Pleasures of Poetry 2025

Celebrating our 30th year running! 

Pleasures of Poetry meets this IAP 2025 in 14E-304 from 1-2 p.m. every weekday from January 6-24th, with the exception of MLK Jr. Day (Jan. 20). This popular activity – which aims to reach all those with an interest in poetry, regardless of experience level – has been offered every IAP for several decades. Each one-hour session is devoted to a poet or two, often a single poem, chosen by session leaders who volunteer to facilitate conversation for that day. Collaborative close reading is the aim and ideal of each hour. Some participants attend every session, but many others may drop in only once or twice during the series to discuss a favorite poet or poem, or to discover new favorites. The roster of poets is typically diverse — from classic Chinese poets to American poets laureate, and from such canonical figures as Shakespeare, Keats, Dickinson, and Bishop to contemporary poets including Louise Glück, Joy Harjo, Terrence Hayes, and many more.

Free and open to the public; as well as staff, alumni, and students.

Jan 6 Peter Perdue,
Tao Qian: "After Drinking Wine: I, IV, V" & "In Praise of Ching K’o the Assassin"
Olaf H. Hauge: "Everyday","Tao Qian", "Qu Yuan’s dialogue with a Daoist fisherman", & "The Tale of Qu Yuan"

Jan 7 Mark Hessler,
Louise Glück: "Grace," "Parable," & "Quince Tree"

Jan 8 Bronwen Heuer, 
Take a Walk with Me
Mark Strand: “Keeping Things Whole”
Robert Duncan: “Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow“
Theodore Roethke: “The Waking”

Jan 9 Noel Jackson,
William Blake: “Proverbs of Hell” 

Jan 10  Arthur Bahr,
Emily Dickinson: "I dwell in Possibility" 

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Jan 13 Peter Shor,
Dana Gioia: "Psalm and Lament for Los Angeles," "Words, Words, Words," & "At the Crossroads."

Jan 14  Mary Fuller,
Dante Alighieri: "Canto I"

Jan 15 Caitlyn Doyle,
Lee Maracle: "War" & "Everything begins with song"

Jan 16 Ben Magrum,
Anne Sexton: “The Abortion” & “With Mercy for the Greedy.” 

Jan 17 Elizabeth Doran,
Louise Bogan: "Song For A Lyre," "Come Sleep..." & "Evening In The Sanitarium"

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Jan 20 MLK Jr. Day (Institute Holiday - Closed)

Jan 21  Anne Hudson, 
Natasha Trethewey: "Again, the Fields" & "South"

Jan 22 Sandy Alexandre,
Mahmoud Darwish “The Cypress Broke” (translated by Fady Joudah)

Jan 23 Avery Nguyen,
Arthur Rimbaud: “Ville” (translated by John Ashbery, Paul Schmidt, and Louise Varese)

Jan 24 David Thorburn,
John Crowe Ransome: "Captain Carpenter"