Poets on the Plains Season Two

Hello, I’m Juan J. Morales, an assistant professor of English at Colorado College and a poet that lives in Pueblo, Colorado, here for Poets on the Plains. Today I am sharing my poem, “Visiting Your Grave,” from my latest collection, Dream of the Bird Tattoo, which was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2025.

Hello, I’m Juan J. Morales, an assistant professor of English at Colorado College and a poet that lives in Pueblo, Colorado, here for Poets on the Plains. Today I am sharing my poem, “Visiting Your Grave,” from my latest collection, Dream of the Bird Tattoo, which was published by the University of New Mexico Press in 2025.

My name is Jewel Rodgers and I am your state Poet of Nebraska and I am going to read my poem Bloom for you. I wrote this poem with the intention of keeping it grounded in very concrete items—hibiscus, rose, agave, domino tables, spades, soup kitchens, city halls. I wanted it to move from the intimacy of tending to oneself to tending to an entire community.

Hi, I’m Janice Northerns, coming to you from Wichita, Kansas, for Poets on the Plains. I am honored to share one of my own poems with you today: Pilgrimage with Grandchildren, which was published in 2023 in KANSAS!, (that’s Kansas with an exclamation mark), our state’s gorgeous travel magazine.