An Ode to Ellen Bass

A roundup of poems + an invitation to join us for her masterclass on The Poetic Line

Dear Friends,

I remember exactly where I was when I first read “The Thing Is” by Ellen Bass.

It was April 2020. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Ellen’s poem shaped my experience of the pandemic in New York City, providing a kind of solace—and a reminder of my responsibility to persist and to hope—I would have been hard-pressed to find elsewhere a…