From "Words:"

"When you said people did you mean punish? / When you said friend did you mean fraud? / When you said thought did you mean terror? / When you said connection did you mean con? / When you said God did you mean greed? / When you said faith did you mean fanatic? / When you said hope did you mean hype? / When you said unity did you mean enmity? / When you said freedom did you mean forfeit? / When you said law did you mean lie?..." (Read the complete poem here.) 

Of the poem, Keene said, "I started to mull over how we have been struggling to communicate with and understand one another—even at the level of basic language and art-making. We have misvalued and disvalued the power of words and their social, political, and economic meanings and effects." 

Keene is a poet, translator, and author of several collections, including "Punks: New and Selected Poems" (The Song Cave, 2021), winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Poetry, and the 2022 Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry.

Keene was born in 1965 and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He lives in Jersey City, New Jersey where he teaches at Rutgers University-Newark, African American and African studies, English, and creative writing. 

Biography: https://poets.org/poet/john-keene
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-keene
Poetry:
Words
Punks: New & Selected Poems
[Photo credit: Nina Subin/Courtesy of New Directions]

If you're inspired by this poet, respond to the challenge with your own words!