There have been a plethora of articles and posts online about Shakespeare writing King Lear and other plays during an outbreak of plague in London in 1606. These pieces of writing range from the (supposedly) inspirational to the historical, and can be found to suit every outlook–those who think this period should be used to create or learn or better ourselves, those who push back at that notion, those who are just exhausted by it all.
My poem “Rewriting King Lear in a Time of Pandemic” is a response to all of these writings and ideas, and is published today by TEJASCOVIDO, an extraordinary poetry project run by Laurence Musgrove, professor of English at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, who has done a great service to readers and writers seeking to explore and discuss and dramatize and take stock of out different experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.