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.

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.