[justify]When Orr was 12, he accidentally killed his brother in a hunting accident, an event his family was never able to talk about.
عندما كان اور في سن الثانية عشرة قتل اخاه في حادث صيد..وهذا الحدث لم تستطع عائلته الحديث عنه ابدا...
His mother died soon thereafter,
ماتت امه بعد ذلك بقليل

and Orr found in poetry the transformative power of language
. His near-death experience as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) during the civil rights movement, in which he was jailed and severely beaten, contributes to the urgency with which his poems seek transformation.

In an NPR story on his craft, Orr states, “I believe in poetry as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions, and traumatic events that come with being alive.”


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