March 31, 2013 Steve Saari reads poetry, Candy Shue reviews Hazel White, and we talk nature poetry

This week we had a bit of a grab bag show, including a poetry submission, a book review, and an insightful (ahem!) conversation about nature poetry. First, we played an audio submission from Minnesotan poet Steve Saari, who luckily discovered himself to be a writer later in life, and who shared with us his beautiful poems, which are strongly influenced by his interaction with his natural, social and professional environments. He pays enormous attention to the every day habits and occurrences in a given place, those that we often forget to notice. And in this vein, Candy Shue joined us again in the studio to read her review of Hazel White's Peril as Architectural Environment (Kelsey Street Press, 2011). White, who is the author of many books on gardening and landscape design, investigates "language and poetry as ecosystem." As always, Candy did an incredible job of presenting and responding to this book of eco-poetics. After the break, we had our own conversation about nature poetry, what it is capable of doing and how it interacts with the environment and the body. We talked about ideas of what eco-poetics can do and how we might trouble the traditional concept of nature poetry. Candy also talked about how culture affects how the speaker sees the land and rights to that land. Lastly, we talked about writing reviews and what responsibilities we take on when we present a writer's work to the world. 

Click here to listen