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Send us a text Have any of you ever done something or said something that just...flew out of your mouth, or out of your hand, and changed your or someone else's life forever? I've been haunted by this poem for many years now.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Our Other Sister, is by Jeffrey Harrison and is featured here with kind permission of the poet. If you enjoyed it, I encourage you to check out his website. 

Send us a text The Twin Cities are currently under assault by our federal government. The strength and resolve and steadfast by Twin Citians is an astonishing thing to witness.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today's poem, Questionnaire, is by me. For more information about my writing, online workshops, and Poem of the Week, check out my website: alisonmcghee.com. 

Send us a text Have any of you ever been pulled back from the brink by a person or animal who loved you? I have.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Claim, is by Casey Jueds and is featured here with kind permission of the poet. If you enjoyed it, I encourage you to check out more of her work. 

Send us a text Anyone else find themselves, despite all the goodness and wonder in their life, wanting more? This is when I have to stop, and return to the breath of gratitude.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Spring Night, is by Sara Teasdale and is in the public domain. 

Send us a text We're back after an unexpected hiatus to take care of a beloved family member.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Cold Solace, is by Anna Belle Kaufman. If you enjoyed it, I encourage you to read more of her poems on this website. 

Send us a text It's been a long time, friends. Six months, to be precise. But we're back and we intend to keep coming back. Take heart. We're all in this together.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Nine-Eleven, is by Charlotte Parsons. Although today's poem has been featured on hundreds of websites I'm unable to find out any information about Charlotte Parsons other than that this poem first appeared on The Writer's Almanac on September 11, 2017. This leads me to suspect that Charlotte Parsons is a pseudonym for someone else. If anyone's in the know, please clue me in. 

Send us a text Anyone else out there haunted by the calls of owls, coyotes, wolves, in the middle of the night?  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, The Owl, is by Edward Thomas and is in the public domain. 

Send us a text My dog hides nothing: his love, his pain, his hunger, his tiredness. As a result, he tends to get what he wants and needs. I am not like my dog.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Refusal to Mourn, is by Andrea Cohen and is featured here with kind permission of the poet.  I encourage you to check out more of her beautiful work. 

Send us a text Little things. Tiny things. Things to hold gently. Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Little Things, is by Marion Strobel and is in the public domain.  

Send us a text So much pain in life, the kind of pain inflicted by humans upon each other because of differing theologies, feels unnecessary to me. Can't we all be who we are? Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Jesus at the Gay Bar, is by Jay Hulme and is featured here with kind permission of the poet.  I encourage you to check out more of his beautiful work. 

Send us a text It's a beautiful thing, how a poem written more than three thousand years ago can come shimmering up through the ages, an arrow to the heart.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Injustice, is by Piyassili of Assyria, 1218 BC, and is featured here as part of our Poetry in the Public Domain series. 

Send us a text Years go by and you live through so many things that don’t turn out as you hope, and you know this will keep on happening. The flip side of this is a kind of gratitude I could not have felt when I was younger, a combination of telescope and microscope: all the awfulness will always be there, and so will a thousand tiny beautiful moments. Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, We Three Kings, is by Dante Di Stefano and is featured here with kind permission of the poet.  I encourage you to check out more of his beautiful work. 

Send us a text Oh, Ms. Parker. Ms. Parker! How do you do what you do? I read your poems over and over.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry.  Today's poem, Inscrutable, by poet, editor, and Algonquin Round Table founder Dorothy Parker, is in the public domain. Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected]. 

Send us a text Oh, childhood and the friends we made then. The friends I had when I was a child will be with me forever, even if only in memory, in a kind of longing way.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry. Today’s poem, Naive, is by Tim Seibles and is featured here with kind permission of the poet.  I encourage you to check out more of his beautiful work. 

Send us a text I'm preparing my garden for winter as this episode airs, and feeling nostalgic for its summer glory, something that the poet seems to feel as well.  Words by Winter: Conversations, reflections, and poems about the passages of life. Because it’s rough out there, and we have to help each other through. Original theme music for our show is by Dylan Perese. Additional music composed and performed by Kelly Krebs. Artwork by Mark Garry.  Today's poem, The Garden by Moonlight, by poet and translator Amy Lowell, is in the public domain. Words by Winter can be reached at [email protected].