Take this poem

Episode 99: Poem

Does this poem stir around in your heart and mind a little bit? 

Keith Hansen brings "Poem" by North Dakota poet and screenwriter Thomas McGrath. 

Episode 98: Two Poems About Marriage

The other Giudice takes the mic again! <3 <3 <3

"A Romance" by Stephen Dunn

"The Country of Marriage" by Wendell Berry 

Episode 97: Not I, Not I, But The Wind That Blows Through Me!

Another Lawrence poem! Unfortunately, there's no fruit-throwing in this one. But there is ecstatic inspiration, a creepy knock on the door, and angels. So that's pretty good. 

"Song of a Man Who Has Come Through" by D.H. Lawrence 

 

The "Word on Fire" podcast episode that I mention:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wof-392-poetry-beauty-and-the-shock-of-grace-w/id1065019039?i=1000618329473

Episode 96: Here, Take All That’s Left of My Peach

I bring you "Peach" by D.H. Lawrence. This guy gets it. 

Episode 95: Two Poems for Our Current Predicament

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 

Episode 94: Eternity by Jason Shinder

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". 

Episode 93: Hair

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

Episode 92: Summer, It’s Getting Late

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 

Episode 91: Going bye-bye

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 

 

Episode 90: Don Thompson: Poems From a Dry Valley

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"