"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 in a startling context. Questions shape all of the poems on today's episode. Some are addressed; others are left for us to sort out. Today's episode features these poems: Christina Rossetti, "Up-Hill." Phillis Levin, "Unsolicited Survey," from Mercury (Penguin Books, 2001), read with kind permission of the author. Terrance Hayes, "I'm not sure how to hold my face when I dance," from American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Random House, 2018). Langston Hughes, "Harlem," from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, Arnold Rampersad, ed. and David Roessel, Associate ed. (Vintage, a Division of Random House, Inc., 1994). Carrie Etter, "A Birthmother's Catechism" ("How did you let him go?"), from Imagined Sons (Seren [www.serenbooks.com], 2014, rpt. 2019), read with 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).
"Responding to Loss": All three poems in this episode reflect on the loss of a person, when loss is final. Perhaps one or more...
"Frederick and Anna Murray Douglass": Though Frederick Douglass grew up not knowing his exact birthdate and even uncertain just how old he was, historians...
What do you think of the remarks by the old people you know? Do they offer wisdom? Do they complain? Are they forward-looking? Are...