Archive / S…

Swander, Mary 1996

Wednesday, November 13, 1996
with Nancy Mairs

It floats toward you:
a mother, a fish,
something without breath,
shiny, washed smooth
as the skin of a leech.

– Mary Swander, “In A Dream”

Listen to Mary Swander’s 1996 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Watch Mary Swander read some of her poetry:

Aspen, oak, Kentucky-Coffee-Bean trees,
Dead leaves shaped like mouths falling
From the limbs. A silence descending
With the evening spreads across the
Arched backs of the rocks, their bellies

– Mary Swander, “Dutton’s Cave”

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Watch this interview with Mary Swander:

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Stryk, Lucien 1979; 1995

Friday, February 16, 1979
with John Knoepfle
Two Midwest Poets

February, 1995
with Roger Mitchell

The casket under the rose
in the funeral paror is not
where you live, my mother.

– Lucien Stryk, “Rooms”

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Listen to Lucien Stryk’s 1995 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Hungry-eyed fogies,
gargoyles in full cry
above the ruck and tumble

– Lucien Stryk, “Gargoyles”

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Vintage poster of Two Midwest Poets: John Knoepfle and Lucien Stryk reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

More info on Lucien Stryk ⇒

Stern, Gerald 1999

Wednesday, October 20, 1999

This time of year I kneel on my jacket. The ice
is almost solid. The groaning has ended. There is
an inch of fresh snow. A bush has turned to glass.

– Gerald Stern, “Did I Say”

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Read this interview with Gerald Stern from The Rumpus:

http://therumpus.net/2010/11/the-rumpus-interview-with-gerald-stern/

The second day of Eastern Standard
there is such a sound of bird croaking
it must be either blue jay whelps
or stiff crows just barely able to gasp
after a night of rotten sleeping.

– Gerald Stern, “Light”

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Watch Gerald Stern read some of his poetry:

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Statman, Mark 2001

Thursday, October 4, 2001

(image of cow, of horse
of cadaver or sleepy river
or a pure and less
than innocent love)

–Mark Statman, “Translating Garcia Lorca”

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Read this interview with Mark Statman from Pif Magazine:

‘Mark Statman’ interviewed by Derek Alger

Mark Statman’s most recent books are the poetry collection, A Map of the Winds (Lavender Ink, 2013), and Black Tulips: The Selected Poems of Jose Maria Hinojosa (University of New Orleans Press, 2012). He is also the author of the poetry collection, Tourist at a Miracle ((Hanging Loose, 2010), as…

because the evidence
is elusive
or has grown
to illusion
I think to walk
will not tell me
what’s new

– Mark Statman, “one’s own better angels”

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Watch Mark Statman read some of his poetry:

More info on Mark Statman ⇒

Streckfus, Peter 2004

Monday, February 2, 2004
with Dan Beachy-Quick and Arielle Greenberg

Trust the moth that flutters in your shirt. Its branch
is nearby. Secondly, you must fix your guitar.

– Peter Streckfus, “Memories are Nothing, Today is Important”

Broadside of Peter Streckfus’ poem, Memories are Nothing, Today is Important.”

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Read this interview with Peter Streckfus from The Conversant:

http://theconversant.org/?p=7742

Last night, my father came to my dreaming
self in the form of a vampire.
A vampire’s position is liminal—
neither alive nor dead, both and neither,
nini-funi in Japanese, two-but-not-two.

– Peter Streckfus, “Body Dreams”

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Watch Peter Streckfus read some of his poetry:

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Strand, Mark 1982

Friday, April 2, 1982

It is evening in the town of X
where Death, who used to love me, sits
in a limo with a blanket spread across his thighs.

– Mark Strand, “2032”

Broadside of “2032” by Mark Strand

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Vintage poster of Mark Strand’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Not the attendance of stones,
nor the applauding wind,
shall let you know
you have arrived,
nor the sea that celebrates
only departures,
nor the mountains,
nor the dying cities.

– Mark Strand, “Black Maps”

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Read this interview with Mark Strand from Guernica:

Mark Strand: Not Quite Invisible

Pultizer Prize-winner Mark Strand on falling in love, leaving the U.S., and the next chapter.

It shines in the garden,
in the white foliage of the chestnut tree,
in the brim of my father’s hat
as he walks on the gravel.

– Mark Strand, “The Garden”

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Watch Mark Strand talk about his work:

Sawyer, Larry 2014

Thursday, December 11, 2014
with Tyler Mills and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas
Chicago Cultural Center

Upstart cartoon morning;
these various roosters scratch inside the eyelids
and declare beneath the streetlamps that their
moats are filled with vowels.

– Larry Sawyer, “Sundial”

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Listen to Larry Sawyer’s 2014 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago, with Tyler Mills and Lina Ramona Vitkauskas:

Larry Sawyer begins at 16:25 minutes.

The pentagon is a drop of amber
In which is preserved the animal mind

– Larry Sawyer, “A Cold Hand Draws the Covers Over the Moon”

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Watch Larry Sawyer read some of his work:

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Stafford, William 1979

Friday, May 11, 1979

According to the silence, winter has arrived—
a special kind of winter. I, its inventor,
watch it freeze in calendars and stare
out of clocks. I do not feel its cold.

– William Stafford, “Shepard”

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Vintage poster of William Stafford’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

William Stafford’s poem, “Captive,” from “Traveling through the Dark,” handwritten.

Watch William Stafford read some of his work:

More info on William Stafford ⇒

Spender, Stephen 1983

Monday, October 24, 1983

The I is one of
The human machines
So common on the gray plains—
Yet being built into flesh
My single pair of eyes
Contain the universe they see;
Their mirrored multiplicity
Is packed into a hollow body
Where I reflect the many, in my one.

– Stephen Spender, “The Human Condition”

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Read this interview with Stephen Spender from the Paris Review:

The Art of Poetry No. 25

The strength of Mr. Spender’s literary reputation, which is international in scope, has made him something of a nomad as scholar and poet. His homes are in St. John’s Wood, London, and Maussanne-les-Alpilles, France, where he spends his summers; but he is often on the road, giv…

More info on Stephen Spender ⇒