Poets & Writers Theater

“No matter the pull toward brink. No / matter the florid, deep sleep awaits. / There is a time for everything.” Ada Limón reads “Sorrow Is Not My Name” by Ross Gay and shares why this poem means so much to her for this new video series “The Poem I Wish I Had Read,” created by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College.

In this 2021 video, Jessica Jacobs reads David Wagoner’s poem “Lost” and talks about why she chose it for “The Poem I Wish I Had Read” series produced by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. Jacobs’s new poetry collection, unalone, was published in March by Four Way Books.

“To pull the metal splinter from my palm / my father recited a poem in a low voice.” Tina Chang reads from Li-Young Lee’s poem “The Gift,” her choice for “The Poem I Wish I Had Read” video series produced by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. For more from Chang, read this 2019 Q&A by Jerome Ellison Murphy in our Online Exclusive archive.