"Neither closed in one landscape
nor in one season
the mind moving in illimitable
recollection."

-- Basil Bunting, "Chomei at Toyama"

Poet Max Blagg and writer and producer Wickham Boyle discuss memory's role in the creation of a poem and the ways in which memorizing poems can give our daily life meaning. Following their discussion, the two will lead a walk during which each audience member will be given a poem to memorize.

A reading to celebrate the writing of Joe Brainard (1942-1994), recently collected in The Collected Writing of Joe Brainard, edited by Ron Padgett, and published by the Library of America, with Joanna Fuhrman, Matthew Hittinger, Julie Kantor, Paul Legault, Ricardo Maldonado, Angelo Nikolopoulos, Rowan Ricardo Phillips and Ronaldo Wilson, among others.

Poet Naomi Replansky reads from her Collected Poems and Lynne Sharon Schwartz reads from See You in the Dark as part of Poets House’s 2012 Showcase.

Naomi Replansky was born in the Bronx in 1918. Her first book, Ring Song, was published by Scribner in 1952 and was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry. In 1994, The Dangerous World: New and Selected Poems, 1934-1994, was published by Another Chicago Press. Her Collected Poems has just been published by Black Sparrow Books.

The author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry, Jane Hirshfield investigates poetic transitions - syllable by syllable, line by line, poem by poem - and the discovery of meaning in these arcs.

Funded in part by the Paul Zweig Memorial Fund

W. S. Merwin, the 17th Poet Laureate of the United States and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award will speak to public librarians at Poets House, as part of Poets and Readers Together, a Poets House program created in collaboration with New York City's public library systems. The program builds on the success of One City, Many Poems, a poetry discussion initiative launched by Poets House and hosted at New York City's public Libraries.

Suddenly the mass media believe poetry is for everyone: taxi-drivers in movies quote William Carlos Williams and a poem helps sell blue jeans. Poetry readings proliferate: poetry bars spring up, poetry slams draw crowds--are we seeing the beginning of a fuller integration of poetry into American life or is it a fad?

A Panel Discussion with Peter Davidson, Marilyn Hacker and Katha Pollitt, moderated by Cornelius Eady.