Poets of Pennsylvania
Dear Friends of Mercurius,
As Mercury transitions from one phase to another, it is propitious to read poetry.
I present a lyrical compendium from Pennsylvania, a state of poets. Wallace Stevens and Gertrude Stein both hail from Pennsylvania, and today we are going to listen to some contemporary poets that bring this region to life.
In 2018, I visited Penn State, invited by the English Department, The Creative Writing Program, Global Languages, Literature & Cultures, and the College of Liberal Arts; there I had the opportunity to interview poets for the Nude Maja. Thus I spent three days living with poets, having just arrived from a destroyed country: Venezuela.
Although I was among friends, deep down I felt there was no place for me. Those days helped revive my faith in poetry as something beautiful everyone can enjoy, no matter who or where they are. Today I offer some recordings in the hope that hearing the voices of the poets themselves is also listening to the heartbeat of everything, the voice we carry with us, the voice of the times, the voice of love, or perhaps the voice of silence.
Let's hear them then: Julia Kasdorf, Gabeba Baderoon, Emily Grosholz, Shara McCallum, Katie Hays, Meg Day, Robin Becker, Todd Davis, Sara Grossman, Lisa Mangini, and Katie Bode-Lang.
Emily Grosholz
Katie Hays: To Mindless Force
Meg Day: Last Psalm at Sea Level
Robin Becker: Hummingbird.
Todd Davis
Sara J Grossman: Environmental Humanities
Lisa Mangini. Past the Solstice
Katherine Bode-Lang: Daughter