American life in poetry

Here's a lovely poem for the caregivers among us, by Terri Kirby Erickson, who lives in North Carolina. Sponge Bath Draped in towels, my grandmother sits in a hard-backed chair,...

Another winter is upon us, and Barton Sutter, a poet who lives in Duluth, knows all about cold and snow. Here's a preview to get us thinking about what's in...

Here's a poem for this season by Tim Nolan, of Minnesota.

Kay Ryan was our nation's Poet Laureate at The Library of Congress for the 2008-2010 terms. Her poetry is celebrated for its compression; she can get a great deal into...

David St. John is a California poet whose meticulous care with every word has always impressed me.

I am very fond of poems that don't use more words than they have to. They're easier to carry around in your memory. There are Chinese poems written 1300 years...

I have irises that have been handed down through my family over the generations, being dug up again and again, moved to another house, another garden. Here's a poem about...

I'd guess that many of you have looked at old snapshots taken of you by doting relatives and tried to recall what it was like to be that person in...

An exchange of stories is frequently one of the first steps toward a friendship. Here's the recollection of one of those exchanges, by Dorianne Laux, who lives and teaches in...

Julie Suk is a North Carolinian who, like all good writers, has taught herself to pay attention to what's happening right under her nose.

Though most of us are not formally known as diplomats, many of us learn to be experts at domestic diplomacy, and the sorts of complex negotiations we find ourselves in...

The following poem by Kathryn Stripling Byer is the second in a series of related poems called "Southern Fictions." Despite all the protective barriers we put up between us and...

The paintings of Georgia O'Keefe taught us a lot about bones in the desert, but there's more to learn, and more to think our way into. Here's a fine poem...