People from around the world reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine through poetryWhen so much in our lives ground to a halt in the spring of 2020, no one knew how long the COVID-19 pandemic would last. After long months of shutdowns, social distancing, and worry, the first coronavirus vaccines were released in December 2020. In March 2021, the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University and the University of Arizona Poetry Center launched the website for the Global Vaccine Poem project, inviting anyone to share experiences of the pandemic and vaccination through poetry. Dear Vaccine features selections from over 2,000 poetry submissions to the project, which come from all 50 states and 118 different countries. Internationally acclaimed author Naomi Shihab Nye, in her introduction, highlights the human dimensions found across the responses. Richard Carmona, the 17th Surgeon General of the United States, provides a foreword that contextualizes the global scope of the problem, as well as the political and public health dimensions. Making use of poetry's powerful tools to connect us across division, Dear Vaccine reminds us that medical advances alone are not enough to solve the vexing challenges of the pandemic; the arts-and poetry-have a profound and critical role to play.

Shared joys and concerns across cultures and language, expressed in the poetry of children.When school children from Kent, Ohio and Florence, Italy, were invited to express their thoughts about "Where I'm From" in poetry, the connections that emerged between these students from different continents were remarkable. Their responses to this prompt-"lo vengo da" in Italian-demonstrate the underlying importance of home, families, the natural world, and the creative identities that children harbour within them. The 40 poems in I Hear the World Sing, printed in both English and Italian, presents these poems in three sections-"The Chirp of Little Birds," "Witness the River," and "I Write to Grow a World"-which explore and celebrate the commonalities between us. Anyone can be a poet, no matter the language one speaks or writes. And by presenting each poem in two languages, this collection emphasises how successfully poetry transcends both physical and linguistic boundaries, no matter the age of the poet. Originally composed in workshops facilitated by the Wick Poetry Center's Traveling Stanzas project and translated by students in Kent State University's Italian translation program, I Hear the World Sing is an invitation for students of poetry, of Italian, and readers of any age to reflect on language and how it shapes our lives.