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Applesauce
by Ted Kooser
In this poem, Ted Kooser sets the scene of a woman in the kitchen, making applesauce. The poem is about the sensory experience of watching her: the sights, sounds, and smells of the process.

"Applesauce," by Ted Kooser, published in Delights & Shadows (2004), by Copper Canyon Press. (Used by permission of the publisher.) Read by Eliza Foss.

Benediction
by Stanley Kunitz
A benediction is a blessing, or an invocation. It is what people are doing when they say "bless this house." In this poem by Stanley Kunitz, the benediction is directed at the world, at God's house.

"Benediction," by Stanley Kunitz, published in The Collected Poems (2002), by W.W. Norton. (Used by permission of the poet.) Read by Eliza Foss.

First Thanksgiving
by Sharon Olds
In "First Thanksgiving," Sharon Olds writes of a daughter's homecoming from college for the holidays. The poem shifts back and forth between melancholy about the passing of time, and exultation in the grown child as a miraculous object.

"First Thanksgiving," by Sharon Olds, published in Strike Sparks (2004), by Alfred A. Knopf. (Used by permission of the publisher.) Read by Eliza Foss.

Mediterranean
by Rosanna Warren
In Rosanna Warren's poem, "Mediterranean," a woman walks down a path to the beach and sees a vision of her mother. She remembers her childhood, when she and her mother daily walked a stony path to a different beach.

"Mediterranean," by Rosanna Warren. First published in Poetry (December 2004). (Used by permission of the poet.) Read by Annie O'Sullivan.

Misgivings
by William Matthews
In this poem William Matthews articulates the insecurity often found in the midst of love, the worry that a passionate union will fade out and die. In the third stanza, "Dread" with a capital D and "Experience" with a capital E appear as characters, or gods, undermining the poet's happiness. In the end, an enormous meal is offered as an antidote to worry.

"Misgivings" by William Matthews, published in Search Party: Collected Poems (2005), by Houghton Mifflin. (Used by permission of the estate.) Read by Jacob Weber.

Pumpernickel
by Philip Schultz
"Pumpernickel" celebrates the joys of baking bread, and an evocation of the way such a simple act can slow down time.

"Pumpernickel," by Philip Schultz, published in Deep Within the Ravine (1984), by Penguin. (Used by permission of the poet.) Read by Jacob Weber.

Second Witness
by Pattiann Rogers
Here, Pattiann Rogers reminds us that the natural world can be a mirror to our innermost self.

"Second Witness," by Pattiann Rogers, published in Firekeeper: Selected Poems, Revised and Expanded (2005), by Milkweed Editions. (Used by permission of the poet.) Read by Annie O'Sullivan.

Snowstorm
by Hayden Carruth
Hayden Carruth conjures a man in New England watching a snowstorm swirl outside his farmhouse window. He sees a car break down on the road, and is surprised when the strangers in the car refuse his offer of help.

"Snowstorm," a poem by Hayden Carruth, published in Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey (1996), by Copper Canyon Press. (Used by permission of the publisher.) Read by Jacob Weber.

"Fra Lippo Lippi"
By Robert Browning as read by actor Paul Giamatti.
Dressed like a monk and caught by the police in the red light district after hours, Fra Lippo Lippi tells his life story about being a painter to wiggle out of the jam.
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Audio Reading Guide to "Fra Lippo Lippi"
Narrated by W.S. Di Piero with excerpts from the poem as read by Paul Giamatti.
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"My Last Duchess"
By Robert Browning as read by actor Alfredo Molina.
In "My Last Duchess," the duke of Ferrara shows off his art collection to the representative of a nobleman to whose daughter the duke is engaged. The centerpiece of his collection is a portrait of his recently deceased wife, whom the duke has had murdered because of her supposedly indiscriminant attentions.
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Audio Reading Guide to "Andrea del Sarto"
Narrated by W.S. Di Piero with excerpts from the poem read by Dion Flynn.
"Andrea del Sarto" is spoken by the 16th-century artist who was described by one of his contemporaries as "the faultless painter." In this monologue, Andrea del Sarto attempts to have a "relationship talk" with his wife Lucrezia: "A few years earlier, she persuaded him to return from the Court of France where he'd been invited and won acclaim and prosperity. Now he fears his return may have cost him the supreme fame of a Michelangelo or Raphael."
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Audio Guide to the painting Portrait of Man and Woman at a Casement (1440) by Fra Lippo Lippi
Narrated by W.S. Di Piero.
This opulent portrait of a man and a woman who appear devoted to one another is an example of Fra Lippo Lippi's belief in the value of the sensual beauty of the human form, which he believed was a reflection of the divine. Visit the Met to view the painting.

Audio Guide to the painting Holy Family by Andrea del Sarto
Narrated by W.S. Di Piero.
The great rivalry in Italian Renaissance painting was between Fra Angelico and Andrea del Sarto. W.S. Di Piero explains why this painting, in which Saint John the Baptist hands a globe to the Christ child, exemplifies the charm Andrea del Sarto's paintings had that Fra Angelico often lacked. Visit the Met to view the painting.

Audio Guide to the painting The Last Judgment: Paradise by Fra Angelico
Narrated by W.S. Di Piero.
This portion of Fra Angelico's triptych, The Last Judgment, shows a procession of souls into heaven. The swaying angels dance toward heaven while down in the right corner of the third panel (not shown) crouch miserable creatures, brutalizing each other. As W.S. Di Piero explains, Angelico made these demons an ugliness that "menaces the beauty of God's creation, a corruption that claws at vulnerable but divinely authored human souls."

Janet Waking
by John Crowe Ransom
Do you remember the first time a pet or a loved one died? More than likely you thought your pet or friend should just wake up and talk. In this poem "Janet Waking," John Crowe Ransom, considered one of the great poetry stylists of the 20th century, captures how incomprehensible death is to a child. From 1937 to 1958 Ransom taught at Kenyon College; there he founded the Kenyon Review, a magazine that established him as an influential and controversial critic and editor.

Felix Crow
by Kay Ryan
The poet Kay Ryan is one of the funniest and smartest poets writing today. She describes her writing process as "a self-imposed emergency," the artistic equivalent of finding a loved one pinned under a 3,000-pound car. This whimsical poem by Ryan imagines what it's like to go to crow school, and the crow school graduates might remind you of a few people you know. In an interview, Kay Ryan told Salon.com that "poetry puts more oxygen in the atmosphere. Poetry makes it easier to breathe." "Felix Crow" is from The Niagara River (2005), published by Grove Press. (Used by permission of the poet.)

The Carolers
by Ed Skoog
In "The Carolers," a man sits inside his warm house, listening to carolers sing a favorite Christmas song. He drifts off to sleep, mixing up the present reality with dreams of a journey. Ed Skoog is a high school teacher at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. His chapbook, Field Recordings, was published by Lit Rag Press (2003). (Used by permission of the poet.) (Published in Poetry, December 2004.)

North of Mist
by Wendy Videlock
In this poem, Colorado poet Wendy Videlock takes the reader on a journey that continually shifts between a real landscape and an emotional, imagined one. We do not know, for instance, if mist is a real place here or a quality of weather. Notice the way the numbers in the poem reflect off each other. Because of its meter, the poem moves swiftly: there are no full stops, only commas. The meter propels the poem, just as a walker is propelled along a trail, unsure where she might end up. Videlock often writes about nature. She lives in Colorado's western hills with her husband and small children. Her work appears in Geography of Hope: Poets of Colorado's Western Slope, published by Conundrum Press. (Used by permission of the poet.) (Published in Poetry, May 2005)

A Pedestrian
by Amit Majmudar
In the poem "A Pedestrian," the poet slows down time to capture that moment when the ordinary can explode into the not so ordinary. The speaker notices how the world seems to stop when everyone in it turns to watch a seemingly innocent pedestrian chased by plainclothes police. Amit Majmudar is a resident physician in diagnostic radiology living in Cleveland, Ohio. The poem is read by the actor Alfred Molina. (Used by permission of the poet.) (Published in Poetry, October 2005)

Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief
by Maxine Kumin
80-year old Maxine Kumin is one of our most well-respected poets. This poem is an existential meditation; the setting is an airplane, waiting to take off, a position where many passengers find themselves contemplating life and death. But the poet is not thinking about plane crashes here, rather she turns the idea of "ground time" into a metaphor for existence itself. The sky into which they will soon depart is the future, containing the souls of her unborn kin. Notice the delightful list of items loaded into the plane at the end of the first stanza. Kumin has won many prizes and has served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She lives in New Hampshire on a farm, where she raises horses. From Our Ground Time Here Will Be Brief (1982), published by Viking Press. (Used by permission of the author.)

Holidays
by Dara Wier
Here the poet is attending a holiday dinner, watching as the scene unfolds, listening for patterns, thinking about all the things the family is not saying to each other. One pattern in the poem: images of water. The poet has images of people washing hands, to wash away "whatever offends," of filling and refilling water glasses. The rock in the middle of the dinner table is both comical and somehow elemental; in symbolic terms it is the opposite of the water imagery. But it also becomes the image for everything that is not said. Dara Wier is the author of nine collections of poetry. She teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. (Used by permission of the author.)

Houdini
by Kay Ryan
In this poem, Kay Ryan meditates on the transformations of history's most famous escape artist, Harry Houdini. She writes about Houdini's "art," in which he seems to blend with the chains that bind him. Then she speculates on the moment when he must return to his ordinary self, and how this moment of return was perhaps the hardest part of the entire escape. It is a poem that can be seen as a metaphor for artmaking and inspiration. Ryan's books include The Niagara River and Say Uncle, both published by Grove Press. Published in The Niagara River (2005), by Grove Press. (Used by permission of the poet.)

Food
by John Updike
John Updike is one of America's most distinguished and prolific writers. Updike is the author of more than fifty books, including the recent Americana and Other Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001). Most women know what John Updike discovers in this short poem: food, not a dog, is our best friend. Published in Collected Poems: 1953-1993 (1993), by Alfred A. Knopf. (Used by permission of the poet.)

After Thanksgiving
by Sandra M. Gilbert
After packing her youngest on an airplane back to college, a mother compares the end of autumn to the season of life in which she now finds herself in this lovely poem. Sandra M. Gilbert, a professor of English at the University of California, Davis, is the author of seven collections of poetry. Belongings, her latest book of poems, published by Norton (2005). (Used by permission of the poet.)

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