Poetry & Wine

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, October 18th at 7 pm. at Little Shop. We'll be discussing The Great Fires: poems 1982-1992 by Jack Gilbert.


It was requested that a list be compiled of all the works that we have read for Poetry & Wine. Here it is!

2023

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

JuneThe 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

OctoberMeditations 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

DecemberSong of Myself by Walt Whitman (part two)

NovemberHold by Bob Hicok

OctoberNative 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

SeptemberScald 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 Noble Prize in Literature

OctoberUnquiet Things by James Davis May

SeptemberDog Songs by Mary Oliver

August - Get Up, Please by David Kirby

July - the do over by Kathleen Ossip

June19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shibab Nye

May - Dead Man's Float by Jim Harrison

AprilThe Best American Poetry edited by Sherman Alexie (the inaugural meeting)

The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992 By Jack Gilbert Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9780679747673
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf - February 13th, 1996

JOYCE'S MOTTO has had much fame but few apostles. Among them, there has been Jack Gilbert and his orthodoxy, a strictness that has required of this poet, now in the seventh decade of his severe life, the penalty of his having had almost no fame at all.