"The warplanes echoed across the heavens"

“as far as I am able to see all
the ways it works     all
they were doing was eating
the evening meal—

whether hunger made it that particular
pass-out gravitational pull up turning
as I see it         exciting
or pressurized as simply necessary

to eat to live” 

Academy Chancellor Ed Roberson shares two new poems on Poets.org:

“( . . . As for the Swallows, All They Were Doing)” 
“Black Earth Song” 

“The Great Salt Lake needs better public policy and political will to reverse an ecological disaster, but poetry helps to create conditions for better policy and public will. Writers need more than a reading series to sustain them, but the sustenance of such a community is invaluable.”

—Read an interview with Lisa Bickmore, 2023 Poet Laureate Fellow and Poet Laureate of Utah. Read poems by Bickmore:

“Dear David,”
“Concord”
“Ode”

“With ‘Ode to the Land,’ Harris and Sameth seek to foster a deeper appreciation for the local environment while providing a space for creative expression and community connection.”

Read more about Peter J. Harris and Carla Rachel Sameth, co-Poet Laureate Fellows of Altadena, CA, and their fellowship project here.

Join us on December 14 at 7 p.m. ET for Gather in Poems, a virtual reading in the spirit of gratitude and shared hope for the new year, featuring Elizabeth Acevedo, Kwame Dawes, Oliver de la Paz, Kimiko Hahn, Joy Harjo, Dorianne Laux, Naomi Shihab Nye, Afaa Michael Weaver, and others. Presented in collaboration with W. W. Norton & Company, which is celebrating its centenary in 2023. Free and open to the public; closed captioning available. Register here.

We look forward to gathering with you.

#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week

Sharon Olds, Terrance Hayes, Tara Bergin, and more: Join Irish Arts Center for PoetryFest, their annual free weekend of events with top poets from Ireland and North America from December 1 through December 3, curated by Nick Laird. Buy tickets here. (Sponsored)