© 2024
Local NPR for the Cape, Coast & Islands 90.1 91.1 94.3
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Poetry Sunday will be on hiatus beginning in June 2022. Check back here in the fall for more information regarding submissions.Find past poems here.00000177-ba84-d5f4-a5ff-bbfc9b820000Submission Guidelines:We are accepting submissions.Poems must be less than 2 minutes when read aloud.Please do not send any attachments - provide the following in the body of your email. Your email should include, in this order: 1 poem, a brief bio or personal statement (100 words or less), and contact information including name, address, and telephone number. Email to: poetry@capeandislands.org. Important: include your name in the email Subject.Call our poetry line and read your poem as a recorded message. Remember, it must be less than 2 minutes - time yourself beforehand, please, to ensure it meets the time criteria. (Don't worry: this is not what will go on air! This is just so you have a chance to convey your poetry in your own voice. Mistakes aren't a problem.) The phone number is: (508) 731-IAMB (that's 508 731-4262). Be sure to tell us your name, too!Additional Guidelines:No hate speech or expletives.Please do not contact the station or the advisors regarding your submission.Poets for each week are selected by WCAI, with assistance from an advisory panel of published poets and editors. Final decision on what goes on air belongs solely to WCAI.Our advisory panel:Justen Ahren. Justen is founder and director of Noepe, Martha's Vineyard Center for Literary Arts. In addition to directing Noepe, the former West Tisbury Poet Laureate and author of the poetry collection, A Strange Catechism, leads writing workshops in Orvieto, Italy for those wishing to cultivate a daily writing practice. noepecenter.org, justenahren.comLorna Knowles Blake. Lorna’s first collection of poems, Permanent Address, won the Richard Snyder Memorial Prize from the Ashland Poetry Press and was published in May 2008. She teaches at the Brewster Ladies Library and serves on the editorial board of Barrow Street. She has been awarded a fellowship and residency from the Sewanee Writers Conference and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She lives in Cape Cod and New Orleans.Maggie Cleveland. Maggie hails from the seacoast town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and develops training and certifications for Union Elevator Mechanics through the National Elevator Industry Educational Program. Her poems have been published in journals including The Offending Adam, qarrtsiluni, Fell Swoop, Newport Review, Cape Cod Poetry Review, Elephant, Flying Fish, BURP, Out of Our, and Amerarcana; as well as the anthologies OCEAN VOICES (Spinner Books), TINGUJT E ERËS: LIRIKË E RE AMERIKANE (Writers’ Union of Kosovo), and DEVOURING THE GREEN: FEAR OF A HUMAN PLANET (Jaded Ibis Press). ATOM FISH, a chapbook, was published by One Time Press (New London, CT) in 2012. Maggie received an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College, and is a member of the National Writers Union (Boston Chapter).Jarita Davis. Jarita is a poet and fiction writer with a B.A. in classics from Brown University and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. in creative writing from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette. She was the writer in residence at the Nantucket Historical Association and has received fellowships from the Mellon Mayes program, Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, and the Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon. Her work has appeared in the Southwestern Review, Historic Nantucket, Cave Canem Anthologies, Crab Orchard Review, Plainsongs,Verdad Magazine, and Cape Cod Poetry Review. Her collection Return Flights is available from Tagus Press. She lives and writes in West Falmouth, MA.Barry Hellman. Barry Hellman is a clinical psychologist whose poems appear in numerous literary journals, anthologies, broadsides, and The King of Newark published by Finishing Line Press. He founded the Cape Cod Poetry Group, curates and hosts its events and Facebook group page, designs and leads poetry workshops, and is the Outer Cape Representative for Mass Poetry in Boston. Previously, he hosted the Poets Corner Poetry & Music Open Mic at the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in S. Yarmouth and, in Eastham, designed and led a poetry, music and workshop series at the Chapel in the Pines and a writing group at the public library.

Poetry Sunday: Kathleen Casey

Kathleen Casey reads her poem, "Consider Lettuce."

Poet, educator, gardener, musician, photographer, birder, traveler, and lover of Cape Cod, Kathleen Casey is a member of the Falmouth Public Library’s Poetry Appreciation Group and the Steeple Street Poets of Mashpee. She has participated in readings and workshops at Calliope: Poetry for Community and at the Cotuit Center for the Arts.  

Growing up in Waltham, Kathleen Casey earned degrees from Boston College and Salem State College. As a public school elementary teacher and reading specialist, she wrote many grants to bring storytellers and poets to her school with the goal of enticing all children to develop a love of literacy. Now a resident of E. Falmouth, Kathleen credits poet Alice Kociemba as being her mentor. Influenced by the poetry of Seamus Heaney and W. S. Merwin, she writes mainly narrative poems where she observes, wonders, and explores the interaction between humans and nature. Currently, Kathleen is a member of the Mashpee Steeple Street Poets and draws inspiration from gardening, birding, marine science, natural history, music, photography, travel, and socializing with family and friends.