for Grownups
Read the poems. Come and discuss. We are a very non-pretentious group of poetry enthusiasts who gather monthly. This is an open group; there is no need to sign-up ahead of time -- just read the selection and show up. Bring a bottle of wine (or bourbon or whatever), or a dessert of some sort to share if you wish. (Hint: Chocolate always works.) Folks read their favorite poems and provide their own insights, and we have truly interesting and wonderful discussions. Send a note to Dave at dave@littleshopofstories.com if you would like more information or to get on the email list!
We primarily read contemporary American poets, but -- as you'll see as you peruse the list below -- we sometimes mix it up. Dave is ALWAYS open to recommendations.
We’re meeting next on Wednesday, March 20th at 7 pm. at Little Shop to discuss Common Grace: Poems, edited by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura.
From the publisher:
About Common Grace
The first major poetry collection from an award-winning student of Robert Pinsky, exploring the inherited trauma within his Japanese American family, his life as an artist, and his bond with his wife
In 65 lyric poems organized into a triptych, Common Grace offers an important new lens into Asian American life, art, and love.
Part 1, “Soul Sauce,” describes the poet’s life as a practicing visual artist, taking us from an early encounter with an inkwell at Roseland Elementary in 1969 to his professional outdoor easel perched on Long Island Sound.
Part 2, ‘Ubasute,” is named after the mythical Japanese practice wherein “a grown son lifts / his aged mother on his back, / delivers her to a mountain, / leaves her to die.” This concept frames a wrenching portrayal of his parents’ decline and death, reaching back to his father’s time in the American internment camps of WWII and his mother’s memories of the firebombing of Tokyo. It also anchors the 2 outer parts in the racial trauma and joys passed down from his parents.
Part 3, “Gutter Trees,” gives us affecting love poems to his wife and the creative lives they’ve built together.
Ranging in scope from private moments to the sweep of familial heritage, Caycedo-Kimura’s poems are artful, subtle, but never quiet.
It was requested that a list be compiled of all the works that we have read for Poetry & Wine. Here it is!
2024
March - Common Grace: Poems by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura
February - Little Poems, edited by Michael Hennessy
January - 100 Selected Poems by Robert Frost
2023
December - Potluck and ekphrasitic poems
November - Apocrifa by Amber Flame
October - The Great Fires: poems 1982-1992 by Jack Gilbert
September - Dubious Breath by Jennifer Davis Michael (including a discussion with Jennifer Davis Michael via Zoom)
August - Prognosis by Jim Moore
July - Human Chain: Poems by Seamus Heaney
June - The Anxiety Workbook by Christina Olson
May - Unusually Grand Ideas by James Davis May
April - Dear Outsiders by Jenny Sadre-Orafai (including a discussion with Jenny Sadre-Orafa)
March - Guillotine: Poems by Eduardo C. Corral
February - Love Poems
January - Musical Tables by Billy Collins
2022
December - Potluck and memorial poems
November - Turn Up the Ocean by Tony Hoagland
October - Meditations in an Emergency by Frank O'Hara
July and September - The Hurting Kind by Ada Limón
June - Hail, The Invisible Watchman by Alexandra Oliver
May - Time is a Mother by Ocean Veoung
April - Crush by Richard Siken
March - Magnificent Errors by Sheryl Luna
February - Reparations Now! by Ashley M. Jones
2021
December - Potluck and Haikus
November - The Gold Cell by Sharon Old
October - Red Clay Suite by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
September - Poetry Pot Luck: poems submitted by the group
August - The Wild Iris by Louise Glück
2020
March - Nightshade by Andrea Cohen (canceled due to the pandemic)
February - Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love by Keith S. Wilson
January - Hey Marfa: Poems by Jeffery Yang
2019
December - Potluck, poetry, and music
November - The Café of Unintelligible Desire by Julia Knowlton (including a discussion with Julia Knowlton)
September - The Flame by Leonard Cohen
August - Still Life with Mother and Knife by Chelsea Rathburn
July - How to Love a Country by Ricahrd Blanco
June - A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver
May - The Tradition by Jericho Brown (including a discussion with Jericho Brown)
April - Power Politics by Margaret Atwood
March - Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
February - Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
January - Years, Months, and Days by Amanda Jernigan
2018
December - Song of Myself by Walt Whitman (part two)
November - Hold by Bob Hicok
October - Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey
September - feeld by Jos Charles
August - Oceanic by Aimee Nezhukmatathil
July - Otherworld, Underworld, Prayer Porch by David Bottoms
June - The Way Under the Way: The Place of True Meaning by Mark Nepo
May - Felicity by Mary Oliver
April - American Purgatory by Rebecca Gayle Howell
March - Good Bones by Maggie Smith
February - The Rain in Portugal by Billy Collins
January - canceled due to a one heck of a nasty ice storm
2017
December - Good Poems, selected and introduced by Garrison Keillor
November - Song of Myself (1891 deathbed edition) by Walt Whitman
October - The Princess Saves Herself In This One by Amanda Lovelace
September - Scald by Denise Duhamel
August - Lessons on Expulsion by Erika Sánchez
July - Map of the Stars by Adrian Matejka
June - Said Not Said: Poems by Fred Marchant
May - The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins
April - Madwoman by Shara McCallum
March - Best American Poetry 2016 edited by David Lehman and Edward Hirsch (part 2)
January - Best American Poetry 2016 edited by David Lehman and Edward Hirsch (part 1)
2016
November - The Poetry of Bob Dylan as selected by the group in honor of Dylan's Nobel Prize in Literature
October - Unquiet Things by James Davis May
September - Dog Songs by Mary Oliver
August - Get Up, Please by David Kirby
July - the do over by Kathleen Ossip
June - 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shibab Nye
May - Dead Man's Float by Jim Harrison
April - The Best American Poetry edited by Sherman Alexie (the inaugural meeting)
The first major poetry collection from an award-winning student of Robert Pinsky, exploring the inherited trauma within his Japanese American family, his life as an artist, and his bond with his wife
In 65 lyric poems organized into a triptych, Common Grace offers an important new lens into Asian American life, art, and love.