"Free Union" by Andre Breton, generally acknowledged as the founder of Surrealism. Translated by Bill Zavatsky and Zack Rogow. "My woman with her tongue of polished amber and glass.... My woman with her shoulders of champagne...."

Free Union - Andre Breton

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost, read by Russ Kick

Nature’s first green is gold, 
Her hardest hue to hold.
...

Nothing Gold Can Stay - Robert Frost

"Gate C22" by Ellen Bass. One of the best love poems of recent years. Years ago I saw something similar at an airport gate, and it remains one of the most beautiful moments between two people that I've ever witnessed.

At gate C22 in the Portland airport
a man in a broad-band leather hat kissed
a woman arriving from Orange County.....
http://www.ellenbass.com/books/the-human-line/gate-c22/

Gate C22 - Ellen Bass

Let Someone Sober Worry About That by Rumi, translated by Daniel Ladinsky

Let Someone Sober Worry About That - Rumi

"Do Not Pick up the Telephone" by Ted Hughes, read by Russ Kick

For anyone who's ever gotten bad news over the phone.
----------------
Do not pick up the detonator of the telephone
A flame from the last day will come lashing out of the telephone
A dead body will fall out of the telephone ...

Do Not Pick up the Telephone - Ted Hughes

"It's Rigged" by Rumi, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, read by Russ Kick



It's Rigged - Rumi

"To Autumn" by John Keats, a tribute to my favorite season. Considered by many to be a "perfect" poem, and said to be the most widely anthologized poem in the English language, it was written by Keats in a single evening (September 19, 1819).

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 
  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless 
  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 
  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; ....
http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/autumn

To Autumn - John Keats

"Failing and Flying" by Jack Gilbert

Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew.
It's the same when love comes to an end,
or the marriage fails and people say
they knew it was a mistake, that everybody 
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177687

Failing and Flying - Jack Gilbert

"My Religion" by Anne Carson

From a 2011 interview with Anne Carson, by Eleanor Wachtel for Brick magazine:

Wachtel: In your poem “My Religion,” you say, “My religion makes no sense and does not help me, therefore I pursue it.” That was written about twenty years ago, but the idea of God is one that percolates its way through some of your other work. Are you still in pursuit?

Carson: Not so directly as then. At that time I was teaching a course about that sort of searching and was interested in the writings of various mystics. I searched around in that for years but I didn’t find in the end it was the place I could do my best thinking.

Wachtel: What is your idea of God?

Carson: I don’t have an idea of it any more at all. Maybe I once did, at least an idea of unknowability as a divine atmosphere but I don’t even know that that’s solid in me any more.

http://brickmag.com/interview-anne-carson

My Religion - Anne Carson

"Valentine" by Carol Ann Duffy. One of my favorite contemporary love poems, by the UK Poet Laureate (via Wikipedia: "She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold the position.") It's a moving explanation of why an onion - not chocolate or a card - is the perfect, most realistic gift for expressing love.

http://www.carolannduffy.co.uk/

Valentine - Carol Ann Duffy

"Flame" by C.D. Wright, read by Russ Kick. Spoiler alert: This poem is a series of objects/nouns that recounts someone driving to their lover's place in a state of excitement and anticipation.

Flame - C.D. Wright

Just me reading some of my favorite poems. I don't do "poetry voice." My approach to reading poetry aloud is best summed up by Leonard Cohen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2XkfBWSmcs


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