When I finally got to meet Stuart face-to-face in 2016, he asked me to bring a poem that spoke to where my heart was at that time of my life. My family and I had been through some difficult times, but I was seeking to keep the hope and find some peace and joy in the situation. So I brought three poems. The one I read for him, and which he filmed was the William Stafford piece: "A Ritual to Read to Each Other." But I wanted to record the other two also. They are "The Gate," by Marie Howe from her book What the Living Do, and "Horses at Midnight Without a Moon" from his Collected Poems, 2012.

For Stuart

You Are Not Alone

Turn the Page Acoustic Version

g Waiting for the bathroom to bm heat up
c so I can have a g spruce.

g Sitting at this table in the bm main room
in my c jumper the colour of which is g puce.

It’s d Saturday night in an c English g village
and c no buses am7 run this d late

g It’s Saturday c night, and g I’ve been em7 meditating
on the c state of my am7 life c
and the am7 state d of the g state

TASCAM DR-05

saturday night in an english village

West Of Ireland

How It Ends

A digital sketch created in Sibelius software of Trio for tenor, violin and cello by Bettina Gray based on poem by William Stafford.  First live performance in 2014, La Fortuna, Costa Rica.
Text: 
This is the field where the battle did not happen,
where the unknown soldier did not die.
This is the field where grass joined hands,
where no monument stands,
and the only heroic thing is the sky.
Birds fly here without any sound,
unfolding their wings across the open.
No people killed – or were killed – on this ground
hallowed by the neglect of an air so tame
that people celebrate it by forgetting its name.

Un-National Monument Digital Sketch

From her book What the Living Do, please find the text and Marie Howe's own reading of her poem at this link:
http://www.onbeing.org/program/feature/the-gate-by-marie-howe/5316

The Gate, by Marie Howe, read by David J. Bauman

Read by David J. Bauman

Text here: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/horses-midnight-without-moon

Horses at Midnight Without a Moon, by Jack Gilbert

My dear friend Stuart came to America to visit with his son, and on the way to Frank Lloyd Wight's "Falling Water," they took the time to divert slightly north and meet me at a restaurant in Selinsgrove. There we had a lovely time over food and drink. And after, he asked if I would read a poem that was meaningful to my life right now, and of several possibilities, I finally decided on this one. Unfortunately, as of yet I haven't been able to clean up the static, which grows in intensity throughout the video file. So for now, here is a studio version of my reading (unfortunately devoid of the sound of waves and wind and children) along with a snapshot from the video, with me reading on an upturned boat by the Susquehanna on the nearby Isle of Que. 
The text of Stafford's poem, "A Ritual to Read to Each Other can be found here: http://williamstafford.org/spoems/pages/ritual.html

A Ritual to Read to Each Other, by William Stafford

My House

04 Hold Out Your Hand

read by Frances Uku
one of Five Poems by Roberto Bolaño 
::

MY GIFT TO YOU
My gift to you will be an abyss, she said,
but it will be so subtle you’ll perceive it
only after many years have passed
and you are far from Mexico and me.
You’ll find it when you need it most,
and that won’t be the happy ending,
but it will be an instant of emptiness and joy.
And maybe then you’ll remember me,
if only just a little.

:: appears in the summer 2012 issue of The Paris Review 
:: audio produced by Declan May

Roberto Bolaño Ávalos (28 April 1953 – 15 July 2003) was a Chilean writer, author of novels, short-stories, poems, and essays. He has been described by the New York Times as "the most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation."
http://theparisreview.tumblr.com/post/56887306240/my-gift-to-you-will-be-an-abyss-she-said-but-it

My Gift To You by Roberto Bolaño - read by Frances Uku

This activity is a mindful look at the poetry of Seamus Heaney. It will highlight soothing lines and images from the poem, 'Blackberry-Picking' and encourages participants to take some time to find their own mindful moments in this poem.

Mindful Activity-Blackberry-Picking

Poet, father and bone-headed naturalist. 

A Ritual to Read to Each Other, by William Stafford

David J. Bauman

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