Take this poem

I hope you'll listen to Muriel Rukeyser read her own poem! It's weird, funny, scary, true.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-NaxSRN4E    

In this episode I read three poems from The Art of Losing, an anthology edited by Kevin Young.  "The Wake" by Rita Dove "The Shout" by Simon Armitage "Remember Me" by Hal Sirowitz

Keith Hansen brings us five poems from Michael Chitwood, whose work explores the Appalachian landscape of his youth.  "Want" "Catalytic Converter" "Chicken"  "Lakeside" "Search and Rescue"  

I wrestled with this poem for a long time. I thought I would run out of winter before I was satisfied with a recording.  But then it snowed here these last couple days, and it encouraged me to fix up the most recent attempt and just get it out to you. Here you go: "October" by Louise Gluck.    .................................................................................................. I hear...

Happy New Year! I'm re-gifting this poem.  Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Anna!  "The Risk of Birth, Christmas 1973" by Madeline L'Engle 

Keith Hansen brings us poems by two Polish poets who lived upfront with human suffering and political upheaval. What will their poetic "stare" find to praise?   Adam Zagajewski's "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" and "Boogie-Woogie" Czeslaw Milosz's "The Blacksmith Shop"   

I haven't finished part one to my satisfaction, but I'll serve you part two anyway. Rather like having dessert first, which I hear is possible if you're feeling unruly.  "In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII:54"  "In Memoriam A. H. H. OBIIT MDCCCXXXIII:55" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 

100 Episodes! We've been through a lot together.  To celebrate, I compiled some audio mail I've received into another poetry reading episode. If you enjoy it, send me a poem why dontcha!  Pamela reads "Crooked" by G.K. Chesterton Carrie reads "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron Melinda reads "Doors opening, closing on us" by Marge Piercy    Thank you to all who have listened and contributed to thi...

Does this poem stir around in your heart and mind a little bit?  Keith Hansen brings "Poem" by North Dakota poet and screenwriter Thomas McGrath. 

The other Giudice takes the mic again! <3 <3 <3 "A Romance" by Stephen Dunn "The Country of Marriage" by Wendell Berry 

Another Lawrence poem! Unfortunately, there's no fruit-throwing in this one. But there is ecstatic inspiration, a creepy knock on the door, and angels. So that's pretty good.  "Song of a Man Who Has Come Through" by D.H. Lawrence    The "Word on Fire" podcast episode that I mention: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wof-392-poetry-beauty-and-the-shock-of-grace-w/id1065019039?i=1000618329473

I bring you "Peach" by D.H. Lawrence. This guy gets it. 

A super special guest--Ben Giudice--brings us two poems that run headlong into the human task of reconciling bad and good, despair and hope.  "As the World Population Surpasses 8 Billion, I Purposely Misremember a Line from Anne Carson's Sappho and Hear in Its Utterance the Song of the Humpback Whale" by Dante Di Stephano "Good Bones" by Maggie Smith 

Two minds--divided by millennia--come together in the spaces between words... Or, if that sounds too cosmic and far-fetched, you can call it by its other name: "reading a poem in the kitchen". 

Today's two poems--brought to us by Keith Hansen--take us to the beauty salon and the barber chair. Are these places ordinary or sacred? Maybe we don't have to choose.  "Wayne's College of Beauty, Santa Cruz" by David Swanger "Hair" by BH Fairchild

Why is late summer such a gut-puncher? If anyone can get at the heart of this mystery, it's these two: "Summer Has Two Beginnings" by Emily Dickinson "Three Songs at the End of Summer" by Jane Kenyon 

Late summer is peak bye-bye season! These three poems fit perfectly in your suitcase or moving box.  "The Summer Camp Bus Pulls Away From the Curb" by Sharon Olds "Leaving Town" by Jane Kenyon [i carry your heart with me(i carry it in] by ee cummings   

Listen to what can happen when a poet keeps a sustained gaze on the desolate place that has always been his home.  Keith Hansen comes back to the mic to read six poems by Don Thompson. "Flat Earth" "Water" "Egret I" "Buena Vista Slough II" "October" "December"

Part 3 of the summer poems series is JUICY!  "Blackberry-Picking" by Seamus Heaney  "An Invitation" by Clemens Starck "Meditation at Lagunitas" by Robert Hass 

Here's part 2 of the "summer poems" series! This one's for you, Farmer Ben.  "Putting in the Seed" by Robert Frost "Cutting the Grass" by Clemens Starck "In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden" by Matthea Harvey 

It's AUGUST! I had a request for some summer poems and got a little carried away.  I hope you like sunshine, blackberries, nostalgia, and love, because this is just the beginning of a 4 part summer poem series.  We kick off with "Summer Moods" by John Clare "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver "Mossbawn: Sunlight" by Seamus Heaney "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota" b...

3 school poems to kick off summer break! "Night" by Jill Osier "M. Degas Teaches Art & Science at Durfee Intermediate School" by Philip Levine "Mrs. Smith 1959" by Kim Stafford

A snowy night, phone calls from beyond the grave... this poem has a lot to recommend it.    "Visitors From Abroad" by Louise GlÜck 

Let me read to you-- a handful of poems that take us through the year of a gardener/prose poet who is paying attention. The book I read from is Going to Seed: Dispatches From the Garden by Charles Goodrich 

Sometimes I take on the humbling challenge of talking about a poem that enthralls me but I don't fully understand it, and some of what I understand I don't like, and I can't talk about it without talking about myself... Those episodes often end up in the burn pile, but this time I offer it to you.    "I've Been Sitting Here Thinking Back Over My Life" by Charles Wright