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.