https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/01/24/poetry-in-pandemic-times-six-california-poets-on-the-healing-power-of-verse/

Ever since Pindar first penned it, poetry has been a salve for the soul. Through sonnet, haiku, rhyme and free-form, we have relied on poets to make sense of the world and how we live in it.

But poetry is having an unexpected moment. This past year, “We Are the Dream,” an HBO documentary about Oakland’s youngest oratorical poets, took home an Emmy. Brandon Leake, a relatively unknown Stockton spoken-word poet, won NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” And poets laureate from California to New York found a new calling, posting verses to comfort families grappling with pandemic fears and the fight against racial injustice.