We are pleased and honored to present our December poet Fatemeh Keshavarz. - Grace Cavalieri

Maritza Rivera wrote of my personal loss and of my heart: “MAY ALL THE PIECES FIND EACH OTHER.” This is a true poet –not merely a public poet— one who is always a poet, in daily practice, within arm’s reach. On the page, she creates her own history from our national/cultural histories. Her view is egalitarian, and she makes a sharp argument for human rights while creating unexpected pleasures through the excellence of her writing. – Grace Cavalieri

We are happy to present our September Poet, Beto Palaio, a writer and artist from Rio de Janeiro. His life is an explosion of color, beauty, creativity and enthusiasm, always good to share. - Grace Cavalieri

Dulce Maria Menendez is an accomplished painter and poet. Her poems are a force of writing. Her work defies all that is cynical in poetry by showing a passion larger than we are, as if she carves a figure of feeling out of the stone of language. She exceeds courage as we know it, to find the limits of truth - then she says it -clearly and beautifully. - Grace Cavalieri

Kenneth Carroll is a clarion voice that will outlast the birds in the trees. He's a mentor for every heart that cries out to be heard - to learn how to speak. He is funny and sad. He writes of the past with a style that can't be imitated and his stories are indelible. From our shattered lives, Carroll brings light to our task. From the collapse of dreams, he restores a wind of goodwill and courage. From all that is fatal in language, he infuses it with life everlasting. - Grace Cavalieri

Anne Caston and I were together teaching and poeting, at St. Mary’s College of Maryland for the best years of our lives. She is from ”Deep Dixie” – as she likes to say with all its innuendoes—Anne likes to joke about the reptilian brain that comes to call when she sits to write. That is not true. More like an angel or a white swan is resting in this poet’s head, coming to the surface, then to paper, to raise wings and fly. In the meantime, Anne walks the sands of North Carolina, composing the next great thing. - Grace Cavalieri

Once upon a time when there was only cottages and airplanes and mud puddles and buildings three- stories- tall, Michael Glaser came to St Mary's County. At that college he built an oasis for poetry and for more than 40 years brought in visiting poets from all over the world. He is the best teacher in the world and he let me share teaching with him each year, in May, since 1978. His poetry festivals brought together the Pulitzer and the fledgling... the great wellsprings of poetic thought. It was a blast of light. - Grace Cavalieri

Laura Orem is our National Poetry Month Poet and she lives in the great state of Pennsylvania. She teaches at Goucher College in Baltimore where she's a major force in American letters - getting students to recognize commas as essential life elements. While wrestling grammar to the ground (and winning) Laura is a contributor to the BEST AMERICAN POETRY Column and is known for her expertise on popular culture: especially cinema, music, celebrity - well everything actually within the 20th and 21st century. Laura's poetry is powerful, intense, ambitious, complex and impeccably crafted; and, we are proud to present her work as it is amazingly both personal and universal. - Grace Cavalieri

Yoko Danno is our first guest poet. The first complexion of Yoko Danno's poetry is serenity. Then there's an undercurrent that speaks to us of sadness; after that, more stirrings of sweet secrets we don't dare to tell. Her poetry changes our ideas that not only the sun is glorious, but also its shadows.

Here are "paintings" of Italy in poetry. A poet wanders through the crowded street of vendors; a poet feels the lash of Winter, the bite of Summer's African winds. Meet Sabine Pascarelli, whose philosophy creates a portrait of life through language. She writes in English, although that is just one of her mastered languages; in fact, she translates professionally in German and Italian as well. English seems to be the emotional language that she chooses to speak here. It's a beautiful thing to meet a new poet, whose heart is an open window without prevailing norms, who defines a new reality, letting us watch as she creates - and explores her world. - Grace Cavalieri