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" by James Wright

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