Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily
like a dog looking for a place to sleep in,
listen to it growling.

–ELIZABETH BISHOP

For each IPRP Poetry Playlist, we curate a selection of three poems, loosely thematically related, presented with musical score, but without any commentary or historical context. We encourage you to approach these shorts with the same relaxed attitude you might take toward a playlist on a burnt CD, given to you by a friend, which you casually pop in on a long road trip. Don’t worry about perfect comprehension, and steer clear of academic analysis. Just turn up the volume, roll down your windows, and enjoy the ride.

1. “Little Exercise” by Elizabeth Bishop appears in Poems, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

2. “Love For Other Things” by Tom Hennen appears in Darkness Sticks to Everything, published by Copper Canyon Press.

3. “The Lady Speaks” by William Carlos Williams appears in The Collected Poems: Volume II, 1939-1962, published by New Directions.

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