Poetry

Benet worked as a longshoreman in San Francisco until gentrification and automation rendered his labor unnecessary. He says he mourns the workers' culture more than the job itself. Benet later went to graduate school and became a novelist and poet. His newest book is called A Short Dance in the Sun.

Waldman grew up in Greenwich Village and joined a community of poets who moved to her neighborhood. She says her work is influenced by the noises of the street as the, as well as the writings of other poets.

Gregory Djanikian, who has a new poetry collection published by Carnegie Mellon Press, reads a new work about American identity and the Midwest.

Despite his often misanthropic themes, Galway says he's been roused from his depression, in part because of his wonder of nature. He's known for exploring emotional extremes in his writing.

Egyptian-American writer Gregory Djanikian reads a poem called "Renovations," about his coming to grips with chaos.

A new anthology of Wilbur's early and recent poetry has recently been published. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his writing, the effect of how reading in front of audiences has had on his work, and his relationship with his children. Wilbur was Poet Laureate from 1987 to 1988.

Rich's writing has been deeply political, but her recent poetry explores more personal themes. She joins Fresh Air to discuss her coming out as a lesbian, the difference between her poetry and the poetry written by men, and why she's reluctant to speak publicly about her personal life, despite being an autobiographical writer.

Writer May Sarton. For many readers, Sarton is a heroic figure for her decision to expose her lesbianism in the early 60s, long before it society was tolerant of the gay life, and also for her decision to lead a life of solitude. The author of over 35 novels, books of poetry and essays, Sarton is probably best known for her journals, Recovering, and At Seventy. Her most recent book of poems, The Silence Now, explores themes from the solitude of the aging, to AIDS, to world peace.

Poet and essayist John Haines. Haines' new book The Stars, The Snow, The Fire, recalls the 25 years he spent homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness. Haines is more than "one of our best nature writers," according to Hayden Carruth of Harpers Magazine. Carruth writes that Haines "knows the ecological crisis ... as a crisis of consciousness, the human mind in ultimate confrontation with itself.

Poet Mark Halliday returns to Fresh Air to read one of his latest works. Halliday, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has published several books of poetry. The most recent is titled Little Star.

Poet Mark Halliday reads one his latest works. Halliday, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has read several of his poems on Fresh Air.

Poet Mark Halliday reads a short work titled "Fort Brag." The poem is an ode to people who are absolutely certain about most everything. Halliday, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is a regular contributor to Fresh Air.

Poet Li-Young Lee. He was born into a family of political refugees from China. They traveled throughout Asia for years to escape persecution. In the mid-60's his family moved to Pennsylvania. Lee's poems reflect his struggle with his Chinese heritage - a heritage to which he is bound but in which he never lived. His poems also reflect Lee's attempt to come to terms with the powerful and mythic figure of his father, who was alternately imprisoned and revered for his beliefs.

Egyptian-born poet Gregory Djanikian (ja-NIK-ee-ann) reads a poem about his early memories of moving to America and starting school.

Book critic John Leonard reviews a new biography of Allan Ginsberg.

Poet and essayist June Jordan. In her poems and political essays, she addresses issues of racism, oppression and dispossession. She was born in Harlem and grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area of Brooklyn. She currently teaches English at the University of California at Berkeley.

Poet Mark Halliday reads one of his works.

Poet Mark Halliday reads two poems about the passage of time.

Poet Michael Ryan. Ryan's poems have earned him a Guggenheim Fellowship and a nomination for the National Book Award. He's just released his third collection of poems, called "God Hunger."

Poet, critic and translator Robert Hass. He won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for his first volume of poetry, "Field Guide," published in 1973. He translated, with poet Robert Pinsky, Czeslaw Milosz's "The Separate Notebooks." His essays have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, Antaeus, and Salmagundi. Many of those essays are collected in his book, "Twentieth Century Pleasures." Hass's new book, "Human Wishes," mixes verse, prose poems. and essays.