Take this poem

 "Epiphany Poem" by George Mackay Brown approaches the story of the three kings in a new and very old way.   I heard Heidi White read this poem on The Daily Poem podcast two years ago and it's been in my mulling pot ever since. https://shows.acast.com/the-daily-poem/episodes/george-mackay-browns-epiphany-poem

What was it like to go back to the bleakness of a shepherd's night shift after that one spectacular night when the veil was lifted? This week's poem is "Shepherd's Song" by Richard Baukham

Poetry is so good for mysteries... for wondering about things that lie beyond the scope of arguments and thesis statements. This week's two poems take on a big one. "Annunciation" by John Donne and "Mary's Song" by Luci Shaw.

Cozy up by the tortoise stove for two poems to kick off our advent season! Keith Hansen shares  John Betjemen's "Advent 1955" and "Christmas". 

Happy Thanksgiving! This week's poem honors the world of the table and the table of the world.  It's "Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo. 

Keith Hansen is back, this time with a poem by John Betjeman: "In Westminster Abbey". It has a spirited rhyme scheme & meter, and a good dash of satire & snark. Enjoy! 

This episode includes a poem about preferring pencils to pens, a poem about two people who never meet, and a poem about writing a poem.  There's nothing too small or obscure to be pondered in poetry... and in the jeweler's glass of the poem small things aren't so small after all.  "The Pencil" by AE Stallings https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/03/pencil/513860/ "On The Way to Work"...

It's as simple as it sounds. I read three small but substantial poems by Jane Kenyon. 

Linda Bierds writes poems thick with beautiful language, historical drama, and an uncanny sense of discovery.  In today's poem, "Klipsan Stallions," she applies her genius to a true story of a shipwreck and the horses who swam out to save sailors' lives. 

Keith Hansen brings us two poems by North Dakota's poet laureate Larry Woiwode. It's hard to top trees and horses among nature's beauties...this will be ten minutes well spent.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Woiwode    

"After Apple Picking" by Robert Frost is a dreamy, drowsy autumn poem that retains its fresh mysteriousness through many readings and many, many years.    You can find the poem here if you'd like to read it for yourself: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44259/after-apple-picking

Another conversation with local poet Dave Mehler, another record set for longest episode! This time I have a chance to pelt Dave with questions about reading & writing, to hear his story of being a truck driver poet, and to hear him read from his book Roadworthy. Grab some whittling or knitting and enjoy: this is a sweeping episode that includes some good poems and leisurely conversation.  I edite...

"They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—"   I humbly exhort you to take one of these poems and carry around in your heart's pocket this fall.    "Something Told the Wild Geese" by Rachel Fields "The Morns Are Meeker Than They Were" by Emily Dickinson "When the Frost is on the Punkin" by James Whitcomb Riley 

In the course of a week I received two poetry gifts from friends afar. And not just plain poems-- poems with reflections! My catnip. I decided to put the poems together and make it a party. Tom Clark reads "We Real Cool" by Gwendolyn Brooks and Melinda Westervelt reads "A Little Lesson in How To Be" by Kathryn Nuernberger. Brooks is a jewel in American poetry, and the ending of Nuernberger's poem...

You're in for a treat! In this episode Keith Hansen offers an autumnal poem by John Keats.  My mind seemed to pick up very little listening to the first reading of the poem, but mental pathways must have been etched...on my second hearing, understanding and enjoyment of the poem flooded in. A fascinating experience. Thank you, Keith, for sharing your thoughts on this exquisite poem!

Can't get enough of the agitation, perturbation, and talking worms in this most wonderful early autumn poem. 

Story time! I read poet Denise Duhamel's tale of a poem that ambushed her, dwelt with her, was stolen, and... you'll see.  The poem is "Modifications" by Ron Koertge and I read from the anthology Dark Horses: Poets on Overlooked Poems. 

Do you remember reading the Romantics in high school English class? My friend Carrie Adams joins me to read poems by Wordsworth, Byron, and Keats and to talk a bit about her experience teaching these poems to teenagers. Spoiler alert: old-fashioned Romantic ideas endure in the zeitgeist today... we just don't speak of them as prettily any more. 

I find what it's like on the other side of the mic as a guest host steps in to conduct the interview.   Although I have misgivings about the title "poet" as applied to me, I couldn't resist Keith Hansen's offer to narrate two of my poems for the podcast. So this turned out to be quite a collaborative episode.    Here is the Radiolab episode that inspired my poems https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcas...

My son Luke joins me at the mic to read a poem that he wrote this year. He shares a little about his writing process, and I just generally enjoy having a mini poetry chat with him. 

As I gather new poems for my students to memorize I enjoy looking through the stack of review poems from yesteryear. I also love the word yesteryear.  In this episode I choose three favorites from our review pile. And as a special bonus we'll hear two pint-sized listeners share poems from their own little memories!    Here is the poem that 3-year-old Judah says.  Singing-Time By Rose Fyleman   I w...

My friend Amy gives us all a gift in this episode: an introduction to Ruth Pitter. Pitter was a poet and artist who lived for almost 100 years and corresponded by letters with many of her century's literary luminaries. (Hilaire Belloc, John Masefield, and Walter de la Mare are three of her pen pals whose poetry has appeared on this podcast so far!) She and C.S. Lewis had a friendship of deep mutua...

Here's a small but juicy Emily Dickinson poem for you. Why aren't there more poems about swimming? If you know of a good one, please let me know. 

This episode is for the long commutes or jumbo laundry piles! Artist, poet, and friend Craig Goodworth joined me at my table to talk about art&theology, beauty, the joys&challenges of in-person poetry, reading The Odyssey to kids, and the fact that some days you see a deer and some days you don't. With lots in between. There are some good poems in this one! I like that the mic picked up the clinki...

When my friend and listener Kelly has time home alone she does wild things like sending poems to me. And I couldn't be happier. In this episode I pair her poem "To Molly" with Kay Ryan's poem "Masterworks of Ming".    Kelly's musings on writing can be found at writing-life.blog