japan

Ruth Stephan reads from Various Poems (1963) and Poems for Nothing (1973). She also reads unpublished works.

Billy Collins reads widely from his body of work.

Gary Snyder reads poems that would go on to be collected in The Back Country (1968) and talks about his experiences in Japan. He also reads one section of his long work Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996).

In his first reading at the Poetry Center since 1969, Gary Snyder reads broadly from his work, including poems from his most recent collection, Danger on Peaks. He ends by reading uncollected newer poems. Snyder also speaks of his time in Japan, his studies of Zen Buddhism, and his friendship with Poetry Center founder Ruth Stephan.

Ruth Stephan reads from her collection Various Poems (1963). She also reads uncollected poems, one of which responds to John F. Kennedy's assassination a year prior.

Timothy Liu reads new poems that would go on to be published in Don't Go Back to Sleep (2014), as well as poems from Polytheogamy (2009) and Bending the Mind Around the Dream's Blown Fuse (2009).

Gretel Ehrlich reads from and discusses the process of collaboration on Arctic Heart (1992), a series of poems composed for a ballet. She also reads excerpts from "The Fasting Heart," an essay on destruction and abundance in the natural world, collected in Islands, The Universe, Home (1991).

Sarah Kortemeier performs a series of short love poems in light of Valentine's Day at the 2015 Poetry Out Loud Regional Finals Competition.

Jane Miller opens her reading with "Miami Heart" and "The Poet," both from Memory at These Speeds: New and Selected Poems (1996). She continues with work from Wherever You Lay Your Head, published in 1999. This reading was originally given with Eleni Sikelianos.

Nanao Sakaki performs poems and songs in the courtyard of the Poetry Center on Cherry Avenue. Asking the audience, "Any questions? I'll answer by my poems," Sakaki addresses themes raised by audience members such as anger, feeling at home, time, walking, and love for the desert and all forms of life.