Maria Schneider’s music has been hailed by critics as “evocative, majestic, magical, heart-stoppingly gorgeous, and beyond categorization.” Though she lives now in New York, Maria takes inspiration from the sounds, landscapes, and culture of the rural Midwest, where she grew up. In this episode, Maria reads & discusses a poem by former U.S. Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser. Maria’s most recent album, The Thompson Fields, won the 2016 Grammy for Best Large Ensemble Jazz Album, and includes a musical setting of the poem that she selected for this show.

Later on, we check the Haiku Hotline for your poems about early morning. Transcriptions of this week’s featured listener poems are available here.

"Walking by Flashlight," by Ted Kooser, appears in the book, Winter Morning Walks: 100 Postcards to Jim Harrison, published by Carnegie Mellon.

Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher.