February 1: Reading poetry on a winter's night

Last night in my Maine Poetry class, we read aloud Longfellow's "Wreck of the Hesperus," each of us in turn reading a stanza—an under-appreciated, long-lost form of entertainment.

Full moon on snow.
Reading Longfellow aloud
like they used to.

February 8: What the winter sky has to say

Yesterday I participated in a poetry reading at Brunswick's Curtis Public Library that was part of the town's Longfellow Days. We were each asked to read a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in addition to our own work. I chose my favorite (and seasonally appropriate) "Snow-Flakes," a line of which begins today's haiku as new snow falls past my window.

This is the poem of the air--
cold syllables fall,
slow litany.