Poet Ann Lauterbach discusses the work of John Ashbery, a hugely influential poet who has published over twenty books of poetry. His volumes include Some Trees, chosen by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poet Series, and Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, which received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award.

Philip Levine discusses his discovery of the poetry of William Carlos Williams and how it changed the way he thought about language and the creation of a poem.

Poet Anne Carson discusses the life and work of three women featured in her recent libretto Decreation—the ancient Greek lyric poet Sappho; Marguerite Porete, the 13th century mystic and heretic; and the French philosopher and religious apologist Simone Weil—considering their relationship both to God and to writing.
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was revered during his lifetime as America's beloved national bard, and for generations afterwards he was a staple of the hearthside and the schoolroom. But for decades now his fame has receded. Poet, editor and critic J.D. McClatchy reads and discusses Longfellow's work, muses on the tides of taste, and presents a fresh view of this long-neglected and underestimated poet.

Distinguished scholar Haruo Shirane, Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture at Columbia University, will moderate a panel discussion with two survivors of the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan, about their tanka poems written in response to the earthquake and its aftermath. Their poems form part of the exhibition, “Voices of Japan,” at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine which opens June 14.

Readings by Alan Gilbert, Karla Kelsey, Marie–Elizabeth Mali & Laura Newbern

A reading by participants in the inaugural Poets House Emerging Poets Residency: Desiree Alvarez, Cathy Linh Che, Jaime Shearn Coan, Monica A. Hand, Danniel Schoonebeek, Sarah V. Schweig, Idrissa Simmonds, Amber Atiya Stewart and Elizabeth Zuba.