The nineteenth century novelist Joseph Conrad once wrote, “My task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel–it is, before all, to make you see.” And that is exactly what this NPR series aims to do. Featured essayists stitch together words that let you peek inside their core beliefs, their struggles to understand their world, their insights about what matters most in life. Sometimes these words are expressed in prose, sometimes in poetry. And as Rhode Island’s outgoing state poet Rick Benjamin notes, sometimes we enjoy both poetry and prose.
Rick Benjamin has served as the state poet of Rhode Island since 2013. He will be departing shortly for a new position in California.
