Discover Poetry

In October 2017 I started leading a monthly poetry reading group at Dove Cottage.

Every month we read and talk about 4 poems. It began with the idea of having 3 seasonal choices and 1 which reflects current events in some way. Often since we went online we have 4 seasonal poems because the world can be a bit too much with us, late and soon, as that man William Wordsworth wrote.

Since October 2018 the reading group is held on the THIRD THURSDAY of the month.

From April 2020 onwards the sessions take place online, on zoom.

From 2023 we began to operate a 10 month year, taking breaks in March and August. In 2024 and 2025 we took a summer break in July and August.

The sessions are FREE and open to anyone, whether you gobble up poems on a weekly basis or haven’t touched one in years, if ever. There are no prerequisites and no expectations. You can participate as much or as little as you like.

Each session starts at 7.30pm GMT/BST and will finish around 9.

This page keeps a record of every poem we’ve discussed over the years.

December 2025

Instructions for an amaryllis or a person near winter solstice by Sarah Ruhl
Winter by Kate Wakeling
Brief respite in mid-December by Leila Chatti
I won’t be able to write from the grave by Fanny Howe
Winter Solstice Chant by Annie Finch 

November 2025

First Snow by Arthur Sze
November by Alice Winifred Finnegan
A Letter by Ted Kooser
A Day in Autumn by R.S. Thomas

October 2025

Postscript by Seamus Heaney
Halloween by John Burnside
October by Mary Oliver
October Day by Edwin Morgan

September 2025

Nocturne II by WS Merwin
September by Jennifer Michael Hecht
Once Again by Mahmoud Alshaer
old invective directive against autumn poems by Gerry loose

June 2025

Midsummer by Arthur Sze
O Love! by Marjorie Lotfi
Summer Solstice by Alex Dimitrov
Solstice by Jane Hirshfield

May 2025

In Praise of Spring by Linda Gregg
Uptown, Minneapolis, Minnesota by Hieu Minh Nguyen
Springing by Marie Ponset
Dear one absent this long while by Lisa Olstein

April 2025

At Last by Michael McKimm
The Spring Has Many Silences by Laura Riding Jackson
To John Keats, Poet. At Spring Time by Countee Cullen
Bluebells by Liz Berry

March 2025

First of March by Stacie Cassarino
Daylight Saving by Grace Q Song
Vernal Equinox by Kyla Jamieson
‘in time of daffodils …’ by eecummings

February 2025

St. Brigid’s Day, 1989 by Leland Bardwell
Vigil at Candlemas by Marian Storm
What Space Faith Can Occupy by TC Tolbert
February Twilight by Sara Teasdale

January 2025

Year’s End by Richard Wilbur
January by WS Merwin
My hair burned by Berenice by Ruth Awad
Lost by David Wagoner

December 2024

Midwinter by by John Unterecker
Ode to Winter by Gillian Clarke
The 26th of December by Galway Kinnell
Getting into bed on a December night by Ellen Bass

November 2024

Beginning of November by Franz Wright
November for Beginners by Rita Dove
November 1968 by Adrienne Rich
The O’s of November by May Sarton

October 2024

Late September by Charles Simic
October by Jacob Polley
Of Things And Home by William Bearhart
Letter to the Northern Lights by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

September 2024

On the first day of Autumn by Jason Allen-Paisant
Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop
Russet by Kevin Young
September, 1918 by Amy Lowell

June 2024

A Short Story of Falling by Alice Oswald
Truth Serum by Naomi Shihab Nye
The Days Towards Summer Solstice by Samuel French Morse
Solstice by Tess Taylor

April 2024

‘April’ by Alicia Ostriker
‘Onset’ by Kim Addonizio
‘Half-life in Exile’ by Hala Alyan
‘Spring, An Inventory’ by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett

March 2024

‘Easter’ by Carola Luther
‘I belong there’ by Mahmoud Darwish
‘A healing’ by Leanne O’Sullivan
‘Horses at Midnight Without a Moon’ by Jack Gilbert

February 2024

‘February’ by Bill Christophersen
‘Winter’ by Megan Fernandes
‘February — not everywhere’ by Norman MacCaig
‘Neighbour’ by Iain Crichton Smith

January 2024

‘i am running into a new year’ by Lucille Clifton
‘New Rule’ by Anne Carson
‘The Birthday of the World’ by Marge Piercy
‘Winter Withdrawal’ by Sarah Doyle

December 2023

‘The Year’s Midnight’ by Gillian Clarke
‘ars poetica of partridges & Palestine’ by Mandy Shunnarah
‘Advent’ by Heather Cristle
‘Winter Solstice’ by Ray McNiece

November 2023

‘November night, Edinburgh’ by Norman MacCaig
‘I love you. I miss you. Please get out of my house.’ by Donika Kelly
‘Think of Others’ by Mahmoud Darwish
‘It’s November again’ by Talin Tahajian

October 2023

‘Fall’ by Edward Hirsch
‘Mimesis’ by Fady Joudah
‘Gather In’ by Marjorie Lofti
‘Fall Song’ by Joy Harjo

September 2023

‘Vows’ by Jane Clarke
‘Nocturne’ by Dennis O’Driscoll
‘Sentiments’ by Mikirō Sasaki
‘The Painter’ by Mary Jean Chan

July 2023

‘Picking Raspberries’ by Lisel Mueller
‘Just The Wind For A Sound, Softly’ by Carl Phillips
‘Stray Animals’ by James Tate
‘Summer Rain’ by Amy Lowell

June 2023

‘Summer Solstice’ by Rose Styron
‘I Want The Kind Of Permanence In A Birdwatchers Catalogue’ by Alycia Pirmohamed
‘My Eighteen-Month-Old Daughter Talks to the Rain as the Amazon Burns’ by Dante Di Stefano
‘Love is a place’ by Joan Margarit

May 2023

‘May Day’ by Phillis Levin
‘I have this way of being’ by Jamaal May
‘Bluebells’ by Gillian Clarke
‘The Zigzag Path’ by John McCullough

April 2023

‘It’s Spring’ by Carola Luther
‘Cherry Blossoms’ by Toi Derricotte
‘The way she dances tonight might suggest…’ by Eileen Pun
‘Alcove’ by John Ashberry

February 2023

‘February: Thinking of Flowers’ by Jane Kenyon
‘February’ by Jill Osier
‘February’ by Tamiko Beyer
‘Heart to Heart’ by Rita Dove

January 2023

‘Winter Sun’ by Molly Fisk
‘Counting, This New Year’s Morning, What Powers Yet Remain To Me’ by Jane Hirshfield
‘Sisu’ by Lavinia Greenlaw
‘Could I’ by Anne Carson

December 2022

‘Winter Poem’ by Donika Kelly
‘Fake Snow’ by Helen Bowell
‘Dusk in Winter’ by Victoria Chang
‘Tinsel, Frankincense, and Fir’ by Dana Gioia

November 2022

‘The Sun on the Tip of a Snail’s Shell’ by Maggie Wang
‘Essay on November’ by Stephen Kuusisto
‘In Autumn’ by WS Merwin
‘Two Girls Singing’ by Iain Crichton Smith

October 2022

‘Haunted’ by Amy Key
‘Celebrate Good Times’ by Franny Choi
‘October’ by James Schuyler
‘Bearing South’ by Susan Mansfield

September 2022

‘That hot summer’ by Sarah Doyle
‘Desiccation’ by Loretta Diane Walker
‘Transformation’ by Adam Zagajewski (trans. Clare Cavanagh)
‘Lochnagar’ by Kathleen Jamie

August 2022

‘Perseid’ by Ruth L. Schwartz
‘Rift’ by Claudine Toutoungi
‘Swimming, One Day in August’ by Mary Oliver
‘First Fire’ by Camille T Dungy

July 2022

‘Give Me This’ by Ada Limón
‘Yellow’ by Anne Sexton
‘Dear––– ‘ by Donika Kelly
‘Gift’ by by Czesław Miłosz

June 2022

‘June’ by Alex Dimitrov
‘The Opposites Game’ by Brendan Constantine
‘A Song Near The End Of The World’ by Sharon Olds
‘Midsummer’ by Jenny King

May 19th 2022

This month we will once again meet via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Song for the Festival by Gretchen Marquette
Blossom by Kathleen Jamie
From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee
On A Pink Moon by Ada Limón

April 21st 2022

This month we will once again meet via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Daffodils (Speculation on Future Blackness) by Jason Allen-Pasiant
Plastic Binoculars by Hannah Lavery
Assimilation by Warsan Shire
[Somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond] by eecummings

March 16th 2022

This month we’re having a bit of a shift around and meeting (on zoom) on a Wednesday evening, not Thursday, just to confuse things, to discuss the following:

Spring by Bohdan-Ihor Antonych
Asylum, a Dance by Lyuba Yakimchuk
Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars) by Muriel Rukeyser
Late March by Edward Hirsch

February 17th 2022

This month we will once again meet via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

The Crocus by Norman Nicholson
I Am Learning to Abandon the World by Linda Pastan
On Winter by Suzanne Buffam
Some Questions about the Storm by Hilda Raz

January 2022

This month we will once again meet via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

New Year’s Day by Kim Addonizio
Loneliness by Kwame Dawes
January by Daniel Simko
The Vanishing World by Sandra Lim

December 16th 2021

This month we will once again meet via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

December by Seán Hewitt
The Shortest Night by Victoria Chang
Letters in Winter by Maya C. Popa
Christmas Flight by Eleanor Hooker

November 18th 2021

This month we will once again meet via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Fall by Didi Jackson
Tomatoes in November by John Morrison
Autumn Leaves by Marilyn Chin
Evening by Dorianne Laux

October 21st 2021

This month we will once again meet via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost
Insomnia and the Seven Steps to Grace by Joy Harjo
Things by Jane Cooper
Seven Protections by Rachael Boast

September 16th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Summer’s Last Tomatoes by Jacquelyn Malone
Porch Swing in September by Ted Kooser
Song for Autumn by Mary Oliver
Decorating a Cake While Listening to Tennis by Peg Duthie

August 19th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

In Late August by Peter Campion
August Evening by Sandor Csoori
Summer Preserves Haibun by Cynthia Miller
I wish by by Nadia Anjuman, trans. by Diana Arterian and Marina Omar

July 15th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Letter in July by Elizabeth Spires
The Woman Who Turned Down a Date with a Cherry Farmer by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Preston North End by George Szirtes
July by Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz

June 17th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Ablutions for Midsummer by Rachael Boast
Black Marsh Eclogue by Sam Hamill
Lochan by Kathleen Jamie
Perhaps the World Ends Here by Joy Harjo

May 20th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

May by Kirmen Uribe
Swallows by Imogen Cassels
The Trees by Phillip Larkin
There Will Come Soft Rains by Sara Teasdale

April 15th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

The Late Wisconsin Spring by John Koethe
April Is a Dog’s Dream by Marilyn Singer
Sunlight, Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan
Sometimes by Sheenagh Pugh

March 18th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Wood Not Yet Out by Alice Oswald
At the Equinox by Arthur Sze
Look to the Crocus by Marion McReady
To Mr. William Wordsworth, Distributor of Stamps for Westmoreland by Lorna Goodison

February 18th 2021

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Psalm Eighty-Eight Blues by Diana Hendry
Valentine for Ernest Mann by Naomi Shihab Nye
February & my love is in another state by José Olivarez
Love in the Time of Coronavirus by Nikita Gill

All four poems as a word doc: DiscoverPoetryFeb2021

January 21st 2021

We don’t normally get to meet in January, as Dove Cottage is closed for maintenance, but the virtual calendar doesn’t care for such things! So we are having our first ever January Discover Poetry on the 21st, discussing:

Burning the Old Year by Naomi Shihab Nye
Snow Moon by Don McKay
Like You by Roque Dalton, trans. by Jack Hirschman
Praise Song For The Day by Elizabeth Alexander

All four as a word doc: January 21 DP

December 17th 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Sugar Water in Winter by Christie Towers
December began with shopping by L. Kiew
To Know the Dark by Wendell Berry
Christmas at Goosemire Farm by Gary Liggett

November 19th 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

This is a letter by Rebecca Dunham
The Birds by Linda Pastan
November Night by Adelaide Crapsey
Being a Human Being by Tom Leonard

All 4 poems as a word doc:DiscoverPoetryNov2020

October 15th 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

A Letter in October by Ted Kooser
Theme in Yellow by Carl Sandburg
Quince Jelly by Jan Wagner, trans. by Iain Galbraith
The Naming by Karenne Wood

All four as a word doc: October20DiscoverPoetry

September 17th 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Towards Autumn by Marilyn Hacker
Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, 2016 by Nina Mingya Powles
September Tomatoes by Karina Borowicz
Time is on Fire by Ada Limón

All Four as a word doc: sept20Discover Poetry

August 20th 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

After Reading Tu Fu, I Go Outside to the Dwarf Orchard by Charles Wright
August 12 in the Nebraska Sand Hills Watching the Perseids Meteor Shower by Twyla Hansen
Summer Haibun by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
The Minister For Exams by Brian Patten

July 16th 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

Summer Was Forever by Chen Chen
Early Cascade by Lucia Perillo
Shaking the Grass by Janice N. Harrington
Vacation by Rita Dove

All four in a word doc: July 20 discovery poetry virtually

June 18th 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

‘Evening Primrose’ by Rita Dove
‘On June Blossoming in June’ by Karen An-Hwei Lee
‘Against Nostalgia’ by Camille Dungy
‘How Can Black People Write About Flowers at a Time Like This’ by Hanif Abdurraqib

All 4 as a word doc: June 20 discovery poetry

May 21st 2020

This month we will once again meet virtually via Zoom to discuss the following poems:

‘May’ by Seamus Heaney
‘White Hawthorn in the West of Ireland’ by Eavan Boland
‘Yellow Iris’ by Janet Kofi-Tsekpo
‘For the Sake of Strangers’ by Dorianne Laux

All 4 as a word doc: May 20 discovery poetry

April 16th 2020

This month we are going to attempt to discover poetry virtually through the medium of Zoom. Hopefully we’ll be able to continue to meet and talk this way throughout the pandemic. I’ll be sending an email to regular attendees with details, but if you wish to join in, contact The Wordsworth Trust and hopefully we can add you to a list.

‘Iowa City: Early April‘ by Robert Haas
‘April’ by Mary Oliver
‘Warm Compress in April’ by John Angelo Alonzo
Wildcard: ‘Tea’ by Leila Chatti

All four as a word doc: April 20 discovery poetry

February 20th 2020

This month’s session will again be in the new Learning Space at the Wordsworth Trust (in the back of the old tea rooms).

Snowdrop by Alice Oswald
The Dash by Kathleen Jamie
Being in Love by Chungmi Kim
Wind by Ted Hughes

All Four as a word doc: February 20 discovery poetry

December 19th 2019

This month’s session will again be in the new Learning Space at the Wordsworth Trust (in the back of the old tea rooms).

Wintering by Sylvia Plath
Trio by Edwin Morgan
Winter Solstice by Tess Jolly
Wildcard: Dead Stars by Ada Limón

All 4 as a word doc: December Discover Poetry 19

November 21st 2019

This month’s session will be in the new Learning Space at the Wordsworth Trust (in the back of the old tea rooms).

Dream with Horse by Aria Aber (not online)
In November by Lisel Mueller
November, late in the day by John M Ridland
Wildcard: The Nation by Roy Fisher (not online)

All 4 as a word doc: November Discover Poetry 19

October 17th 2019

Plums by Gillian Clarke
Landscape as Werewolf by William Dunlop
Spout by John McCullough (not online)
Wildcard: The Border: A Double Sonnet byAlberto Ríos

All 4 as a word doc: October Discover Poetry 19

September 19th 2019

In which we return to Dove Cottage!

Absolute September by Mary Jo Salter
The Last Days of Summer Before the First Frost by Tim Bowling
To the Light of September by W. S. Merwin
Wildcard: Bad New Government by Emily Berry

All four as a word doc: September Discover Poetry 19

August 15th 2019

Lake District by John Betjeman (not online)
August by Dorothy Parker
Vespers by Louise Glück
Wildcard: “A New Gun Folds Up to Look Just Like a Smartphone” by Brandon Amico

All four poems as a word doc: August Discover Poetry 19

July 18th 2019

NB: This month again we’ll be at RYDAL MOUNT not Dove Cottage.

Although we thought last month would be our last at Rydal Mount, Dove Cottage is not yet ready for visitors again, poetic or otherwise, so we’re staying at Rydal Mount until September. Like a lovely long holiday. Thanks as always to Emily & Matt for accommodating us!

The Valley of the Stour with Dedham in the Distance by Emily Hasler
Three Summers by Amy Key
The Rushbearing at Ambleside by LEL (Letitia Elizabeth Landon)
Wildcard: Moon Landing by Helen Ivory.

All four poems as a word doc: July Discover Poetry 19

June 27th 2019

NB: This month again we’ll be at RYDAL MOUNT not Dove Cottage.

More Than Enough by Marge Piercy
Walking past a Rose this June Morning by Alice Oswald
Summer Solstice by Stacie Cassarino
Wildcard (in a continuation of a Laureate theme!): Speaking Tree by Joy Harjo

All four poems as a word doc: June Discover Poetry 19

May 16th 2019 

NB: This month again we’ll be at RYDAL MOUNT not Dove Cottage.

‘Swallows’ by Kathleen Jamie
XXX (from Thirsty) by Dionne Brand
Grasshopper Warbler by Liz Berry (not online)
Wildcard: ‘The Practical Way to Heaven’ by Simon Armitage

All four poems as a word doc: May 2019 Discover Poetry

April 18th 2019

NB: This month again we’ll be at RYDAL MOUNT not Dove Cottage.

‘April Rain Song’ by Langston Hughes
‘Swifts’ by Anne Stevenson
‘Spring’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Wildcard: Physics for the unwary student by Pippa Goldschmidt

All four poems as a word doc: April 2019 Discover Poetry

March 21st 2019

NB: This month we’ll be at RYDAL MOUNT not Dove Cottage, where they have very kindly offered to host us whilst the cottage is being renovated.

Extract from ‘The Book of Praise’ by Lorna Crozier (not online)
‘Daffodils’ by Alice Ostriker
‘Massacre’ by Ghayath Almadhoun translated from the Arabic by Catherine Cobham
‘Last Born’ by Hinemoana Baker

All 4 as a word doc: Discover Poetry March 19

February 21st 2019

February 29 by Jane Hirshfield
Almond Blossom by Fiona Benson
Saints Day Triolet: Saint Valentine by Deborah Paredez
Wildcard: ‘What kind of times are these’ by Adrienne Rich

All 4 as a word doc: February 2019 Discover Poetry

December 18th 2018

NB: This month’s session is on a TUESDAY not Thursday.

The World by Jennifer Chang
Winter Solstice by Hilda Morley
Christmas Tree by James Merrill
Wildcard: Have yourself a Brexit little Christmas by Brian Bilston

All 3 as a word doc: Discover Poetry December

November 15th 2018

‘Portrait of the Quince as an Older Woman’ by Ellen Phethean
‘November: Between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice, Today’ by Emily Jungmin Yoon
‘Falling Leaves and Early Snow’ by Kenneth Rexroth
‘I Woke Up’ by Jameson Fitzpatrick

All four as a word doc: Discover Poetry November

October 18th 2018

‘Quickthorn’ by Siobhán Campbell
‘Overheard on a Salt Marsh’ by Harold Monro
‘Indian Summer‘ by Diane Glancy
Wildcard: ‘‘What’s Mine’ by Samantha Walton

All four as a word doc: Discover Poetry October

September 6th 2018

‘September’ by Dorothy Lawrenson
‘Hedgehog Hiding at Harvest in Hills Above Monmouth’ by Helen Dunmore
‘Last August Hours Before the Year 2000’ by Naomi Shihab Nye

Word Doc: Discover Poetry September

August 2nd 2018

‘A Parking Lot in West Houston’ by Monica Youn
‘Elegy’ by Natasha Trethewey
‘Moon’ by Kathleen Jamie
Wildcard: At North Farm by John Ashberry

Word Doc: Discover Poetry August

July 5th 2018

‘Last Bus Ride in July – a Mother Speaks’  by Gerda Stevenson
‘The Big Mistake’ by Jim Carruth
‘Preface’ from Swims by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett
Wildcard (not available online): ‘What Happens to the Animals When the Woods are Burning?’ by Lorna Crozier

All four poems as a word doc: July Discover Poetry

June 7th 2018

‘Adlestrop’ by Edward Thomas
‘Easing’ by Alison Prince
‘How to Move Away’ by Lynn Pedersen
Our wildcard: ‘Try to Praise the Mutilated World‘, by Adam Zagajewski, translated by Clare Cavanagh

All four as a word doc: June discover poetry

May 3rd 2018

I Go Back to May 1937 by Sharon Olds
The Burning Kite by Ouyang Jianghe trans. Austin Woerner
Scotland by Alastair Reid
Wildcard: Borderliner by Hannah Lowe

All four poems as a word doc: Discover Poetry – May

April 5th

In April the session will be lead by Eileen Pun in my absence. Our April poems are:

‘Amsterdam’ by Megan Fernandes
‘City Lilacs’ by Helen Dunmore
‘when faces called flowers float out of the ground’ by eecummings
‘Corruptive’ by Olena Kalytiak Davis

4 poems as a word doc: April Discover Poetry

March 1st

Our poems for March are:

‘Late February’ by Ted Kooser
‘The End of March’ by Elizabeth Bishop
‘Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself’ by Wallace Stevens
and our wild card is the catch-all ‘Instructions on Not Giving Up’ by Ada Limón, though if you missed October’s session, you might want to scroll up and read Jamaal May’s ‘The Gun Joke’.

4 poems as a word doc: March Discover Poetry

February 1st

‘February’ by Boris Pasternak, trans. Sasha Dugdale.
‘To the New Year’ by W.S.Merwin
‘Long Disconsolate Lines’ by Jane Cooper
3 poems as a word doc: Discover Poetry February

Our wild card is Ursula le Guin’s ‘January Night Prayer’.

December 7th

‘In the Mid-Midwinter’ by Liz Lochhead
‘A boy casting snow on winter barley’ by David Morley
‘Various Portents’ by Alice Oswald
December’s wildcard is ’57 varieties of Brexit’ by Brian Bilston.
All four poems as a word document: December discover poetry poems

Thanks to everyone who came along for the last group of 2017. As we spoke about, the ballad quoted in ‘In the Mid-Midwinter’ was Sir Patrick Spens (you can see Dorothy refer it here on Tuesday 4th May 1802). The other quote, ‘the light comes back’, is from Norman MacCaig’s poem ‘The White Bird’.

There is no meeting in January, but we’ll be back to mark the beginning of the light coming back on the first Thursday of February.

November 2nd

‘All Souls” by Sasha Dugdale
‘November’ by Maggie Dietz
‘Pumpkin’ by Theresa Muñoz
Novembers topical Wild Card is ‘Warning’ by Malika Booker. 

All four poems as a word document: Discover Poetry November Reading

October 5th

‘Blackberry Eating’ by Galway Kinnell
‘Glamourie’ by Kathleen Jamie
‘The Season of Phantasmal Peace’ by Derek Walcott

All three poems as a word document: Discover Poetry October Reading

October’s Wild Card poem is ‘The Gun Joke’ by Jamaal May.