This week’s guest on Poetry from Daily Life is Maryfrances Wagner, who lives in the Greater Kansas City Area. This is her second column in the series. The first appeared on Nov. 19, 2023.

The Word of the Month for February was "spark." A brilliant sunrise mirrored on the lake behind our house inspired this poem. guide a life. If this monthly exercise appeals to you, I hope you’ll ...

What is it about life’s big and little moments that calls for a poem? At weddings. At funerals. On greeting cards. In church. On the radio. At moments of great happiness or deep sadness.

In a poem, counterintuitively, compression creates expansion. A single image or metaphor opens up into a wide open space. Less is often more. The more I edited down my life to the essential ...

Struggling to make sense of my changing life, I memorized the Polish poet ... I haven’t written a single poem in months. I’ve lived humbly, reading the paper, pondering the riddle of power ...

This week’s guest on “Poetry from Daily Life” is Jane Yolen, who divides her time between Hatfield, Massachusetts; Mystic, Connecticut; and Scotland. Jane began writing in 2nd grade and ...

Song Lin’s poem, translated by Dong Li ... translated by Dong Li On the twelve identical bridges not a single one without endless streams of traffic. The evening bell tolled, birds retrieved ...

This year, NPR wants to know about the poems and poets that have shaped your life. Have you read a poet who changed your outlook on life? Has a poem stuck with you over the years, or brought you ...

One of my favorite poets is William Carlos Williams, the imagist poet who believed a poem could be like a painting — words that provoke a picture and initiate thought. Here’s his most famous ...