“Revised Bible Stories”: Poets give voice to characters who are silent in the Bible, and they speculate on what the Bible left out.  They allow us to imagine less conventional roles for certain characters, as these three poems suggest.  Molly Twomey, “Noah’s Wife,” from Raised Among Vultures, and used by kind permission of the author and The Gallery Press, 2022 (www.gallerypress.com).  J. Estanislao Lopez, “Alternate Ending: The Escape of Jephthah’s Daughter,” from We Borrowed Gentleness (Alice James Books, 2022).  Brian Doyle, “The Second Letter of Lazarus to His Sisters,” from A Shimmer of Something, copyright by Brian Doyle (Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 2014), and...

“Parents Viewed Unconventionally”: Three contemporary female poets comment on one or more parents in somewhat unexpected ways.  Molly Twomey, “The Drop Off,” from Raised Among Vultures, and used by kind permission of the author and The Gallery Press, 2022 (www.gallerypress.com).  Kathleen Flenniken, “Married Love,” from Post Romantic, used by kind permission of the author (U. of Washington Press, 2020).  Ada Limon, “Joint Custody,” from The Hurting Kind (Milkweed, 2022).  Our theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun” from Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Mr. Aaberg.

“Friendship”: Three poems consider the shared activities, the camaraderie, the tensions, and the goofiness of friendships.  Ada Limon, “Blowing on the Wheel,” from The Hurting Kind (Milkweed, 2022).  Delmore Schwartz, “Do the Others Speak of Me Mockingly, Maliciously?” from Selected Poems, copyright 1959 by Delmore Schwartz.  Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.  Sharon Olds, “Best Friends,” from The Dead and the Living (Knopf, 1991), and used with the kind permission of the poet.  Our theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun” from Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Mr. Aaberg.

“Narrative Poems”: These poems offer at least an outline of a story, with a plot and some time references.  Like many successful stories, substantial relevant questions may remain unanswered, requiring some speculation on our part.  John Greenleaf Whittier, “Telling the Bees.”  Edwin Arlington Robinson, “Mr. Flood’s Party.”  Our theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun” from Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Mr. Aaberg.

“Remembering the First World War”: Our first poem details the life of a veteran who managed to survive the carnage and reflects on–or tries not to reflect on–his specific experiences during the war.  The next two poems depict civilians beginning to come to terms with their memories of the suffering shared throughout England.  Edmund Blunden, “The Veteran.”  Ursula Roberts, “The Cenotaph.”  Philip Johnstone, “High Wood.”  Our theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun” from his CD Live from Montana (available at sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Mr. Aaberg.

“Unrequited Love (Part Two)”: A previous episode in March ’23 dealt with this same theme and featured poems by both men and women.  This episode considers unrequited love primarily from the woman’s point of view.  Guys in my audience may need to listen in.  Ellen Bass, “Can’t Get Over Her,” from Mules of Love (BOA Editions, 2002).  Sappho, “Fragment # 31 (Ode to Anactoria),” translator Michael R. Burch (thehypertexts.com/Sappho Longer Poems in Translations by Michael R. Burch.htm), and read with the kind permission of the translator.  Sharon Olds, “Crazy,” from Stag’s Leap (Knopf 2012), and read with the kind permission of the author.  The show’s theme...

“Wandering and Roving”: When you wander in the woods, how do you decide which way to go when you arrive at a fork in your path?  The first of today’s poems offers a playful response to that question, and the other poems also reflect in various ways on the act of wandering.  Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken.”  John Clare, “The Moors.”  Lord Byron, “So We’ll Go No More a Roving.”  Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Recuerdo.”  The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg.  If you have...

“Exile and Return”: What is it like to try to enter and exit Middle Eastern countries, especially Palestine?  Today’s poems offer glimpses, even before the most recent spasm of violence that ripped it apart in October 2023.  Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, “Upon Arrival” and “Immigrant,” from Water and Salt (Red Hen Press, 2017).  Mosab Abu Toha, “Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear” and “Forever Homeless,” from Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear (City Lights Books, 2022). The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg.  If you have any...

“One Word”: The poems on today’s show implicitly urge us to consider how strange language is when we examine it up close.  Each of today’s poems puzzle over an individual word.  Billy Collins, “Tension,” from Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (Random House, 2013).  Shakespeare, “Sonnet 135.”  Robert Wrigley, “Lovely,” from The True Account of Myself as a Bird (Penguin Books, 2022), used by kind permission of the author.  The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg.  If you have any suggestions, corrections, questions regarding the show, please contact me, Brian...

“Three Controversial Musicians”: Today’s three poems spotlight three individuals known for their musical talents, as well as the controversy they provoked.  Naomi Shihab Nye, “Cross That Line,” from You and Yours (BOA Editions, 2011), used by kind permission of the author.  Frank O’Hara, “The Day Lady Died,” from Lunch Poems (City Lights Books, 1964).  William Matthews, “Mingus at the Half Note,” from Search Party: Collected Poems, Sebastian Matthews and Stanley Plumly, eds. (Houghton Mifflin, 2004), read with kind permission of the William Matthews estate.  The show’s theme music is Philip Aaberg’s “Going-to-the-Sun,” from his CD Live from Montana (sweetgrassmusic.com) and used with the kind permission of Philip Aaberg. ...