Today’s program is about why so many people hate poetry. We are told, right from the start, that there are mysteries in poems that none of us are smart enough to understand or to figure out without help. Our teachers want us to restate what the poet is saying – to "figure out” the “real meanings.” And they tell us, too often I think, that what we say when we “restate” what the poet is saying, is “wrong”. So we turn away from poetry. That’s not the approach to reading a poem and understanding a poem that I encourage, and this program talks about how we might best read and listen to poems. It includes my translations of poems by the Lithuanian poet Vladas Šlaitas and a few of my own poems. If there is a theme or topic you would like me to explore in these programs, please let me know. My contact information is on my webpage, jonaszdanys.org