Mick Cochrane is a professor of English and a longtime teller of stories. His published works include novels, short stories, essays, and poetry. His work is compelling, candid, and cuts straight to the heart of what it means to be human, what it means to experience love, loss, limitation, and transcendence. Here is a selection of three of his poems.

"Words are delicious, but cannot say much. They often lose the water of meaning before it is delivered. But they can be stirred to form descriptions of the breath, glances, gestures, and pulses between lives. Perhaps writing is finding a scrape in the skin of knowing, where the sting and dirt and blood of the day is let out, and music is let in." The following excerpt, by Nora Bateson, noted research designer, film-maker, writer, and daughter of Gregory Bateson, is taken from the beginning of her book, "Small Arcs of Larger Circles: Framing Through Other Patterns."

"I have known radicals and revolutionaries who love 'the people' but whose everyday lives are replete with contradictions. The late bell hooks was by no means perfect, but she was impressively consistent. She took seriously the notion that a revolution had to center love and was as much about transforming ourselves as it was about transforming the world. I met hooks when I was a graduate student at the University of Michigan in the late 1980s and early 90s. I have many memories of her, but a Chicago activist now in her 60s shared with me a story that captures her essence." Barbara Ransby shares more.