Editor’s Note: This review discusses suicide.

How can poetry help us now, when practically every morning brings a fresh assault on knowledge, wisdom and safety? Amid the cruel political discourse horrifying headlines that seem to envelop everything, where is there a place for poetry? What can a bunch of artfully arranged words do?

A lot, I’d argue.

Words are among the many things under attack. Our stories, the ways that we fill our words with our own meanings, are more precious and urgent than ever, as three new books this fall by poets in – or entering – mid-career make clear. They lay claim to stories of identity, suffering and hope, to a kind of collective subjectivity, to the inner life of a country in the throes of deep pain and uncertainty. Here’s a look:

Blue Opening by Chet’la Sebree

Chet’la Sebree’s third book begins with the thwarted wish to have a child: “Many in my family have been plagued/ by menorrhagia in early middle age–/ fibrinous weeds causing their bodies to bleed streams,/ flooding lands no longer suitable for plants.”

What follows is a rapidly paced, heart-stricken coming to terms with a body and a future suddenly altered by autoimmune disease, with the meanings of motherhood and daughterhood, and with the stunned language required to describe it all when there is “no one to know/ my body’s vernacular, that it would mistake me for foreigner.”

Blindingly clear and unornamented, these poems have all their cards on the table, “pregnant with grief—/ it’s bloated, black, a matted thatch.” If the body is in revolt — “I am not the owner of this vessel I thought I owned, implies the man trying to sell it to me” — then it is through language that Sebree can lay claim to herself, to her story, and take it back.

The lexicons of motherhood and illness (“I accept this list of words:// necrotizing lymphadenitis and swell-scrambled nerves”) become a vocabulary of grief and profound disappointment with what may and may not be possible. Sebree searches for language to carry the grief and to promise some kind of hope and inner rebirth; she finds a surprising kind of peace and power “when a centrifuge spins/ my blood 3,000 revolutions per minute/ to render me perhaps anew to me again.” A new kind of creation becomes possible, as well, through poetry.

The Seeds by Cecily Parks

With The Seeds, her third book, Cecily Parks comes into her full powers. These poems are dark, lavish, far-reaching and subtly layered, making a harsh and rich mirror of the pastoral and the domestic. Parks reckons with the compromises that every life demands, that motherhood and art demand, that a country where violence and cruelty are suddenly triumphant require: “now I think of hope// as a swing chained to a branch./ it can be used until/ the branch sweeps the ground/ with a shush shush because/ it cannot bear/ so much weight and still loft through/ the dream-trafficked air.”

Parks’ powers of description are breathtaking, not only because one feels transported but also because, as in the poems of Elizabeth Bishop, the emotion, the domestic or personal story, is interwoven into – always an undercurrent of, a reason for – the description. But somehow, the world as described also feels like the world, not a projection. In these poems, Parks feels with her eyes.

The writing is simply beautiful: “the grackles plummet down to pierce the lawn/ for seeds and fat brown live oak acorns.” The words dart in and out of the rhythm like the grackles’ dark beaks, making gentle animals of a mother and her “ravenous daughters.” This book is a delight, a feast of grief and determined celebration. A fallen world this lovingly observed must be at least somewhat redeemed.

The New Economy by Gabrielle Calvocoressi

Hopelessness is a beloved enemy in these poems, a necessary muse. So are grief and fear. “The days I don’t want to kill myself/ are extraordinary,” begins the most affirming poem about suicide I’ve ever read. But these are not merely affirming poems (though one of them is titled “Affirmation Cistern When I Let Go of My Fear Life Becomes Magical”). Calvocoressi is at home in the dark, they live there, even if light is their element. They’re wise because they’re wary: “every being will slaughter/ their neighbor if they’re hungry,/ and enough.”

All of our violence, they assert – with a compassion so pure it feels out of step with the times – is born of fear: “when I was little I wanted/ to be tough to beat people up to own a gun./ wanted the boy body that would keep my body/ from being so scared.” Violence begins in each of us, is always inflicted first upon ourselves. And yet, we persist, try to do better – we must.

A series of “Miss You” poems, high-energy elegies for loved ones who have died, celebrate life emphatically by not quite letting go of the past: “miss you in your puffy blue jacket./ They’re hip now. I can bring you a new one/ if only you’ll come by. Know I told you /it was okay to go. Know I told you it was okay/ to leave me./ Why’d you believe me?” Why let the past go? Where else do we live but our stories? Where else can we rest from the terrors of the present? Where else can we remind ourselves of the beauty of the world?

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 9 8 8 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

There’s a reason crowds endure yearly price increases and jammed sidewalks at Disneyland each November through early January. It’s the merriest time of the year — and arguably when the resort is at its glistening, glowing best with seasonal food offerings, holiday ride makeovers and unique live entertainment options.

Disneyland, of course, is home to the long-running A Christmas Fantasy Parade, but I’d argue it’s not even the best processional happening this time of year. And this year, even Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, though not part of Disneyland’s holiday programming, is finding new ways to get festive.

Here’s a sample of some of my favorite things to do at the park this holiday season, which runs through Jan. 7. If you’re curious to check it out but looking to save a little on tickets, Disneyland has announced a new California ticket offer that goes on sale Dec. 3 and takes effect Jan. 1. The deal is for a three-day park-hopper ticket, which can be used on non-consecutive visits, and starts at $249 per person, which amounts to $83 per day.

If you go, don’t be shy, and say hi, as it’s the time of the year when I visit most often.

Don’t miss Disneyland’s best street party

There’s one show at the Disneyland Resort that each year, without fail, brings me to tears — tears of joy, but also tears of surprise that something so lively, diverse and dance-focused exists at a Disney park. That show is California Adventure’s ¡Viva Navidad!

A boisterous celebration of Latin art and music from beginning to end, ¡Viva Navidad! uses the characters from Disney’s mid-1940s goodwill film “The Three Caballeros” as a jumping-off point to showcase folklórico dancers, mariachis and 12-foot-tall mojiganga puppets (large-scale, papier mâché sculptures that dizzyingly rocket up and down a small portion of California Adventure). The show, which came from the minds of Susana Tubert and her team at Disney Live Entertainment, feels a bit like a Mexican street parade and works because it extends a hand to guests of all walks of life. Though launching with Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime,” it ends with the always-festive “Feliz Navidad” from José Feliciano.

Running since 2014, ¡Viva Navidad! is a blast. It’s a treasure. The only quibble is the show primarily runs on weekends only.

Embrace a cultural tradition — with stories, candles and thoughtfulness

“A Musical Christmas With Mariachi Alegría de Disneyland & Miguel” is an evening performance at Disneyland that centers on a mariachi band and is inspired by Las Posadas.

(Joshua Sudock / Disneyland Resort
)

Introduced last year, California Adventure’s “A Musical Christmas With Mariachi Alegría de Disneyland & Miguel” features the star of Disney/Pixar film “Coco” but, like ¡Viva Navidad!, is rooted in cultural traditions. Specifically Las Posadas. Think a festive procession that travels among the community, Las Posadas are traditionally staged in Mexico between Dec. 16 and 24. In their purest form, Las Posadas depict the biblical story of Joseph and Mary and the search for shelter at the time of Jesus’ birth.

The Disney performance, which typically runs on weekdays, deviates from the religious overtunes. But some of the key touchstones — a mix of music and stories, a centering of children with candles — are present. It begins with a trot to the center of California Adventure to the tune of “El Burrito de Belén” and throughout the course of the show it will touch on such staples as “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” albeit in bilingual renditions.

The show’s narrator and singer regales guests with tales of how different Latin countries present stories of Santa Claus, or, say, the joy of unwrapping a tamale. The climax instead of the street performance is a candlelit rendition of “Silent Night,” with audience participation. What a moment ago was festive theme park fare becomes something more reflective, all while slightly nodding to the holiday’s more spiritual underpinnings.

Participate in a fantastical holiday at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Life Day is a fictional holiday exclusive to the “Star Wars” universe.

(Disneyland Resort)

OK, so this is a bit of a curve ball. It should be noted that what happens in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is not part of Disneyland’s traditional holiday programming, as Life Day is not an actual holiday, unless, perhaps, your religion is “Star Wars.” It’s also lighthearted good fun. Life Day has its roots in the beloved but campy and culturally questionable “Star Wars Holiday Special” as an event that originated on the Wookie home planet of Kashyyyk.

When Galaxy’s Edge opened in 2019, fans wondered if during the holiday season the land would get in on the Life Day action. Initially, fans started showing up on Nov. 17, the day the television special aired, for impromptu celebrations of their own. Credit Disneyland for embracing the guest-driven activity, so much so that the park started developing Life Day ornaments and shirts as well as offering limited time food specials.

This year, a red-robed Chewbacca holding a glowing orb — the official symbol of Life Day — will for the first time wander Galaxy’s Edge to meet with visitors. Disney hasn’t said for exactly how long this festive version of Chewbacca will be present in the land, but here’s hoping Life Day is celebrated at least until the end of Disneyland’s more conventional holiday proceedings.

After all, I enjoyed my morning paying respects to the fictional holiday, as I indulged in a limited-run anise-spiked sangria at Oga’s Cantina (the Joh Blastoh Sangria Gocola, $19.50) along with a large, fluffy slice of cinnamon toast topped with a richly sweet, cheesecake-inspired frosting and ornamental lychee pearls (Millaflower Toast, $13). The latter meant I essentially had dessert for breakfast, and while it was too sugary to finish — definitely share it — I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that Disneyland has embraced one of the silliest aspects of the space fantasy the land is dedicated to.

You’ll love the gingerbread (and other tasty delights)

The Festival of Holidays in Disney California Adventure is serving up two types of mac and cheese this year. On the left is the al pastor mac and cheese and on the right is the savory kugel mac and cheese.

(David Nguyen / Disneyland Resort)

I stopped in the lobby of the Grand Californian on my way out of the park for some Mickey-shaped gingerbread cookies and balked at a line that some guests said they had spent 40 minutes standing in. But having had it in year’s past, as well as a Halloween version of the cookie just a couple weeks ago, I can vouch for the fact that it is quality, soft gingerbread. Worth the wait? Your mileage may vary, but know that the best gingerbread cookie in Disneyland is actually inside the park at the Harbor Galley, where the cookies are smaller and rounder but also spicier and chewier. And 13 of them cost just $13.79, making them one of the more budget-friendly snacks in the resort. They’re a must.

Yet there’s much to sample across Disneyland’s two parks, its shopping district and hotels, so much so that I spent much more time on Sunday eating than going on rides. The bulk of my afternoon was devoted to the food booths of Disney California Adventure’s Festival of Holidays, where most items run between $6 and $9 (or buy a passport to try six items for $49). The highlight was an al pastor mac and cheese where I slathered the cubes of pork in the finest theme park cheese slop. Don’t miss some returning favorites, such as the barbacoa tamal de res, in which the beef is pleasantly tender, or the braised pork belly adobo, one of the heartier dishes at the festival. Just know that throughout the day booths may periodically run out of items, so be prepared to pivot.

Elsewhere, I sampled the creamy, rum-forward horchata with whipped cream ($18) at Downtown Disney’s Centrico, a frosty, mid-afternoon cinnamon-focused dessert drink, and made a note to come back for the seasonal, mole tamales. It wouldn’t be the holidays without a little eggnog, so I made it over to the Disneyland Hotel’s Broken Spell Lounge for its $19 cognac and rum-spiked rendition. It’s heavily alcohol forward, so next time I may simply stick to the space’s spirit-less house-made eggnog at $9. While there, don’t miss the French dip, which, albeit pricey at $34, is an ample, filling sandwich that debuted during last year’s holidays and became so popular with guests it stuck around.

Still on my must-try list: a gingerbread-cranberry cheesecake trifle at Disneyland’s Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe and the gingerbread pancakes at River Belle Terrace.

And of course, don’t miss the holiday ride makeovers, including Haunted Mansion and It’s a Small World

The Haunted Mansion is currently themed to “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” a charming, Christmas-focused makeover.

(Disneyland Resort / Christian Thompson)

In a way, Disneyland has been celebrating Christmas since August. That’s when its Haunted Mansion was remade into its “Nightmare Before Christmas” form and became a ride that largely cheers the Dec. 25 holiday.

While Disneyland’s original Haunted Mansion is the one after my heart, the overlay has its charms, namely the demented gingerbread house in the ballroom scene. This year’s rendition is filled with murderous red-eyed ravens up to no good, and in true Haunted Mansion fashion it has a pun for a name. The 13-foot gingerbread house is titled “A Murder So Fowl.” Pay close attention as you glide by, as not all these ravens and crows appear to survive a visit to the gingerbread mansion.

And while Disneyland’s early evening tree lighting tends to draw a crowd, you’ll want to make your way to Fantasyland at 5 p.m. for the nighttime illumination of the It’s a Small World facade. Here, tens of thousands of lights instantly flip on for arguably Southern California’s most memorable Christmas light display. It’s so bright, that nearby walkways will glow red and green and twinkle along with the playful piece of mid-’60s architecture.

The attraction itself remains a joy. The ride’s namesake song plays give and take with “Jingle Bells” and seasonal adornments adorably enliven the leisurely boat ride with even more cheer. The regular version is my favorite ride at Disneyland, and during the holidays it’s like riding through a giant, wintry music box.

The holidays may be one of the busier times to visit the Disneyland Resort, but it’s also a time when the theme parks are at their best.

(Christian Thompson / Disneyland Resort
)

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When both your parents are in show business, you get used to being stopped on the street. Just ask Ben Stiller, whose parents, Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara, formed a hit comedy duo in the 1960s and ’70s.

“My mom usually wouldn’t want to talk to people for a long time … and my dad would talk to people forever,” Stiller says. “As kids … you feel that your parent’s attention [is] being taken away from you.”

Meara died in 2015 and her husband followed in 2020. After his father’s death, Ben Stiller found a stash of audio recordings his dad had made of his conversations and arguments with Meara about their marriage and their act. Those tapes are at the center of Stiller’s new documentary about his parents, Stiller & Meara: Nothing Is Lost.

Stiller says his father was always more committed to comedy than his mother, who studied under Uta Hagen and dreamed of being a serious actor. They had been married for several years, both struggling to make it in show business, when Jerry Stiller had the idea to create short comedy sketches together. “He drew her into doing this comedy act,” his son says. “And that changed their lives.”

The comedy team of Stiller and Meara would go on to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show more than 30 times. Later, Jerry Stiller co-starred on Seinfeld, playing Frank Costanza, George’s father. Meanwhile, Ben Stiller was forging his own path in Hollywood, both as an actor and a filmmaker.

Stiller is currently the executive producer and director of the TV series, Severance, about a company that makes its employees get a procedure on their brain that separates the memories of their home life and the memories of their work life. The premise is almost the direct opposite of the lifestyle his parents modeled while he was growing up.

“Their marriage, their relationship … was also what their act was about,” Stiller says. “So I think that concept of the separation is actually really very interesting to me because it’s something I’ve never had.”

Interview highlights

On Jerry Stiller’s desire to be loved by everyone

I think I can identify. … I think most actors have a certain sense of wanting approval. … He’d talk about it very openly. He said, “I need that love from the audience.” It’s kind of armchair psychology, but … he didn’t get a lot of nurturing from [his parents] when he was a kid. … They fought a lot, and they were very poor, and nobody was encouraging him to go into show business. …

He went to Syracuse University and he performed in plays and he found his people and found this warmth and acceptance in the theater, and he was always connecting with people. I think he loved talking to people. He loved when fans would come up and say hi to him. And it meant something to him, and my mother had a very different relationship with it.

On the fun part of having celebrity parents

Married couple Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara formed the comedy team of Stiller & Meara.
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I remember when they played nightclubs in New York and that was really exciting for us. We get to stay up late, hang out with the grownups. Interesting, funny people coming in and out of the house. They would have these New Year’s Eve parties at their apartment in the late ’70s and the ’80s that were just amazing. … As kids, it was really fun to be around. I loved going on sets when they would go out to LA. … To be on the Paramount studios lot … made me want to make movies. Being around that, it was very clear early on that that’s what I wanted to do. It was a lot of fun times and more interesting to my sister and I than school, for sure.

On sneaking out while his parents traveled for work

Our nanny, Hazel, took care of us basically since I think the time that I was probably about 4 years old. She was from Jamaica and she had seven kids of her own and they lived in Brooklyn and we became very close with her family, with her kids, because some of them were Amy and my age. My parents would go away for, like, a two-week stint to LA to do whichever game show or Love Boat or whatever it was. Hazel was so sweet. She knew she had to be the disciplinarian and keep us in line, but … it was kind of like a free-for-all a little bit when we were on our own. We’d stay up late sometimes, trying to sneak out.

As we got older and became teenagers, then there were other things going on, like my sister started going to Studio 54 when I think she was, like, 17 and I was 13. And she would take me to Studio 54 with her friends and they would sneak us in. They put me in a yellow and green polka-dotted Fiorucci shirt … and an Army jacket and these Mickey Mouse sunglasses. And they put this outfit on me and we went up and [the bouncer] Mark saw us and he pointed to us and said, “Come on in.” And we were in. And that happened a few times. So I think I was 13.

On calling his dad when he had a bad LSD trip

I took LSD once when my parents were out doing The Love Boat once. … I was the guy who called his parents on LSD. I called them up in LA because I was scared. I was having a bad trip and [it was] the only time I ever did LSD. My mom got really mad at me. And my dad was actually much nicer and kind of tried to help talk me down. And he said, “I understand what you’re going through. When I was 11 years old, I smoked a Pall Mall cigarette and I was sick for two days.” And I was like, “No dad, you don’t understand. I don’t understand what reality is.” But he was great. He was actually great about it.

On his father being cast as Frank Costanza on Seinfeld

It was life-changing for him. He was a very lovable guy and … people just loved seeing him let out all this emotion and kind of this tamped up rage that he had inside in a very funny way. And I think the fame that it brought in, because Seinfeld was such a phenomenon, was like nothing he had ever experienced before. It was fulfilling for him, I think, a childhood dream of being someone who could be funny on his own. …

For me, I was kind of just starting to experience success on my own. So I was happy that my dad was working and that he was in this show that was such a phenomenon. There was never competition between us. … My mom was the one who sort of was, I think, having to deal with not having that kind of success at that point. But for her, I don’t think it was as important a thing and as relevant to her own personal happiness, though I think she would have liked to have worked more as an actor.

Ann Marie Baldonado and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.