Apple desktop
22 Sings without
lyrics
25 Common
superhero garb
26 Estimate
qualifier
28 Printer supply
29 Prep
31 Bare bones
musical notation
32 Loyal end?
33 Heart

34 Garden tool
35 Take __:
acknowledge
applause
36 Business with a
slicer
40 More than
needed
41 Soccer great
Mia
42 Call to from a
distance
43 Clue

48 Sources of high
school jitters
50 Anklebone
51 “If only”
52 Old copy
machine
53 Four before mayo
55 Dutch cheese
56 __ avis
57 Mining targets
58 Very softly, in
music
59 Sr.’s nest egg

SUDOKU

WHISPER

“Has everything
worked out
yet?”

“Froyo is totally
out for 2021
AF!!”

WHISPER

By George Jasper
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
02/16/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

02/16/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2022

ACROSS
1 Bare-bones
6 Out of concern
that
10 Distance runner’s
concern
14 Early Greek
public space
15 Excessively: Pref.
16 Aerosol target
17 Mall map
clarification
19 Half a patio pair
20 Cuban missile
crisis strategy
22 Uncertainties
25 Even the queen,
in chess
26 Beat in a hot dog
contest
27 Like nobility
29 Slow movement
31 Web app for the
latest
33 What 15 U.S.
presidents
formerly were,
briefly
36 Son of
Chingachgook, in
a Cooper novel
37 Be in the red
38 Hustle
40 Shaggy pack
animal
41 Pre-wedding
show
43 Frequents dive
bars, say
45 Pretentious type
46 Key participant
49 NBA tiebreakers
50 Water holder
51 Salad dressing
brand ... and
what each set of
circles reveals
55 Opposed to, in
dialect
56 Start of a proverb
for which Ben
Franklin is
credited
60 It’s about a foot
61 “Star Trek:
T.N.G.” counselor
62 Do away with
63 Online craft shop
64 Newcastle’s river
65 Summer Triangle
star

DOWN
1 __ window
2 Before now

3 Thing of little
worth
4 Turkey
neighbor
5 Whitman’s
Sampler
choices
6 “Freaky Friday”
actress Lindsay
7 First name in
daredevilry
8 Saharan
9 Shakes
10 One may be
sweet
11 Love to death
12 __ line
13 Cereal killer
18 Artfully escape
21 Listening device
22 Company’s tech
guru
23 “Shrek”
princess
24 Keep in the
supply room
28 NYC airport on
Flushing Bay
29 Civil rights
legend John
30 Blown away
32 What do you
expect?
33 Put out
34 __ New Guinea

35 Perfect thing that’s
not beneficial
38 Like idiomatic
skeletons
39 Tom, Dick and
Harry
41 TV host/
comedian
with 23 Emmy
nominations
42 In a suitable
manner
43 New South
Wales capital

44 Jeans brand
46 Part of a process
47 __-year
48 “So long, amigo”
49 Skateboard
move
52 Fluctuate
53 “East of Eden”
twin
54 Bygone days
57 Stop legally
58 Austin-to-
Houston dir.
59 Star of the ball

CONNOR JORDAN
Daily Arts Contributor

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

Design by Jennie Vang

Read more at
MichiganDaily.com

Back to Top

© 2025 Regents of the University of Michigan