Whether written on the spot or back home later, a poet’s journey is tailor-made for the page and our reading. These poems are not only transporting. They ginger up our own desire to be elsewhere, to be alone with the light and dark of a strange and compelling newness. Home may be longed for, or forgotten. The utter uniqueness of the poet’s surroundings may create for us a virtual presence in that place, and at the same time illuminate every experience we have had of being away anywhere and having felt re-made by it.

Poems to be selected from Auden in China, Basho in Japan, Barrett Browning in Florence, Bishop on the beach in Massachusetts, Coleridge in the Harz Mountains, Darwish in Palestine, Khalvati snowbound in Lisbon, Lalíc in Croatia, Neruda on Machu Picchu, Pushkin on the Black Sea, Rich among the American Indians, Ritsos on Samos, and Tsvetayeva across the miles.

These sessions are always focussed and informal. Everyone can feel free to express their thoughts and feelings about the poems as they want to. A lot of ground gets covered, poems and readers come alive, and friends are quickly made of the poets and each other.