top of page
Center for the literary arts in New York State
Poetry Friday: On the occasion of John Ashbery's birthday
We celebrate the birthday of John Ashbery (1927-2017) today with his poem "They Knew What They Wanted." John Ashbery at his Hudson home...
NYS Writers Institute
Jul 28, 20232 min read
Louise Glück: "...I must report failure in my assignment, principally regarding the tomato plants"
It's fitting we post a poem by Louise Glück -- the 2020 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature -- for Poetry Friday today, the final day...
NYS Writers Institute
Jul 21, 20232 min read
Poetry Friday: "Romance" by April Bernard
"Oh, I'm a romantic, but a heartbroken romantic -- and noir, deeply noir,” poet April Bernard told Harvard magazine in a November 2010...
NYS Writers Institute
Jul 14, 20233 min read
This week's events at the NYS Summer Writers Institute
The Saratoga summer season gets into full swing when the thoroughbreds start racing on Thursday, but we have more than horses on our...
NYS Writers Institute
Jul 11, 20232 min read
Poetry Friday: Chase Twichell’s “After Snow”
Any poem with ‘snow’ in the title hits the spot today. (From bottom left, Chase Twichell and Amy Hempel) We’re grateful to share Chase...
NYS Writers Institute
Jul 8, 20232 min read
Poetry Friday: "Eyes of the World"
Today is the birthday of Robert Hunter (1941-2019), lyricist, singer-songwriter, translator, and poet best known for his songwriting...
NYS Writers Institute
Jun 23, 20233 min read
Poetry Friday: "Sigmund Freud and Babe Ruth in Heaven"
We like to connect our Poetry Friday selection to a significant date in literature or some poetic news of the day. Then there are those...
NYS Writers Institute
Jun 2, 20233 min read
Poetry Friday: Remembering Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Today marks the birthday of poet, playwright, publisher, and activist Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died in 2021 at the age of 101 at his...
NYS Writers Institute
Mar 24, 20235 min read
Poetry Friday: Linda Pastan
We mourn the passing of Linda Pastan, who died on Jan. 30 at her home in Chevy Chase, Md. She was 90. Linda, whose work was often...
NYS Writers Institute
Feb 3, 20232 min read
Event: Saratoga Springs honors Joseph Bruchac as the city's first poet laureate
“Stories have always been at the heart of all our Native cultures... Our stories remember when people forget.” -Joseph Bruchac...
NYS Writers Institute
Jan 6, 20232 min read
![Poetry Friday: "[little tree]" by E.E. Cummings](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/027f98_dde67351106541c99b80919f729d67a4~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_770,h_578,fp_0.50_0.50,q_30,blur_30,enc_avif,quality_auto/027f98_dde67351106541c99b80919f729d67a4~mv2.jpg)
![Poetry Friday: "[little tree]" by E.E. Cummings](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/027f98_dde67351106541c99b80919f729d67a4~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_770,h_578,fp_0.50_0.50,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/027f98_dde67351106541c99b80919f729d67a4~mv2.jpg)
Poetry Friday: "[little tree]" by E.E. Cummings
On this frightful winter's Friday, with arctic winds blasting us with bitter cold, we hope E. E. Cummings’ poem “[little tree]” helps to...
NYS Writers Institute
Dec 23, 20222 min read
Poetry Friday: "Holiday Poem" by Enid Dame
"Central Park in Winter," hand-colored lithograph by Currier & Ives (American, active New York, 1857–1907) Bequest of Adele S. Colgate,...
NYS Writers Institute
Dec 16, 20223 min read
Poetry Friday: Carolyn Forché
Some Friday lines from American Book Award-winning poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist Carolyn Forché. She'll be our guest for two talks on...
NYS Writers Institute
Nov 4, 20222 min read
Poetry Friday: "September Tomatoes"
September Tomatoes by Karina Borowicz The whiskey stink of rot has settled in the garden, and a burst of fruit flies rises when I touch...
NYS Writers Institute
Sep 23, 20221 min read
Poetry Friday: "The School Boy" by William Blake
"... to go to school in a summer morn, - O it drives all joy away!" The first day of school brings all types of new feelings for the...
NYS Writers Institute
Sep 2, 20222 min read
Poetry Friday and a community reading of John Hersey's "Hiroshima"
At exactly fifteen minutes past eight in the morning on August 6, 1945, Japanese time, at the moment when the atomic bomb flashed above...
NYS Writers Institute
Aug 5, 20223 min read
Poetry Friday: "Fish Carcass" by Vi Khi Nao
A poem for Friday and a Q&A with the poet/writer Vi Khi Nao Fish Carcass Vi Khi Nao fish carcass say hello to pork rind + arborio rice...
NYS Writers Institute
May 27, 20223 min read
Trolley Poetry Friday: A pair of poems
See the breaking news from the Times Union? "Facing a disturbing spike in COVID-19 positivity and the arrival of the omicron variant,...
NYS Writers Institute
Dec 10, 20213 min read
Poetry Friday: "What the Day Gives"
(Skip Dickstein / Times Union file photo) What the Day Gives By Jeanne Lohmann (1923–2016) Suddenly, sun. Over my shoulder in the middle...
NYS Writers Institute
Nov 5, 20211 min read
Poetry Friday: "In the company of trees"
"When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me!" --...
NYS Writers Institute
Jul 30, 20212 min read
bottom of page