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Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2025: Not Even
by Michelle Robin Visser
Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2025: Not Even
Not even Hildegard knew that the manuscripts she wrote
were written hand to skin or the hard number of sheep
it took to copy a Bible. When monks,
drunk on their own liqueurs, swore
there were ghosts pushing books off of shelves
in the wee hours of the morning when the stones
under their feet made their bones ache with cold
did the stories of haunted libraries take hold
in the hearts of men who hoped there
was something more to this world than
thin gruel and thin cloth and thin hope
of attaining heaven. Like men,
books were clothed in animal skins. Like men,
they pushed and writhed and forced themselves
apart or together depending on the prevailing
conditions of warmth or cold, wet or dry,
abundance or scarcity.
What haunts us is not the fall.
What haunts us is the animal that
even in death
thinly covers us all.
A special thank you to our WordView 2025 poets.
Hear from some our winners this year on what the Archive and winning has meant to them:
"I feel deeply grateful to be taking part in the chorus of voices honoured by PAN Worldwide 2025. Leonard Cohen famously sang that “every heart to love will come, but like a refugee.” For me, the same might be said of poetry. I came to the writing of it late, and thank The Poetry Archive for providing the encouragement to continue being brave in sharing it." - Michelle Robin Visser.
"I think it shows the importance of live spoken word to share poetry as equally as the printed word for some audiences." - Steve Harrison.
"Being part of the PAN Worldwide 2025 collection alongside 17 incredible poets from across the globe is both an honour and a reminder of the unifying power of poetry. Moving forward, I think this experience will stay with me, it has encouraged me to continue writing with honesty and openness, and to remember that my voice is part of something much larger than myself." - Panya Banjoko.
See the collectionWatch the full Wordview 2025 playlist