Tonight I read a handful of poems on the theme of How to live, what to do? How to get by in the world as a devotee of culture, solitude, ritual, beauty, tradition and individuality?

There is of course no one answer, and anyway, poetry should stay as far away from direct “advice,” or proscription of any kind. Still, when I sit back and think about the kind of poems that help me through the day – and the months, and the years – these are some of them. Let me know the poems you rely on in this way: send me a message at humanvoiceswakeus1@gmail.com.

As I also mention, after this episode I’ll be taking a break from Human Voices Wake Us for at least a month. The best way to support the podcast is to preorder my book Notes from the Grid (coming out February 23), or check out any of my other books: To the House of the Sun, The Lonely Young & the Lonely Old, Bone Antler Stone

The poems I read are:

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), How to Live What to Do
Galway Kinnell (1927-2014), Tillamook Journal
Edith Nesbit (1858-1924), Things That Matter
Seamus Heaney (1939-2013), #2 from Lightenings
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962), Joy
Louise Glück (1943-), Summer Night
W. B. Yeats (1865-1939), A Prayer on Going into My House
Emily Brontë (1818-1848), “Often rebuked, yet always back returning”
Henry Vaughan (1621-1695), Man

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