"Unlived Lives": What prompted you to make personal life-altering choices? Do you believe a sky-god or some other cosmic force oversees your personal choices? Has your life unfolded due to random events? The three contemporary poems in this episode reflect on our personal choices that at times lead us to fantasize about how it all could have been different. Tony Hoagland, "Happy and Free," from Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God (Graywolf Press, 2018). Ellen Bass, "Indigo," from Indigo (Copper Canyon Press, 2020). Carl Dennis, "The God Who Loves You," from Practical Gods (Penguin Books, 2001) and reprinted in New and Selected Poems, 1974-2004 (Penguin Books, 2004). The theme music for Poems for Company is Philip Aaberg's "Going-to-the-Sun" from his CD Live from Montana, available at Sweetgrassmusic.com
“Mysterious Encounters”: Three sing-songy poems are featured on today’s episode. All three depict encounters between two individuals: all three resist our efforts to make...
"Posing Questions": "Who hangs a birdhouse from a sapling?" How would you answer that question? One poem featured on today's episode places that question...
Do we imagine the dead as content in their zone, or do they express anxieties about how the world of the living functions in...