Thursday, October 29th, 2020
BJ Omanson was raised near the Spoon River in Illinois, site of Edgar Lee Master’s Spoon River Anthology, and he has compiled a fine book of poems in Masters’ tradition called Stark County Poems, published by Monongahela...
Thursday, October 18th, 2018
This column originates from the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and a half-hour’s drive south there’s a creek with flat stones on its floor where wagons passed down and over the muddy bottom, up the other bank,...
Thursday, January 18th, 2018
Poems that move back and forth through time can be intriguing. In this poem by Pat Schneider, she looks deep into the past and evokes it in compelling detail, though the poem speculates that there will arrive...
Thursday, February 11th, 2016
It’s said that each of us undergoes gradual change and that every seven years we are essentially a new person. Here’s a poem by Freya Manfred, who lives in Stillwater, Minnesota, about the changes in a long...
Thursday, February 4th, 2016
A friend told me recently that he tries to keep in touch with people he’s known even though they don’t put any effort into doing that themselves. Here’s William Trowbridge, who lives in Missouri, making an effort....
Thursday, January 28th, 2016
When grief is so heavy that we need to set it down, poetry is a good place to set it. Here’s a fine poem by Minnesota poet Sharon Chmielarz from her book with photographer Ken Smith, Visibility:...
Thursday, January 21st, 2016
This column is more than ten years old and I’ve finally gotten around to trying a little origami! Here’s a poem about that, and about a good deal more than that, by Vanessa Stauffer, who teaches writing...
Thursday, January 14th, 2016
I love this poem by Mandy Kahn for its witty account of the way two young people find each other. The poet lives in Los Angeles and this is from her book Math, Heaven, Time, from Eyewear...
Thursday, January 7th, 2016
The only passage of scripture that I know by heart is from Ecclesiastes: “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the...
Thursday, December 31st, 2015
I love to have people come up to me and say, “You’ll never believe what I saw this morning,” and then go on to tell me. It’s their delight that I like so much. Here’s a poem...