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Reading Poems Together

The Spoken Experience: A Lunchtime Learning Series

Join a community of readers who meet the fourth Monday of the month to hear poetry and discuss its curious powers.

Join a community of readers who meet the fourth Monday of the month to hear poetry and discuss its curious powers. Discussions facilitated by Paola Bruni, Elaine Fletcher Chapman, and Jessica Cohn. 

September's conversation focuses on the poems of Li-Young Lee:

 The radio in the kitchen

is stuck in the year I was born.

The capitals of the world are burning.

From "Changing Places in the Fire," by Li-Young Lee

October's conversation centers on Tony Hogland:

Don’t take it personal, they said;

But I did, I took it all quite personal—

the breeze and the river and the color of the fields;

the price of grapefruit and stamps,

the wet hair of women in the rain—

From “Personal” by Tony Hoagland

Jane Kenyon takes the focus in November:

I got out of bed

on two strong legs.

It might have been

otherwise. I ate

cereal, sweet

milk, ripe, flawless

peach. It might

have been otherwise.   

From “Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon

Naomi Shihab Nye is December's featured poet:

Letters swallow themselves in seconds.   

Notes friends tied to the doorknob,   

transparent scarlet paper,

sizzle like moth wings,

marry the air.

From “Burning the Old Year” by Naomi Shihab Nye