AuthorTitle#Topics and Digressions
Gay, Ross"To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian"51Gratitude, single-scene poem, short line breaks, and figs in myth.
Osherow, Jacqueline"Autobiographical: Another Draft"50Terza rima, formalism, interruptive syntax, Willa Cather, and your present self admonishing your past self.
Robison, Mary"Yours"49Flash fiction, Halloween, fall, and May/December romances.
Hicks, Faylita"Photo of a Girl, 1988: Cyborg"48The mother figure in literature, enjambment, end-stopped lines, Afrofuturism, and the ampersand.
Merritt, Dixon Lanier"A Wonderful Bird is the Pelican"47Limericks, humorous poetry, "children's" literature, the pleasures of rhyme, and magic lanterns.
Roripaugh, Lee Ann"Things that Leave an Aching Feeling Inside"46List poem form, The Pillow Book, the importance of poetry during the Heian period, and breaking your own heart.
McGlynn, Karyna"Sensual Vocabulary"45Ars Poetica, Marianne Moore, modernists, September Women Poets, and George Washington school marm.
Ball, Sally“Who Would I Show It To?”44Elegies, the stages of grief, W.S. Merwin, and Virginia Woolf’s “The Death of the Moth”
Arroyo, Rane“The Immigrants (Winter Wear)” 43Tercets, Wallace Stevens, narrative perspective, and Santa tempting Jesus in the desert.
Harjo, Joy“Unmailed Letter”42Dialectical argument structure, irrational numbers, and frustrating relationships.
Snider, Bruce"Map"41Ghazal structure, Indiana, the color yellow, homoerotic Americana, and Walt Whitman.
Bogen, Don"A Citizen" and "Immediate Song"40Lyric sequences, persona poems, an empire's twilight, and phrenology.
Smith, Carmen Giménez“Something New”39Marxists interpretations of love, marriage as labor, and the etymology of mortgage.
Soto, Gary“Ambition”38Scene-making in poetry, Seneca, Friendship, Max’s time as a disgruntled shoe salesman, and zoomorphism.
Molotkov, A.“Lightening”37Prose poetry, Aloysius Bertrand, fig trees, eye surgery, and Duncan MacDougall's dead-weighing experiments. 
lonsinger, dawn“[but the rain is full of ghosts tonight]”36"Maximalism," Edna St. Vincent Millay, ghosts of lovers past, and rain, rain, rain.
O'Hara, Frank“Animals”35Idioms, the New York School, personism, dune buggies, time, and square things vs. round things.
Williams, Ian“The Romantic Lead”34Contemporary sonnets, sextets and octaves, Swan Lake vs. Ladyhawk, reaction shots, and finding displeasure with Aquaman.
Nezhukumatathil, Aimee “The Soils I Have Eaten”33Strophes, memories of place, prospecting by taste, and the 1980s arcade game Dig Dug.
Voisine, Connie“Dangerous for Girls”32Dead girls in poetry, associative leaps, capitalist consumption, and watching infomercials while depressed.
Sioux, Siouxsie “Cities in Dust”31Lyrics as poetry, Tone/Voice, March Vladness, Pompeii, verse-chorus form, Pliny the Younger, and Goth! Goth! Goth!
Hayes, Terrance “The Same City”30Revision poems, cold and flu season, crappy weather, and mixing up biblical stepfathers. 
Ondaatje, Michael “The Cinnamon Peeler”29Persona poems, encounters with wild bears, how specifics make life interesting, and Dune spice .
Lindenberg, Rebecca “Litany”28Gal-entine’s Day, the classical formula of god summoning, lethologica vs. aphasia, and sabotaging people’s efforts to break up with you.
Phillips, Carl“What Myth Is”27Myths we identify with, Sonnet 130, the blazon, objective correlatives, and languid fingering.
Sánchez, Erika L. “Letter from New York”26The Epistolary form, New York, our flooding basement, and poet Richard Hugo literally dropping bombs on five-year-old poet Charles Simic in Belgrade.
Harvey, Yona“Report from the Daughter of a Blue Planet”25Imagery, perfect line breaks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Audre Lorde.
Powell, D.A.“[ode]”24Odes, Pindar vs. Horace, hyacinths, trochees, and blue movies.
Hass, Robert“Meditation at Lagunitas”23Philosophical poetry, Platonic ideals, blackberries, the linguist Saussure, and mastodon steaks.
Nye, Naomi Shihab "Kindness" and "Burn the Old Year" 22The new year, empathy, cruelty, and metaphorical landscapes.
Doty, Mark“Visitation”21Poetic narrative, holidays, the Christmas Whale, and complicated joy.
Rekdal, Paisley “Nightingale”20Handling a rude guest lecturer, John Keats, Odysseus/Ulysses, dwelling in doubt, and autolysis.
Akbar, Kaveh“Portrait of the Alcoholic Floating in Space with Severed Umbilicus”19The sublime in poetry, addiction, and why we love people in recovery.
Lee, Li-Young“Visions and Interpretations”18Elegies, miscommunications, and Mercury in retrograde.
Dow, Hannah“What is the Body?”17Spiritual poetry, René Descartes, nesting instincts, and tape worms.
Diaz, Natalie“I Watch Her Eat the Apple”16Lesbian love poems, Thanksgiving, Oedipus, and some ugly facts about the Pilgrims.
Shaughnessy, Brenda“Drift”15Metaphysical poets, paradox, and staying in bad relationships. 
Levin, Dana“Door”14Poems of spiritual crisis, Danielle explains her personal connection to Dana Levin's "Door," working for a mean art dealer, and the dream that lead her to teaching.
Lorca, Federico Garcia“Ghazal of Dark Death”13Poetry in translation, the political underpinnings of surrealism, Halloween.
Vuong, Ocean“Departure”12Aubades, imagery, and Danielle’s penchant for wonderfully dark poems.
Siken, Richard“Wishbone” and “Planet of Love”11Dramatic monologues and bad romantic decisions. Guest host: Shaun.
Bernal, Lindsay“Rodin's Fallen Caryatid”10Ekphrastic poetry, Godzilla Studies, and Danielle’s connection to Lindsay.
Rilke, Rainer Maria“Be Ahead of all Parting”9The 2008 financial crisis, translation, winter in Vermont, Greek myth, and enduring hardship with grace. Guest hosts: Olivia and David.
Bashir, Samiya “Manistee Light”8The Pastoral, the Anti-pastoral, poor gardening, the criminal justice system.
Chang, Jennifer“Obedience, or the Lying Tale”7Fairy tale form, allusions, folklore in poetry.
Lessley, Shara“The Explosive Expert's Wife”6Consonance, assonance, the geopolitical complexities of love and where to meet in the afterlife.
Johnson, Denis“White, White Collars”5Work poems, Labor Day, synesthesia, Danielle turning down a job on Wall Street because of this poem.
Coutley, Lisa Fay“Researchers Find Mice Pass On Trauma to Subsequent Generations”4Beautiful/terrible imagery, the difficulty of trying to have a glib, upbeat conversation about inherited trauma.
Hayden, Robert“Those Winter Sundays”3Vivid descriptions, poetic declarations, African American poets, parental love and sacrifice.
Smith, Tracy K.“Thirst”2Coming-of-age poetry, Danielle and Max disagree in their interpretation of the poem.
Kelly, Brigit Pegeen“Closing Time; Iskandariya”1Prose poetry, learning to love something ugly, America’s relationship to the Middle East.